I’m pretty new to Scrivener. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
I’m setting up to rewrite a novel I originally wrote in MS Word on Windows 7 Pro.
My chapters are set up as:
Chapter 1
– scene
– scene
– scene
Chapter 2
– scene
– scene
– scene
(etc.)
When I do a test compile, each chapter starts with these two lines (centered on the page):
CHAPTER ONE
Chapter 1
But the submission guidelines I’m following don’t want this type of repetition (and neither to I, frankly). They should just start with:
CHAPTER ONE
and nothing more. Two double-spaced linefeeds come next, followed by the body of the chapter.
Question:
How do I get Compile to NOT excrete “Chapter X” after each “CHAPTER XXXXX?”
I’ve searched the docs, this forum and several web sites that publish Scrivener tips. Nothing. Is everyone doing chapter subtitles these days? Do I have to conform?
This is set up in the expanded compile window. There’s a blue arrow that when clicked, toggles the File->Compile window from a simplified view to one with more customization options. Once you can see the “Formatting” section select that, then the row that shows a folder. Click the Section Layout button and eliminate the auto-numbering “Chapter <$t>” prefix.
Alternately, you could replace the t in the above prefix with an the letter ‘n’. This will cause the auto-numbering to use digits instead of spelling out the numbers. Then you’d just go back to the row you selected in the Formatting pane and un-check the “Title” for the folders, suppressing your “Chapter 1” and “Chapter 2”, etc… titles. The advantage here is if you decide to split up one of your chapters into two, you don’t have to manually renumber everything; also, you can name the chapters in a way that reminds you what that chapter is about.
Compiling is covered in greater detail in the manual (Help->Scrivener Manual), Chapter 23 “Compiling the Draft”.
Doing it this way, I get the sub-title but not the auto-numbered (written out numbers, that is) chapter headings. It’s kind of the opposite of what I was looking for.
Trying this, I ended up with no chapter breaks at all. When I tried checking “Page Break Before” but not “Include” for the chapter folders, I got the same results as if I’d selected “Include” (ie. CHAPTER ONE Chapter 1). The reason it’s all on one line is that now that I’ve deleted “Chapter <$t>” from Section Layout, there seems to be no way to get that linefeed back in there. Originally, there was a paragraph marker in the Prefix field, but if I hit Enter, it does an actual linefeed instead of replacing the paragraph marker. Not that it matters, but I thought I’d mention it.
I’ll recheck the manual, but I went through it pretty thoroughly before and saw no mention of excluding sub-titles.
Maybe you should start over from a known good compile preset; it sounds like you might have started from the Blank template, but you can still use standard compile presets as a starting-point. In the Format As drop-down, select “Standard Manuscript Format” if you want a good starting point for submitting to an agent / editor. If you’re submitting for self-pub and are expected to do the layout yourself, then try “Paperback Novel” instead.
To turn off what you’re calling “sub-titles”, go to Formatting and un-check “Title” from the folder row. Below, in the example text window, you should see “Title” disappear, but still have “CHAPTER ONE” displayed down there as an example of how it will appear when it encounters a folder.
Also, in the “Contents” pane, make sure you un-check “page break before” from all of your chapter folders & documents; the page breaks will be handled by other aspects of the compile preset (specifically, the Separators pane).
As it turns out, all I had to do was follow your latest directions, but without starting over with a new compile preset. I thought I’d have to redo all the index cards, chapter breaks, etc. I’ve been working on for the last two days, but I don’t. Simply selecting the manuscript format and deselecting “Title” did the trick.
Thanks very, very much, Robert. You’ve been a great help to me. May everything you write become a bestseller.
I was using jargon here instead of plain English. The “Standard Manuscript Format” that you selected is a “compile preset”, as are the other things you can choose from the Format As drop-down list. I meant to say “start over with your compile settings”, not with an entirely new project. Sorry for making it sound so scary, but I’m glad you poked around a little and found out that it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Good luck!
