Compiling to Word

[TDM]

Hello,

I am using Scrivener to write my PhD thesis and I now understand that there can be some issues when compiling directly to PDF, which means I have to use Word as a post-editing tool (for example: right margins do not seem to be compiled properly and from what I gather, there is no solution to this - if there is please let me know :)).

Since I am doing post-editing on Word, I have created a certain number of custom styles for longer quotations, footnotes, etc. in order to post-edit my compiled document efficiently. However, the compiled document does not include the custom styles I have created (although these styles are present in my word template) - I am not sure whether this is an issue with Scrivener or Word ?

One way to avoid this issue is to copy/paste from Scrivener to Word, but I am afraid some small errors may appear and be difficult to identify on large documents.

More generally, is there a guide to simple compiling from Scrivener to Word ? My use of both softwares is very straightforward (italics, margins, footnotes), so I guess there really shouldn’t be any problems.

Thank you kindly in advance for your help !
Best regards

[rms]

You haven’t really described the problems, e.g. something about “right margin”…

That being said, if you are editing the output from Scrivener, then I’m guessing it’s a one-way trip for your manuscript and you have no plans to put that manuscript back into Scrivener after post-editing. That’s fine.

So, what is proven (by previous discussions and posts here) is to compile to RTF format (Scrivener’s native format) and opening that document in Word–which works well. From there you can save to DOCX if you want.

[TDM]

Thank you for your reply !

I would be happy to be able to have a round-trip, but I am not sure how this can be done.

The issue with margins : for longer quotations, I wish to have both a left and right margin, which can be done on Scrivener by using Format>Paragraph>Tab and indents> and setting for example 0,25 for “First Line” and “Left” and 6,95 for “Right”. When compiling to Word this gives me an excessive Left indentation and the text crosses the margin on the right. I have tried your suggestion, but when compiling to RTF, this indentation is simply ignored.

Another issue is the fact that I would like the text in my footnotes to be justified and I haven’t a way to do it directly in Scrivener (this is minor and easily done in Word, but this is one of the reasons I was noting that post-editing via Word seems mandatory, but I may be wrong - please tell me if this is the case :))

By the way, I have compiled to RTF and opened the document with Word and I still cannot find the custom styles frm my template. I’m guessing the problem could be from Word, but I am not sure…

[AntoniDol]

Search for “Styles in Word” on this forum…

[TDM]

I have found two topics regarding my specific issue and they do not seem to provide an answer to the problem…

Vellum compile format not creating vellum styles in word document.

The problem is that the style name isn’t being imported. After some tinkering (I had to turn off the “include styles information in exported file” option and turn it on again) I now have the formatting for those styles showing up in the word document. The bug–or so far unimplemented feature–is that the style name isn’t imported to word. Since that is the simplest way to get Vellum to recognize parts of the book, it would be very nice if it were. My wild guess is that it’s something like a simi…

compile--default word styles

The TLDR is can you change the default stylesheet used when you compile to docx. The longer version. I’m trying to write in Scrivener and then do some final formatting in Word to tinker with things for final publishing in mobi, epub, and .doc Long ago, I changed the default stylesheets, saved in normal.dot, in Word to match my needs, namely Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced, with a 1/3rd of an inch indent. However, when you export the docx file, it doesn’t use the normal.dot/normal.dot…

[AmberV]

@TDM

The issue with margins : for longer quotations, I wish to have both a left and right margin, which can be done on Scrivener by using Format>Paragraph>Tab and indents> and setting for example 0,25 for “First Line” and “Left” and 6,95 for “Right”. When compiling to Word this gives me an excessive Left indentation and the text crosses the margin on the right.

You might be running into the matter mentioned in the user manual, in the yellow tip box titled, “Ruler Conversions”, at the end of §15.7.1, The Ruler. That goes over the details, but in short, 6,95in plus presumably the 1in you’re adding to the left as a margin when compiling would be almost to the edge of a sheet of A4 or US Letter, at 7,95in.