I have a project that I opened using the “Manuscript” template. My manuscript includes folders for Chapters, with scenes within each. Sometimes when I write new material in these scene documents, the word count shows up in the “Draft” column of the Writing History window. But other times, it shows up listed in the “Other” column, even though all my chapters and scenes are within the “Manuscript” tab. Any idea of why this would be? I assumed that new material in the “Characters,” “Places,” “Frontmattter” “Notes,” and Research" tabs would show up under “Other,” but I’m puzzled about why some of my scene word counts are showing up there, too.
Any explanations/suggestions for how to fix would be appreciated!
Just to eliminate a common error: Are you certain all your chapter material is in the Manuscript folder, instead of simply below it? There’s a tiny triangle to the left of the Manscript folder’s icon. If you click it, which folds up its contents, all of your manuscript documents should be hidden. If they’re not, then they aren’t actually in the Manuscript folder.
Aside from that, have you checked the “Include” checkbox for all of your documents? Load up the Manuscript folder, go to outline mode, and then add the “Include” column. Then expand all containers by selecting on in the outline view and go to View->Outline->Expand All.
Presumably the documents being counted in “Other” have “Include in Compile” un-ticked. As such, although they are in the Manuscript folder, they aren’t really part of the Manuscript since they will not be included in it when you compile.
Thank you, Keith and Rdale, for your answers. I often compile only a section of my manuscript, since I often need to create a file to send portions of the work in progress to critique partners. I didn’t realize that the compile function was tied to the Writing History. Now I know that if I compile a smaller subset of my chapters, I’ll have to go in via the Outliner and re-click on “include” for every chapter I didn’t want to print earlier.
Is there a compelling reason for what appears under “Draft” in the Writing History pane to be linked only to what is checked off to be included in compile, rather than just what is part of a Draft or Manuscript? Having Writing History linked to compile makes extra work for me, but perhaps I use Scrivener in a different way than others do?
FYI, if you first select a set of files & folders in your manuscript and then start the compile process, you can tell Scrivener to just compile the current selection. Use the funnel icon next to the “Compile:” drop-down that usually shows your Manuscript folder name to set that filter.
Indeed, “Include in Compile” isn’t intended as something you use on-the-fly to compile only a subset of files; instead it’s intended as a hard switch so that you can keep notes in your manuscript that you don’t want to be counted as part of the manuscript at all.
This is because, as RDale, points out, there are much better and more convenient ways of compiling only parts of your manuscript, without having to manually tick or un-tick all those boxes. To compile only a single chapter, you simply choose the chapter from the button at the top of the contents list in the Compile; to compile several chapters, select them in the binder and then choose to compile only the selected documents, as RDale says.