Convert outline into chapters?

Scrivener
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1

I haven’t used Scrivener for a long time. I have an outline / future table of contents. Is there any way to explode this list into sections automatically? For example in this doc where I have highlighted the outline. Right now I added the part 1 folder manually, but the rest of the sections are not yet created. Is there a way to use the outline to create all the sections? If not, that would be a great feature.

2

I’d do it with the Document → Split command.

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3

That option is greyed out if I select all the titles, but one at a time works for some of the titles, not for all.

4

You can’t select all of the titles because then you aren’t “splitting.” Likewise if you place the cursor at the beginning or end of the document.

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5

Well is there an alternate method? I.e. create a table of contents in Word and import it so that it will automatically create chapters and sections?

6

What you CAN do is the following:

I suggest you use Split with Selection as Title, using the shortcut Option+Shift+Cmd+K (crazy finger contortions, I know) on Mac or Alt+Shift+K on Windows.

  1. Highlight: Chapter 1 Understanding the Abused
  2. Select: Option+Shift+Cmd+K. The document splits and uses the highlighted text as the title of the split document in the Binder.
  3. Highlight: Running from accountability
  4. Select: Option+Shift+Cmd+K. The document splits and uses the highlighted text as the title of the split document in the Binder.
  5. Repeat until done.
  6. Organise your hierarchy using Ctrl+Cmd+Left, Ctrl+Cmd+Right, Ctrl+Cmd+Up and Ctrl+Cmd+Down.
7

Future note: Instead of typing a Table of Contents document – and then try to explode it – you ought to have been working in the Outline view mode – because there a line you type becomes the title of a document, and a carriage return to the next line also creates the next document to be titled. Things can be grouped into folders as well.

So, the documents and folders for your whole book would have been created just while you typed up your outline. (Also, btw, Scrivener could have then generated an actual TOC doc for you from that outline structure.)

8

If the ToC in Word has assigned Heading styles then yes, Scrivener can break it down to an outline.

But in the time it would take to do that you can just create the same structure directly in Scrivener.

If you haven’t already, I’d recommend taking a look at our Interactive Tutorial, available from the Help menu. It’s a good overview of Scrivener’s fundamental operations.

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