List of definitions of compile terms

Scrivener
,
1

I’m trying to understand compiling - reading the manual, trying things out. It’s not easy.
Is there somewhere a simple list of definitions of these terms:

  • Format
  • Section
  • Section Layout
  • Section Type
  • Text Layout
  • Style
  • Compile Style
  • Project Style
    They are all used in different places in the manual, but they are defined in terms of each other, and what I am looking for is a single page I can refer to when I come across any of these terms.
2

Such a list is actually in my upcoming book Troubleshooting Scrivener:

Com­pile For­mats
A Com­pile For­mat, or sim­ply a For­mat, is a col­lec­tion of prop­er­ties and set­tings used by the Com­piler to gen­er­ate a spe­cific re­sult. A set of Scrivener For­mats ex­ist which you may copy and edit, but not delete. When the de­faults don’t fit the bill, edit a Com­pile For­mat in the Com­pile For­mat De­signer, which al­lows you to set Sec­tion Lay­outs, Sep­a­ra­tors be­tween Sec­tions, Com­pile Styles and Page Set­tings like Head­ers and Foot­ers. Pre­views of the Sec­tion Lay­outs in the For­mat are vis­i­ble in the cen­ter col­umn of the Com­pile Over­view win­dow.

Sec­tions
A Sec­tion—with a Capi­tol S—in Scrivener is any doc­u­ment, item, scene or sec­tion in­side the Binder. The term is used for generic items and is as­so­ci­ated with its Type (Sec­tion Type) and its Lay­out (Sec­tion Lay­out). When in this book I used Sec­tion with a Capi­tol S, I mean a generic Binder item.

Sec­tion Types
A Sec­tion Type is a def­i­ni­tion of what Type a cer­tain Sec­tion is. Think Part, Chap­ter, Scene, but also Poem, Song or Let­ter are pos­si­ble Sec­tion Types. In this book, the Front Mat­ter and Back Mat­ter are also de­fined as Sec­tion Types and ev­ery item has a Sever­ity Sec­tion Type, such as Hin­drance, Bug, and Dis­as­ter.

Sec­tion Lay­outs
The reason for Sec­tion Types is to As­sign them to a Sec­tion Lay­out with a spe­cific for­mat­ting. A Part or Chap­ter could be in a larger font, a Let­ter could be in a hand­writ­ing font, a Poem could have a cen­tered lay­out, and so on. The “As is” section Layout is often used to preserve formatting for unique sections like the Front and Back Matter. You de­fine Sec­tion Lay­outs in the Com­pile For­mat De­signer, where you set the many prop­er­ties of the Com­pile For­mat, in­clud­ing the Sec­tion Lay­out.

Ed­i­tor Styles
In the Ed­i­tor you can ig­nore all for­mat­ting and still get a per­fectly look­ing com­piled doc­u­ment, be­cause of the Sec­tion Lay­outs. But for text that should look dif­fer­ent in the Ed­i­tor, you can use Ed­i­tor Styles. I use a First Para­graph style in my Ed­i­tor, be­cause I want to use the in­dus­try stan­dard of in­dented para­graphs, but not for the ones af­ter head­ings and empty lines. And I use Ed­i­tor Styles for the head­ings and sub-head­ings. Use Styles for text the should look dif­fer­ent from the De­fault For­mat­ting.

Com­pile Styles
But through the Com­piler, all that for­mat­ting could look com­pletely dif­fer­ent due to Com­pile Styles. You can re­de­fine how these Styles look in the Com­pile For­mat De­signer’s Styles pane. An­other font? No prob­lem. Dif­fer­ent align­ment? It can be done. Of course, the Styles look the same as in the Ed­i­tor by de­fault.

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3

I was a beta reader for Antoni’s upcoming book. I would give an enthusiastic thumb’s up.

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4

Thank you, that is really helpful.

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5

Moving out of the Windows forum, as this really useful list is applicable to all platforms.

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