Would be wonderful if text formatting and page layout (ruler) settings could be set proportional to page width and height (in both editor and compile). In this way, one could set up one compile setting and output to any page size. Would be huge time and effort savings. Would make the output (compile) process far more simple, regular, intuitive, and efficient. I should have the option to set my gutters and indents and tabs to percentages of page width rather than to fixed measurements. Same with font size. Same with header and footer attributes and dimensions. Same with vertical position of text within a page. Every typesetter knows that carriage returns are a giant no-no when it comes to page layout and typography.
I will now prepare myself for the automatic rebuttals that go to: “Scrivener is not a page layout or pre-press application!”. Which of course is ludicrous as Scrivener is marketed as a book writing and publishing solution, an application that automates the output of a finished manuscript to book layout standards. My suggestions would just make this automation of pre-press that much more powerful and intuitive and efficient… you know, what is meant by the word “automated”!
I’m not aware of any application – including true page layout tools – that does this for print output.
Probably because automatically re-sizing everything doesn’t necessarily give good results, and it’s incumbent on the human designer to evaluate what scales and what doesn’t.
Sure they do. The ones I’ve written certainly do. And they give spectacular results. The best part is that they are automatic. Fast. Any small tweaks a user might want to manually apply afterwords are far faster than manually setting up new layouts for each book, screen, or paper size. Written correctly, they can handle format swaps and can adjust within set minimums and maximums. You can even apply learning algorithms that can intuit a book designer’s style and predict design and layout choices. The math is simple ratios. Automation, making processes that used to require professionals something that happens under the hood… that’s what makes people want to buy and use software. It’s certainly how Literature and Latte promote Scrivener.
Nobody wants to have to go out of one application and into another application. The whole point of automation is to make it simple and reasonable and omnipresent. A user wants intuitive flexibility and they want that intuitive flexibility in one place… where their content is being created! The only reason one should have to create multiple “compile” settings and formats and layouts is because Scrivener doesn’t automate and flatten this process. A user doesn’t want automated typesetting machinery, they want no typesetting machinery at all. The user wants output. Not the headache of configuration towards output. I want a loaf of bread, not a better bread making machine. Scrivener is for writers, not would be print shop technicians.
Exactly. Scrivener is for writers, not graphic designers or typesetters. We have always expected that at some point many of our users will need to transition to other tools.