How It Works

How projects and files work

Think of My Projects as your filing cabinet. Each named project is a drawer, and its folders organize the files and notes inside it. Inbox safely holds anything you have not assigned yet.

Your original uploaded files remain in WritingScene’s private Dropbox storage. A project is an organizing space for your notes, songs, documents, pictures and other material.

• You may create as many projects as you need and give each one your own name.
• Moving an item changes which project organizes it; it does not alter the original file.
• Deleting a project sends all of its items safely to Inbox and removes only the project and its folder arrangement.
• To File shows active items not yet placed in a folder. Filing opens the chosen folder and keeps those items selected, ready for another action such as Archive.
• Archive removes an item from All Files without deleting it or forgetting its folders. Use Show Archived inside a folder to see its archived members.
• Delete moves an item to Trash. You can restore it or choose Delete Forever from Trash.
• Add your own searchable Tags, shown in square brackets such as [Rudy] or [Act 1]. Use the Tags button, or press and hold an item on a touch screen.
• Use Rename to replace a confusing computer-generated title in WritingScene. The original Dropbox filename remains unchanged and searchable.
• Inside a folder, choose Manual sorting and drag items into your preferred order. For audio, Play Audio follows that folder order.
• Search tips: type ordinary words for forgiving matches. Put an exact word or phrase in quotation marks, such as “Veronica” or “Act One”. Search Everywhere searches active items across all projects, ranks likely matches first and highlights the matching words. Shift-click selects a whole visible range.
• Review Duplicates compares the actual contents of stored files. Exact copies are marked for review; WritingScene never deletes them automatically.
• Use Open to view the file separately. Use Save a Copy only when you intentionally want another copy on your device.
• Editing a text file: select a .txt or .md file and choose Edit Text in Quick Preview. You may add, delete, cut, copy, paste or rearrange wording. Save Changes creates a new working version while protecting the Imported Original; Cancel Changes leaves everything as it was.
• Original File View is for reading and copying. It cannot be edited there. Use Version History to read or restore the Imported Original and earlier working versions.
• Smart Find in this file appears above editable plain text. Type a word or phrase to highlight matches, including close spellings, and use the arrow buttons to move between them. Normal WritingScene search uses only the Current Working Version, so wording you remove does not remain in ordinary results.
• At present, one item belongs to one WritingScene project at a time. WritingScene blocks exact duplicate uploads to avoid wasting storage.

Helpful notes as you work

WritingScene places a small ⓘ beside features that may not be obvious. Open it for a quick explanation; the fuller version is kept here in How It Works so useful discoveries are not forgotten.