Word count on Chapters

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
1

Since the Scrievener binder has a very strict tree-like structure with nodes that go from top toward the bottom, why can’t the “upstream” nodes calculate the word count and % of completion of the “downstream” nodes?

So, if I have this:

[] Chapter 1
[] sub-something 1
[t] Scene 1 - 1000 words goal, 800 complete
[t] Scene 2 - 1000 words goal, 800 complete
[] sub-something 2
[t] Scene 1 - 500 words goal, 300 complete
[t] Scene 2 - 500 words goal, 300 complete

I would expect that [] sub-something 1 infers that its goal is 2000 and 1600 complete, while [ ] sub-something 2 infers that its goal is 1000 and completed 600, respectively. Similarly, the [] Chapter 1 node should “know” that its goal is 3000 words and completed 2200.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to manually set the word count on the top nodes… You have to manually do it every time. The goal, I can see. Maybe there should be a “calculated goal” and a “set goal.” The calculated goal adds up all downstream nodes, while the set goal is manually set. It will allow you to see if your goal expectation for the chapter is way off from the sum of goals for the downstream nodes…

Seems to me that if the system can display the tree, it should also be able to make these calculations… Is there a plan for this, or is there an explanation of why it’s not doable or desirable?

Thank you,

Iulian

2

Scrivener on the Mac has separate fields for Word Count / Target Word Count / Progress and Total Word Count / Total Target / Total Progress, which I think do you what you need to do.

The ‘Total’ fields are all calculated from subordinates.

Ie: In your scenario, you’d give all the scenes targets, but leave the target fields for the Sub-somethings and Chapter 1 blank. The Total Target field for the ‘parent’ documents does the calculation for you.

Similarly, Total Word Count adds up all the Word Count figures for its subordinates, if it has any.

Sorry, I don’t have access to a Windows version at the moment – if those fields aren’t available in the Outline already, then they will be in Version 3, which is due out next year for Windows.

3

Ah, I didn’t see the Total Word count. Now it makes sense… Let me play with it to see if it does what I need. Thank you!!!