I would like to create a document that has two or more columns of paragraphic text (not a chart). Can someone please tell me if this is possible and how to do it?
First, know that Scrivener is NOT a WYSIWYG text editor. (Which comes with many advantages, but at the price of such feasibility.) → Picture it as the software not knowing/caring where printed pages physically end. (Paper size, print margin etc. – more precisely, in your case, when to overflow from a column to the other inside the unit of a single printed page.)
This being said, I don’t see how this could be done like one would expect it to be doable in another “normal” text editor.
The only way I can think of this being feasible, would either be in the compile (but I doubt it) or to work in the page view, and use a table with white (therefor invisible) borders.
But you won’t get a linear text. Meaning that adding text to the left column won’t overflow in the right one.
All in all, you’d be in for a lot of useless trouble…
In my opinion, it’d be best for you to work on a single column (meaning no set column at all other than which of the editor) for the time being and reformat at the very end in a more conventional editor. (OpenOffice, for exemple.)
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Thank you I appreciate it. I use Microsoft Word but run into a number of difficulties with various functions such as establishing the page numbers and including interior art. I had hoped Scrivener would serve me better.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it could in many ways. But there is a learning curve.
And as far as “including art” goes, if what you mean is designing your pages, seeing how the whole looks, Scrivener ain’t really designed for that.
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Reinforcing what @Vincent_Vincent has said a couple of times, Scrivener not built for that.
Export your writing to a page layout system for that. there are a number.
On the Mac, in Compile, if you edit a format like Manuscript Times and choose Text Layout, you can compile in columns.
I don’t know if they’ve implemented it in Windows.
Mark
Ah well, it must be somewhere in the roadmap, I should think.
Mark
Here is a very nice answer: Affinity Publisher.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/
It’s apparently up to $54.99 (or local) from $49 or so for recent years, but it is a terrific bargain, in many regards comparable to Adobe InDesign – and easier to use.
It will give you columns, wrapped layouts, and most things you expect in a page program.
Their Photo and Design programs have the same price, and again are excepttional - also fully integrated so you can switch inside the program between the three. You may not need these, or like to have only one, but they’re worth a look also. I have the full Adobe set, last non-subscription version, but mainly use these.
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I second that. If I wanted anything other than a straightforward layout, I’d use Affinity Publisher. If you don’t need it urgently, keep track of Affinity as they seem regularly to have their apps on discount.
Mark
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On the Mac, RTF can do columns in the text layout section, but not RTFD. In the drop-down at the top of your screenshot, try selecting DOCX or DOC and see if the feature is implemented for that output format. It’s highly dependent upon how sophisticated the output file formatting routines are, so it may be that they put that feature into other formats.
I just cycled through all available output formats : none of them have column settings. Although some have extra settings for separators and whatnot, they are pretty much all without much to tweak in the text layout tab.
The built-in formats do not have columns as they are, but you can add them on the Mac, for RTF and DOCX at least. You’re saying the dialog shown earlier doesn’t give you that option on Windows?
(I tried it on the Mac, and it works, but I don’t see any advantage to it.)