What's the difference between Bookmarks and Contents in Projects?

[#1]

I'm still confused about the difference between "Bookmarks" and "Contents" -- it sounds like Bookmarks are pointers (references? links?)  to files on the hard drive, and Contents are items that are actually stored within the Project.  Is that right?

[#2]

I think you must be using JMP 15 if you are seeing bookmarks. JMP 15 projects have bookmarks to disk files (and no self-contained files.) Upgrade to 17 if you have the choice. You'll still want to make backups, because all your eggs will be in one basket.

JMP 17 projects can hold JSL files inside the project file.

My mental model for how JMP 17 projects work: A project is a zip file. When you open a contained file, JMP unzips just that member to the $project directory. When you edit a JSL file, and save it, it is saved only to the $project directory. When you save the project, the zip file is rewritten with changed files in the $project directory. JMP knows where the $project dir is, and I let JMP keep it a secret place.

Projects also provide isolated namespaces from the rest of JMP. But all new windows in a project open as tabs within the project. It is a bunch of pros and cons. It is a good development tool if you start a bunch of projects with a bunch of files and don't want to think about a directory for keeping everything organized.

[#3]

We're using JMP 17, and it definitely has bookmarks -- "Project" menu, "Show Bookmarks". 

I like the idea that it behaves a bit like Excel's tabbed sheets but with fancy saveable views, but I'm trying to understand whether .jmp files are getting copied into the project or if it's just a view of data that's stored in the .jmp file, and any changes are saved to the original file.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Right. I'd forgotten about them in 17, hadn't seen them since importing from 15. It is an important distinction; you might want both the bookmarks (for external sources) and contents (for JSL source perhaps.) My projects are self-contained. If two users both share a common network file, and want to see each other's updates, a bookmark makes sense. Clicking the bookmark for a jmp table will open it in the workspace.