I’ve been adjusting each individual element in my current screenplay (written in 1.54) after importing into 2.0 (which turned everything into General Text)
I should add that this also happened with the last major update to Scrivener as well.
As much as I love to use this program, this is a big hassle for a 100-page script.
I’m sorry for not getting back to you sooner - I haven’t had chance to look at this because of other bugs that have needed addressing. It is on my list, though, and I’m sorry for the problems this has caused you - it looks as though at some point changes were made to the default screenplay format to better fit with standards, although the changes are subtle and not obvious, so I want to check them.
However, you don’t need to go through every single line of text - although if you’ve started that you will need to continue for any scripts half done. But for any other projects that need updating, there is a much quicker way - instead of trying to get your script to match Scrivener’s default script settings, just change the script settings to match your script formatting. The quickest way to do this with an existing script is:
Open Format > Scriptwriting > Script Settings…
With the script settings panel open, select an element in the script element and then click into some text that is supposed to be recognised as being that element in the main window.
Click on the “Manage…” button in the lower-left corner of the script settings panel and choose “Use current font & paragraph settings”. This will change the script formatting so that recognises that text as the selected element.
Repeat for all elements.
This should take about five minutes to do, and after that you’ll be up and running again.
My sincere apologies for not getting back to you sooner, as this would have saved you some work.
A few remarks that might help at solving this bug :
I have created my own custom script format, and when i open my docs created with 1.5x, I experience the same problem, so this might not be related to changes made in the default script format.
When I reopen the texts of this older scriv files, they are no longer in script mode. I need to select the script mode with my custom format in Format -> scriptwriting. Then the style menu shows again at the bottom right of the window. However all the text is identified with the “general text” style, but the actual format attributes are preserved (the text appearance is unchanged). As I compile “as is”, the scope of the problem is limited for me. But clearly style identification is lost when opening a 1.5 doc in 2.0.
I also ran into a format loss issue when upgrading from 1.54 to 2.0. Keith’s remedy above somehow doesn’t work for me, and I can’t get a script setting panel when I choose from the format window and the script has been set to <SCREENPLAY (FINAL DRAFT)>, which is the script setting I used to create the document in 1.54.
I’ve gone through that procedure before during a previous upgrade and had no problem, but nothing happens if I try to set tags (use current postion…) using a different canned script setting… nothing changes. I’m also confused by this dialogue that appears after from the script settings panel and couldn’t locate that in the manual? What does one do with it and why?
To make matters worse, the backup saved by 2.0 upon install is no longer 1.x compatible, and if i can’t find a way to recover, I’m going to lose some work.
Now, this is the trial version install. Please tell me that if I buy the whole whiz bang, Keith’s fix-up procedure should work. I didn’t want to purchase 2.0 if I can’t use it right away.
I’m a longtime user and love the product. Keep doin’ it…
I confirm this. I also tried it on one of the BBC formats and was unable to open the settings panel. It appears some work and some do not. Console spit this out when I switched to the Screenplay-Final Draft mode:
With “Untitled” selected: Format/Scriptwriting/Screenplay (Final Draft)
Try: Format/Scriptwriting/Script Settings...
Should fail with just those steps. I got the second batch of console errors on step 3. To get the first batch of console errors, for a 4th step, choose “BBC Taped Drama” (probably because the sheet has been instantiated at this point; and is hidden offscreen).
My speculation: The only bug here for you to concern yourself with is not showing old script formats from 1.x. From what I can tell, this only happens with scripts that were originally installed with Extras.
To the poster that is having difficulties getting script settings, follow these steps:
In Finder press Shift-Cmd-H to view your home folder
Double-click on Library; then Application Support; then Scrivener
Move “ScriptFormats” to the Desktop or some place else convenient
You can do this while Scrivener is open; the menu should clean up considerably (you probably had duplicate entries before). If you have any formats you’ve created with 2.0, you might wish to drag them back in, but leave the old stock “Extras” out.
Not having any luck with AmberV’s suggestion on moving the ScriptFormats folder to the desktop. I still can’t assign tags using . I’m lost.
What happened to <Screenplay (FINAL DRAFT)> version ? What is the usage of the dialogue that appears after selecting on the SCRIPT SETTINGS PANEL? Do I use it or not?
The old Final Draft format is no longer required. It was intended to approximate the exact RTF settings that would be needed to take an RTF file to Final Draft and have Final Draft interpret it correctly. That’s not necessary now that Scrivener can write directly to FDX (and FCF) formats. The standard screenplay format is much better.
The “Convert” dialogue should be fairly self-explanatory - if you change the script settings, this dialogue box allows you to have Scrivener update the documents in your project to use the new script formatting. You should use it if you have made changes in the script settings that you want applied to existing documents.
I’m a bit confused about what your problems are with using the “Use current formatting” setting, though - this should work fine as long as you aren’t getting the errors any more on the Console.
How do I get the console? I searched the manual for the word ‘console’ in the manual, and it only shows up once, in a footnote.
Just in case, I tried to enable the paid version of the product. I used the registration numbers given me in the invoice, but it won’t take it. I checked and double-checked the entry… no dice.
Maybe I’m stupid, but I’ve done this procedure before without a hitch. The plus ‘OK’ only changes the current line, not the others like it.
Wait, what do you mean by this? We are talking about Manage… > Use current font and paragraph settings, right? And this changes the current script element in the Script Settings panel to match whatever the formatting is at the current insertion point in the text - are you expecting this to change the text in the editor? If so, that would be the source of your confusion - that’s not what this is for at all. The idea of the information I posted in that other thread was to change the current script settings to match all your text, not the other way around.
Then I guess I am stupid. I was trying to mske the script settings match the format of my document. Once I do that, why doesn’t it interpret my format as tags, as it should do when you import am RTF?
How do use I use 2.0 and retain my original script format info.
I bought the product, now it seems I can’t use it.
Sorry about this trouble… the upgrade should be better explained for the daft, I guess.