Chapter 12

Setting Up the Compile Options

In This Chapter

Choosing the right format and output type

Selecting the contents and structure of your compilation

Formatting the elements for output

Converting text for use in other programs

Working with e-book and script formats

Scrivener is designed so that you can write in small chunks, but that means when you’re ready to export your project, the software must compile all those bits and pieces of writing into one complete document. For this reason, the process of exporting your work from Scrivener is called compiling.

Think of the Compile function as a team of specialists standing ready to give your manuscript a makeover. You send in the project littered with comments and annotations, and plagued by mismatched fonts, and out comes a groomed and polished manuscript. Or e-book. Or web page.

One key thing to understand about the compile process is that it doesn’t change the look of the original documents in the Scrivener project. It essentially makes a copy of the documents you select to include, applies the changes you desire, and collates them into a new file type (or prints them out).

In an effort to avoid being your go-to cure for insomnia, this chapter doesn’t cover every possible setting available in Compile. But it does take you step-by-step through the must-know and often-confused sections, explaining what they’re for, how to use ’em, and when you need ’em.