Hi! I’ve been using Scrivener to develop a graphic novel script, and I’m really enjoying it so far. I have my project laid out, and I used the default comic script template.
As I’ve been working, I’ve been finding I’d prefer another layout for text with different dialogue spacing (the current template indents both speaker name and dialogue in a way I find difficult to parse - I would prefer that the speaker name be right-aligned, with uniform spacing between the speaker name and the dialogue itself).
I’ve found a template that’s laid out in a way I like, and I added it to Scrivener. It’s showing up when I try to create a new project, so I think the addition worked.
Following a video tutorial, I tried to convert one of my documents from the existing project to the new template by going to Documents>>Convert>>Script Format. This feels like it should work, but the template I imported doesn’t show up as an option, even when I unclick “Ignore documents not in script mode.”
Any ideas why I might be running into this, and/or is there another obvious way to convert my project (other than just starting fresh with the template and porting things over page by page - which I will do if push comes to shove)?
Firstly, I would recommend using the File ▸ Back Up ▸ Back Up To... menu command before experimenting too much with this stuff. Script conversion has no undo, and it can make a mess. So you might as well just have a copy of the project as-is, taken right before trying, so that you can discard the converted project and revert to the backup without any hassle.
Next, the Scriptwriting menu does not read settings from other project templates you have installed (or open projects, etc.). Those are completely separate, and in a way you could think of most of our prebuilt templates as being little more than making sure one of those choices is already picked for you, since a lot of the rest (binder examples, compile settings) are the same from one to the other.
To get script settings out of one project and into another, you need to go to Format ▸ Scriptwriting ▸ Script Settings..., and from a throw-away copy of the project you created from this template you downloaded, click the Manage button, and “Save for use with other projects”. That will add it to the menu, so you can pick it from your main project.
That said, once you’re there and looking at these settings, it may be easier all around to make your changes directly. It sounds like a few quick tweaks to me.