Layouts format seems to change randomly on its own. Little help?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I find this a bit baffling.

In the Outliner, one would expect that creating a layout format and clicking ‘Use’ would get Scrivener to say, “Oh! This is the layout format you’d like to use, isn’t it? I’ll keep it just this way until you decide to change it again, then!”

It doesn’t.

I’m dealing with four manuscripts: three volumes of a trilogy and a fourth novel, and I tinker constantly with all of them in revision phase.

I’ve settled on one layout format for all four, though I do use a second layout format for all four if I need to export a csv doc.

I’ve attempted to save that same main layout format in each of those four novels. But maybe clicking ‘Use’ is not how to save it. It doesn’t seem to.

When I go to the Outliner, it often reverts to versions of layouts I really don’t use anymore. Why would we suppose this happens? Isn’t ‘Use’ the act of saving a layout as the one I wish to ‘Use’?

Maybe I should just delete all other older layouts I no longer use. But I’m a hoarder—never throw anything away I might change my mind about using.

All comments are welcome. Thx.

2

Are you discussing window layouts, or Section Layouts for formatting?

And why are you looking for either in the Outliner?

3

I have three different Layouts for the Outliner.
The thing is the Layouts don’t remember the extent to which the Binder was unpacked and need to be manually tweaked to expand or contract to get the desired result.

4

Saved Layouts do not remember project-specific information, including the contents of the Outliner pane. See Section 12.3.1 in the manual for a discussion of what they do save.