It would be helpful if there were two separate script settings files.
A: for settings that apply to all my screenplays
paragraph settings
auto-completes like ‘DAY’, 'NIGHT, ‘FADE IN:’ etc that might be used in any script
B: for settings that are screenplay-specific.
auto-completes for the character names and locations for that particular project
At the moment, each time I start a new script, I have to manually copy and edit the .xml settings file to cut out the old character names (it’s a pain to do this in Scrivener because you can only delete one auto-complete at a time). And if I have to make a tweak to the paragraph settings, then I have to make the change in all of my current settings files.
A second thought:
I wanted to experiment with a different Courier font, and found that I had to change the font for each one of the 20 or so different script elements. It would have been much easier if there was a single setting where this could be changed.
Why not use the Project/Project Auto-Complete list for your settings and characters (or whatever else you want), instead of baking script-specific stuff into your script settings? It’s far easier to add terms to the project list, as well, as you can simply right-click on a new character name and use the contextual menu to add the selected phrase to the auto-complete list.
At any rate, that is the direction the software is going in, so it would make sense to get used to it. Once this portion is fixed up, completions will be element-specific (optionally), and also optionally automatically generated where appropriate (so, more like Final Draft where once you type in a character’s name in a character element, it’s added to the auto-complete list for you).
We could maybe see about a button to apply the font selection to all elements, but would be a bit of clutter for something that is otherwise very rarely done—even more rarely than editing script settings to begin with, which is already rare—plus most scripts do not have anywhere near twenty elements, so all of that is a bit of an outlier case to judge ease-of-use by.
Do you mean that Project/Project Auto-Complete list are going to be element-specific? - at the moment script auto-completes are already element-specific. In the next major update?
I think there’s a problem with this. In script mode, neither the right-mouse nor the keyboard shortcut works. In text mode, only the right-mouse works.
Curious, I’m not seeing that at all–in both script mode and regular mode, the Ctrl+G, Ctrl+A shortcut or the right-click context menu work to add the selected text to auto-complete. (Note the shortcut means you hold the Ctrl key, then type G, then A, then release Ctrl–it’s not an either/or. You could change it to something different in the Keyboard options if you’re using it frequently and want something shorter. Filter for “Completions”.) Are you not getting the context menu at all, or is the “Add Selection to Auto-Complete List” disabled or does it just not add the word to the project’s auto-complete list? Have you tried restarting Scrivener?
The shortcut key for this action in my Scriv was set to Ctrl+Alt+=.
When I pressed this key combo, I just got an ‘=’ at the insertion point.
When I used the right click menu, the entry for ‘Add to Auto-Complete’ was there (with Ctrl+Alt+= marked as the shortcut), but invoking it had not effect.
I tried deleting this key combo and setting it again. No change.
I then changed the shortcut key to Ctrl+G, Ctrl+A.
And now it all seems to work fine.
