I have noticed a formatting glitch regarding Scrivener’s export to the FDX format. Again you may or may not have had it reported already so my apologies if this issue has already been addressed in 2.0 betas.
When writing/editing a script originally created in FD8 it is impossible to type a LOWER CASE character in the dialogue character name field. Even if you do it will automatically format or auto complete the any lower case characters to display as upper case.
However this behavior is lost/broken on FDX scripts which are originally created in Scrivener and exported to FDX format for additional/final editing. Instead…lower case letters are now accepted and the auto-complete function no longer adheres to the case sensitivity of the field but rather forces you to use shift or cap locks…
e.g. If you accidentally type MicHAEL (o.S.) and hit return to dialogue the name isn’t corrected to MICHAEL (O.S.) as it normally would have been but rather is WYSIWYG…
I know it’s might not sound like a big issue…but to me it sort of creates a halting flow to what had originally felt natural in FD. Again hopefully some light can be shed on this…
I can’t reproduce this and I’ve never seen it. Are you sure your character items are being recognised properly as character items in FDX? For me I have always been able to - and still can - type lowercase character names the character field in Final Draft in FDX files exported from Scrivener, and they appear in uppercase as they should do.
All the best,
Keith
Okay I sorta figured out how to replicate the issue I was getting…
What I was describing only happens if you export to FDX via the File > Export > Files method. Now I’m not sure if this menu option was just intended for general doc exports rather than screenplay exports. However the weird thing is that, with the exception of the Character Name capitalization problem, all other formatting items were recognized as they normally would in FDX… Perhaps you can explain if there are supposed to be any differences, asides from the compiling aspect, that is meant to exist between the two?
However I can confirm that when you use File > Compile Screenplay…with all settings left as default…to create the FDX the problem goes away and character items are recognized properly as you had indicated was your experience and most likely was the reason you were unable to replicate my problem.
Also the only other difference I noticed between the two exports generated is that the default Compile Screenplay method adds a Page Numbering that appears along the very right edge of the page when the FDX is opened…
Actually in my tests I used Export > Files, not Compile Screenplay. (As for page numbers etc - yes, Compile is always better at adding extra elements - Export is just for basic quick exports.)
There is no difference in the way the two methods export files, though. In the document you exported via Export, when you click into the character names in Scrivener, are they recognised as character names in the footer bar? When you export and you see the problem in FDX, when you type a character name that doesn’t get capitalised, does it say “Character” in the footer bar? My guess is that it does not - if Final Draft recognises an element as a character element, it will capitalise it - the FDX export cannot stop that. There is nothing in the FDX format that can prevent it, so it cannot be that Scrivener’s FDX export is actually preventing the character format from capitalising words. The most likely explanation is that the character formatting is not recognised as such and is instead being mistaken for a different kind of element.
Scrivener relies on formatting to recognise elements, and elements must be recognised properly in Scrivener for them to export properly. My best guess is that you have some character elements that are formatting slightly differently perhaps?
Is this using the regular screenplay format or have you changed the format at all? If you want, you can always zip up and send me the .scriv file with instructions on how to reproduce (which file I need to export to see the issue) and I can look at what is wrong. That’s probably easier than trying to guess.
As you can see the highlighted character name is recognized as a Character in the footer bar. However I did notice a weird anomaly in with some experimentation…
If I left the lower-case character name as is and just proceeded writing or editing further down in the script I found that on several occasions when I scrolled back up the lower case glitch had then corrected itself. However, try as I might, I couldn’t get it to replicate on screen so I really have no way to confirm if it was a particular keystroke, scroll, tabbing, etc. that was what what did the trick…
Nevertheless I think I’ll stick to the Compile Screenplay route as it is a little disconcerting to not be absolutely certain that my script has not been infiltrated by rogue little Apple-ly named iCharacters stealing the best lines of dialogue from my main characters with their helium voices.
Nevertheless let me experiment some more to see if I can pinpoint what’s going on…
(As for page numbers etc - yes, Compile is always better at adding extra elements - Export is just for basic quick exports.)