Can page breaks be compiled?

Scrivener
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1

Good day, I just found that there is an option in the menu Insert → Break → Page break, to insert page breaks but my question is, can this page breaks be honored when the document gets compiled ? Or can I get these page breaks in the final compiled document ? I´m compiling to a word document. I created a compile format based on the indented outline format and I´m compiling to Microsoft Word.

I see the page break in the editor by selecting View → text editing → show invisibles, but not in the final compiled document.

Thanks in advance!

2

You should be seeing them (I believe they are only intentionally stripped out in ebook formats, where they can cause book navigation issues), but generally speaking page breaks are a procedural component of the content—that is to say, they tend to precede certain elements in all cases, like major divisions in the work such as new chapters or parts. Thus, this is precisely the type of manual labour best delegated to the computer rather than having to bother with this detail ourselves.

When setting up which Layouts to use in the compiler, most such major structural breaks include a page break along with the formatted heading design. So in practice it should be very rare that you need to insert a manual page break anywhere, and certainly not as a matter of routine.

I created a compile format based on the indented outline format and I´m compiling to Microsoft Word.

Now in that case I don’t think any of the built-in Layouts add a page break. You can very easily tell whether they will by the preview tile itself—if you take a quick look at a more book-focused Format, like “Manuscript (Courier)” you’ll what I mean. There is a grey text indicator along the top of the tile that indicates a page break.

This is incidentally a good example of why not inserting manual page breaks is a good thing. In your case you do want page breaks in your outline, but if you did not, and you had manually inserted them for the regular book output then you would be stuck! Leaving this kind of formatting decision up to the compile settings leaves your work flexible.

So this is of course all a simple matter of configuration. You can add page breaks to your outline-based Format like so:

  1. In the middle preview column of the compile overview screen, double-click on the title that represents major sections. If you currently only use one layout for the entire document, then just go ahead and double-click on that one, we’ll fix that later.

  2. You’ll be taken to the “Section Layouts” area of the compile format designer window.

    First, if you are using one single layout for the whole draft, we’ll want to fix that, and the first step of doing so is to create a variant of the Layout you are using: one with page breaks and one without. So with it selected in the list in the top half, click the + button, in the top right, to duplicate it and call it something appropriate, like “Decimal Outline Item w/ Page Break”.

  3. Now head over to the Separators section. This is where we will instruct the compiler to add page breaks automatically. Select the Layout that represents major content breaks in the left list if necessary, and change both its Separator before sections and Separator between sections settings from “Single Return” to “Page Break”. That’s all we need to do here, so click Save.

  4. At this point, if you already have multiple layouts set up for your outline and the new one with a page break is assigned to them, you should be good to go. If you had to make a new layout though, click the Assign Section Layouts... button below the preview area and make sure all of the elements in the left list that should insert a page break are using the new layout.

One last thing of note is that if you created your project from a vanilla start like “Blank”, you may not have enough structural information in your outline to assign different layouts to different types of outline items. If that’s the case, then you could compile anyway just to test the feature and see if it works, but you’ll probably get too many page breaks. Let me know if that’s the case and we can look into fixing that problem if you aren’t sure how.

3

Many many thanks for replying, I have tested what you mentioned, I describe in more detail what I try to accomplish as I´m exporting to word. I have Level1, Level2, Level3 section layouts, I also have Styles: Heading1, Heading2, Heading3. Only after creating styles named like that I can make Word detect heading styles and auto create that navigation capable document. Anyway. now with the configuration described in your reply I get that -page break- before my Level2. the situation is that I would like to get a page break -between- the content in my Level2 layout.

I understand this is not recommended but for example as I´m outlining my document I´d like to have the ability to insert page breaks at will to remind me of content I would like to write. For example I see this in the editor:

Level2 heading
content
content

  • page break -
    text reminding me someting/content
  • page break -
    content
    content

And in the final document I would like to see exactly that. With the options you describe I do see page breaks but not placed where I want them:

Level2 heading
content
content

NEW PAGE

Level2 heading
content
content
text reminding me someting/content
content

NEW PAGE
…

Any help is much appreciated, let me know if you have any questions about the issue I try to describe.

4

I also have Styles: Heading1, Heading2, Heading3. Only after creating styles named like that I can make Word detect heading styles and auto create that navigation capable document.

Yes, the Word navigation feature requires “heading 1”, “heading 2” styles to build a list. The best way of doing this in Scrivener is to create those styles in the Styles compile format option pane (close to where you set up Separators), with the look you want in the mock editor below, and then go into each Layout and make sure to assign those styles to the heading in the Section Layouts: Formatting area.

It’s a good idea to check any format you make and ensure styles are assigned to headings in Section Layouts, if you rely upon document navigation. None of our built-in formats assign them by default, but a number are already set up so you easily can (they will have Header 1 set up to match how headings look, etc.).

I understand this is not recommended but for example as I´m outlining my document I´d like to have the ability to insert page breaks at will to remind me of content I would like to write.

Something to consider is that Section Types are not purely level based. If you open the Inspector to the Metadata tab, you’ll find a dropdown that shows the current level-based section type assignment. You can use that to manually assign one instead. What I’m thinking here is that if you have 80% of your content meant to print in a flowing manner from one page to the next, but 20% should have page breaks (for workflow reasons or whatever), then creating a “Working Content” section type that you can manually assign, and then set up with its own Layout that has a page break, might be a better course of action than inserting them manually.

The nice thing about that particular approach, particularly for how it sounds like you are using them, is that marking things meaningfully like that makes it easier to find things like that while you’re working.

Consider for example clicking the Project Search button in the toolbar and typing in, “Working Content”, and clicking the magnifying glass icon, setting the search scope to “Section Type”. Now you have a todo list of areas marked as needing work. But you can even just sort by the Section Type column in the outliner to bring them all to the top.

But in the end, like I say, we have the command to insert them manually for a reason—not everything fits into a logical hole, some pegs are square. If you need, it you should be able to use it. I don’t really know why it’s not working for you. Maybe try RTF instead of DOCX as the file format—both work fine for me in LibreOffice though.

5

Many many thanks for the comprehensive reply, I will definitely continue testing the configuration options you are explaining and let you know if I can manage to output a manually inserted page break within a word document.

P.S. I like that tip about working with a named section layout to group pending work or ideas.

All the best!

6

I’ve been trying to configure the project to be able to output page breaks without configuring the section’s separators but I have been unsuccessful, if anyone can share a project already configured to be able to be compiled with page breaks (inserted by the insert menu) would be much appreciated.

7

It might work better the other way around, and provide a sample of what you’re trying to do. There is no configuration required, you just put the cursor between two paragraphs, insert a page break and it should work.