I created a table, but the default margins in Scrivener are 0 inches to 10 inches.
So I set the margins to paper size for my country, 1 inch margins on each side.
But the table, despite setting up the margins and the ruler to obey the 1 inch rule is still set to thinking it is at a 0 inch-10 inch size meaning that the table spans the entire width of the page.
I need the table to obey the ruler/page size so I can do things like print it. Is this possible?
I don’t know if it helps, but I’m on a Mac…
Have you tested printing, or compiling to print/PDF yet? You should find the table width conforms to the margin settings you have stipulated.
As a general note, the ruler in the text editor does not have a lot to do with the paper size on output, since that can change from one compile to the next depending on which Format you choose. Refer to the yellow tip box in §15.7.1, of the user manual PDF, after subheading Indents.
1 Like
Center the Table and set the total width of the Columns to 80%.
I don’t see a general table alignment. There is one for text, but there isn’t one that can dicate 80%, etc. I can do it in HTML, but not here.
I kinda want to be able to see what the final result will look like on screen. The default margins of 10 inches makes no sense to me.
For me, which is probably not you, I would like the table to automatically create to the width of the margins without having to fuss with it or not like the printer results thus wasting paper.
I did a work around, but I’m not completely content. The left margin won’t move, though the right margin does on the table.
I’d upload images to help visualize, but I see that’s not allowed.
You can kind of get there with View ▸ Text Editing ▸ Show Page View, but I think it’s important to emphasise that Scrivener is, at its very deep and core level, designed for the opposite desire: it’s made for those that actively don’t want to be conflating the creative writing environment with output design (and we aren’t aiming for Scrivener to at all replace software that is meant more for that, than writing).
I did a work around, but I’m not completely content. The left margin won’t move, though the right margin does on the table.
And yes, it is limited as well, and that’s another design decision you might say. Since we aren’t trying to make another word processor, and instead focusing our time and effort on making a writing program above and beyond the text editor, that means budgeting your work away from reinventing elaborate and complex design elements, like really expressive tables. Instead we depend on largely vanilla system tools for that. Open up TextEdit on your Mac, you will find tables work the same there, because they are the same. We saved months of coding by using that, months we could spend on all of the things Scrivener does that TextEdit doesn’t do.
It’s good to know where our boundaries are, and what we’re trying to do here, because you might find Scrivener a bit frustrating if you come at it like you would use other programs. For us, we see the table tool as a rough “good enough” tool that gets your data into tabular content as part of the initial writing process. You’ll almost certainly want to design the final tables your readers see in other software.
If that’s okay with you, then maybe it is easier to let it be 10" (or however wide your editor is set to be, mine is way narrower) and move on, knowing that polishing how it looks and prints is a task for another day.
2 Likes