Hello, every time I make and edit in my very big book, I have to re do the Contents, which means closing all the folders in the Binder, copying as TOC and pasting onto the Contents page.
Here’s my problem: There are 23 Chapters, so then when I recompile I have to manually reopen every single one of the 23 folders so the ('Section’Type) First level documents are exposed, and highlight the book folders in binders with their contents with Shift, Click.
Is there not a way in Compile to INCLUDE the First Level documents living in the Binder Folders, even if the Binder Folders (containing the 'Section’Type) are closed? It is so time-consuming the way I am currently doing it and I think I may be missing something.
Maybe it would be easier to set the compile group to the Draft folder (or some subdivision of it), other than leaving it on Current Selection, in the Contents tab of the compile overview screen?
That’s a terribly useful feature, but not if you are constantly having to use it to do something as basic as compiling the whole draft.
Thanks Amber, I’m not quite sure what you mean? Since posting this question, I suddenly discovered the Select with SubDocuments button, which opened all my Binder Folders and selected them. Trouble is, now I want to do the reverse so that I can re-copy for my TOC but again, I seem to have to manually Control Click on every Header Folder. If you have a solution to that it would be helpful
In any case, please if you have the time and inclination, explain what you mean by the above?
For regenerating the ToC, I would probably use the Outliner for that so that I wasn’t having to constantly change the binder back and forth between what I want, and what the software wants. The outliner remembers its own collapse states for each group, including the Draft as a whole, so you may not even have to change things much from one day to the next. Just collapse things to the point that you want the depth of the ToC to be, and leave it that way. (Note the View ▸ Outline ▸ Collapse All to Current Level menu command, which is very useful for this.)
I wasn’t speaking to that at all however, I was referring to how you are describing having to select everything you want to have compiled every time. That is not necessary with normal settings, and indicates you have changed your compile settings to use the “Current Selection”. You should see this when you first open compile, on the right-hand side.
In reference to the bit about Current Selection…I’m not sure why one WOULDN’T use that? But will fiddle around with it and see what changes when I don’t. Thank you again
In reference to the bit about Current Selection…I’m not sure why one WOULDN’T use that? But will fiddle around with it and see what changes when I don’t.
Well I think you phrased it well in your first post, it is time consuming to have to always select everything you want to compile, when what you really want is to always compile everything.
And if you typically don’t want to compile everything, and are using Current Selection to achieve to some level of filtering that you are doing by hand—then that’s an excellent case for using Collections instead. A number of projects I have feature a “Compile List” collection that serves precisely as a static whitelist filter. I leave the main compile group setting to the full Draft, but click the funnel icon to its right and set the parameters to include by whether an item is in that collection.
Current selection is a super useful tool, don’t get me wrong. I use that a lot when proofing because often that’s the best way to quickly fire off a copy of the stuff I was just working on. But I don’t think I would think to use it much for any list of things I would compile more than a few times. At about the third point, I’d just be asking myself why I don’t just use a collection—even a throw-away collection I don’t intend to keep beyond the week. Why not? There is no limit on how many you can have.
So to try it, the next time you compile, make your selection by hand the way you have been, then instead of compiling, use Documents ▸ Add to Collection ▸ New Collection.... Easy as that.
This is why I sometimes refer to collections as “saved selections”.
Hey, it’s easy once you know it is there, that doesn’t mean the road getting there the first time will be. What I’m describing takes a few seconds if you know what to do, I mean to say.
I have a question now regarding your wording above - what is a whitelist? as in, you refer to whitelist filter
This might be jargon, it means a list of things that have been approved to be used for some purpose. A common example is spam filtering in your email. It would be a way of telling your spam filter that anything from this particular email address is fine, and to stop flagging your uncle’s emails because he uses this arcane “stationary” email template that adds a bunch of graphics around the text.
Applied to compile, it is a way of saying: here is my entire draft folder but I don’t want all of it, I just want these items I have approved. “Current Selection” is a way of making such a list, it is the same thing, but it is a list you have to make yourself each and every time. A Collection is a list you save, and it stays that way forever until you change it.
Something to consider is that they can also be the opposite. The filter tool in the compiler has two modes: one says, use this list to select items from the draft to compile with; the other says compile everything except the items on this list.
Collections are very useful for all kinds of things though, not just compiling. If you are not familiar at all, check out §10.2, Using Collections in the user manual PDF, in the chapter on organisation.
The compile filter that I am referring to is discussed in §23.4.1, Contents Tab, under the subheading Filtering a few pages in. Figure 23.6 has a screenshot of the tool.
It’s 11.30pm here and I just finished my client’s manuscript. Big days this week in lead up to London Book Fair but I will read this when I can and get back to you. With enormous thanks.
I get it…I would have referred to my uncle’s arcane emails as a ‘green list’ but ‘white’ makes sense i guess since it is the opposite of ‘blacklist!’ me dumb some days. now, in CONTEXT with scrivener compiling it is like an AHA! moment and I think you very much for explaining the filter tool, which i have used but only accidentally hit or miss style
thanking you berry berry much
ps did you see my post on word count? that’s got me entirely baffled but I’m just working around it and entering word counts manually cos i don’t have the headspace to work out why my <$wc100> aint accurate after compile, even though I have “uncounted” comments and footnotes etc the word count when compiling to word still lies!
anyhow i can see another reply there so will go check it out and see if there is any hope
As I said in that thread, the word count options in Scrivener itself don’t have anything to do with the <$wc100> placeholder. The placeholder is going to count whatever is in the output document.
There is still so much to learn.