Hi, I’ve just discovered Scrivener and am thrilled with the possibilities for what it will do for my writing. I’ve encountered what might be a minor bug, or possibly just a behavior of Scrivener that is confusing me: I want the font in the Editor pane to be Times New Roman Regular 12. I set it to that in the Tools / Options / Editor dialog, and new documents come in using that font. I then selected all folders and files in my project and went to Documents / Convert / Formatting to Default Text Style and checked “Convert font only”. That worked as well for the files in the project. But it didn’t work for the folders - when I click on a folder and view it in the “Scrivenings view”, all of the text in the files in the folder is in Times New Roman. But if I put the cursor above the dotted line at the top, it changes to Courier New Regular 11. I’ve tried selecting the folder in the Binder and going through the steps to convert that to default text on its own, and it appears to take, but if I navigate off the folder then back to it, it’s switched back to Courier. However, if I actually type some text in there after converting it, then the new setting seems to stick.
When I create new folders, they come in with the default font I want in this area - Times New Roman. So I can manage this manually since I’m just starting my project, but I wanted to find out if I’m misunderstanding how the default font should work, or if there’s a font setting for the folder text that I’m not finding, so if I want to change this again in the future it won’t become a huge project. Any clarification on this would be much appreciated.
Sorry for the delay in getting back with you on this. There does appear to be a bug here, I’m investigating the breadth of it. At any rate, while doing so I uncovered the work-around: make sure you are using Scrivenings mode when you run the convert function. With the folder’s text editor’s open in the Scrivenings session, the formatting gets properly reset, even if the folder text is empty.
The tool seems to work in a very patchy fashion if the editor view is set to Corkboard or Outliner, but seems to be working 100% of the time when Scrivenings mode is used.
FYI to you AmberV
I have the same issue. I’m on version 3.1.5.1 (2073405) 64-bit - 06 Jul 2023. My default font set in options is Times New Roman, 12 point. I converted my documents previously to this.
In Scrivenings mode, when I click above the dashed line and select the name of the FOLDER (which is highlighted in the binder), I have a mix of font and font sizes throughout the project. If I create a new folder sometimes it is TNR 12 and other times it is TNR 13?
I tried converting while clicked on the heading above the dashed line and the heading plus one document selected and neither worked. I had Convert font only checked (does that mean the font or the font size or both).
Here’s something else I can’t figure out. If I move/nest the folder in one level to the right the font size changes to my default font size, but if I move the folder back (towards the left) it goes back to a different size than what I have set in options.
About Courier: Tom saw Courier in his example. I don’t have any folders that show up in Scriveneings as Courier. But I have had Courier New show up in odd places in other documents. I’ve never been able to figure out where this Courier is coming from. I’ve mentioned this one in another post where my footnotes numbers are being exported to Word on Compile as Courier New, though the text is times new roman.
Unfortunately I am not seeing what you are describing, nor the original bug any more. Here is what I tried in order to get to a point of being able to test what you described. I would suggest following along, point by point in your own test project. You will most likely need to set your default formatting to something very different from TNR 12, like Consolas. This will help you find places where I should be doing something differently.
Test project setup...
Created a new blank project.
Typed some words into the starter document, using the global default font settings.
Switch over to the Binder, and with the starter document selected I use the Documents ▸ New Folder from Selection; I just press Enter because I don’t care what the new folder is called.
I don’t see it specified anywhere whether this requires text to already be in the editor or not, so I had to test both contingencies. I press Ctrl+D to make a copy of this arrangement, now to “New Folder-1”.
Press Ctrl+2 to turn off the corkboard, and click over into the editor to type in some words into the folder text.
Now to match your settings, I use Project ▸ Project Settings... and in the Formatting tab, set the Use different formatting… checkbox, using TNR 12. I click OK.
Click on Draft and press LeftArrow then Alt+RightArrow to fully expand the tree, followed by Shift-clicking on the fourth item in the draft to select it in its entirety.
Switch to Scrivenings mode with Ctrl+1.
At this point you should get three lines of test text, and an initial empty line where the first “New Folder” exists that we never typed into.
Use Documents ▸ Convert ▸ Text to Default Formatting... with the Convert font only setting only.
(If that does not work initially for you, click in the text editor anywhere, there is a bug there it seems.)
The three visible lines all change to TNR12—so there is no issue with converting existing folder text with this simple test anyway. As a quick check, I put the cursor into the empty line and verify it is set to TNR 12pt.
So at this point we have a setup that probably has the same conditions in your project. Again I don’t know for sure, but we at least have some folders with text, and some folders without text, and text items in folders.
In Scrivenings mode, when I click above the dashed line and select the name of the FOLDER (which is highlighted in the binder), I have a mix of font and font sizes throughout the project.
I wasn’t clear on what this means precisely. Where in the project window is the name of the folder that you select?
You mention it is highlighted in the binder—that’s one difference from the checklist so far (which if followed precisely should still have the entire Draft contents selected). To try and match your conditions, I click on the “New Folder” folder with no text by itself. So select the folder and make sure Scrivenings is on and click above the dotted line, as you say. TNR 12. I don’t know where to go from here though.
I tried converting while clicked on the heading above the dashed line and the heading plus one document selected and neither worked. I had Convert font only checked (does that mean the font or the font size or both).
To answer the latter question, it depends on whether you also tick the checkbox to preserve font size.
I’m still not clear on how to perform these instructions however, as I don’t know what you are describing precisely in terms of the user interface.
Here’s something else I can’t figure out. If I move/nest the folder in one level to the right the font size changes to my default font size, but if I move the folder back (towards the left) it goes back to a different size than what I have set in options.
I would most likely need to have a problem to begin with in order to see this happen, because in this test project everything is TNR 12 regardless of where it is indented.
I’m sorry can’t explain this any more. There’s something wrong. Almost need a zoom call to show you what I’m talking about. I don’t think Tom is talking about the font for the names in the binder, but the font that gets displayed in the editor. If you highlight the top level folder in the binder and are in Scrivenings view, there is a dashed line at the top. For my folder, in the metadata, it’s a heading, from the text of that folder name. I’m seeing places where that heading above the dashed line is Courier New.
Here the “Example folder” is loaded in Scrivenings and the folder names “Example folder” and “Sub-folder” seen in the editor are titles which can be displayed in the editor in Scrivenings mode and which are not actually part of the text of the document (so that if you were to load a single document, or the folder text itself, rather than that of its subdocuments, you wouldn’t see that title). Whether the titles are displayed is controlled by the View ▸ Text Editing ▸ Show Titles in Scrivenings setting.
The font for this title text is not controlled by the general editor formatting but can be set in the Options under Appearance: Scrivenings: Fonts. Here you’ll also see the option to have the title font size adjusted based on the hierarchical position of the document in the binder, which could explain the variation in size that you mentioned.
If that doesn’t seem to be the issue, a screenshot might help explain what you’re seeing. Windows snipping tool/PrintScreen should do it, and you can just drag the saved file into your post to upload it for the forum.
