Changing Revision Mode Colors

Not a fan of the default revision color scheme used by Scrivener? In that case, you can modify the colors to suit your taste — but keep a couple of things in mind before doing so:

If you change the colors used, any previously applied revision markings are no longer associated with that revision level. So, if you change First Revision from red to yellow, red text isn’t converted to regular text when you remove revisions, nor can you find that text by using the Revision Color setting in the Formatting Finder (although you can search for Colored Text, instead). Refer to the “Finding Revisions” section, earlier in this chapter, for more on the Formatting Finder.

If you’re using Revision Mode with a partner who also uses Scrivener and you change your colors, the revision features don’t work properly when you exchange projects. You must either both use the standard colors or both choose exactly the same set of colors.

To ensure you and your writing partner are using the same palette, you can share your Revision mode colors — and all other preferences. Choose Scrivener⇒Preferences to open the Preferences window. From any tab, click the Manage button at the bottom of the window and choose Save All Preferences from the pop-up menu that appears. If desired, change the filename in the Save As text box. Choose a location from the list at the left, and then click Save.

To load saved preferences, click the Manage button and choose Load All Preferences from the pop-up menu that appears. In the Open window, navigate to the file in the list on the left, and then click Open. Scrivener updates with the preferences from the file.

When you change the colors, you’re changing the palette at the Scrivener level, not the project level. So, all projects use the new color scheme.

If you still want to change the colors, follow these steps:

1. Choose Scrivener⇒Preferences.

2. Click the Appearance button in the window that appears.

3. In the left half of the Customizable Colors pane, select Revision Colors.

4. In the right half of the pane, choose the revision level that you want to change.

5. Click the Color box on the far right and select the desired color from the Colors window that appears.

6. Repeat Steps 2 through 5 for each level that you want to change.

7. Close the Preferences window by clicking the red X button.

To change back to the default color, follow the preceding steps, but in Step 5, click the Use Default Color button.