Is there anyway to exempt some scrivenings from the multiple column format in the compile wizard? The first document can be exempt, but I need to insert some page-width figures and their captions (spanning columns) in my double column paper.
Is it possible to do this, or do I need to make multiple papers with the spanning figure at the “front” and concat them? I’d prefer to avoid using Word for layout, or for anything else to be perfectly frank, since it sends the all the figures skittering around if I even think of moving anything or doing something as provocative as typing text.
I think the right tool for this job would be advanced image layout, such as floating an image over the text layout yet having it still impact the text for purposes of flowing around it. Actually breaking to a new section to switch of columns and then another section to switch back would, I think, force a page break construct and otherwise just be a messy way to approach the problem. So I don’t think anything Scrivener could theoretically do here—or what you could achieve by compiling dozens of times and then stitching them all together into a single file—would even do what is best for the document in the end.
Maybe try LibreOffice though, if Word is damaging the document when you try to work with it. I know that’s replacing one set of quirks with another, but maybe it’s the right set of quirks you need.
Glad it worked for you. I think Pages is heavily underestimated. Unfortunately I can’t use it as much as I’d like to (given that all my collaborators are in an MS Word world!), but whenever I use it, it does what I need flawlessly and very intuitively.
