For now, the difference beetween how I work in scrievener and how it looks after compiling is very difficult to understand.
I am working on a big document (a bible of a serie) and It must be thousand time I Compile just to see how it will look then go back and manage my “scene” again and again…
Finaly thinking… Should i just make a big copy/past in Word and manage my page how I want (realy don’t want to do that, but thinking of it)
My question is : would that be possible to work directly in a compile mode ? Like a kind of preview mode without the ‘offset’ between what I see during my work and what I export to my clients.
This would not be feasible for one very simple reason: try compiling and use a stopwatch to measure how long it takes. That is how long the software would have to pause each and every time you typed in a letter into the editor for your project.
What exactly is it that you need a preview of though? If you’re compiling over and over just to change the formatting, maybe it’s time to move this document out of Scrivener for good and stick with a desktop publishing environment. Scrivener is really more for when you’re just putting words together, not really worrying so much about the look of them.
KB : because it is very difficult to compile exactly how i’d like my final look document.
Amber : Okay, I understand, but it’s sad And yes, maybe I should export my document to Word or something else and setup my page in it. But if want to change some thing after that, i’ll hate to go back to scrivener, and export and again and setup again… etc…
Who is the audience for that “bible”? Is it you, as the author, or eventual readers of the series? If it is entirely for your own use when you write the other books then why are you even compiling it? Keep both projects open in Scrivener and use the “bible”'s Binder to find what you need and then update the actual book. Even if you intend to publish the “bible” as well then while you are writing keep it in Scrivener and exploit all its better tools. Only Compile as the very last step when everything is complete.
But there doesn’t need to be any difference at all. Just select “Original” as the Compile format and it will be compiled exactly as it appears in the editor. Or is that not what you are after?
KB, Reepicheep thanks for your answear… : The audience, is not only for me (if it was, my scrivener doc is good enough), it is to show to producers. It’s an entire bible for a TV serie. It contains characters infos, synopsis per episodes, notes, the entire pilote script, some visuals references, a table timeline, etc… I would like a clear and beautiful document, like pdf.
I know that it can be possible to make something nice because the compiling options are elaborate, but it is so long to setup exactly how i want it I give you some exemple of what doesn’t work :
a Table : in scrivener, the size is good. When i compile, the table size is different (it has to fit the vertical format)… so i must make adjustement, then compile, then adjust again, then compile…
the vertical / horizontal center of some title. You know, like for introducing the pilote or ep treatments.
the separations : beetween text and folder, then text again, and a title… Like i said, it’s possible to manage everything… but i have to try and try and try to have the perfect setup… if it could be directly during my work (like classical software) that would be amazing.
If you are still working on the series and working on the “bible” then I continue to wonder why you are bothering to Compile your “bible”.
If you’re pitching this series to producers are they really going to want to see a “big document”? Surely a couple of pages of synopsis and maybe a sample script or two but a “big” “bible” really? But not the entire thing. Producers will see through the imposed glamour and glitz of a document to the substance; style never makes up for substance.
As to PDF there are several of us here who consider it no better than toilet paper. It contributes nothing to the beauty of a document than does bright yellow paper. Rather it is like better quality paper just the medium that good typographic design is realised upon. The art, and it is an art, of typographic design is best left to those who know about. Using some template in a software package does not constitute good design. The surprising thing is that we all are very good at detecting poor typographic design but few of us are able to create the good stuff.
Those things that don’t work in Scrivener are best left to tools that do them properly like (real) DeskTop Publishing or full-on scriptwriting software. But this is a final act not something to be doing in the middle or beginning of the creative period. If you are still working on the script(s) and the “bible” then it is definitely not ready to be Compile-d. Delay it, delay it, delay it. Especially delay it until you know exactly what it is that those particular producers will want to see and they won’t care too figs for the perfect beauty of presentation.
And yes, maybe I should export my document to Word or something else and setup my page in it. But if want to change some thing after that, i’ll hate to go back to scrivener, and export and again and setup again… etc…