Question: Why are there missing placeholder statistics for use in compiling?
I have done a lot of digging around online, in the forums, video tutorials and of course reviewed the list of available placeholders through the Help → List of All Placeholders…
But, I am unable to find anywhere additional placeholder codes for the statistics that Scrivener has available for documents at the bottom of each editor window aside from word count and character count (choosing either with or without spaces).
I’ve found tutorials where people have found ways to place paragraph numbering during compiling, so that you can count the paragraphs that way. This is helpful with screenwriting and plays (Act 2, paragraph 3). But, if I just want to know how many paragraphs, sentences, and the average length of each? Or the average reading time? This information is already being calculated by Scrivener and I can’t find a way to pull it into my compiler report.
Request: Can someone please provide these additional statistic placeholders to use during compiling?
Is this additional information available to pull in and I just can’t find the obscure document somewhere? Can someone please help me? Thank you.
LOL, yes… when put that way, it does seem like a simple thing to do.
My use case becomes more tedious than just a one time typing of four values though.
I’ve developed an AI Agent that reviews each chapter after I’ve completed it to provide me with various reading level assessments, list of locations, characters, technology (etc) mentioned, and much more. It helps me make sure that I’m keeping my religious sci-fi fantasy novel accessible to the age group I’m write for as well as to help me develop a glossary for the book. It also helps me make sure that I’m balancing character usage.
The AI Agent is not able to accurately count the stats like Scrivener on such a large scale. Its core development wasn’t programmed that way. But that data is vital to accurate reading level assessments and character balancing.
Doing this for each chapter for each revision becomes cumbersome.
Now, I know that is my special use case. But, I am sure others may have reasons for wanting that data. Why else would it be there ready in the editor?
My request is if there ids already a placeholder available—or if placeholders can be made for these stats already available to the end user.
While it isn’t compiling, you can export per-section counts already, and to a format that takes it straight into a conducive environment for further analysis: spreadsheets. Use the File ▸ Export ▸ Outliner Contents as CSV... menu command, on the desired selection loaded into the main editor in Outliner view mode. You can either use the columns as set up, or just export them all.
That may not give you enough information all by itself though (lines, sentences, etc.). Since you mention programming, you might be interested to know that if you select the plain-text compile file type option, and then edit a compile Format for it, you will gain access to a Processing pane. Here you can either embed a script or reference an executable script on your system somewhere. It would not be difficult at all to make a script that looks for separator markers you declare in the Separators pane, and performs various functions on the text found between them, which then produces a report based on that data as an ultimate result that the compiler produces, rather than the original text.
