2. Customizing Your Work Environment

Writing is an interesting enterprise. On the one hand, we can work just about anywhere. I once sketched out an entire scene on a bib in the dentist’s chair. On the other hand, we can be incredibly picky about our work environment. This is especially true of our computers. If your workspace doesn’t suit your personality, it’s hard to get the words to flow.

Scrivener understands the need for writers to have control over their creative environment. Some writers need a lot of visual stimulation while others need a minimalist setup in order to focus. To that end, Scrivener’s Preferences (Options in Windows) are numerous. To access the preferences window, choose Scrivener, Preferences (or press Cmd-,) on the Mac or Tools, Options (or press F12) in Windows.

This chapter focuses primarily on the preferences that control the visual aspects of your writing environment. When you enter the Preferences (or Options) window, you see several tabs that are not covered here, such as Navigation, Corrections, Import/Export, and Backup. Those options are covered in the appropriate chapters throughout the rest of the book.

Select or deselect the Show Template Chooser When There Are No Projects Open check box (Show Start Panel When There Are No Projects Open in Windows) to determine if the Project Templates window automatically displays when there are no open projects.

If you make use of QuickReference panels on the Mac, you may want to select the check box to Reopen QuickReference Panels When Opening Projects. This is convenient if you need to quit your work while you’re in the middle of referring to multiple documents.

Scrivener is updated on a regular basis, with bug fixes and the addition of minor features to the program. To stay on top of these updates, select Automatically Check for Updates, and then choose an interval to perform the check.

If you are particularly worried about losing documents, you can set Scrivener to take Snapshots of any changed text documents whenever you perform a manual save (File, Save or Cmd-S). This is a Mac-only option, however.

If you have not titled a text document, Scrivener can name it when it saves the project. If the Automatically Name Untitled Text Documents Upon Save option is selected, Scrivener uses the first few words in the text as the document name. You can, of course, rename the document at any time.

The Services preferences in Scrivener control how Scrivener behaves when you use one of its related services within another app. You can choose to bring Scrivener to the front after you use the services so you can immediately add your own notes or format the text, for example. You can also choose to be prompted to title a new clipping in Scrivener.

• Merged Documents: Controls how text is separated when you use the Documents, Merge command to combine multiple documents into one

• Append Clippings Service: Separates new text when you use the Append to Current Note or Append to Current Text services to clip a selection into Scrivener

• Append Selection: Separates selected text when you use the Edit, Append Selection to Document command

• Scratch Pad Notes: Controls the separation of text appended from the Scratch Pad into a text document

For each of the four types of selections, you can choose to separate the new text with a single return, an empty line, or custom characters.

Scratch Pad notes are stored in Rich Text Format (.rtf) by default. Rich Text Format is compatible with a wide range of other applications, so it should suit your needs. If you prefer to save your notes in Plain Text Format (.txt), which is an option on the Mac, use the drop-down menu in the Default Format option to select it.

The highlight color in the Binder is controlled by the Mac OS X System Preferences rather than by the Scrivener Preferences. When the Use Source List Style check box is selected, the active document in the Binder is highlighted by the color you select in the Appearance color of the General tab in the System Preferences. If you deselect this option, the Binder uses the Highlight Color instead.

Both Mac and Windows users have the option to Show Subdocument Counts. If this is selected, the Binder displays a badge showing how many subfolders and subdocuments are within each folder and document.

You can also choose to alternate row colors on the Mac. This option applies two different shades of the Outliner Background color to alternate rows. In Windows, change the Outliner Background and Outliner Alternate Background colors in the General list.

If you have a slower Mac, you may want to disable Smooth Text and Line Art in PDF Documents in order to speed up the visual rendering of PDFs if you magnify them.

The Project Targets tools use gradients to display your progress toward your writing goals. If you prefer to see a more distinct transition as you reach your 50% and 100% goals, deselect the Target Progress Bars and use the Smooth Transition Between Colors option.

You can use the color associated with the Label tag of an item as a background color for that item in the Binder, Corkboard, and Outliner. Adjust the Opacity of Label Colors When Used in Backgrounds slider to set the vividness of the label color against the background color of the Corkboard.

To change the color of an element in Scrivener:

1. Click a category in the left column, shown in Figure 2.4.

2. Choose a specific option in the middle column.

3. Click the color well on the right to open the Colors dialog box, shown in Figure 2.5.

4. Select a color from the color wheel or one of the other color selectors.

5. Click the Close button to close the Colors dialog box.

The color change is immediately visible in the Scrivener interface, even while the preferences window is open. If you have a large display, you can arrange your windows to view the main Scrivener interface while customizing multiple color settings so you can see how your changes work together.

Some options allow you to set a texture instead of a color. This allows you to use an image file as a background for the various Background or Paper options. Images that tile well work best here, and the smaller the file size, the better. To set a texture, click the Choose Texture button, and then navigate to the file you want to use. Double-click on the file or select the file and click Open to return to the Appearance tab.

There are too many customizable interface elements to list here. If you’re in doubt about an option, try setting it to a particularly bright or dark color and then poke around the interface to see the changes. Once you know what’s what, you can select the color that suits your needs.

If you use the Full Screen option on the Mac, you can choose to set different colors for the major features. To enable this feature, select the Use Different Colors in Full Screen check box above the right column. This adds another category for Full Screen. Personally, I don’t prefer to use different colors for the same exact interface, but others might want to change the color of the Editor page to a less glaring color or mimic their Composition mode color settings.

Images attached to index cards appear as snapshots on the card in the Corkboard. If you deselect the Display Images as Photographs option, the Corkboard always displays the synopsis rather than the photograph. Similarly, you can toggle the Always Show Synopsis Rather Than Image by Default in Inspector check box to show either the synopsis or image in the Inspector.

Index cards appear on the Corkboard from left to right by default, but if you use a right-to-left language, you may prefer to reverse the card order.

Scrivener for Mac has two types of Corkboards, as you discover in Chapter 6. To change the background for either the Corkboard or Freeform Corkboard, click the current setting and choose a different pattern. The drop-down menu also provides options to set a custom background or color. When choosing a custom background, choose an image that will tile well.

The index cards can be either square to mimic a physical card, or rounded. Mac users are limited in the appearance of the index cards, whereas Windows users can choose a card shape and then fully customize the colors of the divider and lines in the Appearance tab.

The pins on an index card assume the color of the Label assigned to that item in the Inspector. On the Mac, pins can be positioned in either the center or right side of the card if you use one of the two square index card options. If you opt to use rounded index cards, the pin is replaced by a square chip in the upper-right corner of the card. In Windows, use the Label Indicator option to select either a Corner Mark or a Pin.

The Status tag you apply to an item in the Inspector can be displayed as a watermark across the face of index cards. The watermark appears beneath any synopsis text you add to the card, so your synopsis always remains visible, but you can control the opacity using the Status Stamp Opacity slider. Figure 2.7 shows some of the configurations you can create using the different index card, pin, and status tab options.

You can alter the appearance of the shadow beneath each index card by adjusting the Corkboard Shadows slider. This option is referred to as Index Card Shadows in Windows.

• Index Cards Title: The document title that appears at the top of the index card in both the Corkboard and the Inspector.

• Photographs Title (Mac Only): The title of an image on an index card.

• Index Cards Text: The text of the synopsis on an index card.

• Small Text: An alternative font that can be used on index cards when the Use Small Font option is selected in the Corkboard Options.

• Status Stamp: The stamp that appears on index cards to reflect the status you’ve set for an item. This text is automatically resized to fit the index cards, so you don’t have to worry about the font size.

When you double-click on the Corkboard itself, you can set it to either open the parent of the current Corkboard (also known as the Enclosing Group) or create a new card. I suggest setting the double-click action to Creates a New Card when you’re plotting and drafting your novel, as that’s when you’re most likely to be creating a lot of new index cards. You can change this preference to Opens the Parent Corkboard when you reach the editing phase of your work, as that’s when you’re more likely to be moving around the folders and file groups in your manuscript to get a broad overview of how the story flows. You can also set this option to Does Nothing.

On a Mac, if you select the Always Creates a New Card in Freeform Mode check box, double-clicking while in a Freeform Corkboard always creates a new index card where you clicked, no matter what option you choose for the standard Corkboard. Deselect this check box if you want the Freeform Corkboard’s behavior to mirror that of the standard Corkboard.

In Windows, you might want to display the Binder, another document, or keep some other element visible. By arranging the Scrivener window and the Composition/Full Screen mode paper alignment, you can use the background fade slider on the control strip to view or hide the window.

If you have two or more displays hooked up to your computer, you can select the Use Secondary Screen If Available option to open the Composition window on your second display. This enables you to keep the main Scrivener interface open on your primary display.

If you want to completely avoid distractions while writing in Composition mode, select Blank Out Other Screens. This fills your other displays with the background color. Of course, you can also just turn off your other displays, but this option can be useful if you want to avoid distractions while you’re writing but also want the ability to exit Composition mode and have your other open applications immediately available on your desired displays.

There are several ways to exit Composition mode and return to the main Scrivener interface. If you want to use the Escape key as one of them on the Mac, select the Escape Key Closes Composition Screen option. In Windows, the Escape key always closes Full Screen mode.

The Show Notifications When Saving option is selected by default to provide a notice whenever you manually save your project. If you are using OS X 10.7 (Lion) or higher, this option uses the Notification Center. If you are using OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or below, this feature requires the use of Growl, a third-party application that provides notices about other apps and activities on your Mac. If you don’t have Growl installed, this option is grayed out.

The insertion point blinks by default. If you find this to be distracting, select Disable Insertion Point Blinking. You can also adjust the width of the insertion point. The default width is 1 pixel. If you choose to disable the blinking of the insertion point, I suggest increasing the width of the insertion point by a couple of pixels to make it easier to locate in a sea of text.

There are five types of scrollbars available in Composition mode:

• Regular Scroller: Uses the default scroller from the operating system. If you’re using OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, the scrollbar automatically hides unless you move your cursor to the edge of the paper.

• Standard Full Screen Scroller: Uses the default full-screen scrollbar from the operating system, which is always visible if there’s more than one screen of text in the document.

• Auto-Hiding Scroller (Uses Text Color): The scrollbar uses the same color as your text. Use this setting in conjunction with the Override Text Color with Color setting in the Customizable Colors panel. This scrollbar automatically hides unless the cursor is moved to the edge of the paper.

• Minimalist Scroller (Uses Text Color): This setting is similar to the Auto-Hiding Scroller but uses a softer hue and is more rounded.

• No Scroller: If you don’t want to see any scrollbar at all, use this option. You can still scroll through your document with your mouse, trackpad, or arrow keys.

On the Mac, you can also use a texture for the paper. In this case, you should choose an image that won’t interfere with your text. If you search on the Internet for “paper textures,” you can find dozens of options. Just remember that the image will tile, so images with borders won’t work well.

The Editor tab, shown in Figure 2.9, controls the flow of text in the Editor. The formatting of the text itself is the purview of the Formatting tab, covered in the next section of this chapter.

When you search your project, Scrivener highlights any text that matches your search criteria. Enable the Typing Clears Search Highlights check box if you want these highlights to disappear when you resume typing in the document.

As with the similar feature in Composition mode, you can choose to highlight the current line in the document to make it easier to find your place. Set the highlight color in the Customizable Colors panel of the Appearance tab; choose Editor and then Current Line Highlight.

Hyphenation is disabled by default and is rarely necessary in Scrivener. If you use full (left and right) justification, you may want to select Use Hyphenation to automatically hyphenate long words at the end of a line.

Kerning is the space between letters on a page. The Use Fine Kerning setting enables Scrivener to make finer adjustments when you zoom in and out of text so it appears better on the screen.

If you are using Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or higher, the Auto-Detect Dates, Addresses, Etc. option enables the operating system’s data detection tools to recognize dates and addresses and enable you to add them to your calendar or contacts list. This feature is rarely of use to fiction writers, and, in fact, having your character’s locations or dates in the story highlighted for potential use may be quite annoying. Fortunately, this feature is disabled by default.

When you draft a scene or chapter, you may want to increase or decrease the size of the text to ease eyestrain. Using the Text Scale tool, you can do this without changing the actual font size of the text. The Default Text Zoom can be adjusted to provide an initial scale setting.

The Editor and QuickReference panels can display rulers to make it easier to set tabs and indents in a document. The Ruler Units setting allows the ruler to use centimeters, inches, picas, or points as its unit of measure.

The Typewriter Scroll Line setting controls the current insertion point’s position within the Editor window when typewriter scrolling is enabled for that specific editor. The default setting is Middle of Screen, but you can change this to the top or bottom quarter or third of the screen if you want.

As with Composition mode, the insertion point blinks by default unless you select Disable Insertion Point Blinking. Likewise, the Use Block Insertion Point Of setting controls the width of the insertion point to make it easier to locate in the Editor window. In Windows, this setting affects both the Editor window and Full Screen mode.

The Margins settings control the space between the text and the edge of the window. Adjust the Left/Right margin to set whitespace between your text and the Binder and Inspector. The Top/Bottom setting is only useful at the top and bottom of a document, so the default is usually fine.

On the Mac, the Default Editor Width controls the size of the Editor. If you resize the window using the Zoom command in the Window menu, Scrivener maintains the Default Editor Width for the Editor and adjusts the Binder and Inspector accordingly. Click the Use Current button to make your current Editor width the default. If you set the default to zero, Scrivener always makes the Editor as large as possible on the screen.

If you enable the Use Fixed Width setting, Scrivener maintains the default width of the page even if the Editor is wider. Any extra space is filled with a background color. If you use this option, set the background color in the Customizable Colors panel of the Appearance tab. Choose Editor and then Fixed Width Background.

The page is centered by default, so any background colors appear on both the right and left sides of the Editor. You can align the page to the left side of the Editor by deselecting the Center check box.

If you work in Scrivener in Full Screen mode, the Editor can become quite large, making it harder to focus on a reasonable amount of text in a line. Click the Full Screen Only check box to constrain the width of the page when you’re in Full Screen mode, even if you don’t choose to use such limits when working in a smaller window.

To enable Page view, select Show Page View in New Projects. If you want to view two pages across instead of one, select Use Facing Pages in New Projects. You can also choose to Center Pages to align the page in the middle of the Editor. This setting only affects future new projects. To enable it on a per-project basis, select View, Page View, Two Pages Across from the menu.

To view the printable area on the screen, choose Show Margin Guides. This draws a border on the page. You can also add a shadow around the page to form a border between the page and the background color. If you display two or more pages, the Spacing Between Pages option puts the set number of pixels (the default is 20) between pages.

When using Page view, your onscreen page can match either the printed page size or a custom size. For the Printed Page Size option, Scrivener uses either the settings in the Page Setup window (File, Page Setup) or the settings you choose in the Compile options (File, Compile, then choose Page Settings). For the Custom Page Size, set the overall paper size and the margins.

Set indents and tabs on the ruler below the formatting bar. You can do this as follows:

• Change tab position: Click on one of the right-facing triangles and drag it to the desired position on the ruler.

• Remove a tab: Click on a triangle and drag it off the ruler.

• Add a tab: Click on the ruler where you want to position the tab. In Windows, double-click to add a tab.

• Change the first-line indent at the start of a paragraph: Click on the downward-facing triangle and drag it to the desired position on the ruler.

The Nietzsche quote beneath the ruler displays a preview of your formatting selections. In Windows, the order of options on the formatting bar is different, but the elements are the same.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if you’ve already formatted text to your liking in the Editor. Instead, click within a paragraph that’s formatted as you want and then click the Use Formatting in Current Editor button in the Formatting preferences tab, and the default text takes on those attributes.

The Formatting tab also lets you set the Writing Direction. In most circumstances, the default Natural setting is appropriate. If your operating system is set to one language but you usually write in a different language, you can adjust this option accordingly.

Project and Document Notes, usually found in the bottom pane of the Inspector, have their own font setting. To change the default, click the current font and choose another from the Fonts dialog box. In Windows, you can use different fonts for both Project and Document Notes, and both are set in the Appearance tab.

If you enter hyperlinks in a document, they are underlined by default unless you deselect the Underline Links option. When you annotate text within the Editor, it changes the color of the text and adds a bubble outline around the selected text. On the Mac, select the Do Not Color the Text of Inline Annotations option if you want annotated text to appear in the default font color. This setting fills the bubble outline with the annotation color.

If you are unsatisfied with the default fonts for comments and footnotes in the Inspector, change them in the Formatting tab just as you made other font adjustments. You can opt to position footnote markers before or after the punctuation of a sentence. The Terminate Footnotes and Comments Before Punctuation option is helpful if your work requires you to add footnotes to text within the punctuation of a sentence instead of following a sentence.

Scrivenings is the term for viewing multiple items in the Editor at once. This View mode is useful when working on the transitions between scenes or chapters or when you simply want to view a chapter or your entire manuscript at once. The Separate Scrivenings with Single Line Breaks option divides each document with a line break rather than the more obtrusive graphic divider. If you want to see the titles of each document in your Scrivenings (using View, Editor, Show Titles in Scrivenings), set the Scrivenings Title Font and appearance options to control how this is displayed.

1. Click the Manage button that appears at the bottom of every preference tab, as shown in Figure 2.11.

2. Click Save All Preferences (Save Preferences in Windows) to save all of your preference settings.

3. In the Save dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to store your preference files.

4. Enter a name for the file. Choose a name that reminds you of any key settings you selected, which makes it helpful to distinguish if you create multiple preference files.

5. Click Save.

To load a saved preference file, simply click the Manage button and then choose Load All Preferences (Load Preferences in Windows). Navigate to the .prefs file and double-click on it.

1. Click the Manage button at the bottom of the Preferences window.

2. Select Save All Preferences As Preset.

3. In the dialog box, shown in Figure 2.12, name the preset.

4. Click OK.

Of course, once you save your preferences, you have the option of sharing them with other Scrivener users. Once you’re an experienced Scrivener user, you may want to share your preference files with a newbie to help him or her get started with all the most useful settings already selected.

To save theme preferences:

1. Click the Manage button at the bottom of the preferences window.

2. Select Save Theme Preferences.

3. In the Save dialog box, shown in Figure 2.13, navigate to the folder where you want to store your preference files.

4. Enter a name for the file.

5. Select which fonts you want to save with the theme preferences.

6. Click Save.

Save theme presets using the same steps as saving preference presets. When prompted for a filename, you are also prompted to select which fonts you want to save with the theme.

When you begin working on a project, you might need only the Corkboard so you can throw ideas up without worrying about their order or tagging it with meta-data. Later, you might use the Binder along with the Corkboard as you tease a story out of all those bits and pieces. At some point, you might want to use the Inspector along with the Binder to add label and status tags, choose which files to include in the compiled manuscript, and view comments and footnotes. When you write a scene, you might want to split the Editor into two windows, so you can refer to research in one while writing in the other. Your needs change as your project progresses.

Layouts contain the following elements:

• The size of the Scrivener window, its position on your screen, and the size of each of the open elements

• The visibility of the toolbar, ruler, and format bar

• The toolbar’s icon size on the Mac

• The visibility of the Header and Footer bars

• The Binder’s status—visible or hidden—and whether the Collection tab is visible or hidden

• The Binder’s mode and how it affects documents in the Editor

• The Inspector’s status—visible or hidden

• The Editor’s layout, how the window is split, and whether the Editor is locked in place

• The Group View mode in the Editor—whether each window in the Editor displays the single text mode, Corkboard, Outliner, or Scrivenings mode

• The auto-load state of the editor—if the editors are linked to that, selecting an item in the Corkboard or Outliner loads it in the other screen

• Whether each split in the Editor is in Page view or the standard view

• The Full Screen status on the Mac (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and above, only)

• The Corkboard and Outliner settings (optional)

• The use of label and status meta-data on index cards, in the Outliner, and in the Binder, and visibility of keyword chips on index cards (optional)

1. Open the Layouts window by choosing Window, Layouts, Manage Layouts (in Scrivener for Windows, choose View, Layout, Manage Layouts), as shown in Figure 2.14.

2. Click the plus sign (+) button at the bottom of the Layouts window.

3. Enter a name for your layout.

4. Press Return (Enter).

The pane on the right now displays a preview of your layout, as shown in Figure 2.15. The left column lists the name of your new layout.

Beneath the preview pane are two optional settings you can select with your layout. The Save Outliner and Corkboard Settings option saves the column visibility and sorting in the Outliner and the index card size, ratio, and spacing in the Corkboard. Select Preserve All Meta-Data Appearance Options to save the appearance of keyword chips and the status stamp on the Corkboard and the tinting of documents to match the label tag in the Binder, Outliner, and Corkboard. These settings are optional because you can choose to apply them in a particular instance by toggling the check boxes for the layout before clicking the Use button.

To save additional layouts, adjust the settings in your project and then repeat steps 1–4 above.

• Select the layout from the Layouts window and click the Use button at the bottom of the window.

• Choose Window, Layouts, Manage Layouts (or View, Layout, All Layouts if you use Windows) and choose a layout from the submenu.

• Click and hold the Layouts button on the toolbar, and then select a layout from the pop-up menu.

1. Open the Layouts window.

2. Select the name of the layout you want to modify.

3. Click the gear button at the bottom of the window.

4. Select Update Selected Layout from the pop-up menu.

If you make drastic changes, you notice them in the preview pane.

1. In the Layouts window, double-click the name of the layout you want to rename.

2. Enter a new name for the layout.

3. Press Return (Enter).

1. In the Layouts window, select the name of the layout you want to delete.

2. Click the minus sign (-) at the bottom of the window.

3. A message appears to remind you that you cannot undo this action. Click OK to delete the layout.

To export a layout:

1. Open the Layouts window.

2. Select the layout you want to export.

3. Click the gear button at the bottom of the window.

4. Select Export Selected Layout from the pop-up menu.

5. In the Save dialog box (Export Layout in Windows), choose a name for the exported layout.

6. Select where you want to save the exported layout.

7. Click Save.

If you receive a layout from a friend or want to use a layout you exported from a different computer, either copy the file onto your hard drive or insert the flash drive or other media into your computer. Mac layout files have a .scrlayout extension while Windows files have a .scrivlayout extension.

To import the file into Scrivener:

1. Open the Layouts window.

2. Click the gear button and select Import Layout from the pop-up menu.

3. In the Import dialog box, select the file to import.

4. Click Open.

The imported layout is added to the Layouts window.

On the Mac, customize the toolbar as follows:

1. Choose View, Customize Toolbar from the menu. Alternatively, right-click on the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar from the context menu.

2. Drag icons from the Customize Toolbar window, shown in Figure 2.16, into the toolbar.

3. Drag icons off the toolbar to remove them.

4. Click the Done button when you finish making changes.

If you want to display the name of the button beneath the icon, click the drop-down menu button at the lower left of the Customize Toolbar window and choose Icon and Text. You can also opt to display only the icon or only text. If you want to hide the toolbar completely, choose View, Hide Toolbar on the Mac or View, Toolbar in Windows.

You can return to the default toolbar at any time by dragging the default set from the Customize Toolbar window into the toolbar.

If you want to customize the toolbar in Windows, do the following:

1. Select Tools, Customize Toolbars from the menu to open the Customize Toolbars window, shown in Figure 2.17.

2. Click Main Toolbar in the upper-right pane.

3. Select an action from the Available Toolbar Actions list to add to the toolbar.

4. Click the right-arrow button in the middle of the window to add the action to the Current Toolbar Actions.

5. Use the up- and down-arrow buttons to position the new button where you want on the toolbar.

6. To remove a button, select the action in the Current Toolbar Actions list and then click the left-arrow button.

7. Click Apply to preview your new setting without closing the dialog box. When you’re satisfied with your choices, click OK to save your changes and exit the dialog box.