Can anyone tell me how to set the default text attributes - font, line spacing, first line indents - for the current project ONLY?
I know that it is possible to set the default text attributes via TOOLS - OPTIONS - EDITOR, but this also changes the defaults for every new project, and every new text file I create in all other existing projects too. I don’t want to do that. I want to set these defaults so that they apply to every new page I create in the current project - but not to any other projects.
It looks like you can do this on the Mac version via TEXT PREFERENCES in the PROJECT menu, but this does not seem to exist in the Windows version. Surely there must be a way of setting the default font and line spacing for one project without also changing the preferences for every other project as well?
My best guess (and what I do) is that you could create template documents in your project (in the Template Sheets folder) which are formatted in the way you want them to be. Whenever you create a new document simply base it on one of these templates (via right-click menu: Add > New From Template and then select your custom designed template) so you are completely independent of the editor defaults.
Creating templates is very easy: Just create any text document and format it the way you want it, then give it a meaningful name and move it to the Template Sheets folder. Done.
I previously tried setting up a text document with the formatting I wanted then creating new documents by selecting DUPLICATE instead of ADD NEW. The problem was that the formatting would only carry across if there was text in the document, which I would then have to delete. If I set the correct formatting on a blank document and then duplicated it, the duplicate document just reverted back to the default formatting and ignored the new formatting on the document I had copied.
I’ve just tried saving a Template Document as you suggested, and the same problem occurs. It works fine if I’ve saved a file that already contains text as a Template, but what I want is a new blank page with the correct formatting. If I save a blank page as a Template and then open a new page from that template, it doesn’t use the preferences I’ve set on the Template - it just uses the main default preferences.
I thought I would be able to set up two different Project Templates with different fonts and then just choose the correct template when creating a new project, but that doesn’t work either. No matter what I do, I cannot save a blank page so that it opens with anything other than the overall default font and formatting.
Yes, you are right. Blank pages don’t work. I did not notice before because in my templates there always is a preceding inline annotation (which I need for my actual writing program) and a little text placeholder, like “Text goes here …” which I overwrite when the template is applied to a new document. I also have predefined sections for the document notes (see image). So in my templates there is always some text, in the text body as well as in the document notes.
Now that I read your post I tried it out and found that even a line break in the template will do. When you start writing in line 2 in your templated document then, text attributes are correct. Have to delete line 1 however, which always uses editor presets. Or: use an inline annotation in the first line (1 single space character will do). Might be a workaround for you.
But I would have expected that templates should also work with completely blank pages. Normally all the format information is stored in the invisible paragraph character at the end of each paragraph. And strange enough, when you start typing in the blank template sheet it works and the text attributes get applied correctly. But in new documents based on these templates Scrivener forgets the text attributes in the first line. I think it is a bug.
This has just been posted in response to a different question I had, but it seems to work here too.
Create a page with text that has the formatting you want. Then save it as a preset by using …
FORMAT - FORMATTING - NEW PRESET FROM SELECTION
… and give that style a name when prompted to call it something.
If you then create a new text document and select the preset you have just created from the Presets dropdown menu (the blue icon that looks like ain inverted “P” in the top left hand corner of the editor) - it will apply those text preferences to the page when you start typing!
It does the same thing as using a Template, but you can apply the formatting you want to a blank document.
Yes, I know about the paragraph formatting presets but they apply for all projects and are thus not specific like the template sheets. But I’m glad that you’ve found a suitable solution.
The preset thing works for me because I do use the same formatting in several different projects - I just don’t want to apply it to every project. I like the fact that the preset is available for use in all projects - but doesn’t affect other projects unless I choose to use it.
