How to easily compile a Word document with simple markdown and rich text?

Paragraphs

As noted in this thread, if you’re going to work this way you would be doing yourself a favour by formatting paragraphs correctly in the text editor. But there is a way to fairly safely convert word processor paragraph formatting to Markdown, linked to in that post.

The potential main issue with automation like this is that it can mess up things that aren’t paragraphs, that actually do need to be adjacent lines, like verse, tables, definition lists and metadata blocks. It means you have to be much more diligent in styling everything that shouldn’t be considered a body paragraph, even if the only reason you’re using that style is to simply say “don’t change the line spacing here”.

In my opinion it’s easier, less prone to human error, and cleaner all around to form the habit of hitting Enter twice between paragraphs—or not, when you really do need something else.

And yes, that total conversion checkbox is only for those that aren’t using Markdown at all. It’s very limited in its usefulness outside of that. For example, it’s a good way for someone curious about the system to get a sense of what kind of output quality they will be getting, and if they will enjoy the post-compile formatting aspect (as opposed to learning the compiler excessively). If your already in though, and you want to use this as a writing method (to some degree), it’s best to move beyond it as soon as possible, and start using styles for effects you want that are out of the ordinary, rather than learning to use styles as a way of fighting against a machine to stop it from doing what you don’t want. One is fulfilling, the other is frustrating—at least in my humble opinion. :slight_smile:

Heading

  1. Double-click on your compile Format in the left sidebar to edit it.

  2. In the Styles pane, click the + button in the top right to add a style, and add the “Heading 1” style, from your project.

  3. In the Prefix field, type #⎵ (with the space after it).

    Heading 2 would be ##⎵, and so on.

Personally I’d consider outlining more though, than typing headings in like this. You get hierarchical headings for free with Scrivener+Markdown. You don’t have to set anything up other than choosing a section layout that generates headings. The only time you have to configure anything is if you have an outline that isn’t logical (like level 5 should really be level 3 for some reason—I do that sometimes, where I want more organisation than the reader does).

So again we are at that principle of looking for the least resistance and making that the workflow, and using configuration and tools only when you need something different. Instead of having to manually configure headings so that they work at all, they just work, and only in that rare case otherwise would you have to learn/take the effort to change how that works.

3 Likes