Please help. Been wrestling with this all afternoon. Whether I’m outputing a .docx, an odt. or a PDF, the results are the same.
Please see attached pics for number 1. No matter what variation of check boxes I try to select under Selection Layouts in the Compile Format Designer (CFD) I get the number of the chapter next to the Chapter spelled out.
Scrivener also puts 4-6 line breaks before and after the chapter, so it’s out there in an island by itself.
The indents from the original project double in size when I compile.
I can’t get line breaks between text documents within a chapter. I go to Insert-> break-> line break. But when I complile there are no line breaks.
P.S. I have skimmed the manual but so much of it is like drinking from a fire hose. There is so much material. It’s great if you know what you want specifically so you can do a targeted search, but If you are lost it’s hard to use.
Click on the Title Options tab in CFD for the layout you’re querying and delete the large 1 to the left of Chapter, or the redundant placeholder that creates that large 1. (Your example doesn’t show the number spelled out as stated.)
The “large gap” will reduce as it’s based on the font size of that 1.
Back in the Formatting tab, drag the First Line Indent on your ruler to half inch.
I suspect you have combined a manual tab with an automatic first line indent setting. This is a common result.
Do you physical hit the tab key when you write? If so, there are a couple ways to work around this, however I am not at my computer to walk you through the steps.
In general, especially if you are going to publish, it is best to avoid using the tab key. This is because it allows you to use settings like first line indent or flush left to conform to different requirements of different publishers/professors/whoever.
There is a way to remove the manual tabs if you choose to, but someone else will have to walk you through that as I don’t know the steps from memory.
Alternatively, you can also remove the first line indent.
Edit: re #1 have you also manually added chapter labels/numbers in your text editor? (Same scenario as above re duplication of manual/automated formats) have you tried checking only one of those first two boxes?
As for #1 and #2, tell us what compile format you are using and what Section Layout you have assigned to your chapters (Screenshots help!). You’ll need to edit that Section Layout to remove the number and the extra lines.
Agree with @FamilyPuzzleSolver for #3; I think you’ve been putting tabs at the beginning of every paragraph. The way to clear them is Edit > Text Tidying > Strip Leading Tabs. I’m a Mac-user so I’m not sure of the scope on Windows, but I suspect you might have to expand the Draft/Manuscript and all its subfolders and text groups and then select the whole before invoking the menu command.
For #4, I think for the line-break between text documents, you may have the compiler set to remove any such line-breaks:
I wonder why, in ‘section layouts’, you have two ‘chapter layouts’ checked - one for “chapter number” , and one for “chapter number and text”. Are you intentionally formatting some chapters differently? Do you really need both checked?
Regardless, I would highlight “chapter number and text” and check the same tab as before (Title options) for it’s contents.
I would also check for any content in the suffix/prefix tabs. This one caught me off guard once when I was testing out a compile setup that was shared with me.
If you don’t know what the placeholders mean, I believe the list is under the help menu on your main Scrivener project screen.
That said, I suspect there is a manual duplication of one (or more) placeholders/section layouts somewhere. I wish I were at my computer to make better suggestions and walk you through.
It would also be helpful to know if you label the chapter numbers in your binder, and/or type them into a document or folder such that you can see it in a Scrivenings sessions (or if you use placeholders in your manuscript)
Thanks for the reply. As for #1, I’m trying to output a PDF, but it does the same in .doxc and .odt as well. I think I found a bug. Look at the CFD. It says Section Title. That should output the chapter number only, but when hit save, and it goes back to the compile overview screen, look at what it says under Section Layouts. It has a number 1 next to Section Title. Why? When I compile, it does exactly this, it has the number 1 with Chapter one.
Edit. Ok, this is going bananas. When I double click chapter heading it takes me back to the CFD and it matches what the chapter heading states. This is most definitely a bug. I click the buttons again to get just the section title again and the same bug resurfaces.
In the most recent screenshot, the Compile Overview shows the section type is called Chapter Heading and is assigned to a layout. However, the last screenshot, the Compile Format Designer, shows a layout highlighted/selected named Chapter Number. Notice in the screenshot this layout is not assigned to any section. So it is not the layout associated with the Chapter Heading .
As @FamilyPuzzleSolver and @xiamenese mentioned earlier, within the Compile Format Designer select the assigned layout first. In this case select the layout named Chapter Number and Text and then navigate through the tabs below it, namely Title Options, Prefix, Suffix etc. Within this layout may be the placeholder for the chapter number.
I’ m sorry, but now I’m even more lost. This is unbelievable. How hard can it be to just compile to a format? I’ve worked on literally hundreds of different software programs over the last 40 years and I’ve always found a way to make it work, including a 10 million dollar software suite for an engineering company I worked for. I have tried every conceivable combination of boxes to click on or off to try and get it to just output the chapter number. Nothing has worked. Can I upload my project and have someone play with it and see if they can get it to work? If not, then this is clearly a bug. Or maybe I should uninstall the software and re-install it?
Here’s the first screenshot you posted two hours ago, which shows the main File > Compile panel:
In it, you’ve assigned the Chapter Heading a section type with some example text.
To alter the example text that your Chapter Heading is using, you’ll need to go to the Section Layouts area of the compile designer panel.
That area is shown in your second screenshot, which I’ve marked up:
In this screenshot, you’ve selected the “Chapter Number” section layout name. But, if you look at the small “Assigned to:” area that I marked in green, you’ll see that there is nothing using this section layout. If there were, you would see something like “Assigned to: Chapter Heading” rather than the blank space.
That’s why any changes you’ve made to “Chapter Number” aren’t having any impact on the output file. The formatting that the “Chapter Number” section layout has is not being used at all by your project.
The “Chapter Number and Text” option just below “Chapter Number” has been marked with bolded text. That bolding of the section layout is Scrivener’s way of indicating the “Chapter Number and Text” Section Layout has been assigned to a section type in your project.
You’ll need to click on it and then review the “Assigned to:” area to determine which of your section types is using it.
Then, you can alter the “Chapter Number and Text” section layout to provide the formatting you need for that option.
I also recommend watching the 4-part “Getting Your Work Out” videos on the macOS tutorial videos page. We haven’t recorded Windows-specific videos, but the general setup and customization process is the same.
thanks for the effort. I really appreciate it. I will watch the videos. But could you just tell me what buttons to push so I can have a small victory? Oh, and originally, I didn’t select anything. Every software I’ve ever used if you wanted a simple compile our export, you used the default settings. Which is what I did. It’s so confusing.
I will add one more thing to look at that might be messing you up.
First when you click a Compile Format, you will see a preview of what you have selected in the middle panel IF you have assigned Section Layouts. This will be your first clue if what you have chosen will give you the desired results. In the example below I am using only four section layouts with a preview of each. For chapters I just want the Chapter and number.
Now, if the preview shows “errors”/an unintended result, then you must look at the Section Layouts and delete the trouble maker and choose another choice or edit the section Layout.
I label my Section Layouts in a way that shows their purpose and makes sense to me. My guess is your error is based on choosing both a title and having a prefix. I chose to use NO title and use the Title options button to generate my Chapter Heading. You can try unselecting the title and looking at your Title Option, Prefix and Suffix Settings.
See the Title options and what I chose to generate Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, etc.
Thanks for the effort, but I’m thoroughly confused and nothing is working. I have watched the videos about compiling and followed one section to a T and it didn’t work. I’m going to post again. This post has become too overwhelming.
