I am a newcomer to Scrivener and setting up my first project. In doing so I have to paste text from a WORD document into a Scrivener doc. The WORD doc is formatted in Times 12point. When I copy text and paste into S, the font changes to Times 16point. Why is this and how can I set a default font format?
Sound like you used the keyboard paste which is same as Menu: Edit → Paste. Does it work as you expect using Menu: Edit → Paste and Match Style which does what it says to match the style of the target.
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(a) I think you’ve got it the wrong way round: @klm543 says the Word doc is in 12pt, the Scrivener pasted version is 16pt. That is weird, unless s/he is using Paste and Match Style and the default is set in Preferences/Settings or in Project → Project Settings… to 16pt. If that is the case, then the default needs changing to the font and size wanted.
(b) The problem with Paste and Match Style is that it strips any italics or bold marking that may have been in the Word doc. For that, it is better to use Paste and then Documents → Convert → Text to Default Formatting…, which preserves italics, etc.
That said, unless it’s only part of a document that @klm543 needs to import, I would recommend simply importing the document, either by Drag & Drop or by File → Import → Files…
Mark
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I set Project Settings to 12pt but that does not help. Even with Paste & Match Style, the pasted text is 16pt. That includes the small font window, showing 12pt. Paste is 16pt.
There are other issues also. Frustrating that such basic things don’t work. I regret having purchased Scrivener.
This happens to me, too. Word 12pt Times New Roman becomes 16pt Times New Roman in Scrivener. I just use select all–>copy in Word—>paste in Scrivener.
I don’t do “Paste and Match Style.”
Unfortunately I am over the 1 month clause. After I purchased Scrivener upon recommendation by a colleague, I couldn’t use it immediately due to other work.
In my 17 years of using Scrivener, and there are thousands of other users, you are the only person who has had this problem. If everyone else can copy and paste from Word without this happening, it can’t be a matter of not Scrivener not working, but something to do with your setup. Can you (a) post screenshots showing the 12pt and 16pt; (b) if possible , create a small test project from the problematic one and a small Word document (redact if necessary), zip them up and post them here, so we can see if we can reproduce the problem.
You say there are other issues, but until you tell us what they are, no one can help you with them.
Mark
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Not the only one; it happens to me all the time as I said above, although I mistyped my post and just now edited it.
To me, it isn’t that big an issue, just annoying and easily corrected.
There is a learning curve; using Scrivener “out of the box” can be frustrating. I, and many others, make use of the video tutorials. They really help.
Hi. I agree that using a new application has a learning curve and I understand Xiamenese’s anger about my stupid questions. I am angry with myself, but unfortunately I don’t find Scrivener particularly intuitive to use…and, yes, I watched the first part of the tutorial, but lack the time to spend a whole day or more on learning the basics. It’s a pity, because from the looks of it I would prefer Scrivener to using MSWord… So be it.
After getting tired of this thread (not apologizing for that) I tried really really hard with macOS Office 365 Microsoft Word 16.81, macOS 13.6.3, Scrivener 3.3.6 to replicate the problem you report with “Times” font.
First, for whatever reason, “Times” font that you used is not installed on my iMac, nor on my MacBook (with same software). I do have “Times New Roman” and with “Times New Roman” I cannot see the problem you report.
Perhaps your “Times” font is corrupted or something. Perhaps try another font that for use is ok.
Screen shot in Word from which text was copied to clipboard
Screen shot in Scrivener after two test pastes.
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I’m sorry you thought I was/am angry. I am not; I want to help, but without being able to see what you are seeing, it is difficult because there have only been now two reports of that, yours and @paulcoholic’s, and his seems to be the other way round.
So apologies for creating a misunderstanding.
Mark
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My apologies; I AGAIN wrote my post incorrectly or I just picked the wrong number to edit. Not my day. My issue is the same: 12pt TNR in Word becomes 16pt TNR in Scrivener.
I do nothing except highlight—-select——->copy in Word—–>paste in Scriv.
That is really weird, but without a small (single document) redacted version of a project showing this, plus a similar fragmentary Word document to try with, it’s difficult for any of us to help beyond saying “Use Convert Text to Default Formatting…” immediately after pasting.
What happens if you import a Word document, either using the menu or drag-and-drop, rather than copying and pasting? Do you get a similar font size change
But, here I’m also going to come clean; I can’t do any testing myself, as I don’t have Word. But there are plenty of helpful people like @rms who do.
Mark
I will try and do that this afternoon (I may even attempt a screen recording of the process but I’ve never done that before so all you may get are screenshots.)
I will also see if this happens with other software (Apple Pages to Scrivener; LibreOffice, etc.)
(I have a sneaky suspicion MacOS Sonoma may be responsible as I’ve been experiencing other weird issues since its release. I think they only happen when I use Scrivener, but I’ll try to determine that today. But that would be for a new thread.)
OK, here are the screenshots I took.
I took a screenrecording which shows the process without any breaks, like as with screenshots. The screenshots won’t prove in court that I didn’t switch the font size to prove my point. But, I didn’t.
If anyone wants the screenrecording, it’s here: 12ptTNRWordto16ptTNRScrivener
I can’t upload the recording as the forums don’t support moving picture formats.
Could you put the cursor actually in the text in Scrivener, please? You’re showing that your default formatting is Calibri 16, but not necessarily the formatting of the pasted text.
If you want to test for Sonoma involvement, TextEdit is the best analog to Scrivener. Both Word and Pages use different text systems.
OH! I forgot to mention: I use a clipboard manager called ClipTools and when I was doing this copy/pasting I had selected an earlier copy of my Lauren Ipsum test and when that was pasted, Scrivener did did not change the font to 16pt. It remained 12pt. This text was used in an earlier test in which it did change to 16pt.
Also, going from 12ptTNR in Pages or Bean or even my MarsEdit blogging software doesn’t cause Scrivener to change the font to 16pt.
This only happens when using a current, fresh, copied text from Word pasted into Scrivener.
I add 2 screen shots of what I described before.
The text in Word (Times New Roman 12pt):
Top: the text first written directly in Scrivener, then pasted directly, bottom paste and match style:
“And I am just told that I am not allowed to post pictures.” That’s the end of my engaging here. Sorry. What a mess.