Hi,
I have been using Scrivener successfully to write a novel. However, I have spent at least 10 hours working on the compile settings. What I want should be very simple:
Chapter 1 title
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Chapter 2 title
Scene 4
Scene 5
Scene 6
Very simply, I want page breaks between the chapter titles and the groups of scenes, but no page break between the scenes themselves.
I have tried so many things, but the closest I can get is if I manually add a page break after every chapter title - but then, it puts a full line at the beginning of the first scene! I know there are the options of “single return” and “empty line” between/before sections, but no matter what I click, this line exists. I want no line!!
I’ve browsed so many threads on here, and I just can’t figure it out. I have spent 3 hours today working on this, and I really don’t have that kind of time. I don’t want to have to go back to copying and pasting each title and scene into Open Office then manually putting page breaks.
It might be better to post in the Mac Tech Support section of the forum, or email technical support directly, as this section is supposed to be for passing on tips, rather than posting questions. Your question might not get picked up immediately otherwise.
I was struggling with this exact problem for the last hour before stumbling on a solution. For me the issue was the labeling of my Chapter folders in the main compile page. I had the section type labeled as “Chapter Heading” instead of “Chapter.” Once I switched that things worked as planned. For reference, under the Section Layouts I only have “Chapter,” “Section Text,” and “New Page” checked (not sure if I actually need the latter). Also, in desperation I changed every setting under Separators to page break before sections and page break after sections, with the exception of Section Text, for which I have page break before sections and empty line between sections. Hope something like this can work for you.
ei91 Did you find a solution? I am having exactly the same problem. I have spent (wasted) hours trying to get my head around the new compile. Both for compiling Manuscript for Kindle and for PDF.
There are page breaks between scenes.
There are no indents on paragraphs.
There are section breaks I dont want after Chapter Titles.
Like you, what I am wanting is quite simple
Did you find solutions?
Did you post in another place and receive the answers you were looking for?
Shade118 I cannot see where “New Page” checked is, in the new compile box for Scrivener 3. I want to uncheck it and I want my paragraphs to be indented and and and and
Please help someone. I am tearing my hair out here
Thank you
Gee wow! I have taken a look and I must say, if I had known I was going to have to spend days getting to know the new upgrade to compile my project then I would have told the agent there was no way I could get the kindle version to them this week. My deadline was today. I had no idea that I was going to have to upgrade and now I have to learn the new version. Wish I had been forewarned about how different it was. Im really not enjoying this at all I have to admit. It’s eating an enormous hole in an already stressful week.
Thank you though. I will dive on in. This has put me in quite a bad predicament however as I just wish I could compile to kindle the way I used to in Scrivener 2
Ki please can you tell me, does a video demo come with the new guide please? I simply cannot read another instruction manual. I need to watch it shown to me. Is there a video? I cant seem to find one
Take a look at their Youtube channel, it has plenty of videos. There are 4 videos on compiling. If you ask for specific help here on the forums you’ve a good chance of getting it, as the community is very helpful. I don’t compile for Kindle or ebook so I’m afraid I can’t help with that.
I will say that Scrivener 3 is a joy to work in, and a really nice upgrade from Scrivener 2, once you get used to it.
Thanks KI…in the meantime, an example of reading which is near impossible for me to get my head around is this paragraph
“We’ll need to convert the various levels we set up in the “Formatting” pane in Scrivener 2 to Section Layouts in Scrivener 3, and assign them to the Section Types in this project. (If we then wanted to use our custom Compile Format with other projects, all we would need to do is select the format and assign the Section Layouts to the Section Types of that project—we’ll look at that shortly, too.)”
I find this paragraph so confusing. Can you perhaps reword it for me in simpler terms if possible?
In Scrivener 2, everything was based on the Binder hierarchy, and so you defined formatting based on where a section was located in the outline.
Scrivener 3 is more flexible, It allows you to say “this section is a chapter heading” and format it accordingly, regardless of where it is in the Binder.
So, the “Section Type” setting defines what a section is.
Compile Formats, meanwhile, are no longer tied to a specific outline structure, which makes them easier to use across projects and between users. Your “Chapters” might be equivalent to someone else’s “Key Ideas” or “Stories.” A Section Layout is a way of defining a specific “package” of formatting: heading style, indentation, page padding, and so on. It defines what a section looks like.
So, in assigning a Section Type to a Section Layout, you are saying that this structural unit called a “Chapter,” (or whatever) should have this formatting.
It gets confusing because names can be duplicated, and so you could potentially use a Section Layout called “Part” to format a structural unit called a “Chapter.”
Thank you yes this helps a lot. No doubt I will have a couple of other questions but I am pulling it all apart and piece the jigsaw back together with your help I think (and hopefully this is helping someone else too)
It is approx 2 hours later and I have watched videos and nothing solves the formatting problems I now have. I have been compiling for years to PDF and to Kindle. All the formatting has changed. I cannot get it to look anything like what it used to look like for any of my books
not the title page
not the scenes
not the chapter headings
not the fonts
not the indents
nothing
you can imagine how frustrating this is. i have cancelled work to try to deal with this and imagine i will be up all night because i have to solve this problem
is there any online support who can help in person talk thru this remotely?
i am now officially in hell
why is it creating a title page when nothing is checked with anything to do with title page
why has it changed my existing manuscript front matter which had my contact details and everything perfectly fine before in pdf and kindle formats
i am now officially in hell
i have watched all the videos and am in overload
If you are under pressure, a possible solution is to export your project to Scrivener 2 format, download a copy of Scrivener 2, and compile in that version. If you are already familiar with it, it might be an easier quick solution for this time.
i dont know how many hours later it is now but i am still getting nowhere…the pdfs won’t compile the way i want them.
i have this bizarre ‘cover’ with an ocean view which i cannot get rid of
and i cannot get the kindle version to look like it used to
ch chapter and part