Did I get a glitchy copy? Problems I've found so far!

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I am disappointed, that 4 years after someone else posted about quotation mark issues, I am experiencing the exact same thing.

I cut and paste my WPS manuscript into Scrivener3, and found a mix of classic quotation marks, when I had set the format of the document to my own manuscript template of Times New Roman, 12 within Scrivener3.

I followed the excellent advice from @xiamenese (Find and fix uneducated apostrophes) about how to work around this and compiled my manuscript. Then found the formatting of the manuscript has gone pear shaped!

There are also several examples of odd characters appearing in the text. Several # hash marks are dotted about.

The final issue so far, I have experienced, is a combination one.

The Header won’t allow me to put my Name into it. It allows the title, then the Scrivener V1/page count. But also, there is a huge gap at the start of each chapter that forces the the text in each chapter to be jostled about on the next pages.

Last issue I’ve discovered too, is that when I insert a ‘Horizontal Line, Centered’, I find that anything following the paragraph has changed to ‘Palantino 13’. Why would that happen? I have to select the line, go to the font and size and change it manually to Times New Roman, as using the ‘Style’ option only causes the line to completely disappear.

This ‘change’ of format style also happens inbetween paragraphs if I add in extra dialogue too! The font and size changes. I have to then highlight the line and include a few other lines of the already existing dialogue, then go to the ‘Style tab’ and change it to something unrelated, like ‘Block quote’ and then re-select my own manuscript style for that sentence. This is a total pain to have to keep stopping my flow and correct the issue before continuing.

It makes my manuscript look very unprofessional and I am sadly disappointed with Scrivener having read such wonderous reviews online.

Have I received a glitchy copy?

I know, having cut and pasted from WPS, may have taken across hidden formats from it. But if I’ve selected the text on the pages within Scrivener, then applied the style format to each page, surely that should have cleared any of those?

So to recap:
Issue 1: Changing the quotations to the ‘Curly’ ones from the ‘Classic’ only worked on ‘Compiling’ - when it should have worked project-wide with the use of the manuscript style tab.
Issue 2: Odd characters appearing.
Issue 3: Header won’t allow me to put my name in and insists on having ‘Scrivener’ listed within it on the manuscript.
Issue 4: Page formats of texts jump about and do not stay consistent to the page pre-set style.

I’ve included a little video to show you all how it switches from different fonts despite being set up in manuscript style Times New Roman, 12.

Video showing changes to font style on a pre-set manuscript style page. Scrivener3 Problems 1B

2

Have you reviewed the Tutorial, particularly with regard to the Compile command?

What format are you importing from, and what do you hope to accomplish in Scrivener that you can’t in that tool? If you already have a mostly complete manuscript, then you’ve already done the part of the process where Scrivener is focused.

The command to convert existing curly quotes to straight quotes (or vice versa) can be found on the Edit → Transformations menu. Other options change the default setting, but not the existing text.

The hash marks are there either because you have configured hash marks between text sections, or because they are replacing blank lines. Both settings are defaults for the Manuscript (Times) format. See Section 24.4 in the manual for more information.

The manuscript header is edited via the Page Settings tab in the Compile format. See Section 24.20 in the manual for more information. Placeholders generally draw from the metadata in the Compile Overview screen, see Section 23.4.2.

It sounds like you have used Styles extensively in your manuscript. We do not recommend using a “Body” style for exactly this reason: it interferes with Scrivener’s ability to normalize formatting. For information about the interaction between the Compile command and pre-assigned Styles, see Section 24.5 in the manual.

Based on your description, no, you don’t have a “glitchy copy.” You just haven’t yet successfully explained to Scrivener what you want it to do.

1 Like
3

You could also upload a zipped Scrivener project with minimal text that reproduces your problem. As @kewms mentions, without knowing what format you want to compile to and what formatting you want to achieve its hard to give more concrete suggestions. Scrivener can compile your work to many outputs, this is an amazing feature but it does mean you need an explicit workflow.

1 Like