Structure Type assigned by default structure matches in Project Settings but not in Binder

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I am setting up structure and need to find out what is wrong if not a bug.

  1. In Project Settings I added Section Types “Part” and “Act”
  2. In Default Types by Structure I set Root Level = Part and Level 1 = Act.
  3. When I select Root Level, Manuscript highlights in the binder. Perfect.
  4. When I select Level 1, the Acts (which are binder separator folders) highlight in the binder. Perfect.
  5. OK (save)
  6. However, back in the Binder when I select Manuscript the metadata Section type is Act and when I select an Act the Section type is Scene (all files default). Why is that??
  7. Next day I open Project again.,
  8. When I select Manuscript in the Binder it doesn’t even show the metadata Section Type, just Project Bookmarks. ??
  9. The Acts still show as type Scenes.

What is going on??

2

The folder called “Manuscript” in your project is what we generally refer to as the “Draft” folder, simply renamed; it is one of the three special default folders (the others being Research and Trash) which cannot have text or metadata of its own. It sounds like when you selected the Manuscript and Level 1 folders in the binder, they opened in the editor either on the Corkboard or the Outliner, with one of the folder’s sub items selected. The inspector shows the metadata for the currently focussed item in the editor, so if you had clicked Manuscript in the binder and it opened on the Corkboard with the Level 1 folder selected there, the inspector would show you the section type of the Level 1 folder: Act. Likewise, if your Folder 1 contained some text documents and opened with one of those selected in the editor, the section type shown would be “Scene”.

The top of the inspector will display the title of the item whose metadata is shown. (The Draft, Research, and Trash do not show a title, as the inspector only displays the Project Bookmarks for these items–you can see this by selecting one in the binder and clearing any selection within the editor by clicking into a blank area of the corkboard/outliner or Cmd-clicking the currently selected item there.)

So it sounds like you have the sections set up the way you want, according to your description for the Section Types. However, since a typical compile is strictly what is contained in the Draft (here Manuscript) folder, and that folder itself is not part of the compiled text, it seems like you may want to bump everything up a level, so that your Level 1 folders are Part and Level 2 folders are Act. Otherwise you never have any Part items compiling at all.