I am using the “Novel Format” project setting for this project (the one without parts). I wanted to see how Scrivener would handle scenes when it compiled, so I did a test PDF compile using “Novel Standard Manuscript Format”. I was pleased to see that I have the choice of weather it uses a separator between scenes, which is cool.
What I was a bit baffled when I noticed that chapter one was entitled “Chapter Two” with a subtitle of “Chapter One”. I immediately realized that, although it made it simpler for me to see what chapter I was in, that I needed to avoid naming my chapters “Chapter x” where x is the chapter number. (incidentally, it might be helpful if the chapter number that Scrivener has assigned to the current document in the editor were displayed in the footer view, along with the page number. It doesn’t do either right now. So you would have “Chapter: 1 Page: 8 Words: 2,500 Chars:33,858” or some such)
Anyways, back to what I was saying: I was still confused as to why chapter one was labeled as Chapter two. I went back to my project, and checked to make sure that Chapter One was the first folder listed under “Manuscript”, it was. I was certain that I hadn’t moved any of the folders around or deleted any folders, so this shouldn’t have affected the outcome. I did another test compile to PDF, this time leaving the compile setting on the drop down list at “Custom” to see if the problem went away.
The first chapter was still listed as “Chapter Two” with the subtitle of “Chapter One”. That is when I noticed that the title page was listed as “Chapter One”.
It seems that, with my compile and project settings at least, Scrivener is counting the title page as the first chapter. Has anyone else seen this with other project and/or compile settings?
I am using beta .029 on windows 7
Thanks, and good writing - Lunarclipper
There are a couple aspects to this, so bear with me.
The compile settings you’re using have a prefix added to certain document types/levels which is giving you the “Chapter One”, “Chapter Two”, etc. in addition to your own binder title as a subtitle. This is a cool option in that it lets you not worry about putting “Chapter X” into your binder title, so it’s easier to rearrange your items in the binder without having to renumber everything and you don’t take up valuable space by all those extra characters, etc. Scrivener just adds that prefix at compile time. (Because of this, there’s really no way for Scrivener to put it in the editor footer, but once you understand how the setting is being applied it’s easier to take al ook at your binder structure and figure out what’s going to be Chapter One, Chapter Two, etc.–or, the other way around, you can take what you have as the binder structure and figure out how you want to set up compile so that the proper items become new chapters.) This is a totally optional function; it’s part of the compile settings for the novel template, but you can turn it off, change it, use it in other projects, etc.
There are a couple bugs with this now, some of which will be fixed with the next beta (all of which will be fixed by 1.0). First, checking “Compile As-Is” should cause a document to not get the prefix, but right now that’s not working. Hence, your title page ends up as Chapter One and all the other chapters are skewed. Second, you should be able to have a prefix without also using your document title, so you ought to be able to just deselect the title element for your documents in the compile settings and thus do away with the unnecessary subtitle. Currently the prefix is only appearing if the title is also checked for inclusion, which means for your case the easiest solution here might just be to turn off prefixes entirely, since you’ve already got your chapters numbered.
So, that said, to adjust the prefix settings, go into the Formatting pane of compile, select the row of the document type and level you want to edit (the single document, Level 1+, is probably what you need, but just check the preview area below as you click through them to see where the prefix shows up) and then click the “Modify” button. In the new panel that comes up, click “Title Settings…” and you’ll be able to edit (or delete) the prefix that’s being applied:
Thanks Jennifer,
I admit that I only skimmed through the first time I read your post, as I had limited time, so I didn’t catch the info about the modify button. I did see the info about the single document “Level 1+” with the check box marked in the “Title” column. Unchecking that box while leaving the rest checked fixed the problem.
I went back and reread your post just now, and saw that there was another way to do it, but it seems to be fixed now at any rate 
Thanks so much! Happy writing, Lunarclipper