Anyone know a book Editor who uses Scriv?

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

My issue is pretty much one that I guess I’ve gotten myself into…but here’s the skinny…

I write in Scriv - love it. But when the MS is done for a new book I have to compile it out to a plain jane MSWord doc to send to my book editor.

She edits it and then sends it back to me with the full comments and notes on each and every single change she suggests. I pour over the 300+ pages, item by item - accepting most but not all.

When that’s done, I open up a brand new Scriv file - and then slowly copy/paste each of the scenes into the new Scriv. MY issue with that is that I have a ton of italcs that I use for everything from spaceship names - RN Marwick - to characters thoughts…and I have to do it all manually, page by page.

I miss some. I know, and yes I do do 2 passes…and yes others have tried to suggest diff use but all of same do NOT work for me. Italics NEVER get saved - in fact no font stylings come across the divide tween Word and Scriv…sigh…

So my query is – does anyone know a book editor who would accept a Scriv file directly - edit in that format and then return it back to me?

I pay good money for the editing but need to find a better way can anyone help here?

2

Hmm, I find that when I copy italics from Word and paste into Scrivener, the italics do come through. So I don’t know what’s going on with that.

I’m on the forums at the Chicago Manual of Style online. There are a number of editors there. I’ll post your request for a Scrivener-friendly editor there (sounds like you write science fiction, right?) and see if anyone responds.

3

If you stick with your current editor, I’d suggest importing the word document (once you’ve accepted/rejected her changes) using File->Import->Import and Split. That should (test it out on a blank project and see!) preserve not only italics, but comments and other formatting, and will let you automatically split up your chapters (assuming you use “CHAPTER __” as a prefix to your chapters). You’ll probably want to go through after that and delete the text “CHAPTER ONE”, “CHAPTER TWO”, etc… if you rely on Scrivener to add that stuff in, but that’s far less tedious than copying and pasting each chapter.

4

Would your editor be averse to learning to use Scrivener? There can be a learning curve, and editors and agents obviously don’t have a lot of spare time, but you might ask her about it. It doesn’t cost much, or (assuming this wouldn’t be against the EULA) maybe you could use one of your licenses on your editor’s machine?

My only reason for thinking this is that you already have an editor. That means, I’m assuming, that you’ve already gotten your manuscript accepted by an agent, who then successfully shopped it to publishing houses. Do you know how difficult that is? The editor who has been diligently editing your work with “full comments and notes on each and every single change she suggests” is already in your corner. She’s working her tail off to get your book published, because if it is, it reflects well on her and she can take more chances on other authors. If you leave, you run the risk of needing to start the process again much further back than where you are now. You might not find another person willing to take the chance on your work. And if she loses a client that the publishing house has already spent money on, she might be let go, or she might just not take any chances on other authors who need anyone to stick up for them and who might otherwise find that person in her.

Just because she uses MS Word (the industry standard, by the way) is no reason to be shopping around. You should look at her only from the mindset of is she doing a good job or not. If not, look elsewhere. If she is, though, stick with her and realize you’re worried about a tool she’s using to do a good job. That’s like criticizing the kind of frying pan a cook uses to make you a meal that you find delicious.

5

thanks…one and all…

hopefully someone can find me a Sriv–using editor…

And in my Scriv – NOT A single TEXT styling will come from Word to Scriv the same…cut and paste I mean…and the Import + Split does the same thing…NO italics come thru - and yes, I’ve triple checked each and every time it’s not checked in the Compile area either…sigh…

:frowning:

6

bump…

no one can help here?

7

Hello Jim - I’ve just sent you a PM.

8

I have to think this is user error, sorry.

How are you pasting? Are you using CTRL-V, or are you right-clicking the empty page and selecting “paste” from the resultant popup options? Because right below “paste” is “paste and match style” (CTRL-Shift-V) which should keep ALL stylistic formatting in place, including italics.

9

and as the folks who own Scriv agree – the simple fact is that you CAN NOT paste in text that is styled…

ie no bolds or italics etc etc…

so not user error - but app programmer error…

sorry to say

:unamused:

10

Anyone know a book Editor who uses Scriv?

Try Becca Judd.

beccajuddproofreading.com/

11

You can absolutely paste in bold and italics .

Word-to-Scriv_Pasting Bold and Italics.jpg
Word-to-Scriv_Pasting Bold and Italics.jpg781×629 126 KB

Things that can interfere with transferring bold & italics text attributes:

  • Choosing a font (in either Word or Scrivener) which does not have bold or italics typefaces; Word (and other programs) will fake italics and bold for fonts (instead of picking a different typeface from the font) that don’t contain those typefaces; check that the fonts you’ve chosen do have a bold and an italic. I suggest trying some text styled using the Calibri font, which they use in the tutorial.

  • Re-mapped keyboard shortcuts for Paste vs. Paste and Match style. Check Scrivener’s Edit menu for the shortcut next to “Paste” vs. the one next to “Paste and Match style”. Be sure that when you paste, you DO NOT use the shortcut for P&MS.

  • Some other weirdness that I don’t know about.

  • A ‘folk’ who owns Scrivener. :wink:
12

DOES NOT WORK IN Win8.1/Scriv 1.9.0.0

Have been complaining about this for months…

:unamused:

13

I am unable to recreate this problem using Scrivener 1.9.0.0 and Word 2010 on Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.
Italicized text, whether formatted directly via italics button or by styles, copy/pastes from Word into a draft folder document item in Scrivener without problem.

PROCESS OF ELIMINATION… see whether the formatting makes it from Word into the Windows clipboard (from which it subsequently gets pasted into Scrivener)… as follows…

Download and install Free Clipboard Viewer ( freeclipboardviewer.com/ and other locations).

Start Word and open the document that has the italics in it.

Make sure Free Clipboard Viewer is running and visible.

In Word, select the desired text that includes italics and do a copy (right click > Copy or Ctrl+C).

In Free Clipboard Viewer, click on the Rich Text Format item that then appears in the left column, then view its corresponding text in the right column and see whether the italics formatting survived. Possibly also do the same for the Enhanced Metafile item.

If the formatting didn’t survive, the cause is most likely the presence of a third party Windows clipboard manager/assistant/replacement/sync utility that is stripping the formatting when the copied text hits the Windows clipboard. That utility should be adjusted to not do stripping or be set to not run and exited or be uninstalled at least temporarily. Other possibilities at this point… though less likely… Word cut/copy/paste option settings (File > Options > Advanced), Word add-ins, or some odd other app or utility (remote control, …)… See Programs or Programs and Features in Control Panel.

If the formatting made it into the clipboard, then we can start looking at Scrivener. Till then, we don’t know that Scrivener is the problem.

Hope that helps. Post back and let folks know how it goes.

P.S. For a similar test, try doing the paste into WordPad (not NotePad) and see whether the formatting survives.

14

thanks - I think?

I did as you suggested and yup, there is the italics in both Word and yes also in the Free Clipboard Viewer too…

but NOT in Scriv!

so what’s next?

15

As a double check… if copy/paste from Word to WordPad, do the italics make it into WordPad?

16

yup…WordPad shows the italics…only Scriv chokes…

17

JVRudnick, I’ve sent you a private message.

18

OP,

How many edits/changes are you getting per scene?

When I go through something like this, I view the DOC file edits in one window and Scriv in another. I then evaluate each suggested change, and make that change in the Scriv file. Even if there are, say, ten changes per scene, this is reasonably efficient.

Right click and choose View Image to see this:

19

I’d like to modify my response. I am now halfway through the hundreds of changes suggested by my editor (67K-word file), going back and forth between OpenOffice and Scrivener, and man, is that tedious!

I envy someone who could just click to accept or reject changes.

I’d have trouble trusting that copy/paste wouldn’t cause problems, but maybe next time I’ll consider that.

20

I’m a book editor (and pretty much anything-editor) looking for info on how Scrivener can help with editor-client feedback at the track-changes stage. I’m impressed with the concept of Scrivener and would like to use it on a new, extra-complicated project, but only if it’s simple enough.

This problem of losing formatting, even unusually, is also significant to me because a client of mine sent her meticulously formatted medical MS Word manuscript to a third party to be ‘e-booked’, and it came back stripped of all italics.

An e-publishing lecturer told me that to avoid this, all formatting should be done through the MS Word Style menu, and not manually and individually from the keyboard or with menu shortcuts. If necessary, make a custom MS Word style with whatever font or feature, like underlining, outlining, etc, you want, assuming it’s available on your system; if not you could at least import a font.
If you have the patience to try this, or know that it doesn’t work, please post again.