It seems like everything now takes up 30% more screen space. Is this a feature? a bug? something to do with the way my computer is set up? How can I revert to the same density of content on the screen?
In 1.9 my projects look like this:
I really don’t understand. Do you really want to go from the light airy look of screenshot 2 to the cramped massive heavy look of screenshot 1? Not the other way around?
The old 135% text scaling is equivalent to the new 100% text scaling. To have the same text size, as before try using 75% scaling in Scrivener v3. If you do not have a High DPI monitor, try also turning OFF the File > Options > “Enable High DPI mode”
Yes I do, and you’re welcome to your aesthetic preferences. I want to be able to see and manipulate a lot of information, and I hope Scrivener can still accommodate us both.
Thanks, Tiho.
I do have a high DPI monitor, which must be why this option makes no difference.
With 75% scaling, the text on the file pages reverts to normal, but the rest of the screen items are unchanged - binder items are too far apart (and so drop off the bottom of the screen on big projects), corkboard cards don’t fit all their text on title and card, fewer cards fit on the screen, Inspector text is too large etc.
It’s worth pointing out that this is actually an issue about access rather than aesthetics.
Poor eyesight means that I have to have my Windows display settings at 125%. When I first starting using Scrivener many years ago now I had to spend a lot of time setting up the display so that I could work properly. Is it that the new version is not respecting those settings?
Binder Items spacing has an option to adjust it in File > Options > Appearance > “Binder items spacing”. It was deliberately increased based on some user requests. For the Corkboard, there is an option inside the popup window bottom right “Use small font”. The Index Cards also have an option to choose a different font family and size inside the File > Options > Appearance > Fonts (section) > Corkboard, I personally also would like to see more on my screen. Hope this helps you get most of your screen and desktop too. 
Thanks again for the help, Tiho.
I could go and change all these settings (and would I need to do it for every project?), but why have you elected to update the software in a way that makes this necessary? Why are my old settings not used any more? Surely this is an issue that affects all users, regardless of their preferred display settings?
Oh dear. Changing these settings has now changed the way my projects look back in Scrivener 1.9. The fonts are all blurry. I seem to remember that this happened on a previous update a year or more ago. Did changing the ‘Enable High DPI mode’ option in Scriv 3 do something here? Any suggestions about what I do to get back to my earlier settings?
The internet has been my friend here. The solution is to right-click the Scrivener 1.9 program icon (in it’s installed location) and then do Compatibility / Overide High DPI scaling behaviour / Scaling performed by Application. Fuzzy fonts gone.
It is all personal preference, simeva. There are people that love the new look, and some that love it not so much. We still hope that via fine-tuning some settings you can set Scrivener the best way you like it. As matsgz pointed out, the new interface is trying to be not so cramped.
“Enable High DPI mode” is a Scrivener v3 option only, and should not interfere with Scrivener v1.9. To go back to your defaults you can use File > Options > Defaults in Scrivener v3 and Tools > Options > Defaults in Scrivener v1.
Thanks, tiho_d for the tip on changing the binder line spacing. I like the new, cleaner look but my binder was very long so this was the one thing I needed to adjust to make it comfortable.
I’m all in favour of widening preference, but what seems to have happened is that the update will create a lot of work for those of us who have invested years of work into Scrivener projects. All I’m asking is that my projects look more or less the same as they used to. I may have particular needs because of eyesight issues, but there must be thousands of users in similar situations for many different reasons.
Unless, of course, there is a simple way of preventing the update from making these drastic changes to the screen layout. After all, this presumably has little to do with underlying software changes. It’s only about changing the settings of various font etc sizes.
We’re looking at the possibility of adjusting the editor zoom percentage, since that changed between versions, and keeping it as-is in the project results in a different zoom level. This only has to be changed once per editor, but it would have to be changed for each of the upgraded projects, which we know is less than ideal.
Other changes you’re talking about are global settings, rather than project specific; they’ll only need to be set up once to affect all your projects. These have changed from 1.x and so do need a fresh start. We’re still in process with overhauling the Options, so it’s a little less visible at the moment, but there are a lot of options that are being refined, added, or removed, so even if the old settings could be carried over, it wouldn’t really be sufficient. Hopefully though you can play a bit with the new settings and find an appearance that works for you.
The simplest way to achieve this would be to not upgrade to the Windows beta version of Scrivener 3.
Thanks for your reassurance, MM.
Indeed I will not use it for live projects until these things are smoothed out. But the (to my mind) real changes on offer in the underlying functionality - styles, corkboard, metadata etc - look very attractive and I look forward to using them. This beta period is the right time to let the developers know that changes that prettify the GUI (for some users) may be a problem for others.
Any news on this?
Meanwhile I’m gradually working out how to restore the look of a 1.9 project so I can test out the beta.
How do I change the font size of the document notes?
Good and bad–it’s framework bug, but is expected to be fixed in an upcoming Qt release, so once that’s available we’ll be able to start testing with it.
Document notes are rich text fields, so any existing notes can be changed by selecting their text and adjust the font size via the format bar, format menu, or the Ctrl+> (Bigger) and Ctrl+< (Smaller) shortcuts. For new document notes, you can set the size and font under Options > Editing > Formatting.
So does that mean to convert an existing project for use in Scriv 3, I 'll have to manually change each page of document notes? I have projects with thousands of pages.
Just to throw in my two cents, I really like the new look to Scrivener. In fact, I spent an enormous amount of time and effort in the old version trying to get it to look more like this.
Major version upgrades, however, are rarely clean - especially in the Beta stages, but possibly even in the final release. I understand the feeling of the customer or end user: “But it should just work.” The amount of effort that goes into making things “just work” can be enormous, though, and sometimes it’s not even possible, depending on what’s being done. Everything you want, simeva, makes sense to want (just honor my previous settings in the upgrade and make it all look the same). I just want to encourage you, and everyone else reading this, to please have patience and understanding with the developers. As an IT professional for a large organization, I cannot express how difficult it can be to implement what are incredibly reasonable requests. Sometimes, it’s just downright impossible. And people get upset with us. But the truth is that, if they had the knowledge and experience we had, and they were put in the same position as us, they would almost definitely make the same decisions.
I don’t want to speak for the Literature and Latte developers, obviously. But if you haven’t done any development yourself, hopefully that gives you some insight from the other side. For a code change like this, ensuring old settings carry over in just the right way from the previous version has to be a truly monumental feat, especially for the incredibly reasonable cost of this program.
On the plus side, if you go through all of the settings, documentation, and tutorials, there appear to be ways to implement formatting changes across projects. I’ve done this in the old version of Scrivener, as well as the new. I don’t believe you should have to alter every individual note or page. If you follow the guides provided by the Literature and Latte team, the transition should be relatively painless.
Personally, I’m very happy with the new version thus far, and I look forward to what’s to come.
