I am working on my next novel - the first I have done in Scrivener (I actually wrote a comparative review that you may like to see).
The automatic chapter numbering is a very useful feature - especially when one needs to rearrange chapters - but I have one small problem. On my current book I want to include a few small scenes between chapters, which I call “Interludes”. Currently, however they are numbered as chapters, throwing the subsequent chapter numbering out.
Is there any way to exclude items on the main cork-board from being auto-numbered?
I should be very grateful if you can help with this.
Many thanks for the kind words in your blog post! Much appreciated.
In answer to your question, yes, you can do this, but you will need to get your hands dirty with altering the Compile settings. It will also depend on how you are structuring things. I’m going to assume you are using the standard novel manuscript compile settings, but even if not, you should be able to amend what follows to fit what you are using.
First. here’s how I would recommend structuring something like this:
Note how the interludes are text documents that are placed at the same level as the chapter folders, rather than inside chapter folders.
Now, in Compile, under the “Formatting” pane, choose the Level 1 text document:
You’ll note that the preview pane at the bottom shows that it will say “Chapter One” etc. Click on the “Title Settings…” button. This will bring up this pane:
And there you can see where the chapter numbering is added, the “Chapter <$t>” ("<$t>" being for title-cased spelled-out numbering). So, you can just get rid of that text.
Note that folders are set up the same way, so folder numbering will remain. Thus, if you use the structure suggested above, by doing this, folders will be used for chapter titles and top-level text documents will just use their titles without numbering. Text documents indented under chapter folders (Level 2+ text documents) will just print their scenes with no titles:
I hope that helps, but please feel free to ask if you need anything clarifying. We have it high on our list to produce a video going through the various Compile options.
Thank you SO much! This looks really well-explained even if rather complex. I have to rush out now, so I will try to understand and implement it tomorrow.
I have done some compiling already (mostly because after my last experience with Another Program, I wanted to make sure I had all the work in regular MS form as a backup), so I shall have to try to get to grips with this.
Oh and happy holiday weekend to everyone for whom it is a holiday weekend!
