Hi. In the Compile screen of my Scrivener (Windows version), Format As: E-book to create an epub file is not retaining the text that I write (Title, Authors, Description, etc).
Any idea how to force it to remember?
The moment I enter anything into the Description box on the Compile as Ebook view, it reverts to the Compile as Custom view.
(Each time I open the Compile screen, it reverts to Format As: Custom - and it remembers whatever’s entered there.)
I have tried the “Save & Close” button on the Compile screen but it made no difference. I also tried saving as a Preset.
Any time you make changes to a preset, such as adding meta-data to the ebook fields, the “Format As” will change to “Custom” since it’s no longer an exact match of that preset. Everything you do there should be remembered if you choose “Save & Close” or “Compile”, so that next time you open compile in that project you don’t need to redo the changes. Is that not happening?
If you want to save the changes into a new preset, so for instance you can load it for other projects, or reload it here after making other changes, use the “Save Preset…” button in the lower left and give the new ebook preset a unique name. It will be added to a “My Formats” section in the Format As pop-up menu.
“Everything you do there should be remembered if you choose “Save & Close” or “Compile”, so that next time you open compile in that project you don’t need to redo the changes. Is that not happening?”
Correct. That is not happening. (I only tried the Preset thing as a last resort.)
Are you using the most recent version of Scrivener, 1.7.3? (Check Help > About Scrivener.) I don’t remember a recent change that would affect this, but if you’re on an older version, please update so we at least know it’s not an older bug that’s already been fixed. I can’t reproduce this at all, so if you could provide the exact steps you’re taking when opening compile, changing the settings, closing, and then re-opening, that would be great.
When you reopen compile, it should still say “Format As: Custom” and have your details in the meta-data, exactly as you left it. Is anything changing for you besides the meta-data details, e.g. is your cover image not being remembered or are formatting details reverting?
Happily it worked last night, to produce a Custom / mobi book.
And this morning, it retained the settings for that, and also happily produced a Custom / epub for me. And retained the settings when I went between the mobi and epub setups.
What changed? The only change I know of was that I turned off several autobackup programs that I am running on my computer (copy.com and dropbox).