Compile: Quickly Include/Exclude Chapters

Scrivener
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21

Another way to handle compile would be to navigate to your section here :

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This offers a way for you to have a compile with chapter 16 be numbered as “16” (not “1”) if you compile, say, chapter 16 to 30.

To do so, leave the option I marked below unchecked.
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If you check it, chapters 16 to 30 will compile as “Chapter 1” to “Chapter 15”.

So you got choice.
. . . . . . . .

Never should you have to play with (and try to remember what you did to later undo it) included/excluded from compile to get what you need.
Whenever you feel that you have no choice but to, investigate, there is a better way.

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22

Refer also to the post above, in the existing discussion I’ve merged this query into. There are several methods available for rapidly selecting and switching between compile content sets.

The checkboxes you’ve been using, as noted there, are more for stuff that should always be one way or the other, like chapter notes that you want readily available in Scrivenings view and such, but would never want to compile.

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23

You folk are awesome! I continued to be impressed by how supportive the community is here. Thank you very much!

Clark

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24

How do I ‘bulk action’ the ticks by the side of my chapters when I’m in compile?
I have 48 chapters: when I went to compile, they were all ‘scenes’, so I had to go through one by one to change them all to chapter.
Now they each have a tick / check box on the left side.
I wanted to send just two chapters to my editor. I had to go through 46 check boxes to un-check them all.
I’ve tried Googling, I’ve looked through this forum. But I can’t find the answer.
I’m guessing there’s something on my keyboard I need to press and hold?
I use a MacBook Air, and an external keyboard.
This is my first post on this forum, I’m hoping you can help me.

25

Select those two scenes chapters in the Binder (e.g. ⌘-Click) and then in the Compiler unleash the magic of “Current Selection”:

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26

The magic key for selecting and deselecting muliple checkboxes is the Alt/Option key. But do use a filter as @November_Sierra suggests.

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27

This is so good of you both to help. But I have another “Doh” sort of question: on my Macbook keyboard, bottom left, the keys are marked:
Fn (with a globe), control, option, command (the one with the squirly square thing).
Which of these is the “Alt” key?!?
I’ve never used a PC and wonder if that’s why I don’t know…

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28

You want the Option key. (Which on my Mac keyboard is labeled both “alt” and “option.”)

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29

⌥​​​​​​​​

30

Thank you both. I’ll keep a note for future.

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31

Apple has a strange relationship with the Option key labeling, I’ve seen

“option” only
“alt” + “option”
“alt” + “⌥”
“⌥” + “option” (seems they’ve settled for this one now)

32

Yes, it’s the last of these on my MacBook Air. Thank you.

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33

And it should never go without saying, but there are better tools than what you are using, to begin with. The checkbox is better for things that always or never compile, like notes or bad drafts.

Refer to the post above, in the existing discussion on this that I’ve merged your query into, that goes over the intended tools for filtering, selecting and compiling.

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34

Does anyone know if there’s a “select all” option for chapters when compiling? I’m up to about thirty individual chapters. The other day I wanted to compile just the first three so I could share them with a friend. So I unselected all but the three and then had to go back and click on all of them again so I could have them all in my word count. Having a (un)select all option would be great for that.

Thanks!

B

35

Option-click in the contents list on the main Compile screen.

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36

Perfect. That worked. Thank you!

37

Use the Level dropdown list or the Filter above the right hand side column in the Compile Overview window for that. Handling those pesky checkboxes is unwieldy…

38

The dropdown list will limit which sections are displayed, but it won’t check/uncheck them.

39

Use collections to compile smaller chunks of your project. Can compile the manuscript, but also a collection OR the currently selected binder documents without changing compile status on any files.