Having problems getting page breaks to appear in a PDF from compiling, and I am new to Scrivener, so maybe I am doing something incorrectly.
I have three folders one level down from Draft that are tagged with a section type named Top Level. For the section layout, I am not using “Use default separators” and have set “Separator before sections” to “Page Break”, and the Section Layouts preview shows what I expect to happen (images below).
But when I compile, I get no page breaks at all. And, strangely, if I set “Default Separators / Folders / Separator before sections” to “Page Break”, I get a page break after the first Top Level folder title, even though I am not using any of the defaults. And that spurious page break occurs only on the first Top Level folder encountered, and not on the remaining two Top Level folders.
Is it me, or is page break insertion broken? (PDF and DOCX compilation give the same results, by the way.)
Looking at the screenshot it’s not clear from the icons if the top level folders are actually folders not files. Certainly the second level folder that comes after the first top level seems to be a folder, from the section type name you’ve given it anyway, and that may explain why you get a page break there.
If you right click on one of the top level items in the Binder if you see Convert to Folder then it’s a file. Try converting it to a folder and compiling again.
I’m not saying that the other settings shouldn’t be doing what you intend but if we can rule out the folder/file issue we can move on to other possible causes.
I have not made any progress in determining why page breaks are being ignored. Under Compile / Separators, “Use default separators” is not checked, and “Page Break” is set for “Separator before sections” and “Separator between sections”, but there is no change in the resulting DOCX file after compilation.
I would think “Separator between sections” would be the only one I need to set to get a page break before every Top Level folder, but no matter what I change it to, no change happens to the output file.
The “Top Level” items are folders, not files, and I have set compilation to output just the title. I tried “Convert to File”, then back to “Convert to Folder”, thinking maybe that would correct some setting, but it had no effect.
Stupid 101-level troubleshooting question, but have you verified that the DOCX file is actually being updated and that you’re not just looking at the same copy? I had that happen once when I left the DOCX file open in Word which left the file handle open, so Scrivener couldn’t overwrite; moving or deleting the file in question cleared up whatever issue it had and actually generated a new compiled document, wherein I found that I’d actually fixed the problem a dozen steps previously…
If you look at the manual, page 506, Separator between sections only comes into play between two documents of the same section type. So it’s Separator before sections that needs to be set for your Top Level folders, which you did. What’s the Separator before sections set for the second level?
Have you tried setting the default separators for folders and text files, setting the defaults to be used, and then seeing what happens?
That’s not a stupid question; I had the same thoughts. But I close the file in Word before compilation so it can overwrite the old version, and I check the file time stamp to make sure it is the current time. I have also deleted the prior Word file before compilation, but the problem is still in the resulting file.
That one is set to Single Return.
Yes, I have. I get a page break after the first Top Level folder encountered, but the subsequent Top Level folders just have single return before and after, no page break.
I have also verified that all of the Binder items shown in the attached Binder screen shot (“Top Level” and “Second Level - Folder”) are folders and not files by right-clicking on the item and seeing if the context menu says “Convert to File”, and that the “Documents / Convert” menu choice says “to File.”
So, I created a project with a similar structure to yours, and set the separator options to match yours and the page breaks occurred before each of my top level folders. Are you assigning the relevant section layouts that you are using to the section types in Assign Section Layouts? So, Top Level section type has Top Level section layout assigned?
Which of the default compile format did you base your compile format on? I used Manuscript times.
Once you start editing and have renamed it there isn’t an easy way to determine which you started with.
What I would do though is try compiling through Manuscript (Times) and one of the Paperback formats to see if they make any difference.
The other thing you could try is creating a new project from the Novel with Parts template, making some Part and Chapter folders etc and seeing how that compiles. I know you aren’t writing a novel but that template I know was designed with a level 1/level 2 structure in mind. Some of the other templates may also have been but that’s the one that jumps to mind. If it works then you can either look at the settings used or transfer over your data.
