I’m new and learning. Each time I want to view the formatting of my ebook, I’m having to use COMPILE saving my document as a pdf. I would like to know if there is an easier way to accomplish seeing how the document will appear in final form without going through the COMPILE process each time?
Since Scrivener is not a WYSIWYG environment, there’s no way to avoid compiling if you want to see the actual result of your settings.
You might try compiling for Print instead and then use PDF preview. That works for me.
Hope this helps!
What is it that you think you gain from reading the eBook/PDF/doc/docx version of your project that you can’t get from Scrivener itself? You might find View > Page View > Show Page View and View > Page View > Two Page Across useful but you really should ask yourself why you feel it essential to keep view the formatting, which is a (the) final stage of the writing process.
I compile my projects to eBook (EPUB) format on a regular basis but only because the iOS version does not yet exist. So I use these versions for my revision work while away from my desk. I annote the EPUB version and then email the notes back to myself for incorporation into the text. This has nothing to do with formatting. Once Scrivener for iOS is released I’ll drop that idea and stick with Scrivener for everything from initial idea through writing on into revision and only when final copy is absolutely necessary will I resort to Compiling the project.
You say you’re producing an e-book. Do bear in mind that e-books don’t really have “pages” and that much of how they will appear is up to the reader … font, size, page background colour, etc. and as the author you can’t really legislate for those. So while previewing your book may help you get near to what you want, it really stops there.
For instance, I generally use a different font from my wife; she likes it larger anyway and increases the size when she is tired, which I tend not to. I have my pages a light sepia with black print during the day, but switch to a black background with sepia print at night.
So previewing what it’s going to be like through PDF or on paper doesn’t mimic that. And even if you compile and run it through your e-reader, your readership may well change many of the parameters.
Mr X
What Mr. X said. Not only is Scrivener not a WYSIWYG editor, ebooks are not a WYSIWYG format. It is extremely difficult to “force” an ebook to any particular layout beyond the most basic titles, section breaks, and so on.
Katherine
Thank you for all of the responses.
I think I was able to accomplish what I was looking for in the “Scrivener Mode” which you cannot view unless you have selected DRAFT in the binder first then, select the Scrivener Mode. I can then scroll through my entire composition. Which is what I was looking for.
Actually you can use Scrivenings mode with any number of documents selected not only the entire Draft folder(*). Click a document then using the normal Mac convention click a different one while holding down the Shift key and they’ll all be Scrivening-ed. Even works with clicking and holding down Cmd, which is useful if you’re aligning the contents to two section at either end of the Project.
(*) Works in other folders too; Research, Templates, etc.