[v2] Scrivener Screenplay, How to View Page Numbers

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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1

I’m using Scrivener 2.8.1.2 (old) on a Mac. In screenplay mode (imported Final Draft format) I’d like to see the Page Numbers. Can’t figure it out. Can anyone please help?

2

In “page view” mode you should see the page number.

View → Text Editing → Show Page View, or ⌥⇧⌘P.

3

In your copy of the user manual PDF, refer to the following sections:

  • §16.2, Tips for Accuracy
  • §20.2, Using Page View to Estimate Page Counts (but all of Chapter 20 on Scriptwriting may be a good skim).
4

Thanks so much! It worked.

One more question: When I print from Scrivener (still 2.8.1.2 on a Mac) there’s a long, distracting header on every page of my screenplay. I do want page numbers but not the date and time.

Any advice? Thanks!

5

I presume you are printing simply, not using compile, given the description? If so, you’ll find the various print options available in File ▸ Page Setup..., under the Scrivener dropdown at the top. Refer to §26.1, Document Printing, for further information.

Note we do not make any claims about this being accurate or standard, in terms of proper screenplay layout. You should compile to FDX format and open this in a program designed for full page layout, if this is for production use. For proofing and beta readers though, it’s fine.

6

Thanks for you rapid response. What I actually need to do is to submit the manuscript (in Word format) online to a screenwriting competition (The Nicholl Fellowship). I don’t know whether
it gets printed out by the competition’s people.

I’m relatively inexperienced with Final Draft and with Scrivener, both excellent apps.
Can you please tell me whether you meant for me to compile in Final Draft, or in Scrivener?
Thanks!

7

I’m not qualified to advise you on best practices for formatting your screenplay properly for a competition. One of the reasons we insist that Scrivener’s own output is proofing quality is because we aren’t experts at this. We made the FDX compile method so that the script can be opened in programs by people who are. So I do not know if compiling to DOCX is going to be good enough for what you need.

As for what software to use to open the FDX, that’s up to you. Final Draft is certainly a safe option, if you have it, but there are a number of quality tools out there these days that can load that format and do the right thing with it.

8

Thanks, Amber. I do have FinalDraft, but my version of FinalDraft doesn’t export or save files to .doc.

I wouldn’t expect you to know about how competitions operate . I would appreciate any advice about how to do things in Scriverer (which I also have) so that the header consists only of page numbers.

Thanks.

Seth

9

Do the instructions in their documentation not match what you see? Here is the link for your convenience:

They do mention you may have to use RTF, but that will open just fine in Word, and you can save from DOCX if the competition is not aware of RTF being a replacement format.

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