Section Types and Assigned Layouts: (1) option to see table rather than previews, (2) option to take layouts from types

Scrivener Wish List
1

(1) The Section Layout previews might be helpful to some people, but the format makes it impossible to see at a glance what’s assigned to what. It would be really helpful to have the option to see a table, or even just switch off the previews.

(2) It would be really useful to be able to grab the Layouts from the Format and turn them into matching and pre-assigned Types in the project.

2

  1. In the Compile Format editor, the Section Layouts tab will highlight the layouts that are used in bold, and selecting a specific layout will tell you which Section Types it’s assigned to.

  2. This is what happens if you allow Scrivener to automatically assign types based on the outline structure. See Section 7.6 in the Scrivener manual for more information.

Katherine

3

I should have said that I am using the latest Windows beta. This is what we have at the moment:

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There’s no way of telling at a glance what’s going on.

4

You might try clicking the “hide unused section types” button in the lower left corner.

This isn’t the screen I was referring to, though. In the main Compile screen, edit the Compile Format from the list on the left side, then choose the Section Layouts tab.

Katherine

5

Thanks for your response. I was surprised by your suggestions, since I am reasonably familiar with the various windows, however I still took the time to go back and check.

First:

That just removes some items from the list on the left.

The main issue remains: the unusual interface where you can’t just glance down a table so see what Section Layouts are assigned to what Section Types.

That gives you a lovely table of Section Layouts, but doesn 't have a field for Section Type (and nor should it, since Layout has a one-to-many relationship with Type.)

Really, the logic and flexibility of having Types and Layouts is good, but the interface makes it unnecessarily complicated by squirrelling away entities (you have to go looking for Types) and relationships (You can only see their relationships by clicking each Type),

I have a background in IT, and am therefore used to this kind of structure, but I find it hard to imagine somebody less STEMish grasping any of this with ease, especially since the UI does not embody the relationships.