Hello, I am new here so this may be a user error moment. My text wrapping is not functioning unless I copy and paste from a different source like pdf or doc form. If I start typing in a new document on scrivener it stays on one line forever and does not jump when it reaches the right indent marker on the ruler.
I have it set to “Show page view”. I also have it set to “Fixed width” and it is still continuously writing on one line.
Anyone have any ideas? Or is this a bug with new update?
Page View and Fixed Width are opposing modes, they cannot be running at the same time and would contradict each other. The main question I would have is if you turn Page View off, so that you can see your fixed with settings, does it work better?
Fixed Width is somewhat inaccurately named in that it works more like a maximum width. If the window is narrower than 620 then it will wrap to the window width.
Page View on the other hand won’t do that, and yes you can easily end up with lines running wider than the editor, especially if you zoom way in, or set landscape paper settings (see File ▸ Page Setup... and check for unrealistically huge paper sizes too). So if you really do want page view, those are some things to check, to make it work better. Something I like to point out to new Scrivener users is that, unlike a word processor, the zoom setting is not your only tool for making text easier to read. Scrivener is designed around the notion that the font you write with need not be, and maybe even shouldn’t be, what you print with. If 24pt sans is what you find the most comfortable, use that and leave the zoom at 100%. You’ll be able to get your 12pt TNR, or whatever you need, when you export.
As for pasting from a word processor being the solution—well in that case you’re probably just copying over heavy right indents, which isn’t ordinarily necessary (or even desirable).
Thank you so much for all the tips. I attempted turning page view off and leaving fixed width on, still had same text wrapping issue. I switched to page view on and fixed width off and continued to have same issue. I was in zoom 100% for both. I did just uninstall and reinstall the app and that fixed it.
I never thought about changing my font size instead of changing the zoom. I really appreciate that tip.
While I obviously can’t say what caused your problem, I would like to point out that there is nothing wrong with zoom in general. I have been using Scrivener with 200% zoom for what will be two decades in the not too distant future and it has never caused me any problems.
Of course, @AmberV is right that it is one of the great features of Scrivener that you can write in any font[1], size, colour, etc. you want, and leave it to Compile to give it the final form you want, or a publisher or editor demands.
But it is also true that other software does not work this way. It makes copying and pasting a lot easier if you use the same font in the same size in all your rich text applications (e.g. a note-taking application). And if you also print or export from those other applications, the result is likely to be as-is. Which could mean in a font that is too big, as opposed to a font that is the right size for printing but is zoomed in when writing.
For Compile to work seamlessly, this font family should have italic and bold and bold-italic (and possibly small caps) variants, or you should use Character Styles that can be compiled into these variants. ↩︎
Totally agree. Zoom is easier to manipulate quickly than changing the font size. If you decide a font is too big later then must convert the project text. With zoom you cans quickly adjust up or down archiving improved readability and changing the zoom size can be helpful when editing to make the text look different when editing to make it easier to spot errors and can zoom inspector notes and the QRP panels.
But again, if you strongly prefer Page View, then zoom just gets in the way of things since it causes the issues described in this post. It’s hardly a unique problem, most word processors and text editors with this kind of layout option are awkward about zooming.
I’m not commenting on whether zoom should or should not exist entirely, or if it has no merit. I am just saying if you have it so pumped up that it makes it feel as though lines never wrap in your preferred editor setup, then maybe another approach will work better.