So when I compile a document to RTF or .doc(Mac), tiny bullet points are inserted at every indent. When I go to formatting in Word to choose “None” in Bullets and Formatting, the bullet points disappear, but so do all the indents. I should mention that in Scrivener I’ve chosen “None” under Lists but still get the same problem. What stupid thing am I doing ? Thanks!
I would check to see if the problem is coming from the text or the compile settings. You can save your current settings to a preset, using the Format As drop-down menu and selecting “Manage Compile Format Presets…” at the bottom. Next, create a project preset by clicking on that tab, and then the + button at the bottom. Click Ok, then select “Original” from the Format As menu, and compile to RTF.
It may won’t look anything like you want, but this is just to check and see if the problem still happens with settings that do not alter the draft content in any way. Once you have checked, you can apply your preset to get the regular settings back.
You mention that you have tried setting the lists to none in Scrivener, does that mean you selected all of the text in all of the files and applied that setting? That’s where you would need to do it if there was a rogue list somewhere in the document. Naturally if you have lists you don’t want to lose, you wouldn’t want to do it all at once, but any text that has bullets in Word should be selected and set to “None”.
I have a similar thing that happens except I get numbers rather than bullets.
The text was originally pasted in from a Word document that started with a numbered heading, but that was removed.
The numbers don’t show in Scrivener’s editing window but do appear when I compile.
The workaround is - memorize which “good” paragraphs don’t have the numbers; go to the edit window, copy formatting from the good paragraphs and paste formatting onto the bad paragraphs.
I’d prefer if the reason for this bad format could be made visible in Scrivener. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you both but unfortunately still no solution. I went through the procedure of changing the compile format settings to “Original” and still saw the bullet points. So I assume that means the problem lies in the text. But when I do a “Select all” on the text then “Lists” then “None” and then compile… same result. Not sure if this is pertinent but this only happens when I compile to RTF; when I compile to Print or PDF - no bullet points.
Anyway, when I take the text form this project and put into the supplied Scrivener Novel project template, the bullet points aren’t there when i compile from that. So that’s what I’ll do. I’m assuming this is just some weird corruption in the project template I created rather than some obvious mistake I was making - thanks anyway!
I’m compiling to ePub for iBooks.
Well if the normal tricks for removing formatting from some text do not work, the only real solution is to strip all formatting from the area that has problems. If the underlying formatting got corrupted and that corruption is just travelling from one program to another, the solution is to rebuild the text (passing it through a plain-text editor or using the Edit/Paste and Match Style menu command would do) if no tools are letting you strip the problem out more specifically.
I hate to get all nostalgic for Word Perfect, but it did have that handy view codes feature that let you diagnose this kind of thing. 
Tell me about it! I still miss that feature as well.