Sudden Font Change

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I have been plagued by this problem since using the beta of 1.5 and then the official 1.5 release. I have not posted on it since I couldn’t figure out how to repeat the problem (which hasn’t exactly changed) but I am going to just throw it up here for feedback. I write in Palatino size 14 font and every now and then, I’ll hit RETURN and when I go to type, Lucida Grande size 14 font is used instead of palatino. If I hit delete a few times to go back to the previous line, palatino returns, or I simply hit cmd + a, cmd + t and then set the font back to palatino. I have checked the settings to make sure palatino 14 is default, and I have spent hours trying to reproduce the problem but it keeps happening randomly. Heres the best I could so for reproducing:

  1. Hitting return twice and then holding shift while hitting backspace once.
  2. Hitting control while holding shift
  3. Hitting return twice while holding shift
  4. Hitting control while holding control, cmd, or option.

Basically I have tried to activate the font change by holding another key down while hitting return, thinking that in the course of my writing my left pinkie may be brushing against a key while I hit return and that is the cause of the problem. The change does not seem to occur when simply hitting return by itself, but all my attempts have occurred randomly so it’s anyone’s guess.

If anyone has any feedback on this I would love to hear it. It would be nice to know I’m not too crazy…

Thanks and hope to hear back soon.

Dan

2

I know that given the sporadic nature of the bug it might be difficult to test, but can you reproduce this in TextEdit at all? This sounds suspiciously like an Apple layer bug, as I don’t think Scrivener even has any functions which modify fonts on the fly like that. Another thing that puts up the red Apple shaped flag for me is the fact that it goes back to Lucida Grande, which is the underlying default. There are other Apple bugs which are known which end up with users in Lucida world, but they all revolve around lists.

It sounds like, somehow, you are getting around the invisible formatting codes in the RTF document. Theoretically that shouldn’t be possible, but that is probably what happens with the list bug, and perhaps some odd combination of movement keys could result in similar.

3

Thanks as always for the quick response, never ceases to amaze me how fast issues are addressed here at the LaL forums. As you requested, I tried to reproduce the problem in TextEdit but to no avail. I will admit though that I only tried for a few different new documents, not nearly the amount I write in Scrivener. I will try to write an entire scene in TextEdit today (we all make sacrifices…) and get back to you. I think you’re probably right about the issue being with Leopard, would a reinstall of the OS do the trick (I’ve been looking for a reason to do a restore, it’s always good to do every now and then)? Thanks again, this site has my vote for best forum on the web, if anyone out there is keeping score…

-Dan

4

I think I figured out a way to reproduce this phenomenon consistently, with minimal keystrokes.

  1. hit shift-return

  2. hit backspace (no modifier keys). The font will have changed to…Lucida, I think? Hard to say, given OS X’s miserable font-selector. This works both in new documents and in existing ones.

P.S. I can’t reproduce this in text edit. Odd.

5

Call me stupid (vic-k does) but what is the point of the shift in #1?

6

Because it is the Shift-Return that is the first step in reproducing the bug. An ordinary return followed by a backspace acts as one would expect. I’ve reproduced it, and analysed what is happening. Very curious, it is doing exactly what I figured it was doing—somehow getting outside of the current RTF code structure. Here is what happens in the guts of the file.

Test line or ordinary Optima 12

[code]{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf430
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Optima-Regular;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\fi560\slleading120\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One}[/code]

I’ll omit the header from now on and just focus on the content, which right now is nothing more than “One” as you can see at the very end. Now I press carriage return

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One\
}

This is a good line-ending. If I type a bit I get this:

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One\
Second line}

Note, not carriage return on the end of the second line yet. Now I press shift-return.

[code]{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf430
{\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 Optima-Regular;\f1\fnil\fcharset0 LucidaGrande;}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
\pard\tx560\tx1120\tx1680\tx2240\tx2800\tx3360\tx3920\tx4480\tx5040\tx5600\tx6160\tx6720\fi560\slleading120\ql\qnatural\pardirnatural

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One
Second line
\f1 \uc0\u8232 }
[/code]

I’ve pasted the full RTF file this time, because note the header has been added to, it now has a new format style \f1, which you can find in the header as indeed being LucidaGrande. \f0 what we have been typing in thus far, is the Optima-Regular style.

Now if I type right now without backspace, I get:

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One\
Second line
\f1 \uc0\u8232 
\f0 Third line}

Back to \f0, curiously. So now shift-enter and then backspace and a fourth line:

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One\
Second line
\f1 \uc0\u8232 
\f0 Third line
\f1 fourth line}

Which is actually adjoined to the third line, but oh well. This one gets \f1, hence Lucida. It does seem to be a Scrivener bug (either that or it is triggering a deeper Leopard bug), as the \f1 comes out of nowhere. The appearance of the RTF under condition A looks identical to condition B, where condition A is 1. Return 2. Backspace; and condition B is 1. Shift-return 2. Backspace. Both look like:

\f0\fs24 \cf0 One\
Second line}

So gibberish aside, moral of the story is: Do not re-install Leopard. :slight_smile:

7

Well I won’t be reinstalling Leopard because of this but I still reserve the right! At least I now know what key combination was causing the error (I was close with my guesses) and I’ll keep my left pinkie away from the shift key when I’m making a new line. Thanks for confirming this problem for me, and for helping me identify the source, as always I am indebted to LaL forums.

Dan

8

So stupid wants to know, was the shift accidental or on purpose? If on purpose what is the intention of the shift?

9

The shift on my part was totally accidental, my left pinkie rests on it and when I get carried away in dialogue I seem to hit it by accident. That’s my best guess but I’m keeping my eye on it. I can’t comfortable keep it on the a key like it should be but all my other fingers conform to the traditional typing position (s,d,f,j,k,l,;). The next step is surgical removal, I’m slated for next week, right after the man who’s getting his thumb bones shaved down for his iPhone.

Dn

10

It does serve a purpose. In the OS X text system, shift+return is carriage return, not paragraph break. So it lets you drop a new line without the spacing, indenting, and the like inherent in the paragraph style. I discovered the bug when I was messing with a bulleted list, trying to get multiple short lines on each bullet point.