I have been working on a manuscript of about 20 chapters. I’ve discovered that each time a click on a new chapter, the format of the text can be changed. Is there a way to select the text of an entire document of multiple chapters and apply a standard size text for all of them at once.
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New documents always start off with the format of the default paragraph, which is set in either Optionsl > Editing > Formatting or Project Settings > Formatting. (The former is the global setting which determines the default paragraph style for all new documents in this or any other project. You can override this for this project only using Project settings > Formatting.
So if you’re seeing the ‘wrong’ formatting when you start a new document, that means you need to update the default paragraph style in one of those two places. I’ll assume you want to set the default paragraph globally, but the prinicple is the same if you want to do it just for this project.
The easiest way is to select a paragraph which you’ve already set to be the right format, then go to Options > Editing > Formatting. There’s a button there which says something like ‘Use current formatting’. Click that and you’ll see the dummy text change to your desired format.
Every new document in this or other projects will use that new format for its paragraphs.
So all you have to do now is convert existing documents to the new format. Just select them all in the binder and then Documents > Convert > Text to default formatting. Check the options to make sure you’re happy (the defaults are usually fine), press OK, and you’re done.
You may want to test the process out on a dummy document first, so you understand what’s going on, as you can’t undo it, but the process is robust and you shouldn’t have any problems.
HTH
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I know how to set the formatting but I’m having a problem with the style changing every time I hit enter. It defaults to “No Style” and I have to change it back. I’ve never encountered this problem with Scrivener and I’ve been using it since Windows version was was in Beta. I’ve tried to correct it via the options and project setting. It does save there but as soon as I move to the next paragraph, it changes to No style. Don’t think it should do that.
Have you read the section “Think different” in the Scrivener Manual? 17.1 ThinkDifferent: —but one very crucial difference between our system and the rest is that Scrivener does not require you to pervasively tag every shred of text in your document; what is commonly known as“body” or “normal” styling.
Settings in Options are per Application, settings in Project Settings are per Project.
You may want to check the “next style” setting when reconfiguring your styles.
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Unlike in Word, Scrivener sees Styles as something you add to the default paragraph style when you need additional formatting: e.g. A heading, or block quote, or caption etc. I.e. The default is ‘No Style’, unless you’ve explicitly set it to a specific style temporarily. There is no equivalent of Word’s ‘Normal’ style: the vast majority of your Scrivener content should be in the default (‘No Style’) format.
As you say, you set the default (‘No Style’) paragraph in either Options > Editing > Formatting or Projects > Project Settings > Formatting, which will obtain in all new documents. As I said in my original answer, you will still need to convert existing documents to the new paragraph format.
Default (‘No Style’) paragraphs are always followed by another default paragraph, but you can set any defined Style to be followed by a specific style if you want: e.g. “Heading 1” is always followed by “Heading 2” etc
It sounds like this is what is happening for you: your custom style is set to be followed by the default ‘No Style’.
To change this, select a paragrah in the style, then choose Format > Style > Redefine Style from selection > [name of the style]. In the dialogue box at the bottom you can choose the style which will automatically follow it.
NB: it’s a bad idea to make your standard body paragraph have a style because it can make compiling the project more difficult later on. For almost all projects, the vast majority of your text should be in the default ‘No Style’ format.
HTH
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