I had a problem when compiling to docx that seems to have come about with the latest update to MacOS Scrivener. I was advised to go into Settings/Sharing/Conversion, and to stop using the enhanced convertors, and instead to use the 'standard MacOS .doc exporter… that wasn’t actually that, but some new convertor that had recently been written. I did this, and though it mucked up pagination, it sorted out the other problems.
I have just received the proofs of my books and have discovered that the headers have ‘flipped’—the one for the recto page appears on the verso and vice versa. Not only that but there is more space under the headers than there should be. If I go back to using the ‘enhanced convertors’ these problems disappear… though, of course, the other formatting issues return.
For the present tense, I would suggest trying with RTF to get around the issues with converting entirely. If you absolutely need DOCX, then you can use Word to make that conversion instead of anything Scrivener can use (it will nearly always be a better quality conversion that way).
That aside, I ran into another problem entirely—I didn’t get any headers or footers with the non-enhanced export. Here is what I tried:
In a new blank project, I pasted enough gibberish text to get a half a dozen pages of test output.
Opened File ▸ Compile… and clicked the + button in the left footer to create a new Format.
I left everything default here, save for the following:
[list=1][*] In Page Settings, enabled the Use facing pages option.
Over in the “Header and Footer Text” tab, moved the “<$p>” placeholder over to the left aligned header box for “Main Body”.
In “Facing Pages”, moved it the right header box.
[/:m]
[] Saved the format and compiled (I didn’t bother assigning layouts as they wouldn’t have any bearing on this test), with the Use enhanced converters… option enabled.
The result looks good in both LibreOffice and Pages.[/:m]
[] Compiled again, this time with enhanced converter disabled.
The resulting file has no headers or footers, when opened in either word processor.[/*:m][/list:o]
Of course neither of these results we are getting are good, but in order to nail down the bug you’re seeing precisely, I must be needing to do something else with my settings that I have omitted. Can you think of anything I should add to the above test, to see the results at all (flipped or no)?
It might also help to know what version of Scrivener you are using. I tested with the latest, 3.1.4.
As an update, the bug that I ran into where headers and footers can end up not showing at all, has been fixed—so never mind all of that. It had to do with very simple documents that do not have any formal section breaks. Since I was essentially just printing a few thousands words of text one page after another, the header/footer code wasn’t set up right in the .docx file.
So knowing that, and playing with a test copy that has that fixed, I can more easily test whatever you throw at me. I’m getting what I would expect to be good results over here. The left page stays left and the right stays right. My previous suggestion still stands, let me know what I should be doing to my checklist to get the left/right pages flipped.
I followed your advice to output to rtf, rather than docx, and this worked better—it certainly sorted out the problem with the headers. It did, however, also change the way that the margins were effected in the output. As a consequence, my 280 page book has become 284 pages. This was a bit of a bother, but I did a bit reformatting of two separate books (the other one also increased in length)… and am now back up and running.
I’m sorry not to be able to engage with the other issues you brought up—I just need something that works and that is stable.
I’m getting what I would expect to be good results over here. The left page stays left and the right stays right. My previous suggestion still stands, let me know what I should be doing to my checklist to get the left/right pages flipped.