Different Text Background Colors for Different Projects

Hi,

I didn’t see this in the first few pages of Search, but I apologize if it’s already been requested:

I’d love to be able to have a different color as the background of my writing space for different projects. I currently use a faint orange background for an ongoing project, and I’ve come to associate the creative work with that color. I would like to start using Scrivener for some other projects, and I think it would be helpful to use different colors – or no color at all – for each of these. As I currently see it, there is only one way to change the color, and that is through Preferences, which affects all projects. If this can be changed so that each project can have its own color, it would be a great feature.

Thank you for considering it!

Ezer

Hi Ezer,

Thanks for your suggestion. This would need to be a project preference, which isn’t impossible (there are already project text preferences), but I’m wary of adding too many more options given the wealth that are already there already - so maybe one for further consideration in the future if it comes up more often.

Thanks again and all the best,
Keith

While you can’t change the background color on a per-project basis, you can change the label color for each document within your project, which can show up in the binder and on the cork board. I’ve used it before to track alternating view points between protagonist and antagonist, but there’s no reason you couldn’t set the default label’s color for each project and just leave it that color.

Hi Keith.

OK. As this is the Wish List: Yes, I’d love to be able to use different background colors for my projects.

Thanks, Franz

Ha, that was a mistake wasn’t it? Maybe in the future, though - I might consider it for 2.5 or something. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but it’s Yet Another Option ™ and “too many options!” is probably the most common complaint we have (fortunately we don’t have too many complaints, though :slight_smile: ).

Yes, and I jumped right at it :slight_smile:))

But seriously: I see your point about YAO but that option would be a welcome to me. Maybe in Scrivener 2.5.

Bye, Franz

May I jump in?

It’s the only thing I really miss in Scrivener: not to be able to have a tiny but at a glance recognizable distinction between two (or more) open projects.

Personally, I would prefer to be able to choose the binder background colour or the toolbar colour (or the line above the toolbar with the document’s name in it) on a project base, rather than the writing background. Why? I always create two project files for each of my projects. One is the ‘pure’ writing environnement and the other one the research file. (With ‘research’ used in both.) They have nearly the same name and mostly a similiar folder structure. For fast switching it would be very comfortable to be able to distinct at a glance which one is the research or the writing file, without being forced to look at the written file name in the toolbar. Luxury poblems, I know… :wink:))

Where can I find the ‘project text preferences’ in Scrivener for Windows? I would really like to have such a feature, since I have multiple projects with different audiences and ‘tones’, and would like to work with a different formatting for each project. The Text Editor options in the Preferences screen sets it “globally”.

It’s under the “Project” menu. However, this was a Mac 2.0 feature, so I’m not sure it’s in the Windows version yet (sorry, I’m away from my Windows machine at the moment and can’t remember off-hand).

All the best,
Keith

Will you have this inscribed over the door, or emblazoned on the website?

ps

It shall be my epitaph, with extra emphasis:

This isn’t yet available in the Windows version; for now, beyond the global preferences, you might find using Format > Font > Copy/Paste Font or Format > Text > Copy/Paste Ruler, depending on your needs.

It can’t be possible to have too many options! It is possible to have more options than can reasonably be supported by software developers to keep the software from having too many problems.

I do like this idea of different text background colors for different projects. I frequently have more than one project open, so a color coding would be a convenience. Not crucial, of course, but certainly convenient.

I’m glad you don’t get TOO many complaints.

Not a perfect solution, but a bit of a work-around is to set up a bunch of different Theme Preferences with the colors you want for each project. Then when you open that project, go into Preferences and change the Theme Preferences (in the Appearance tab) to the one you want to use for that project. It’s a manual process that you’ll have to repeat each time you work on a different project, but it might work for you.

That said, I agree that it would be nice to be able to associate a Theme Preference file with a particular project in order to automate this process.