In the format script I’ve created, I defined an element for footnotes. But when I edit and choose this element for the footnote text, it looses its quality as a footnote. How can I format the footnote by imposing an element on it, while allowing it to remain a footnote, so that when I export the draft, it will actually become a footnote?
After sleeping on it, I feel I should clarify my question a bit:
I can compose a text and then format it according to my footnote element in the script I created, and then mark it as a note (cmd+shift+f) so it turns gray and becomes part of the footnotes in the exported text.
However, I need the footnote to be at the end of a sentence – no space, directly after the period. But the elements effect the formatting of the entire paragraph, so if I want to format my footnotes, I have to hit enter between the end of the sentence and the note – and that is a real problem!
What to do? Please advise!
Hi,
I’m afraid there is no way of doing this at the moment. You should be able to add a footnote after a piece of text in script mode provided you don’t change the formatting afterwards, though. Unfortunately the element recognition in script mode is very fussy - it requires precise formatting to work. Footnotes aren’t a part of that formatting so aren’t supported. To be honest, I never foresaw anyone adding footnotes to a script - isn’t that a little unusual?
All the best,
Keith
When I say script, I mean the format style that I designed on Scrivener for myself (I actually write academic articles, where footnotes and endnotes are excessive and over-rated, but oh well).
Is there another way to determine the formatting of the footnotes, before I export the compiled draft to a word processor? For example, can I define something in the formatting of the compile draft screen?
Thanks!
Hi,
Sorry, could you explain more? Where is the format style saved/available? You mean from the styles menu in the ruler?
Thanks,
Keith
I will try to stick to the terminology of Scrivener: When I posted my original question, I referred to creating my own script format. I created a script format for academic articles, and then I faced the problem with footnotes.
Now I am thinking, what if I can achieve the same result, but instead of formatting as I compose, to do it in the compile draft stage. So when I define styles in the compile draft formatting, I can define a style for footnotes. Is that possible?
Thanks, and I apologize for this nagging challenge with footnotes. I am considering changing profession to one that does not require them (well, not really, but maybe in the next life I will choose better).
Hi,
You can’t really do that at the moment, I’m afraid. You will be able to do it in the next update. In the next update you will have a lot more flexibility, in that you will be able to mark ranges that can be arbitrarily styled upon Compile Draft. Unfortunately that doesn’t help you at present, I’m afraid.
Best,
Keith
No worries. I am still a great fan of Scrivener, and I will make do with what there is, until the next update. Thanks!
Hi again, Keith,
While you are thinking about the next version of Scrivener, may I also suggest that you add the following option: When I work with my own script setting, having designed its elements, sometimes I want to change an element’s formatting, but it would not change retroactively, to the project I am working on (I have to re-define my paragraphs with that element for the new formatting to work). Can you add a way for a change in an element’s formatting to work on the current project?
Thanks!
Hi,
No, I’m afraid this won’t happen. The styles system in Scrivener is always going to be very basic. The trouble in Scrivener is that it isn’t like a regular word processor. When styles get changed retroactively in, say, Word, they only affect the current document. So the program can iterate through the entire text and change the style accordingly.
In Scrivener, however, there are potentially hundreds of documents that would need changing in this situation. You wouldn’t be able to undo the change and you wouldn’t see it happening; it would also be slow.
More importantly, it would require a lot of additions to how the text system works. The basic text system doesn’t really support styled text. It would take a lot of work to force it to do so, and that would be work adding word processor features to Scrivener (and features that I never use and would therefore no doubt get horribly wrong!).
However, in the next version of Scrivener, you will be able to apply something similar to a footnote or annotation to a range - placing a bubble around it and set the formatting for such ranges via Compile Draft. So, for instance, you might allocate certain ranges as block quotes. Upon export, the formatting of each section with such a designation would be changed to have the block quote formatting you set in Compile Draft, regardless of whether you have been consistent in your formatting during the writing stage. The idea remains to keep too much formatting out of the writing stage and have it left to the export/print stage.
All the best,
Keith