I’ve done some searches on the forum before being one of those annoying people who comes right in with a question, but can’t seem to find an answer to what I am trying to achieve.
I’ll express it as best I can below, but please excuse me as a new user if I don’t use the right vocabulary in places:
I’m currently using Scrivener for an academic writing project. In my Research folder, I mainly have documents full of quotations from my sources. I’ve added Scrivener footnotes to each of these quotations, but instead of just highlighting just the last word and adding a footnote (or having the cursor after the period when adding the footnote, which does the same thing), I’ve highlighted the entire quotation. This is deliberate: when I’m writing my draft I often like to copy and paste small parts of long quotations, and this way any part of the quotation will be linked to the footnote. If I highlight the entire quotation when adding a footnote, therefore, when copying a part of the quotation to another area in the project, I do not have to pause and make sure that I’ve also copied a footnote or know where it came from… because the footnote has followed automatically.
My only problem with this is that the way the text becomes underlined and highlighted (in grey) when it’s associated with a footnote is VERY annoying and difficult to read.
QUESTION: does anyone know how I can change the text in the Editor that has a footnote linked to it to WHITE and take away the underline as well? Or just make it a bit easier to read? I realize that Scrivener does not number footnotes so there may still need to be a box around each footnoted text in the Editor to link up the text to the footnote in the Inspector. But I hope there’s a way to customize this.
I can’t promise that this will work, so please make sure you test it on a duplicate document first, in case of disaster. But it does seem to work on a small test document.
First, select the menu option Project > Text Preferences… then check the box at the bottom, called “Use footnote marker”, setting the marker to an asterisk (*). Paste your excerpts into the document, as required.
Next select Format > Convert > Inspector Footnotes to Inline Footnotes, followed by select Format > Convert > Inline Footnotes to Inspector Footnotes, and finally Documents > Convert > Formatting to Default Text Style… This (obviously) makes all the footnotes into inline footnotes, then back into inspector footnotes with a footnote marker, then sorts out any remaining font anomalies caused by the quotations document not being in the same format as the draft document.
In my (admittedly puny) test document, this has the effect of creating footnote markers with inspector footnotes for each pasted quotation excerpt. It does not work well if the text contains a coloured background because the pasted text ends up on a white background, but it does seem to work for regular black-on-white text. If it works for you, you would have to repeat the exercise for each document in your draft, although I don’t suppose clicking on three “convert” menu options is exactly onerous.
But please try it out on something unimportant before committing yourself, in case my setup doesn’t match yours and you get a different effect! It would be a good idea to take snapshots of your current document first, so that you can roll back if you don’t like the result.
Thanks so much for taking the time to post a reply.
I followed your directions on a duplicate document, and while I like the asterisk footnote marker, it doesn’t quite solve my problem… unless I’ve done something wrong of course. Namely, when I go to copy/paste just a part of a quotation which is linked to a footnote, the footnote does not follow. I hope I’m explaining this clearly.
For example, if I’ve typed up the following:
Among Sunday’s targets was the British embassy, with two rockets hitting a guard tower and a rocket-propelled grenade fired at a house used by British diplomats, but no staff were hurt, the Foreign Office later confirmed.UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said he “strongly” condemned the attacks, and praised Afghan government forces for responding “bravely, promptly and effectively”.
Then I highlight that entire paragraph, and add a footnote (which is linked to the entire paragraph).
Then I copy/paste just a part of it from my research to my draft: William Hague said he “strongly” condemned the attacks… the footnote will follow, without my having to do anything.
Is there a way with the asterisk footnote marker for the footnote to be linked to the entire excerpt as above? Maybe this just comes down to a choice between the convenience of not keeping track of footnotes when copying/pasting sections of footnoted text as described above and readability, since grey highlighted and underlined footnotes are very annoying to read and work with.
Are you sure you have added inspector footnotes to your highlighted quotations? It won’t work if your quotations document consists of inline footnotes. You said initially that you had highlighted each quotation and then added a footnote to it, which I assumed meant you were adding additional text as inspector footnotes – are the quotations all underlined, with a sort of selection box around each one, and with the corresponding footnotes displayed in the inspector window?
If you have set up the quotations document with inspector footnotes linked to highlighted quotations, then cutting and pasting part of a quotation will result in that pasted excerpt being given an inspector footnote containing the same text as the footnote linked to the original full quotation. At least, it does when I try it. The scenario I described would possibly be suitable if you wanted:
long quotation, in document in Research folder, linked to a footnote citing the source
excerpt from quotation, in document in Draft folder, linked to an identical-but-independent footnote citing the source.
If this was not what you were describing, I’m not sure what you have in mind. What do you intend appearing as a footnote in your finished text once you have compiled it? The full quotation? Or its source? Or are you using footnotes as a reference mechanism for your own use, without any intention of actually outputting them?
You may also want to consider storing each quotation in a separate document, and using Scrivener links to link to them as required. Section 9.5 of the User Manual (Mac version) has more information on using Scrivener links.
Yes, I’ve done exactly as you described-- sorry if I wasn’t explaining myself well or overcomplicating things. I have added inspector footnotes (with bibliographic information stored here, to be exported as proper footnotes in Word when I’m done writing), not inline footnotes. As you described, “cutting and pasting part of a quotation will result in that pasted excerpt being given an inspector footnote containing the same text as the footnote linked to the original full quotation.” I like the functionality of this very very much.
My issue here is that the text in the editor associated with inspector footnotes is very difficult to read! It’s actually quite a trivial thing but has been bothering/distracting me a lot. My original question was trying to get at this: is there a way for me to make this text more readable-- maybe changing the grey highlight to white? Or taking away the underline.
I want to keep this functionality but improve the aesthetic. If I can’t, I may just have to add a footnote at the end of the sentence/section and not highlight the entire thing… but then I will lose the great efficiency when copying/pasting small parts.
It might have been me who was over-complicating things! You can change the colour of the background for the pasted text, if that is what you want. It’s certainly simpler than making all your pasted text into regular text with the copied footnote tucked away behind an asterisk marker!
From Scrivener > Preferences, choose Appearance. At the bottom of the pane is “Customizable Colors” – choose “Editor” from the list on the left, then from the options to the right, scroll down to “Footnote Comments BG” and select that. Click on the colour sample box next to it, to change the colour, and make it white.
You can change the colour of the background for the pasted text, if that is what you want. It’s certainly simpler than making all your pasted text into regular text with the copied footnote tucked away behind an asterisk marker!