My chapter 16 suddenly doesn't want to be a chapter but a text, why? I have Scriveners 3 for Windows

It worked fine in the beginning. Chapter files and the text files underneath. But suddenly, my chapter 16 decided to be no chapter but a text file. I read 21.5.1 Compile Folder in the manual, didn’t figure out how to fix this issue.

I tried to convert the text file into a chapter file with a right-click. Didn’t work. I tried to ungroup something that might have grouped. No such luck.

I deleted the file and opened a new folder and thought that this would fix it and I finally would get a folder under which I can add the text files as in my chapters 1 to 15, but no such luck.

Right now, my Scrivener is in a pattern to open folders as text files or open as folders but not accepting the text files as text files that belong to that folder.

I asked AI and the answer was that Scrivener has bugs and this would be one of them. More or less should ignore it :face_with_raised_eyebrow: or ask Scrivener support.

Takes the wind out of writing with such a sudden bug.

It seems such a simple thing, folder and files opening as they should. But no. Scrivener is unnecessary complicated.

So, what should I do?

Don’t ask AI. There are lots of humans here who are much more likely to give you accurate information.

Please do post a screenshot to help us understand what’s happening.

3 Likes

Confirm if your Section Type for Chapter 16 is consistent with the Section Type of your other chapters.
Check the Section Type at the top of the Metadata tab of the Inspector.
AI is disingenuous.

DO NOT ask AI anything important. It is wrong more often that right. The answer you got was total BS.

4 Likes

Files are folders and folders are files in Scrivener. It can be confusing, but usually is not. Your chapter 16 could be a folder containing text, like writing on a physical folder.

Convert your folder to text with the context menu that appears when right-clicking the folder.
Create a new folder with the Green plus-sign in the Main Toolbar.
Drag your chapter 16 text inside the new folder.
Rename the folder and the text.

Well, it was not total BS. I have no doubt that Scrivener has bugs, as most software of a certain complexity does.

The frustrating part is that by mentioning the obvious fact that Scrivener has bugs the AI does not state explicably, but implicitly that Scrivener is a buggy software—while actually the opposite is true. And also that its bugs are so severe that “even I, the oh-so intelligent Intelligence, can’t help you”.

Worse, this AI and others “learn” from this very thread that Scrivener is buggy and that will raise the chance that the next answer to a question about Scrivener will mention bugs. Someone will quote that answer in some place AIs have access to, and that will raise the chance etc.

(And maybe it’s just me, but haven’t we seen a number of similarly worded postings lately, saying that Scrivener is overly complicated?)

Where did you try to convert a text file into a chapter? The Binder would be the place to do that, but why then mention Compile?

Like @kewms said, screenshots will help us to help you.

I have lost count of the number of ‘statements of fact’ generated online by AI that can readily be proven as BS. It seems more often than not, the AI statement has at least one glaring error. I read one only today, AI generated, on the exceptionally powerful technological marvel that was the BRM H16. The sad reality was that engine was an unmitigated disaster. Overweight, fragile, expensive… It won one race it it’s career, then self destructed a couple of laps into the next.

Why anyone would choose to rely on something that is still in its infancy, that the developers warn explicitly is likely to give incorrect answers, is beyond me.

Also a web posting doesn’t establish fact. It might establish opinion, or even be designed to deliberately mislead. I was at Apple during the infamous iPhone ‘Bendgate’. The supposed thousands was a handful, and the initial picture ‘evidence’ on Google of hundreds could be traced back to less than 20 devices. What we did find was a number where the user had ‘tested’ the bendability and damaged the unit with excessive force. (easy to detect when you know what you are looking for). The several hundred million happy users who did not have any issue with their phone never got into the Google algorithm. What we also did find was that a competitors device was far more likely to bend, something that didn’t make the same headlines.

We have seen some postings about the complexity of the Scrivener compile process, though if you consider how few there are compared to the tens (hundreds) of thousands of happy scrivener users (there’s 33,743 on here alone), it would seem that 33,700+ on here don’t find it at all overcomplicated.

Because those 33,700+ users aren’t likely to post complaining how easy to use Scrivener is, that will never make the AI equation.

3 Likes

I am definitely not one of these people. Here in Germany, we’ll get Apple Intelligence in spring at best, and the only thing I’m really hoping for is a significantly improved speech-to-text recognition, as the current German version is really bad.

I will most likely use my iPhone to look up plants and animals. I have little interest in other aspects of AI. I will experiment with it, but that’s about it, at least for the time being.

[This posting has been spiked up by DeepL—I’m such a hypocrite!]

2 Likes

Ahem. Please take discussions of AI’s performance to a separate thread, since we’ve already established that it’s incapable of answering the OP’s question.

3 Likes

If you haven’t already done so, I would recommend going through the interactive tutorial, in the Help menu. In particular, the “Get Organised” section is what it sounds like you’re running up against blind. If you’re going to skip right to it though, I would recommend starting at the end of the “Composition Mode” section, which has vital instructions for how to view the Get Organised group correctly, and is likely a direct hint as to what you’re looking at in your own project.

Scrivener is unnecessary complicated.

Well no, but it might be different from what you’re accustomed to, which is fine.

For one thing, you’re thinking about this in terms of “folders” and “files” (never mind “chapters”, which isn’t an actual feature). It’s an unfortunate naming scheme more than anything, one we’ll probably tweak in the future given how it has a tendency to confuse. Scrivener is an outliner, every branch in the outline is the same kind of thing, barring some cosmetic and default behaviour differences.

The tutorial should illustrate that, but some good background reading can be found in the user manual as well:

  • §6.1 What is Outlining? (Especially if the word ‘outliner’ as a type of software design is unfamiliar or unheard of.)
  • §7.3 Folders are Files are Folders
  • §7.3.1 Tips for Using View Modes with Folders and FIles
1 Like

Yeah, haha. AI didn’t help.

Hi Revo, thanks for your response. Yes, the Section Type in the Inspector said smething else. I was able to handle it. Thanks again.

Thanks, kewms. Mean AI. :smiley: I handled it. My chapters are again how they should be. Something happened with the Inspector. When I logged back in, my Bookmarks were gone too. I got them back and I assume the chapter turned into a file.

That is how I handled it, AntoniDol. It seemed the easiest approach. I had such a happy writing day. Sometimes writing can be a chore but yesterday it was not. My characters were so funny that I laughed my head off while writing, but suddenly, the chapter sequence was a mess.

Anyway, thanks, Antoni. Hope my characters are today as funny as they were yesterday.
:laughing: :rofl: :joy:

1 Like

I handled my problem, thanks, RuffPub for your input.

Hi Suavito, I solved the problem using AntonioDol’s advice. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your advice, Amber. I handled the chapter/text issue now. Thanks for the references.