I’ve had scrivener a couple of months and used the manual plenty of times. Today when I went to open it, I got a 7 page document about EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITY (EVA). I have no idea what this document is. I’ve tried to reopen the manual and just keep getting this document instead. How can I get rid of it and get my manual back???
Thanks!
It sounds like part of the PDF that is included in the interactive tutorial; that’s a 22-page document, however, so if you’re seeing only 7 pages, it’s not even a copy of that file but some other modified document. The Scrivener Manual menu option points to a specific file within Scrivener’s installation folder, so it appears this file got modified, while keeping its file name.
You could download the Windows manual from our website to replace it, but given the strangeness of this and that it’s a modification within the installation folder, I’d suggest just a full re-install of Scrivener instead. There may be something else that got messed up within that directory besides the manual PDF. Normally installing over your current version would be fine, but just to be thorough, I’d uninstall your current version and delete the C:\Program Files (x86)\Scrivener folder manually if it isn’t fully removed. (The uninstaller will not delete anything its installer didn’t create, so possibly with the PDF changes here it may err on the side of not fully wiping the directory. Since you want to start with a clean slate, double-check you haven’t accidentally stored anything of your own in here, then delete the folder before reinstalling.) You can download the Scrivener 1.8.6 installer from here.
Your existing projects won’t be affected by reinstalling; they’re saved externally to the program(in your Documents folder by default, though you may have chosen another location when creating the project–make sure you haven’t somehow stored them inside the installation folder). You can also save your program settings before uninstalling by going to Tools > Options… and choosing “Save Preferences” from the Manage menu button. After the uninstall/reinstall process, just return there to load the saved preference file. Uninstalling will clear your Recent Projects list, so you’ll need to navigate directly to the projects via File > Open or Open Existing Project, but once you’ve done so the project will be added to the new Recent Projects list.