I am trying to get up to speed on Scrivener but at the moment I am stuck on how to access the character sketch templates. If I start a new project such as a novel or short story the project create info box says the character and location sketch sheets are included. However once I create the project I cannot find these sheets.
Also, from screenshots of tutorials I have seen it looked like other users have these character sketches in the draft section of the binder. My present understanding of scrivener is that whatever is present in that section is the manuscript. I wouldn’t want my character sketches to be printed, so I’m guessing I have misunderstood the properties of the draft section of the binder.
I just d/l the Windows version. As it has the character templates, I deduce that the reason I can’t find them in the linux version is that they are not there.
If you’ve got the Windows version working, what you can do is create a new blank project of each template you need, save it somewhere, then open that up in the linux version and do “Save as.” So you’re making your own templates.
Although I’m not sure which template you’re after? There are ones for fiction, nonfiction, some academic writing, scriptwriting, but I"m not seeing one specifically for a character sketch.
If you’re really stuck, and it’s not in the windows version yet (possible), but is in the mac one, what you can do is ask the Mac folks for a blank project of the template you need, so long as it’s created with 2.0 or higher of the mac version. (My recipe collection was originally created this way.)
Thanks for the reply garpu. I am doing more research before I decide on which platform to use. My preference is linux, but I know I can use Win7 in Virtualbox and I will soon find out if I can use Mac OS in Virtualbox.
I am still trying to understand Scrivener so pardon me if I misdescribe some element. What I was referring to was the files in the red box in the screenshot. It may be a simple matter to re-create these in the linux version, I don’t know.
However I am no hurry to learn this because at the moment my priorities are to understand the capabilities of the program and the major difference between the windows, apple and linux versions. Hence I wanted to play with the character sketch rather than learn how I could re-create it in linux. It may be that once I understand the program I will be content to miss a few features and stick with linux. Time will tell - but I am already sold on the program.
I was just about to ask about this. I don’t have windows capability on my netbook, only linux. Is there any way that someone could get me those files in a way that I could use them?
Document templates, like those for character sketches, are not really implemented in Windows. They were a 2.0 feature on the Mac, so it’ll likely be a while before you see them in the Windows/Linux version. But there’s nothing revolutionary about them, other than it being convenient to start new character documents. What is going on in the background of Scrivener for Mac when you create a new Character sketch document is simply:
Duplicate the generic document for Character sketches
Put the copy after the document in the binder that you had selected previously
Allow you to re-name the document easily.
The template itself is just a document with spaces set up for character name, description, occupation, etc… What you might want out of a character template is likely different from what they provide, so you’d have to modify it to suit your needs.
In the Windows version, just create a top-level folder for your templates (for organizational purposes only; you could put it in your Research folder), then create a new document and put in place-holder text for the character’s name, description, and so-forth. When you want to create a new character sheet, just select Documents->Duplicate, rename the file, and then drag it to where you want it to live.
I wouldn’t recommend putting the character sheets in your Draft folder, however. That’s not typically where you would put them. You can do so if you like, so long as you remember to un-check the “Include in Compile” box in the inspector, but having character sketches scattered through your manuscript is just going to make it hard to find them.
