Background
Scrivener on Mac
Maverick
Proficient PC and Mac User
Using Scrivener for two years.
Current Situation
I am 30k words into a book which I started at the beginning of the month. It has four chapters with between 8 and 10 scenes in each.
I compile regularly (every few days) both in ePub and mobi - It allows me to share to my partner and to ‘spot’ necessary edits on my iPad.
Up until this point I have never had any problems.
Problem
This week I launched into Chapter 5
When I compiled, I found the font was different from the other 4 chapters. Yet I had not changed any settings.
I tried a huge number of solutions
[list=]Selecting all font and ensuring it was formatted the same.
I tried duplicating the original chapters and typing my new text in there.
I took all my text out to word pad and removed formatting.
I changed the default fonts in preferences.
I tried a variety of ePub options.
[/list]
The result is still the same. Any new chapters or scenes I add, end up compiled into some basic font that is different from the first four chapters (a pleasant looking font, but no way to tell what it is in the ePub)
If I add an additional scene onto the previous chapters, its fine, unless I promote the scene to chapter, or I add another scene.
Anything I duplicate from the first four chapters, retains the format. The moment I paste something else in, I end up with this basic font again.
Help, I have been tearing my hair out for hours. Thanks
With the binder open and both chapter 4 (presumably a properly formatted chapter) & chapter 5 folders expanded and visible, open the compile window and go to the Formatting section. Click on each of the rows; they should show a highlight in yellow in both the compiler window and any corresponding files visible in the binder that will be affected by that formatting row.
Click on each one until your chapter 4 files are highlighted (the ones that are correspond to the problematic chapter 5 files). Does it also highlight the chapter 5 files? Is there anything different about chapter 5 that would set it apart from chapter 4?
I compile to ePub and I get the first four chapters in an attractive font the next chapter in something more basic, possibly arial or more likely courier. The font size is smaller.
Well, that’s exhausted all of my ideas. I’m no e-book expert, but there definitely seems to be something odd about epub not working properly, but kindle & PDF formatting properly.
I’m stumped; sorry.
Here are a couple of wild stabs in the dark that might fix the problem even as they leave the cause a mystery:
Try creating a new project from the same template you used for your troublesome one, drag all your chapters over to the new one (they’ll be copies, so won’t affect the original), and see if compiling from the new project fixes the problem.
Another approach: create a new chapter 5 folder & empty text documents as you normally would. Copy & paste the contents from the misbehaving chapter 5 documents, see if that solves the problem.
It’s got me totally stumped. I began to wonder if Mac had changed something in iBooks or a Scrivener update had happened. Nothing makes sense. Its only in ePub.
Keep an eye on this space. Maybe Ioa or Keith will spot this thread and chime in with more erudite suggestions. Or see if mailing tech support with your problem helps; you may need to make a copy, clean out any bulky support documents, and zip it up for mailing if they request it. Sometimes the issue becomes clear when an expert tries out an offending project.
Thanks again Robert… the one thing you suggest that I have not tried is to start a new project. I will give that a go.
Here is an interesting thing.
When I look at ePub (iBooks in Apple) I get the option to read the book in around eight different fonts.
When I change to any of these Fonts… all my text changes beautifully with the exception of the ‘troublesome’ chapters.
What happens if you temporarily move the first document that exhibits this weird font issue lower in the binder, or even out of the draft folder entirely? Make sure it’s the very first document that has any of this font oddness, even if it starts part way through the text. What I’m thinking here is that there are some rogue codes that only affect font choice in epubs (possibly only epubs read in iBooks).
Just a thought: if the only problem now is the .epub version, download Sigil (it is free) and open the .epub in Sigil. This will at least let you look at the raw .xhtml and .css code that is causing the problem.
You could also use Sigil to fix the epub, though this is clearly not going to fix whatever is going on in your Scrivener project.
Sigil may uncover the issue faster than fiddling with your project. For instance, I was just thinking that an invisible, rogue font code could be present at the very end of the last chapter 4 document. Or in the text area of the chapter 5 folder. Knowing where the font is being specified for certain can at least narrow down what to look for in the project.