Hello, I’m a long time user and I don’t think I’ve changed my Compile settings in a while, I just copy them from project to project, but I seem to be having some issues. My body text is in “sections” and I have my sections Compile settings set to Times New Roman 12 pt and 2.0 spacing, with no points before or after the paragraphs. When I compile, my body text ends up with 8pts extra space after each paragraph, and all of my italicized text seems to be Arial font. I’m compiling to Word (.docx) on a Mac. How can I get the correct settings to come out in my Word doc?
Have you applied a “body” style in Scrivener?
If this is new behavior, what has changed? Software update? Importing material from a new source? New version of Word? Anything else?
I have not applied a “body” style though in looking at what is set for “body” it’s exactly the same as what I have set for sections.
The issue seems to have begun on September 12, 2023. I compile after each session in Scrivener, so it’s easy for me to pinpoint. I manually resolved it for that manuscript, but I was bouncing back and forth between Word and Scrivener less at that time. I’m trying to do more work in Scrivener, so it’s more of a problem now.
It’s completely possible there was an update to Word on that day, I don’t know.
I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying that Scrivener’s default is the same as you’ve defined in your Section Layouts? Or are you referring to Word’s “normal” style?
Do you still see the same issue if you Compile to another format, like PDF?
Sorry for confusing you. I have the “body” style set with what I want the output to be (12pt TNR, spacing 2.0 with no additional between paras). However, in the compile settings for the “section”, I have not selected a style to apply, it’s set to “no style” and I’ve just selected the same font and spacing settings there. I don’t have anything set anywhere specifying the font for italics.
No issues with compiling to PDF. It seems to be specific to Word.
If you have set a Style in the Scrivener Editor, the Section Layout will not change it. You’ll need to make any changes via the Compile Format’s Style tab.
Also, if Word has a different specification for that Style, it will change it accordingly.
Both are set the same, so it shouldn’t matter which one is used, with the exception that Word might have a different specification for “body” and Word doesn’t offer me the ability to set the body unless I have a document already selected, meaning there is some default that I have no control over. So, I guess I would need to un-set a style in the Scrivener editor, so that the style won’t be overridden by Word? How do I do that?
Word’s defaults derive from the Normal.dot template. Consult their support materials for information on how to change them.
Having the text appear correctly in PDF output but not in Word definitely suggests that Word is what’s making the change.
Since all text in Word is styled, un-styling the text in Scrivener probably won’t change the results. To do it, though, use the Documents → Convert → Text to Default Formatting command.
If you need to change Scrivener’s default formatting, use the Project → Project Settings → Formatting pane for just this project, or Scrivener → Settings → Editing → Formatting to set the default Scrivener-wide.