Would it maybe be best, since we don’t really do any final formatting until the project is done and exported out, to just change all our work back to the default formatting, then just use Zoom if we need to enlarge the text? I feel like I’m wasting time on formatting…
It sounds as if the normal default of 13pt Optima is smaller than you like. In the preferences you can set whatever font you have that you like at whatever size you want to be your default — 72 point Zapf Chancery if that grabs you! 
— then all new text you type will be in that, existing documents you will need to convert to default text format from the bottom of the “Document” menu … or set up a keystroke through system preferences. I need to do it all the time as I’m importing text in mixed Chinese and English from Windows boxes and the Chinese doesn’t show up until I’ve done the conversion, so I have set that to Ctrl-Cmd-d. Any new text you import will also be in the original format until you do the conversion, though you may not have the invisibility problem.
Then in the export dialog set the font and size to whatever is reasonable for printing or sending on to others … 12pt Times/TNR or whatever, and make sure you allow formatting override. So you can edit in what you can work with best on screen — without having to zoom — and export in a suitable format for others … painless!
Mark
I went to Documents, then Convert, but when I clicked to format to the default text style, it warned me that I might lose text because I was doing a ‘batch’ command. It looks like that cannot be overcome by just doing one chapter at a time. Makes me wonder what good that ‘Convert’ is.
No, you won’t lose text, it says that it cannot be undone and that certain formatting and attributes may be lost. It does exactly what you want and is thus rather useful. 
Actually, the message it gave was sort of double-sided (can’t think of the right word). And I took it the wrong way. Now I understand it to mean that the changing to default settings can’t be undone. It says some batch converting is destructive (gulp) which scared me. I don’t quite know what that means. Thanks for your clarification.
Actually, the message it gave was sort of double (can’t think of the right word). And I took it the wrong way. Now I understand it to mean that the changing to default settings can’t be undone. It says some batch converting is destructive (gulp) which scared me. I don’t quite know what that means. I’d like to see that message re-written. Thanks for your clarification.
I see that warning every single day, but I’ve never read it that way. What you will lose to my knowledge is: if you choose as your default font a family that doesn’t have italics and bold faces, then converting will remove any italics and bold that may have been in the source document; if any of the text in the source document is coloured, that will be removed by the conversion process; I guess if you import any text that has specific tracking or kerning attributes set, you’re going to lose them, but that should not be an issue given the purpose for which Scrivener is designed.
Text? No, you’ll keep all that … or should I hedge my bets and say “I have never lost any text through converting to default text format.”
Mark
I seem to see the negative in those messages. I wonder why… When they come up I tend to hide behind the couch and grab my baseball bat. haha Now I see it as you do.
I can’t see any reason whatsoever to change the text at all since you have to export it out pretty much plain anyway, right? In fact, I think changing the font and various attributes just bogs one down in things that don’t matter and keeps you from writing. That’s why I come here, to keep me from writing.