Spacing of entries down the Binder

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

I have 134 documents listed in the binder. I have been modifying their titles and document text.

All worked fine until I edited #63.

When I completed #63, the spacing between #62vand #63, and #63 and #64 doubled.

Any suggestions on how I return this to normal?

2

Is it still there after you close and reopen the project? It might just be a transient display glitch.

3

Yes. After a shutdown and reboot.
However, I solved the issue.

  1. I copied the text and saved it in a RTF file.
  2. Deleted the problem entry.
  3. Added a new file and pasted back the contents.

Problem disappeared. Don’t know what caused it, but I’ll know what to do if it happens again. :mrgreen:

4

Any chance you included empty lines in the title? That would cause the spacing to look funny.

5

Title text was visible.

6

Sorry, I wasn’t clear; the title text would be visible, but if you had a blank line before and after it, you’d also see those empty lines messing up your spacing. It’s a bit of a long shot, as you’d probably have needed to copy and paste the text into the title or use one of the Set Selection as Title options to get the blank lines in there.

7

There was 1 line of text only, no blank lines above or below. Very similar to a 10pt line of text, with inaccessible 10pt lines above and below.

I double-clicked on the text box, selected the contents with Ctrl+A and deleted the results. That left an same sized text box, with nothing in it.

I deleted the now empty title box. The oversized box disappeared.

I added a new title field and pasted the text from Ctrl+A into this new field. Everything OK.

I see no logic to any of this.

Try this as a possibility.

  1. Before buying Scrivener, I had a novel (approx 97K words) written in RTF in a word processor.
  2. I set up Scrivener using 134 just text files under Manuscript.
  3. I cut-and-pasted the text into the text files in Scrivener.
  4. To help me keep track of my writing, I add a title (bold face) as the first line in each file.
  5. When I’m happy with that line of text, I copy and paste it into the empty title field.

Only 1 out of 134 title fields was screwed up, so I doubt that my technique has anything to do with the issue.

Another peculiarity:

  1. I use “straight quotes” and apostrophes. These all copied over to to Scrivener perfectly.
  2. Here’s the rub working now in Scrivener: When I edit “do not” to “don’t” the apostrophe I type appears as a curly apostrophe.
  3. The solution is time-consuming: I select an existing a straight apostrophe, copy it and paste where needed in the contraction.

I accept this is probably a consequence of importing, and will learn to live with it. Unfortunately, I have 2 more large WIPs to bring into Scrivener. :frowning:

Incidentally, I tried importing my 97K ms, but found it easier to cut and paste. :blush:

8

Hm, I really don’t know what was going on with the extra spacing appearing buggy–glad you found a fix for it, but I’m sorry it was a hassle!

Go to Tools > Options… and click the Auto-Corrections tab, then deselect the option to use smart quotes. To convert existing smart quotes in your text (unless you’ve already copy/pasted the straight ones for all of the), load the text in the editor and then choose Format > Convert > Smart Quotes to Straight Quotes.

Obviously, do what’s easiest, but could I ask what you had trouble with? We might be able to help smooth out the work flow for importing, since that is intended as the simple way to bring your work into a project, and then using the Document > Split commands to divide it into chapters, scenes, etc. as you see fit.

9

Send me a contact email address, and I’ll try and replicate the outcome.

The output surprised me. I’ve used many different “writing” applications and have experienced no issues importing the same RTF file. Horses for courses. :smiley: