I Need To Get Rid of the Space Between Sections and I Need It Explained Really Slowly [Solved!]

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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1

After I compile, between sections there is a blank line. I’ve tried everything I can think of to get rid of that blank line. I’ve clicked all the options I can see. After a compile I want all my sections to come together into one big section. I don’t want it to look like each section is different from the other.

There are so many options. I’ve tried going into the compile options and going into separators and selecting different options. I’ve selected “Single return” as an option. I also think there was an option somewhere to add a return at the end of every section but I can’t find it anymore to try and change it.

If there is a post with the answer you can just paste it here. I can’t find anything that answers this.

I want no space between sections when I compile. What are ALL of the options that need to be set in order to do this?

2

Click on View▸Text Editing▸Show Invisibles, if they’re not already shown. Go to the last line of the section, in Document mode (not scrivenings), and check whether there’s a pilcrow (¶) at the end of the line. If there is, delete it.

3

And if that does not solve your problem, then you will probably need to dig into the Separators section of the Compile Format designer dialog.

4

In my experience, documents should never end with ¶, but somehow I’ve never seen it documented or mentioned.

5

Trailing white space can be removed by compile automatically. There’s a setting for it.

1 Like
6

Tank,
You might need to check the Separator section of your Compile Format.
Select your Format and choose “Edit Format.”
2022-06-30 12_06_47

Select the Separators section and make sure that you choose “Custom” and that there in nothing in the menu to the right.
This might be your problem.

2022-06-30 12_03_25
2022-06-30 12_03_251206×898 101 KB

-Big John

7

This didn’t do the trick, however, there is something there.

Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 10.48.14 AM

When I look at the group mode that makes all the subdocuments into one section for editing, I do notice there is that mark there that I can’t delete. When I look at the sub-document by itself in the editor, that mark is not there.

I need to get rid of that thing. I just want all the sections to look like one section when I compile.

8

I’ve been through all of the options. If there is a way to do it I haven’t found it yet. There are so many options. There is no option to not just do anything after between sections. It’s like we are forced to put something there between the sections.

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I’m really speaking of the sections here. Between sections I don’t want the compile to show that there was a section there.

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Where is this setting? I cannot find it.

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I appreciate the try, but this didn’t do the trick.

I am wondering if the option is even there to get this done. Has ANYONE gotten scrivener to compile with no space between the sections?

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Everyone who has ever wanted to. Will just be a setting. You could share a sample project (of anonymized text) here showing the problem and someone will solve it for you.

trailing white space
trailing white space2216×1546 511 KB

13

@Tank: When I look at the group mode that makes all the subdocuments into one section for editing, I do notice there is that mark there that I can’t delete. When I look at the sub-document by itself in the editor, that mark is not there.

This marker indicates the position where one section in your binder ends, and another begins. Scrivenings view makes it possible to edit many individual items at once. There is a setting (in the Appearance: Scrivenings: Options tab), where one can set the Scrivenings Separator to “Corners”, which drops any embellishment other than a small crop marking. Refer to Appendix B.5.13, Scrivenings, for details on this setting.

As noted there, this has nothing to do with compiling, so unless you really don’t like dashed lines in the editor, I wouldn’t waste time with it.

I appreciate the try, but this didn’t do the trick.

They advised you, it looks like, to set your separators to “Custom” which isn’t what you want. Custom is how you would insert characters between items, like “* * *”. It needs to add a line to do that, and if you leave the field empty, it just acts the same as the “Empty Line” setting. “Single Return” is of course what you want here—you were right from the start.[1]

They also advised you to change the underlying default for “Text files”, which might end up doing nothing at all if the section layouts you use have their own separator settings.

I am wondering if the option is even there to get this done. Has ANYONE gotten scrivener to compile with no space between the sections?

I do it all of the time, but it might be easier to demonstrate that with a live example, rather than working through the various different things that might be wrong.

So try compiling this project:

no_seams.zip (78.7 KB)

Anything stand out to you in that, set up differently from what you’re doing? If you start changing settings, can you make it start adding empty lines? Maybe, if you can’t get your project to work similarly from this example, try providing a basic test project of your own, and I can look at its settings.

Notes:

  1. There is a difference between Mac and Windows here, in that the former works as described above, and the latter actually inserts no separator at all if you leave the custom field empty. One line flows right into the next, meaning you could have individual sentences of a paragraph in the draft. Either way, it doesn’t do what you want.
14

Thank you for the reply. I can get a project ready, however it just seems that if the option is there then it would just be easy to point to.

Also, thank you for showing me that option. Unfortunately it didn’t change anything.

1 Like
15

Hope the samples provided in the post above or in this post help…

Archive.zip (46.7 KB)

You’ll get over the line, no worries.

16

Can you export and upload here your compile format ? That be easy then to have a look see if your issue arises from there. (Pretty sure it does.)

image

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Thank you for taking the time to make that project and upload it, and comment to my question.

Unfortunately it didn’t do the trick. I downloaded the project and compiled it, and there is still a space between the sections.

Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 11.50.28 AM

Here is the view in Scrivener. It shows that pesky paragraph marker that I can’t delete. It is there between the sections. Between “This is the first line.” and “This is the second line.” there is a paragraph marker. This is showing up when I do the compile to pdf or .text.

Screen Shot 2022-06-30 at 11.50.36 AM

Here is the compile to .pdf from the project. It shows the four different sections in the project. In between each of the sections there is a space. It’s either a carriage return or something, I don’t really know what it is.

I would like to know if there is an option to control whether or not there is a space between sections when compiling, up to and including completely getting rid of the space.

For example, I would like the above project, that you shared with us, to compile like this:

This is the first line.
This is the second line.
This is the third line.
THE END

Is there a way to do this?

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I would, however @AmberV uploaded a very well-done sample project that does the same thing. It contains the same issue that I am facing. Whatever is happening in that project is happening in mine.

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Seeing how the sample project looks in your screenshot, I was wrong anyways.

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Does the edited version attached work for you?

noseams2.zip (104.4 KB)