I’m a new user to Scrivener so please excuse if I’m not seeing something obvious. I’m using Scrivener to write short story snippets and exercises for a class I’m taking (I’m also a new writer), with the intention of compiling sections of my document as either PDF or DOCX to email to my tutor.
I can use the compile feature to produce PDF/DOCX files using the inbuilt formats, all this works great except I wanted to change the final look of the output documents a little bit.
To do this I tried to edit the in-built formats, but was not allowed and was advised to either create my own or duplicate an existing format (in the Compile Overview window). When I click either “NEW FORMAT” or “DUPLICATE & EDIT FORMAT” the Compile Format Designer window attempts to open, but hangs until I force close Scrivener (not responding error).
I currently on the free trial just in case that makes a difference (but intend to get a license).
Does anybody have any insight or steps to troubleshoot this?
OK, just an update on this.
I installed Scrivener on my separate laptop while testing, and it worked fine. The Compile Format Designer window opened normally. But I’m still having the issue on my PC. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but the issue persists.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to ensure Scrivener is fully uninstalled? Because I’d like to eliminate a few variables and see what I’ve done on my end.
I uninstalled Scrivener using REVO Uninstaller to make sure it was fully uninstalled. After reinstalling I tried again but it did not work.
After doing a bit of looking around I found some advice that there may be a conflict with AMD Radeon drivers, so I switched my display adapter driver to the “Microsoft Basic Display Adapter” and then back again to the AMD Radeon Driver in the Device Manager, then tried again.
It worked, the Compile Format Designer window now opens.
Another update:
So, switching the drivers in my previous post may not have been the solution. After relogging today the same issue occurred where the Compile Format Designer window hangs until I force close Scrivener. The AMD driver may not be the culprit here.
I noticed, by chance, that if I tried to open the Compile Format Designer window on my main monitor it worked fine, no matter which driver was used. Since my secondary monitor is my main editing monitor I need a way to continue using it for Scrivener.
My workaround then is, after clicking “Compile…” and opening “Compile Overview” to move that window to my main monitor before clicking “New Format…/Duplicate & Edit Format…”.
I will look into filing a bug report for this, but this workaround works for now. Hopefully this can help anyone seeing a similar issue with other windows not opening correctly.
If you were on Mac, I’d suggest dragging the Preferences/Settings file out of it’s location and letting Scrivener create a new one to see if that sorts your problem out. But I don’t know how you do that for Options on Windows or if that’s the way the Windows version works, I’m afraid.
I did as you suggested as best I could with my newbie knowledge. I saved my current settings to a file, then clicked default to reset all settings, then closed Scrivener.
I then tried both settings files and observed the same issue in both.
After closing Scrivener I then deleted both files and reopened. The same issue was seen again.
I’ve sent in a bug report so I’m happy enough with the workaround until someone can take a deeper look. (Note: the issue only happens when I use dual monitors, it goes away when I plug one out.)
If you go into the installation folder, you’ll find a ‘minidump’ subfolder. Do you have any recent files in here? If so I would send in a copy to tech support, so we can take a look at it.
I have seen graphics drivers issues involving this dialogue before. I questioned why it would require something like that for what seems like a fairly ordinary GUI, but I don’t recall getting any response.
Something else you can do is go into the General: Warnings options tab, and enable logging, then restart. This will give you some real-time info on what Scrivener is doing, and often errors and warnings will appear here. Unfortunately though this doesn’t write to the disk anywhere, so in the event of a crash it is usually gone before you can see what might have been printed. But that’s what the minidump files are for anyway.
Hi,
I’ve emailed the minidump and two text files with copied text from the logging window at the point the program hangs.
I have seen Scrivener hang both on the Compile Format Designer window and also when I attempt to open an external URL link from the Document Bookmarks panel in the indicator. Both times on my second monitor. On primary or single monitor both work fine.
Thanks! Glad you could get some log stuff as well, as it was a hang rather than a full crash. I see you have an open ticket in the system already, so I’ve linked it up with that.
