Finally got around to updating to Scivener 3. Huge fan of this program.
So, two questions…
Question the first - When you open the text editor it has a preset font and font size when it first opens. In Scrivener 3 it is Sitka 12pt. How do I change that? I never use 12pt anything and Sitka is okay, but not my preferred. I know you can create styles, but can’t you redo the preset so it automatically starts with something you’d want to use?
Question the second - A lot of my writing has been imported from various sources. I write using whatever I have at my disposal at that time, and if I don’t have my computer I’ll use Google docs or whatever else is available. These chapters are then uploaded later into the ongoing project. This has resulted in my books being in multiple fonts, sizes and spacings depending on where I’m bringing it in from. Is there a way of altering the style of an entire project? The book I’m currently working on has nearly 60 separate scenes. I really do not want to have to go through and change the style for every single scene, but I can’t seem to find a way of changing the style of more than just that one text document at a time. I know you can change the style when compiling the document, but I’m not trying to compile it yet.
There are absolutely ways to do both those things. I can tell you in general what they’re called and where to look for them, but as I’m Mac-based I can’t give you keystroke-by-keystroke. I hope I’m able to give you enough info to find them; if not, I’m sure someone with the Windows version will come along and help out.
What you’ve called “preset” is what Scrivener calls “default formatting.” To change it, first set up a paragraph that’s the way you’d like it—font, indents, line spacing, paragraph spacing, etc. Leave your insertion point in that paragraph. Then you’re looking for a menu item that’s called “options” on Windows (“Preferences” on Mac.) Use that menu item, and in the dialog that opens there should be a pane called “Editing”, and within that a tab called “Formatting.” You’ll know you’ve got it when you see a miniature editor. Near the upper right of this tab, you should see a button that says “Use formatting in current editor.” Click that, and you should see the formatting in the miniature editor change to that of the paragraph you formatted above.
So much for new document formatting. To change existing documents to this format, first select all the documents you’d like to normalize in the Binder. Then look for a menu item—on Mac it’s Documents->Convert->Text to Default Formatting… . Use that item, and you’ll see a little dialog that will let you preserve some formatting elements if you like. Set that up the way you want, and let 'er rip. (if you’re nervous, by all means make a backup first!)
I think the menu item is under File now, but they changed it from Options to… Settings. Anyway, it should be an obvious choice near the bottom of the File menu.
In Windows, converting several documents simultaneously to the same formatting would be done by pressing Ctrl+0 OR by going to Documents - Convert - Text to default formatting (as described in the Manual on pp. 337 - 338).
Perfect! Thanks so much. A keystroke by keystroke wasn’t necessary as you gave me all the info I needed, so I’ll forgive you for being a mac user. I’m a bit OCD, so I’m so much happier now that things aren’t so messy.
