I have a full-length (90,000 or so words) MS that I would like to export to PDF. if I exported to the regular manuscript format, though, this would incur some unwanted changes, namely…
I did name the chapters (or as I like to think of them, “sections”) but only for convenience. when exported to PDF I would like no titles whatsoever, only page breaks when a section ends. I had thought that I could simply redact them in the PDF, but I would rather not have to do so.
I have two scene-setting setting setting “captions” in 144 point. these occur twice in the book. how do I preserve them?
thanks in advance! I hope my question makes sense.
EDITED TO ADD
I do understand that I can export to PDF (or Word or other formats). my quesiton had to do with expoerting to PDF but also without chapter headings.
Not at computer right now, but to point you in the right direction, you should be “compiling” to PDF, not “exporting”. In the compile setup you can do most all that you ask for, however, I don’t know what you mean by the “captions” settings, though.
Others might have time now to show you come compiler format settings.
I recommend you take look at the Scrivener Interactive Tutorial and/or Video Tutorials, both available off the Help Menu.
@rms: thanks for responding. I phrased it as “exporting” versus “compiling” because while compiling means (as I understand it) also converting to standard format, I hoped to make a plain ol’ PDF out of the MS… if that makes sense. I will look at those tutorials. (I already glanced through the PDF manual, which I found dense and technical.) again, thank you!
In Scrivener terminology, “compiling” is the process used to assemble the different documents that might make up your project into a single output file with consistent formatting.
The compile output file types include PDF, along with .docx, RTF, and ePub.
Exporting would retain the structure of your binder. So, if you have fifty documents in the binder that contain your work, the export will have fifty different documents.
Your profile shows you’re on a Mac. If you haven’t used the compile tools much, you might want to check out our 4-part series titled “Getting Your Work Out” on the Mac tutorial videos page.
(For any future Windows users who come along, we do not have a separate set of videos showing the Windows compile process. The steps are similar enough that the macOS videos I link to above should be helpful.)
Those four videos will show using the built-in compile formats as well as accessing the compile designer panel to customize your settings. You might find seeing that process demonstrated is helpful.
The Tutorial also has some documents about the compile process. And, Chapters 23 and 24 in the Scrivener manual go into detail on the settings and customization process. You can access a PDF copy of the manual from the Help menu. That is also where you can access the Tutorial.
You might start by using the Interactive Tutorial to test both compiling and exporting so you’ll have a better idea of what each command does and how the materials look outside the project.
That way, you’ll have a better idea of which process you need.
To compile to a regular PDF, you would choose “Compile for: PDF” at the top center of the Compile Overview Window, and select a “Manuscript (Times)” Compile Format, then click Compile.
But PDF compilations from Scrivener sometimes have issues with last pages not compiling. In that case you would compile to DOCX and Save as PDF from MS Word.
To remove the convenience section titles, first check the Section Type of those sections in the right-hand side column of the Compile Overview window. Click “Assign Section Layouts” at the bottom of the center column of the Compile Overview window. In the dialog, select the Section Type for your sections on the left and select a Section Layout with a - - - Page Break - - -, but no chapter or section title above the text in the Preview on the right. This is probably the Section Layout called “Section Text”. Click OK the close the Dialog and Compile to test the compilation.
144 points is a huge font size, especially for captions, which are supposed to be small text explaining illustrations. To preserve them, you could save the formatting in an Editor Style. To let the Compiler know how the Style should be rendered, you’ll have to double-click the Compile Format you’ve used in order to edit the Compile Format. This wil open the Compile Format Designer dialog. Click the “Styles” menu-item on the left, and the “Add a Style” [ + | v ] -button at the top right of the dialog. Select your Editor Style from the drop-down menu to add it to the Styles Pane in the center. Select the text in the Formatting Editor at the bottom and make sure the font-size is 144 pt. in the Format Toolbar. Click Save, and Compile to test the compilation.
when I said “caption”, I did not mean a caption for illustrations. I used “caption” for lack of a better term. if you saw it in context, my use of 144 point would make sense. I only do it twice in the MS.
thank you for the info, though. I have screenshotted the info and will see what I can do with it.