It’s not a page width and has nothing to do with pagination, it’s a simple pixel width that is designed to keep line-lengths from getting too wide on large screens. As you note, if you don’t like it you can turn it off.
It might be a good idea to run through the “What’s New” appendix in the manual for things like this. I do in fact mention this one and how to switch it back if you don’t like it.
I know, I was actually starting to feel tearful about it (a month of sleep deprivation from Nanowrimo hasn’t helped!)
I did actually search the forums and and the Help for every term I could think of - Wrap, Width - and so on. I didn’t think to search the manual separately. I had also checked the blogs and product feature page.
It took me a while to find it in the manual, even after skipping 800 pages to the What’s New section. In terms of search, it would really be helpful to include the phrase “wrap text” in there somewhere. “Fixed width” was not a phrase that came to mind.
It is quite a stark change to have this new fixed-with editor as the default. I doubt I’m going to be the only one to get a shock, AND struggle on restoring the previous option. So I wonder if it’s worth highlighting this in the key changes list on the website etc, along with the fact that it can be disabled.
I’m surprised people want to turn this off! The column isn’t entirely fixed width. When you reduce the width of the window so that it is narrower than the column of text, then the column will resize to wrap. But it’s well known that very wide columns of text are much more difficult to read than narrower ones. So I set Scrivener 3 to use a default column width a bit wider than a paperback so that it’s not too narrow on wider screens but is still easy to read. It also makes the text a little more stable for navigating at different window sizes. I have found writing in Scrivener so much nicer because of it. I don’t like using page view when writing, but I never liked having text so wide either, so this provides the best of both worlds.
But, as ever, you can of course turn it off if you want, as you have found. I’m going to write a blog post on tips for Scrivener 2 users upgrading to Scrivener 3 and will include this in it. Even if I think you’re all crazy.
I wonder if this isn’t a by-product of the divide between people who feel they need to see their text formatted as closely as possible to their imagine output at all times vs. those who don’t worry about it until Compile.
I’m with you on this one, Keith! On Scriv 1 for Windows, there is no pagination or width options, and I always find myself stretching out the Binder and Inspector to crazy funny widths in order to “narrow” the text box to make it more readable. Upon opening the new Beta and seeing the false “pagination” the OP mentioned, I was super happy!
I’m not familiar with the term as you’re using it. What would that be in opposition to? To me text that isn’t wrapped means each paragraph is on one line and you need to scroll horizontally to read the entire paragraph. There is nothing in Scrivener like that, so referring to it as wrapped, merely because it wraps an inch earlier than it would otherwise, doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m happy to consider it to be clear, like I say I am not familiar with the jargon though, perhaps having come more from a text editor context than Word and such.
That aside, definitely count me in the group that prefers a book-ish wide text column to work in. How anyone can manage writing and editing with a 13" wide line of text is beyond me!
I agree. Another element is that some of us with small screens (I’m on a 13" MB Pro) have kicked up magnification to make text easy to read. My Scrivener default is 200 % magnification, So when I go full screen the lines don’t look (to me anyway) that much longer than they would on a sheet of paper.
I haven’t installed my newly purchased v3 yet because I have a big project to finish in v2 and don’t want to get tripped up in new prefs, functions, etc. But when I do install I will turn off the fixed width option.
I would try the fixed width option before turning it off, David. It’s much improved over Scrivener 2’s, and, as I say, wraps when you narrow the editor.
Fair enough. No sense adding salt before tasting what the chef has prepared! Looking forward to moving up to 3. Just have to finish one more long piece.
I found that once I unchecked the option to centre the editor that I liked the fixed width much better. I tend to sit a bit left of centre with respect to my monitor, so turning off the centring option brought the text back in front of me rather than off to the side. YMMV of course.
I have an 11" MacBook Air, so the main window is not too wide at full width with the binder and inspector visible. If I have a really big screen available I’ll split the editor vertically. Composition mode with its fake little piece of paper in the middle, and the sides empty wasting screen space drives me bonkers. Never use it. First thing I did on iOS Scrivener last year was turn on full width…
Hate narrow width fake paperback. Hate hate hate. Thank you SO much for providing a way to turn it off! <3 (Unlike some other writing software developers I could mention…)
I really like the new version of fixed width that wraps automatically. I go back and forth between an iMac with three 27" monitors and a 15" MBP. I almost always have the screen split vertically with the outline view on the right and the window I’m writing in on the left on either the MBP or the iMac. The only difference is that I have the binder and inspector hidden on the MBP so they only show up if I move to cursor to the corresponding edge of the screen.
I think it only works in Full Screen (not Composition mode) and only if you’re using a single display: Preferences > Appearance > Full Screen > Slide in binder and inspector when hidden
I guess for me the fixed width just didn’t make any sense. It didn’t relate to anything (kind of like when people talk about their writing in terms of “pages” - what does that mean? What font/page size/formatting?)
I drag some documents wide, sometimes narrow, sometimes I split screen. Getting loads of white either side made no sense.
I don’t see why a thing would need to relate to anything in particular in order to be useful. Ever since it was introduced back in v1 the only point of the feature has been to keep paragraph text from becoming 27“ wide or whatever. Even just 13” wide is ridiculous in my opinion. I prefer about 70 to 80 characters per line length, and anything else is a headache.
It exists for the same reason Composition Mode has always had a big blank area on either side of the text column, and why most web pages stop expanding horizontally after a certain point, etc. It has nothing to do with paper (though I think it would be reasonable to suggest that paper is the size and shape it has tended toward because at a comfortable font size, that is what presents a comfortable paragraph width).
I’m glad I’m not the only one who preferred the wide width of text in the editor! This was the first thing I scrambled to change back when I opened Scrivener 3, and after about 20 minutes, I stumbled on it by accident.
What I’ve always liked about Scrivener is that it seems highly customisable, and since it is, I’m not sure why it’s a surprise to anyone that some people might actually like to see as much text as possible while writing (as opposed to a compile format/faux-page size). I use a Thunderbolt display and I’ve always been happy seeing all the text that will fit in the window while drafting. Sometimes during revisions, it’s nice to switch to the page view, but these options are what’s made Scrivener valuable, IMO.
