I’ve just run into a bit of a brick wall, here. So I’m working on a Project, and I go to import a .doc file (also tried this with .rtf of the same file). It’s about 250 pages of single-spaced text, nothing fancy like tables or graphics. So it loads in, right? And I go to edit the document. I highlight the entirety of the document, and then change the font size from 10 to 12. And then . . . I get the “spinning beach ball of death” for a minute or so, and then Scrivener either crashes or hangs so that I have to Force Quit.
I’ve done this five or six times with exactly the same result each time. I can’t import this document with Split, because there’s currently no reg-ex in Scrivener (which I would need to split it properly. IMHO, BTW, Scrivener really needs reg-ex support). But anyway. I’ve also tried this with two or three other large documents, with the same result each time. It will import just fine, but when you try to do anything major to the resulting document (like changing the font of all the text or something similar), Scrivener crashes.
I really need some help or insight here, as this has become a serious issue for me; I really need the old version of this novel in Scrivener, to facilitate editing it into a new version, but so far . . . no luck.
I’ve never seen anything like this - changing a font in a large file should be fine. It could take a while, but it shouldn’t crash. What happens if you open the file in TextEdit and try to change the font of everything there? Does it crash there too?
Is this in page layout mode? What if you do it in regular mode? In page layout mode it will take longer because all of the pages will need laying out again.
You could import and split if you add markers to the original file, by the way.
Could you please send a sample file to the support address for testing?
I’ve sent along the files to support, both the Scrivener project and the file I was trying to import. But wouldn’t you know it — it now seems to be working FINE. EEsh. I wonder if it was a problem with the Project file?
Any chance your system was running some heavy processes in the background earlier? A normal short delay in making changes to a lengthy document might come out much worse with the beach ball if the computer just doesn’t have the memory free to handle it.
Well, if it was running anything heavy, I don’t know what it was. I have 8GB on my system, so I don’t know if memory is a problem or not — I don’t think it would be. It’s working now, though, so I guess no harm no foul.
As an aside, I think that Scrivener ought to have some support for some kind of regular expressions, as well as support for searching for and splitting at styles. But then again, maybe that’s asking for way too much — as I’ve said before, I know you’re only one guy, doing what he can . The reason I mention it here is because what I had originally wanted to do was import the file and then split it at every “(bolded text)(normal text)”. That would’ve avoided having to work with the whole file. But like I said, that may be a bit much to ask. But it is an idea for the future!
As I said, it’s working fine now, though, so I guess this was a case of major false-alarmage.
Sorry for taking some time to get back to you on this - I’ve been tied up with something for the past couple of days that has kept me away from work. I’ll have a look at the file you sent a little later, although if it’s all now working fine, I doubt I’ll find much. Let me know if it happens again, though.
Regex is on the tentative list for 3.0. Apple introduced some reg-ex support at last in Lion, so I’ll be taking a look at it - not in the short term, but definitely in the future.
So, Keith, purely out of curiosity — what’s the unofficial timetable on the next edition of Scrivener? Not trying to rush you, or anything; just wondering, is all. And while I’m wondering — just what, unofficially, can we expect it to have in it? Anything really awesome?
Scrivener 3.0? Sometime around Christmas 2013, I’d say. And although I have some things I would like to get in there, I can’t say anything yet, as it’s waaaay to early and there are still lots and lots of versions of Scrivener 2.0 to go.
. The reason I mention it here is because what I had originally wanted to do was import the file and then split it at every “(bolded text)(normal text)”. That would’ve avoided having to work with the whole file. But like I said, that may be a bit much to ask. But it is an idea for the future! 
