Copy/Paste Formatting Formats the Entire Paragraph

Scrivener Windows Beta (Archived)
1

I left this reply on a previous post, but I am making a new post just in case, because this might need its own.

When I use copy/paste formatting to change the formatting on the text that I have highlighted, the formatting gets pasted to the entire paragraph. You shouldn’t be allowed to highlight a section, only to have it ignored and applied to the whole paragraph.

Is this the intended behavior, or something that should be changed? I would like to apply formatting in more detail to just the text I have highlighted.

Loving the new beta! Keep up the good work!
Laura

2

If the formatting you copied includes a paragraph style, then it will of course apply that style, which affects the entire paragraph. That’s just what a paragraph style is.

3

If you want to use particular formatting to a stretch of text rather than the whole paragraph, set up a character style:

  1. mark a stretch that you want in that format and give it the attributes that you want;
  2. with that stretch highlighted, go to Format > Style > New Style from Selection;
  3. in the dialog box that appears, give the style a name and a shortcut if you want;
  4. click the triangle on the right of where it says “Formatting” and choose “Save character attributes”;
  5. make sure “Include font family” and “Include font size” are ticked;
  6. click “OK”

Screenshot 2019-02-27 18.20.07.png
Screenshot 2019-02-27 18.20.07.png602×748 24.7 KB

Character styles appear at the bottom of the styles list. The advantage of using styles for this is that if you decide at some point that you want a different font or variant, you can redefine the style—Format > Style > Redefine style from selection—and it will propagate throughout your manuscript. Format painting—as it is in v. 1.9—requires you to find every instance and change them one by one.

Hope that helps.

Mark

Edit: although I am a Mac user, I have tested this in Beta 14—the screenshot is from there—running under Crossover on my Mac, so it would be weird if there were problems under Windows proper. :slight_smile:

4

It’s also worth noting that this is why there are actually three different pairs of copy/paste commands:

  • Format ▸ Font ▸ Copy|Paste Font
  • Format ▸ Paragraph ▸ Copy|Paste Paragraph Attributes
  • Format ▸ Copy|Paste Formatting

Only use the latter if you want everything applied.

5

That makes sense. Thank you, all!