I am new to Scrivener, and I am using Mac iOS with the original manuscript in Word. The import has formatted my 300-page document with the wrong font, odd spacing, changed paragraph settings, and made my TAB key a return key. It is not practical to retype my entire manuscript to fix all these issues. I tested the TAB key on a new project, and it functions correctly. Why can I not TAB in my imported document? I have tried to find a way to import, asking to keep the current format, but it is not an option. Please help, or I will not be able to use the software, and I do not want that to happen.
What platform are you on? Mac Scrivener and iOS Scrivener are not the same product and behave differently.
Assuming you’re on a Mac, since that’s where you posted, first make sure you’re not in script mode (unless you’re actually writing a script). You’ll find the toggle on the Format → Scriptwriting submenu.
Then, if you haven’t already, I’d recommend taking a look at our Interactive Tutorial, available from the Help menu. It’s a good overview of Scrivener’s fundamental operations.
As a general rule, we recommend using paragraph indents, rather than tabs, because they are more compatible with tools like the Compile command.
Incidentally, what do you hope to accomplish in Scrivener that you can’t in Word? If you already have a nearly complete 300-page manuscript, you may have already finished the parts of the process where Scrivener is most useful.
I am on my MacOS, which runs Sonoma. It’s unclear how there are different software versions for a Mac. I have read the forums, watched the tutorial, and watched the YouTube videos. I want to Scrivener to import all of my working documents as well as to start new projects. I am importing per chapter as well as larger pages of other works. It is impractical for the imports to change every chapter to a different format or make paragraphs with indents and others without. When I researched the software, I was excited to use it to help edit and prep my work for self-publishing.
To be clear, importing a document should preserve its existing formatting. However, new documents will reflect the project default.
To change the default, once you’ve formatted one paragraph to work the way you want, you can use the Project → Project Settings → Formatting pane to make it the default for this project, or Scrivener → Scrivener Preferences → Editing → Formatting to make it the default Scrivener-wide.
Then, the Documents → Convert → Text to Default Formatting command will reformat existing text to the new default.
As I said, the behavior described in your original post suggests that you were in Script Mode, which will reformat documents to match the script settings. If that isn’t want you want, make sure Script Mode is off and try the import again.