By the way, I wouldn’t use the zip file examples in this thread. This is from several years ago, and at this point in time the setup has been further refined, and a part of the official Mac and Windows distribution itself. Look for the the “MMD OpenOffice Document” and “Pandoc Word Document” compile Formats in the left sidebar of Compile, once you select either MMD → ODT or Pandoc → DOCX. The only thing you’ll need to do to set up your project to work with these formats is create a couple of styles in your project (using whatever aesthetics you prefer):
- “Index Key”: for inserting indexing phrases at the position the index should point to.
- “Index Term”: for highlighting printed words that should be indexed verbatim.
Use of these will automatically link up with the settings in the compiler.
@Badja: PS Thanks for the ODT work around, but it’s still a work around. Looking at your example now.
That’s not what the phrase means, though. A “work around” is used to refer to a short-term or temporary detour required to avoid bugs and issues in the software.
This on the other hand is demonstrating a core capability of Scrivener: its ability to allow extension of its capabilities, and doing so in a fashion that allows for customisation and adjustment to the individual’s requirements. Although this represents the more advanced end of it, you’ll find that core design philosophy throughout the software, I’m afraid.
For example, for a tool that appears to be “only useful for fiction”, it has a complete lack of features you’d expect to find in fiction-writing software. It also has a whole section of templates for non-fiction writing, including technical writing, which would seem at odds with what you’re saying. In fact, I’ve said it before, but there probably are more actual features in the software for non-fiction writing than fiction writing!
As Bill Bryson once said, any non-fiction book without an index should go straight in the bin.
That really says nothing about software though, does it. If you’re using it as an argument that writing software should be capable of creating books in their final form as well, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything suitable. Few people would want to use DTP software for writing, for example, and tools that try to straddle the line tend not to excel at anything, like MS Word. You wouldn’t want to make a book with Word, and it’s also only mediocre for large-scale writing. It can get the job done, but so can pen and paper.
Indeed, these days a lot of software aimed at the writing phase itself eschews 99.9% of the DTP model and focuses on using markup for some sort (often Markdown). Scrivener also fits into that category, though it can be used more like how one would write in a word processor, too.
