At the end of one document, there’s something that behaves like a page break, but can’t be deleted. If I delete the offending document, the page break is added to the previous document. If I delete both the document and the following document, the page break attaches to the previous document. If I click in the blank space, it places the cursor just below the last line of the document, then instantly bounces up to the end of the final sentence above. If I highlight the space, it shows invisibles, but none of them can be deleted. Zapping any kind of gremlin doesn’t make a difference, whether applied to the whole document or highlighted areas. The corners are always at the top of the following document.
There are a number of places in my project where this occurs, but there doesn’t seem to be a pattern where they appear.
When I compile for PDF, the page break stays. When I compile for Final Draft, the page break disappears when viewed in Final Draft.
Thanks for your help. Screenshots attached. Very strange!
It would be interesting to see what the editor show at that point in the script, and what the script element types are registering as right in there — dialogue and then…? Anything to see there?
Is this specific to this script/project or does it happen whenever you are using this scriptwriting format (which is what, by the way?)
All the pages are script/screenwriting pages in a custom format I’ve used many times before. I’ll try changing them to regular documents and back again. I’ve also been working on this on iOS, which will sometimes screw up the formatting. For example, when a character name is set up to be followed by dialogue and it works fine, it will sometimes be followed by an action line instead, but with the margins incorrect. This can happen on the Mac as well. Usually closing out of scrivener and reopening will solve this. But this is the first time I’ve found huge spaces that won’t go away.
As for the type of format right there, it doesn’t matter what it is, the gap still remains. As for the format inside the space, the cursor won’t stick there.
From your screenshots it looks like you are trying to remove it while using Scrivenings mode. Try isolating that one document that has the page break, with ⌘4. Another thing is that in your screenshot you have the final paragraph break selected, which cannot be deleted. That is a special character inserted by the session to keep files separate.
Instead of trying to manually delete it with the editor, use the Edit ▸ Text Tidying ▸ Remove Page Breaks menu command.
In theory the command could be use on an entire Scrivenings session and strip them all out.
Alas, that didn’t work, Amber. If I examine all documents involved or nearby, with scrivenings turned off, none of them show anything that’s highlightable. If I simply apply the Text Tidying commands to remove page breaks or removing empty lines, nothing happens.
Wait! I found it. Although there’s a new problem.
I went into Preferences…Appearances and switched from corners to other Scrivenings separators – the problem disappeared. When I went back and changed back to corners, the problem reappeared – and there was a check mark in front of Preferences…Appearance…Use Page Break Separators in Page Layout View…Before Folders. I unchecked that and the document is working.
I don’t touch my preferences, so maybe there’s a bug with corner separators? The problem suddenly appeared in a document I’ve been working on for months with no problem.
As for the new problem: it finishes compiling, but I get an error message that it can’t be opened. This is true when compiling as a pdf or a final draft document or a text file. If I go to Finder, I don’t see the document. And here’s where it gets very strange: when I compile the document again, using the same name, it asks me if I want to replace the existing document – which I can’t see there in Finder! But in Scrivener’s Save window, I can see the file there! It’s grayed out, as is normal, but I can’t see it in finder. If I try saving in different folders, the same thing happens.
I’ve closed the project, closed & reopened Scrivener and rebuilt the indexes, too. No luck.
Update: I rebooted the computer and everything is working. Whew!
Oh, right, I forgot about that particular setting. That surely will insert a page break character into the session that you can’t delete, because it’s not really a part of your content, but in between your content. But that’s the expected behaviour—it sounds like you’re saying this checkbox wasn’t set, but after you switched from Corners to another and back to Corners it was set? That’s pretty weird! It shouldn’t do that.
As for the other problem, yeah that sounds like a system error to me, it’s good a reboot fixed it. You might want to run disk utility’s first aid checker when you have a moment, just to make sure the disk format is healthy. I always get a little spooked when stuff like that happens.
