Yes, I do think this is quite a bit more simple than you’ve made it! I’ve merged this into a thread that discusses how to adjust default formatting, which is really more the term you are looking for I think, rather than using templates. Using document templates to adjust default formatting is a possibility, but it’s inefficient given the software actually has features for changing the default formatting in its settings (both globally and optionally for each project). And of course if this is a project-specific preference, you could then make your project template with the settings saved into it.
Scroll up to the previous message of mine for a link to where there is a simple answer to what you’re trying to do.
As I mentioned above, it is certainly possible to use Document Template to change formatting, however that technique is best employed for exceptions to the defaults—such as the scenario I describe in that post. It doesn’t sound like that is anything close to what you actually want, but I figured it worth mention of a case where it does make sense to use this feature to set exceptional default formatting.
I can’t actually see how to set line spacing in Options / Editing / Formatting. However, I have created a style for that, and that does very nicely. I don’t even need to select the text for the style to be applied as I need.
That’s true, for paragraph styles. Do be wary however of how styles are a very strong formatting declaration in Scrivener. They are a way of telling the compiler you want text to look a certain way, regardless of what the compiler will be doing by default. This can result in mass confusion when one selects “Manuscript (Times)” or whatever, and only 85% of their paragraphs convert to TNR, the rest having been instructed to use Cochin or Gill Sans or whatever you like to use while writing and managed to save into the style.
As to the original question, line spacing should be showing up in the Editing: Formatting tab, but I suppose if the window is too narrow it might slip off. Bear in mind if you already have a paragraph looking the way you want it to, back in the main window, you can select it first and then click that Use Formatting in Current Editor button to the top right.
Thanks for the warning re styles. Fortunately, for this particular document, there are only three styles (headings, text, lyrics). I appreciate that learning how to compile is going to be a whole new level of pain…
Just make a mental note that the “Default” setting at the very top of the left sidebar in the compiler is your “easy mode” switch. That does very little beyond stitching things up into one file. For something highly stylised like verse, it may be the best option anyway.
In my Template Sheets folder, I have the Text template formatted the way I want it to with the default Text style chosen. It’s weird that I have to put a bit of text in an empty document to get a style to stick but I’ve done that.
But whenever I create a “new text document” from the right-click menu or from the toolbar drop-down, it creates an empty document without the Text style. It starts with “No Style” no matter what I do. Moreover, even the bit of text I put in the template sheet to get the style to stick is not there.
Yes, it will do it correctly if I drill down and choose Add > New from Template > Text Template but that is rather unwieldy for something I do so frequently.
Isn’t the New Text command the same as New from Text Template? If not, how can I make it so? I’ve set my defaults wherever I can find them but no matter what I do, new text documents are blank without a style. I have to select a style before I even type and that seems ridiculous.
To add a new document from a template, it is either this from the toolbar (click the drop down arrow / pick your template), the right click menu in the binder, or the main menu :
There is a shortcut to add a new document based on the template that is at the top of the list (the one template that would be the topmost in your templates folder).
In the options you may switch this shortcut and the one to add a new document for one another (that’s what I did), or get used to using the other shortcut (Ctrl-Shift-N — or the mac equivalent, in your case) whenever you want to add a new doc based on your template.
In short, move that new doc template of yours at the top of your template(s) folder, and use the right shortcut.
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By the way :
Your template(s) are/is right underneath.
If your template doesn’t appear there when you right click a binder element, it means that your template folder isn’t properly set.
Let us know if that’s the case. We’ll walk you through it.
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I have a string of xxxxxxxxx as the first paragraph of my document template. I just double click it and start typing.
(As a side note, though, it is not recommended to style the whole of your body text. I have a good reason to want my template to start with a styled paragraph. Otherwise I’d just use and properly set the default formatting for new documents…)
That hints at the wrong way of doing things… But it is not a catastrophe. Only that you are setting yourself up for some unnecessary trouble later at compile.
The default formatting for new documents is set in the options / editing / formatting.
If you style your whole body text, and always with the same style throughout a project, better to do things this way.
Styles are intended to be used for whatever chunks of text deviate from this default formatting. Not as the base.
In this post above, I speak a bit on how templates can be used to establish formatting of some sort, though as I stress there, better as an exception to a global default. There is a link to another thread as well that goes into more detail on that.
There are ways to make templates more efficient than always having to pick them, but they will always be less efficient than actually setting the default formatting, if that makes sense, since neither they nor styles were meant for that purpose.
from the toolbar (click the drop down arrow / pick your template), the right click menu in the binder, or the main menu :
