Underscore in header keeps underlining on compile

[murph]

Hello - I am new to Scrivener and am using Scrivener 3 on a Mac. Per a set of submission guidelines, I have to format my manuscript with my name appearing in the format of Jane_Doe in the upper right hand corner of every page. I understand that ‘_’ is the Markdown indicator for underlining but even a backslash is not working to escape the Markdown. Nothing is ticked on my Transformations panel and none of the Replacements seem to pertain to underscores/underlining. I am not sure what I am doing wrong - is there anything I can do to preserve the underscore on compile? Many thanks!

[Silverdragon]

There are a couple of things to try.

Least likely to cause other compile complications:

• Select Menu item Scrivener->Preferences…
• In the Sharing pane, in the Export options, untick "Convert underscores to underlines when converting “Markdown”.

If you’re not using Markdown (on purpose ) anywhere:

• Select menu item File->Compile…
• In the gear pane, uncheck either or both of the “Convert Markdown to Rich Text…” and “Convert Multimarkdown to Rich Text…” options.

See screenshots below.

Hope one of these helps!
[attachment=1]Screen Shot 2021-04-05 at 11.42.29.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]Screen Shot 2021-04-05 at 11.41.48.jpg[/attachment]

[murph]

Hi Silverdragon - Thank you for your response but I am afraid I still can’t get it to work. The Compile → (gear icon) Markdown checkboxes were already unticked so those don’t seem to be the culprits. I tried unticking the Preferences → Sharing → Export → ‘Convert underscores…’ checkbox and closed out of Scrivener and reopened it (just to make sure the new setting took), but the underscore is still being converted to an underline on my last name. Thank you for trying though! I really thought the Preferences checkbox might be the answer since I had totally missed that.

[Silverdragon]

Huh! That sounds like a Bug. Nasty little one, too. I’d suggest reporting this to L&L directly via the Bug Report link:

literatureandlatte.com/bug-reporting

One last thing to try, as a work-around:

Pick some weird character (like “§”) that you’d never use in your manuscript. Then set up a substitution in your compile dialog substitution list (or inside your compile format substitutions list; I’d try the main compile dialog first) to substitute underscore for that weird character. If one place or the other works, great!

If not, just leave that weird character in, and compile to an intermediate format (Word, RTF, ODT, etc.) Then in the ordinary word processor of your choice, correct the header. (Or as we said at my alma matter, “there is no technical problem so difficult that it cannot be solved by brute force and ignorance.” ) While it would be nice to solve the problem “right”, if you’re up against a deadline, get 'er done.

Hope this helps!

P.S. If you don’t have Word, OpenOffice works for me. You might also use the free trial version of Nisus Writer, a popular choice for many Mac users on the forums when a Scrivener manuscript needs a minor post-compile tweak.

[Merx]

A workaround.

1. In the header panel, delete the underscore

2. Go to Edit > Emoji & Symbols

3. In the search box, search for “low line”

4. Select and insert a FULLWIDTH LOW LINE (Unicode U+FF3F)

5. The compile should then work (does for me)

Suits your needs?

[attachment=0]compiled.png[/attachment]

Merx

[murph]

@Silverdragon - Thank you for the suggestion and link – I just submitted a bug report. I ended up using a character from the Emoji & Symbols panel that looks like an underscore (but isn’t) and that worked as a temporary fix.Thanks again for your help - because of your suggestions I discovered new parts of Scrivener I had not yet explored!

@Merx - Thank you for weighing in! I actually ended up doing exactly what you suggest but discovered the SUBSCRIPT MINUS first so ended up using that. The FULLWIDTH LOW LINE looks a bit better though so I will have to remember that for next time (in case that comes before the bug is resolved). Thanks again!

[Merx]

Best of luck with the submission.

Merx

[Merx]

I think this is actually by design, rather than a bug.

See the developer’s note here:

https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/leveln-title-losing-underscore-before-processing-in-header-footer-on-compile-to-pdf/38981/4

Merx

[murph]

@Merx - Thanks for the heads-up!

[Silverdragon]

OK, my bad. I found this obscure note in the manual (well, not obscure since it’s in a screaming yellow box, but still…):

@Scrivener 3.2 Manual

Using Special Characters
Since markup is allowed in these fields, some special punctuation marks set aside for markup cannot ordinarily be used. You can however instruct the compiler to ignore special characters. If you need to print asterisks or underscores, you can wrap the fields in double-curly-braces. The entire row needs to be treated this way. So for example if you wished to turn off markup for the header, you would type in “{{” in the beginning of the left-aligned field, and ”}}” at the end of the right-aligned (third cell) field. This would need to be repeated for the footer if desired.

So to do this “right”, you’d need to stick double curly braces in the header row as described above.

It’s not an obvious thing that the Markdown processing in headers/footers would be “always on,” but in a way I suppose it makes sense.

[Merx]

Ah!

Merx

[murph]

@Silverdragon THAT’S IT!! Thank you!! Just tested it on my manuscript and that did the trick - I was able to Compile with my name in the Jane_Doe format. Thank you for being so persistent about finding an answer - hopefully this thread helps others too who might be as flummoxed as I was! Thanks again!

[Silverdragon]

My mother said my middle name was really “stubborn”, but “persistent” is much more flattering. You’re welcome!

[murph]

@Silverdragon LOL! Thanks again!