Margins?

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

Hi – complete newbie here. I’ve written a foreword and intro and now I’m writing chapter one of a non-fiction book. I’m perplexed, though, that when I go to a new section, the margins are completely different (like wide-open as opposed to 6.5"), and even when I fix them, it somehow keeps returning the right margin all the way to the right.

It’s totally possible that I’m misunderstanding something about how this is supposed to work. I know the book will receive the actual formatting later (at least I think it will), but I just like to work within a particular space and would like to set that throughout the draft.

Also, one more little question – if I hit “Save” does it save the whole thing? All the sections?

Thanks.

2

Yes, this is fine to do considering that in Scrivener you can tidy up the text when you compile. Setting up the text editor formatting to look like you want, rather than how you need to print some day, is encouraged. The thing you’re looking for is the ability to make a particular set of formatting preferences the default for new documents. It sounds to me as though you are changing the paragraphs of one document, but that of course is going to have no bearing on any future files you create in the Binder. To change the default, go into the Tools menu under Options, and click on the Editor tab. Use the little mock editor here to set up a right-indent (not strictly speaking a margin, there is no such thing in Scrivener until you create a document out of all of this text, during compile).

More often than not it may do nothing. :slight_smile: By default Scrivener automatically saves whatever you’ve done recently, every time you pause for more than two seconds. Everything is saved, no matter where you are in the project, as you work. So feel free to click it as much as you want, just know that in general it’s not even necessary. Get up from the computer, make some tea, no need to bother.