I’ve just started using Scrivener to write in LaTex, outputting to Latex format works fine and I can then compile it in a Tex editor, but if I use rich text formatting in Scrivener to make bold and Italic text the italics convert perfectly but the bold is not recognised at all. Any advice on how to get around that?
There isn’t a setting to handle bold weight text specifically, like there is for italics (in the Markup compile format pane). I did initially add a bold style to the template, but removed it since there isn’t a clear LaTeX standard for strong emphasis in the first place, and so I figured it would be better to leave that up to you.
To add bold to your project, I’d suggest taking a look at how the Emphasis style is designed. While you can use regular unmarked italics as well, using the style would retain a semantic workflow in the editor. But that aside, to see how a style can be used to add LaTeX formatting:
- Open File ▸ Compile… and double-click on the highlighted “LaTeX (Memoir Book)” Format, in the left sidebar, to edit it (optionally right-click and duplicate & edit, if you wish to retain a vanilla copy of this format).
While there, you can go into the Markup pane to see how italics work. You’ll note I used character formatting here rather than the more semantic “\emph{…}” format. You might want to change that—or switch to using the style, whatever works best for you.
- Click on the Styles pane, and select “Emphasis” in the list.
Note the Prefix/Suffix fields, in the options area to the right.
- To create a bold style, click the + button in the top-right corner, add a Character Style and give it a name.
- Add “\bfseries{” … “}”, or whatever you need here.
- Save the Format and hold Option down to click the Save button on the compiler, and return to the project.
- Next you’ll want to create this style in the project of course. All you need to do is make sure the name is the same as what the compiler will be looking for.
Thanks the’s great, using styles seems to be pretty versatile and I was relieved to find that keyboard shortcuts were built in.
On a slightly related note, the General Non-Fiction (LATEX) template guide give and explanation on how to compile directly to PDF, this would be good for cutting out the middle man but the instructions don’t seem to match what I’m seeing when I edit the compile format. Specifically, the guide says to go to the Processing compile format pane, which I can’t find. I also can’t find the “Post-Process on command-line” option in any other pane.
Also note you aren’t limited to the shortcut system we provide, for styles. Since they are added to the main application menu, in the Format ▸ Style menu, you can use system shortcuts, meaning you could even bind ⌘B to your bold style, if you wanted.
As for the compile pane, did you buy from Apple’s Mac App Store? If so that part won’t work, as the store rules make it very difficult to create software that is a citizen of the operating system.
Give the direct-sale version a spin instead. If you do not get a message about the demo, then it managed to find your MAS receipt and unlocked itself, you can use it in full replacement.
Ahh that’s awesome thank you! The direct-sale version works a charm.
Now I’m able to compile direct to LaTex and everything seems to work just the way I like it, I’m excited to use this for writing my Thesis. One last question though, the output is a package, which is fine, but it would ideally be just a folder with all of the relevant files in it. Is there a way I can alter how this outputs?
Excellent! Glad to hear the template will work well for you.
On the matter of getting a package output, you must have some software installed that turns folders ending in “.tex” into a package. I bet it has the ability to open a whole LaTeX project with some kind of sidebar browser or something. That isn’t something Finder would do on its own at any rate, it only has the base Mac package formats like “.app”. If for example you uninstall Scrivener, your “.scriv” project packages would look like normal folders.
There are three ways to fix that, in ascending order of difficulty:
- Find the software setting this, and if you don’t need it, trash it (and you might have to reboot to get them acting like folders again).
- Edit the compile Format and remove the “tex” extension from the top right corner. When compiling, don’t provide an extension (the mechanism handles the real extensions you’ll need for the individual files anyway). If “.txt” has the same problem then you could try supplying a fictional extension. It really doesn’t matter too much because in this state, where you have figures in the output and are using post-processing, Scrivener is really only handling the folder and base file name.
- If you want the software in question, it is possible to sometimes override a software’s request to make package folders, by editing its Info.plist file in the SoftwareName.app/Contents subfolder of its package. Here is an online thread on the matter. I should note their specific examples are editing core macOS package types. Obviously that’s only for the very brave—editing a particular application and failing to do so properly will at worst case just result in you need to restore the unmodified software from a backup.
A modification like this will need to be reapplied whenever upgrading the software in question.