Can the page margins be set in compile? Depending on one’s target submission format, page margins will vary and the margins are already set somehow. Is there a UI to change page margins? Or is one perhaps planned?
To do this on a page by page basis and for pages that already exist, click “Format > Show Ruler”. The program will display a ruler above the document where you can set indents, tabs and margins by dragging the sliders or left-clicking in the ruler.
To make new pages use a given indent-tab-margin scheme, click “Tools > Options > Editor” and manipulate the ruler there.
If you want to format multiple existing “files”, set up the desired format under “Tools > Options > Editor”, select the “files” you want to format (Ctrl+A to select all - Ctrl+Click to manually select “files”), then click “Documents > Convert > Formatting to Default Text Style”.
Hmmm… Perhaps we’re talking about different things. I am not referring to the margins of the editor. Those margins, as I understand it, are relative to the margins specified by the output format. And I don’t see any way to set the editor’s right margin and make it “stick” upon compile. But perhaps I am missing something.
I recently output the same project to doc, odt, pdf, ps, rtf, and txt formats.
As I looked at each output file, the page margins for rtf format (viewed in WordPad) were 0 inches on the left and (assuming 8.5x11, I guess) the text occupies 6 inches (the right margin is 2.5 inches). In odt format, the top/bottom/left/right page margins were .79 inches. In doc format, the left/right margins were 1.25 inches and the top/bottom margins were each 1 inch.
Those are the margins I’m talking about – page margins – not the editor margins. And since the rtf page margins are different when viewed in WordPad and in LibreOffice, I have a feeling, though I haven’t researched it, that page margins are not specified at all, and what I am seeing are simply each formatter’s default page margin settings. But I’m not sure about that.
I am trying to output Shunn Short Story manuscript format and I would like 1 inch page margins all around, that is, top, bottom, left, and right. I see no way in the current UI to alter an output format’s page margins.
Am I missing something?
And let me state my overall goal: Given a Scrivener project that uses only unstyled text (also no graphics, tables, or even lists), output an industry standard submission format. Further, it is recognized that any work that involves page numbering or headers or footers is the responsibility of the chosen word processor, not Scrivener.
I’m pretty sure I’m on the edge here. I would like to be able to control a format’s page margins in Scrivener. In formats where that makes sense.
This might help.
- Open compile window.
- Click on 3 dots to expand dialog.
- Click on formatting pane.
- Select the folder or text option you want to change.
- Click modify.
- Change indents using ruler.
- Repeat as necessary.
There should be a a page pane in compile eventually like the Mac version that should give you more overall control but it hasn’t been implemented yet.
@StaceyUK: Thanks for the reply. But, again, aren’t those Scrivener’s text margins and not the page margins of the output target? I’m pretty sure that’s the case.
And note that if I used this to work around the problem for now, since odt and doc have different page margins, I would have to change the margins depending on the selected output target. And it doesn’t deal with the bottom margin at all.
For me, this is important because I might have restrictions of which markets will accept which format.
Good to hear there is a page pane in the Mac version. That indicates to me that the issue was recognized and accommodated. Now all I have to do is wait. That’s very good news.
(But I have work I have to submit by the end of the month, and … 
)
So I may have to settle on one Scrivener output format and then write a little program to post process that output to handle the things that I need that Scrivener currently doesn’t do. Today, I think those things are (a) page margins, and (b) properly single-spaced and centered separators in a double-spaced document.
Being a software engineer myself, I know everyone is working as hard as they can to make this Windows product the best it can be.
And if I could interject, based on my parenthetical above, I’ve noticed that more than one writer has begun using this Windows BETA version in a more, I guess I would say, “professional” context. That is, folks have begun using it to submit to editors and work toward final copy. I think that’s great. And I think it points out:
- how good the product currently is
- how much need there is for the product among Windows-based writers
Both good signs.
regards,
-jim
I think Stacey already answered this, but yes, the page settings will be coming to the compile pane so that you can deal with margins, paper size, etc. there in compile. You can fake it a little now by changing the left and right indents in the ways mentioned above, but that’s always going to be relative to your true margins. (And it won’t affect your separators, although at this point since they’re not compiling centered as they should it hardly matters.) For now you’re probably best off just adjusting the margins externally and leaving the indents alone.