I’m new to NaNoWriMo, and I have done nothing with word count targets in Scrivener to date. So I apologize if I’m missing some obvious Duh! remedy.
I set up a brand new project on NaNoWriMo.org, and I began writing in it today, using Scrivener for Windows 3.1.0.
Today’s output was exactly 1700 words, according to the counts in the Scrivener footer for 3 Scrivener “Scene” documents. Upon doing Project > Update NaNoWriMo Word Count, I was told that clicking OK would result in updating my NaNoWriMo.org word count from 0 to 0 words.
Hmmm. So, I manually updated today’s word count at NaNoWriMo.org. Curious, I again tried Project > Update NaNoWriMo Word Count in Scrivener, only to be told that if I clicked Update Word Count, I would be updating from 1700 words to 0 words.
So… The Scrivener template is accessing the NaNoWriMo.org project, but it is somehow oblivious to the words from today’s session results, and it is failing to carry forward the total before applying the update.
Looks like I missed or messed up something. It’s not a huge deal to update manually, but it’s a nice convenience to do it without leaving Scrivener. Thanks for any thoughts.
p.s. In case it matters, I am using my regular licensed Scriv3-Win, not the special trial Scriv3-Win set up for NaNoWriMo. Installation of the template seemed to go fine.
I tried using Scrivener’s >Project>Update NaNoWriMo Word Count from the NaNoWriMo template today as well and got the same results. It indicated that I would be updating my word count from 0 to 0.
I’m on Mac OS Monteray 12.0.1. I used the Daily Target document in Scrivener, inside Manuscript, then the Chapter folder and the document target for what I wrote today shows 1,670 words.
Oddly, when I go to >Project >Project Targets, it shows 0 of 50,000 for the project target and 0 of 1,725 for the session target.
Update: I went into the Compile settings and noticed that the “Daily Target” document that I had added had not automatically been checked off to include this document in the compile. As soon as I checked the box to include it and return to my project, the >Project>Project Targets reflected the correct word count, and the >Project>Update NaNoWriMo Word Count worked.
I’m not sure why new documents are not automatically included, but at least I have a workaround. 
Ahh. Thanks so much for reporting, mdj.
I’m not sure if I fully grasp what’s going on. But I can get Scrivener to recognize a word count by selecting and de-selecting various options in the Draft Target and Session Target tabs of Project > Project Targets > Options.
Thanks for pointing out the effects of these options. I hadn’t realized that a Compile Group could be selected, and their respective word counts accumulated, without actually running the Compile.
I’ll keep fiddling, and promise to keep my counts honest . Thanks again, mdj.
For updating the NaNoWriMo word count, Scrivener uses the Draft total word count from the Project Targets. In the NaNoWriMo template, that’s set by default to be all the documents in the Manuscript folder that are marked for inclusion in compile.
The “Daily Target” document in the Templates folder is set up by default to be included in compile, so if you create a new document from the template inside the Manuscript folder, its word count should be automatically counted toward the Manuscript total. It sounds like perhaps that checkmark got deselected accidentally at some point, at least in @mdj’s case. So that you don’t have to keep fixing it every time you create a new document, select the “Daily Targets” document in the Templates folder in the binder, then with it loaded in the editor, click the icon in the right of the editor footer so that it changes from a rectangle with an X in the corner to a rectangle with a √ indicating that it is set to be included in compile. New documents created from the template will then have that set as well. (You can also set it via the inspector; click the tag icon button and then check “Include in compile”.)
@Writemood It could be you have the same situation, that the documents you’re writing in have been set to not be included in compile, so you can check that as well. Also makes sure that they are subdocuments of the Manuscript folder–if you click the chevron beside Manuscript to collapse the folder, it should hide your documents. If they’re still visible, they’re outside that folder and not being counted toward your target. You can drag and drop to move them into the folder, or use the Edit > Move > commands, and once they’re in there they will be counted.
It is also possible to change the compile group via the dropdown menu in Compile, as noted. By default this would be the entire Draft (or Manuscript in the NaNo template), but if that got altered somehow it would also be affecting your count, since the project targets are set to only count items in the compile group. You can deselect that in the Project Target options, and/or change the compile group back to the full Manuscript folder. Hold the Alt key (Option on Mac) to change the compile window button labels to Reset and Save, then click Save to make those changes without compiling.
Thanks for the lucid explanation, MM. Don’t look now, but this might be starting to sink in. 
Check. To clarify, I’ve altered the structure-based hierarchy of the NaNoWriMo template. So, now it’s Manuscript > Part > Chapter > Section > Scene. This will not affect the template’s ability to report counts, is this correct?
It seems I have not been using the template as intended. For one, I blithely created new documents under Manuscript, using the + button, as opposed to creating them from the Daily Target template. Thanks to you and mdj for calling this step out.
For another, I was able to tabulate my daily totals accurately by manually selecting the documents comprising the day’s work, and then specifying “Current Selection” in the Compile group window. I gather from your statement…
… that the template is meant to work with “Manuscript” selected in the Compile window, as opposed to “Current Selection” Is this right?
Not at all. The level of depth beneath the Manuscript folder doesn’t matter, so structure away to your heart’s content.
To clarify, using the Daily Target document template is just one way of using the project. Some people like to just do all their day’s work in a single document and use that document’s count in the footer to keep track of their progress, so the Daily Target document helps do that by already having a 1,667 word target set. But this doesn’t matter for the overall project target. So long as the document is set to be included in compile and is within the Manuscript folder (see below), its text will count toward the project target, 50,000, and will be used by the Update NaNoWriMo Word Count tool.
And yes, that’s the way the template is designed. To break this down specifically, the Project Targets tool is set to count
- The current compile group only, and
- Documents marked to be included in compile
The first refers to the group of documents shown in the contents list when you open File > Compile; you can change that by selecting from the dropdown menu above the list, e.g. “Current Selection”, as you noted, or a subfolder of the Manuscript folder, etc.
The second refers to the “include” setting for individual documents–as you’ll see in that contents list in compile, each item in the list can be ticked for inclusion or not. This lets you, for instance, have some notes documents alongside your actual manuscript text in the binder, but exclude them when you compile your novel.
So, if you have the compile group set to “Current Selection” or a subfolder of the Manuscript, that will affect what’s counted toward your project target. That’s useful if you’re, say, a NaNo rebel who is continuing an existing project and wants to only count the writing you do this month rather than all the writing that already exists in the Manuscript folder (
), but most people are going to just want to count everything in the Manuscript folder, barring any documents they specifically set to be excluded from compile (scene notes or such).
You can though deselect that “Count current compile group only” setting in the Project Target options so that the full Manuscript folder will be counted regardless of your compile group. If you’re regularly running off compiles of just specific chapters or such (because you have all that time in November?!), then changing that setting will ensure your different compile settings don’t interfere with your overall count for the NaNo servers and your own goal-keeping.