I’m repeatedly compiling my draft to FD 8 to check the exact length. I have checked “Use default Final Draft elements” to be sure that when I look at the FD draft it has standard margins, etc.
However, when I open these complied drafts in FD, the Scene Heading element has one space before, instead of two. I have to go to the Format menu in FD every time to change it to “2 spaces before.”
Does anyone know how (using FD, presumably) I can change the “default FD elements?” I don’t know where this data is stored. My default template in FD has 2 spaces before… but that seems to be different from the default elements that Scrivener refers to.
Hmm, it seems you are correct. When I compile with FD defaults enabled I get 1 space before on scene heading, but when I turn that feature off I get 2 spaces before. Incidentally, so long as you’ve used the default “Screenplay” settings in Scrivener, you should be perfectly fine without that default option. Really the only time you need to use that is if you compose within Scrivener using a custom setup that is more appealing to your eye, or for whatever reason is not standard.
I’m not sure why there is this discrepancy, Keith might have a better answer for that, but for now it looks like turning that feature off will solve this particular issue.
Incidentally, do you find using Scrivener’s new page view, with “slim” scrivenings dividers enabled in the Formatting preference pane to give you a pretty accurate page count? It should be awfully close if you select the entire draft and pop into scrivenings mode. Project Statistics ought to be on the money, too. If it is, you could bypass this whole exercise and just wait until the composition portion is complete before going to FD.
This sounds like a bug in Final Draft, although I would have to check after Christmas. When that option is checked, Scrivener doesn’t include any information about the element formatting in the FDX file, and so Final Draft uses its own defaults - it sounds as though Final Draft has a bug in its defaults when opening a file with no formatting information in it.
All the best,
Keith
Re: your page count question, I’m running 2.0.2, and editing Scrivenings using Page View. Page count is 86. Once I compile to FD 8 and correct the Scene Headings, I get a page count of 75. (I can tell by looking at the first page, incidentally. Scrivener has several fewer lines per page.)
Ultimately, I’d love for Scrivener’s page count to be closer to the mark, but it’s not an issue during the composition stage. Now that I’m editing (target: 60 pages) it is slightly more trouble, but compiling is quick and easy. I’m sure I could fiddle with Scrivener’s Screenplay margins and get something more accurate, but I’m trying to avoid that kind of thing, since it can lead to a lot of procrastinating.