Scrivener 3 Express

Ryan van Konsgaard

Scrivener 3 Express

A direct route to Writing, Organising & Completing your book

Copyright 2020-2023 by Ryan van Konsgaard. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted, copied, photocopied, photographed, scanned, in any form reproduced, become available by any means or in any form (physical or digital), without the author's written permission.

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to keep the contents of the book accurate. This book contains information regarding the use of Scrivener 3 by Literature and Latte. The accuracy and/or completeness of the information provided herein cannot be guaranteed. The author and the developers of this program (Literature and Latte) shall not be liable for any loss or damage resulted, directly or indirectly, from the information in this book. The author also reserves the right to alter the information and/or update the contents of the book. Scrivener and its logo is a registered trademark of Literature and Latte.

Disclaimer regarding Windows & Mac versions

With Scrivener 3, Literature & Latte (the company behind it), have striven for feature parity. This simply means that both the Mac and the Windows versions of Scrivener 3 should have the same features and functionality (with only a few exceptions). In this book, I have included screenshots from the Windows version, and in the few instances where there are differences, I also provide screenshots from the Mac version. Generally, this shouldn't be a cause for concern: The Menu outline is the same between the Mac and Windows versions, and the icons look mostly similar between the two. Most instructions in this guide should apply to Scrivener 3 for both the Mac and Windows versions. In very few instances where the procedure is different between the two versions, separate sets of instructions will be provided, along with screenshots from the Mac version, to explain the different approaches. However, the author shall not be liable for failing to disclose, explain or highlight any differences, nor for failing to provide extra instructions regarding the Mac and Windows versions, which might have been omitted from this guide.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Disclaimer

Disclaimer regarding Windows & Mac versions

Foreword

The aim of this book

What are you going to learn using this book?

Introduction

Why use Scrivener?

Scrivener is a simple piece of software to use

Important note

How to use this book

PART ONE: WRITING

Chapter 1: Beginning Your Project

Create a new Project

Chapter 2: Auto-Saving Your Work

Setting up Scrivener to take automatic backups

How to take automatic backups as a zip (compressed) file

Syncing your work — how to access your work from another text Editor

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 3: The User Interface

Main Menu (1)

Binder (2)

Editor (3)

A note on Styles

Inspector (4)

Chapter 4: Creating Your First Chapter

Scrivener Folder structure

How to create your first chapter

Other Ways to Create Folders and Documents

What do Chapters and Documents look like in your Binder

Grouping different Documents together to create new Folders, Chapters or Parts

Scrivenings Mode

Corkboard Mode

The Outliner

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 5: Rearranging Your Chapters & Scenes

Re-arranging items in your Binder

Hoist Binder (Focus mode for the Binder)

Converting Documents to Folders and vice versa

Assigning icons to your Binder items

Splitting a single Document into more Documents

Page View

Deleting items in your Binder

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 6: The Distraction-Free Composition Mode

Composition Mode

Customise Composition Mode

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 7: Streamline Your Writing: Auto-Correct, Auto-Complete, Spell-Checker

Auto-correct

Word Auto-Completion

Spell-checker

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 8: Inserting Comments & Footnotes

Plain comments

Inline annotations

Footnotes

▼ To sum up ▼

PART TWO: ORGANISING

Chapter 9: Organise Your Chapters with Coloured Labels

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 10: Outline Your Plot Using the Corkboard

The Pantser/Plotter Dimension

Method 1: Outline your book chapters in your Binder

Method 2: Outline your book chapters in your Corkboard

Stamps and Labels

Sort by Label

Labels & Colours on your Corkboard

Freeform index cards

Change the Corkboard grid size, colour, background

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 11: Set Your Targets

Project Targets

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 12: Collections

Grouping Items Into Collections

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 13: Synopsis & Notes

Writing a Synopsis

Taking and keeping notes

How to take Document notes

How to add bookmarks

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 14: Putting All Your Research Together

Putting together your research sources

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 15: Split Screen for Efficient Writing

Side-to-Side (vertical) split

Top-bottom (horizontal) split

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 16: How to Assign Characters & Locations in the Outliner

PART THREE: COMPLETING

Chapter 17: Compile

Understanding Compile

Front Matter & Back Matter

Using Compile out of the box

Compile using Compiler's power features

a. Enter your metadata

b. Create your Table of Contents

c. Assign Section Layouts

d. Customise the look of Section Layouts

Compile for other formats

If Compile is not for you, and you want to follow another route…

▼ To sum up ▼

PART FOUR: EXTRAS

Chapter 18: Don't Be Afraid of Changes, Take a Snapshot

The magic of snapshots: how you can always return to the previous version of your Document

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 19: Use Themes to Suit Your Mood

Themes: Dark Mode, Light Mode, setting the perfect ambience!

▼ To sum up ▼

Chapter 20: Export

Exporting single Documents instead of Compiling your whole project

Chapter 21: Search

Project Search

Quick Search

Chapter 22: Typewriter Scrolling

Chapter 23: Easily Locate any Scrivener Command

Chapter 24: Bigger Fonts, More Efficient Writing

Chapter 25: Customisation Options

Customising the Toolbars

Customising the User Interface

Chapter 26: Default Fonts

Chapter 27: Goodies

Scriptwriting

Scratch Pad

Name Generator

Character & Settings Sketch

Project Statistics

Internal Links

Thesaurus, Wikipedia & Translate

Copying Items Between Projects

Importing Your Manuscript From Microsoft Word Or Other Programs

Chapter 28: Postscript

Chapter 29: Shameless Plug with a Wink: Introducing Your Book Writing Coach

Chapter 30: Your Review is Important

Foreword

The aim of this book

Scrivener 3 Express aims to clarify and explain Scrivener's main features, taking one step at a time. It uses a simple and direct approach to help you Write, Organise and finally Complete your book, making it perfect before publication. And while this guide has been designed with the novice user in mind, it also contains a lot of useful and more advanced information that writers can follow to fine-tune their books.

Even though Scrivener is often touted as having a steep learning curve, this book will serve as a visual guide with screenshots* to demonstrate that, in reality, Scrivener is easy to use. How will this be achieved?

There are software guides that first introduce all the features and then try to make sense of them. Other guides are written in big chunks and provide lengthy and often personal discussions. But with Scrivener 3 Express, I have chosen to follow a more direct and less curvy path.

Instead of presenting each feature on its own, the core functions will be presented in context and, especially, in the logical order you would probably use them to write your book.

But even if you don't believe in the logical order of things (and in art, we usually don't), each chapter can still stand on its own so that you can go ahead and read it directly.

That's correct: each chapter usually repeats the main commands from scratch, so if you decide to jump right onto the section that interests you, you should be fine.

What's more, the lengthier chapters have a handy bullet-point summary at the end, which means that you can skip all the details!

How is this book different?

— It follows a no-nonsense route through the main features of Scrivener, suitable for both plotters and pantsers (people who like to plan out everything ahead and those who don't). It is direct and concise at the same time.

— The SEF approach (Simple, Efficient, Fast) means that you can choose to learn only the functionality that you need: While simple when explaining the different features, it is also efficient because it demonstrates everything you need to produce your book. It is also fast: no long-winded discussions and irrelevant stories.

— The SEF approach works in two ways. For people who like to read short paragraphs of text when following instructions, the book provides a basic discussion on the core features. For people who prefer to follow bullet-point instructions, there is a summary section in list form at the very end of the lengthier chapters, allowing them to skip the explanations and move onto the steps they have to follow, without all the bells and whistles.

— It is divided into three main parts: Writing, Organising, Completing (WOC). Extras are also covered in a fourth part, but you can skip them. After all, the WOC method is what you really need to finish your project.

— Of course, screenshots are provided* for most chapters.

— Finally, a bonus section is included that demonstrates how you can assign characters and locations to each chapter of your book. This means you can later view an outline with all your chapters and have the corresponding characters and locations listed next to them.

*A note on the screenshots and differences between the Windows and Mac versions: With Scrivener 3, Literature & Latte, have striven to achieve feature parity. This simply means that both the Mac and the Windows versions of Scrivener 3 should have the same features and functionality. In this book, I have included screenshots from the Windows version, and in the few instances where there are differences, I also provide screenshots from the Mac version, but this shouldn't be a cause for concern: The Menu outline is the same and, between the Mac and Windows versions, the icons are mostly similar. In a few  instances where the two versions differ slightly, extra guidance will be provided. Please also read the disclaimers at the beginning of this publication.

What are you going to learn using this book?

This book will show you how to:

— draft your chapters by displaying them and rearranging them on a visual corkboard like index cards

— store your research

— use split-screen mode to have your research by your side

— use the distraction-free focus mode with a nice background for when you want to concentrate on just your writing

— set auto-correct and word suggestions

— take side notes

— use the Scriptwriting mode to write and organise your scripts

— assign meta-data, such as characters and locations to your documents so that you can later have Scrivener display a list of all your chapters with this information presented next to them

— set word targets

— take "snapshots" of your documents, so you can return to an earlier version and compare it with a more recent one

— set Scrivener to auto-backup your work

— colour-code and label your chapters according to your needs

— search and replace words or phrases in your whole project or in specific parts

— use Scrivener's extra features, like the built-in name generator or see your frequently used words

Lastly, this guide presents the easiest paths you can take to finalise your book by adding a cover image, doing some simple editing and finally compiling an ebook or print book.

All this might sound daunting at first, but believe me: the premise of this guide is to take this simple procedure step by step and smoothly lead you to your finished product.

So now, there's no excuse for not taking the chance to use this cutting-edge software to expertly complete your creation. With Scrivener 3 Express, learning the essential features of this fantastic program is only a matter of hours away… And believe me, once you learn the basics, you will be wondering how you ever wrote your books without Scrivener.

So, let's get on with it!

Dedicated to the memory of Jessye Norman
(September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019)

Introduction

Why use Scrivener?

First of all, what is Scrivener? Scrivener is a piece of software that helps you draft and write long-form documents (for example, books) by breaking them down into smaller, manageable chunks (usually chapters).

So how is this different from your typical word-processing app? The Scrivener website has a great motto: See the forest or the trees. In Scrivener's "Binder", you can see all your chapters and documents in a tree-like structure and focus on each one individually. Or, better still, you can display all your chapters on a virtual "Corkboard" that allows you to have a bird's-eye view of your entire project. This way, you can have Scrivener display your chapters as index cards. Just by moving them around, you can arrange and rearrange their order and play with them any way you want.

You can be a pantser and write on the go, following an original idea without knowing how it's going to turn out, making last-minute decisions and changes to your book, or you can be a plotter, i.e. someone who plans everything ahead and drafts the perfect plot before actually starting to write. Or the term I have coined to describe myself: you can be a plontser (in other words, part-pantser, part-plotter), someone who mixes both methods.

Scrivener has another major asset: it puts your research within easy reach. Let's be honest, for us writers (and academics), research takes a lot of time, and having to store different files in different folders means you need to invest more time to locate them when you need them. Not with Scrivener because Scrivener has its own Research folder, where you can store all your images, PDFs, Wikipedia entries, journal articles, sound files (it even has a built-in media player to play your files), anything you want really. Imagine this scenario: you can have Scrivener display your research on the right-hand side of the screen, while on the left-hand side, you can work on your documents. If this isn't research within reach (as the Scrivener website suggests), then I don't know what is!

And when you have finished with your drafting, research, and writing, getting your manuscript out to the world is a quick process. Scrivener compiles all your documents within your project to a single book, ebook, PDF, or even Word format. You get to choose both the format and what it will look like once it's exported.

Even with this extensive list, I still haven't covered all of Scrivener's features, but to do so would undermine the purpose of this book, which is to be a simple, effective and fast guide to using this great program.

Scrivener is a simple piece of software to use

Yes, it is!

There is a lot of praise for Scrivener. My favourite quote is that Scrivener is "the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor". (Michael Marshall Smith, NYT best-selling author, http://www.michaelmarshallsmith.com/)

Despite the universal love and praise, there is a single, most absurd misconception — that Scrivener has a steep learning curve. As to why this misconception has persisted, I can only assume this: When you first fire up Scrivener, the "unorthodox" setup of the screen might seem perplexing. But you need to ask yourself this: why is that? Could it be because we have all got used to our conventional word processing software, some of which comes pre-installed on our machines?

But there is a paradox here: conventional word processors, the professional ones, are actually more complex. Just look at the options, menus, sub-menus of your everyday word processing programs. The only reason you don't feel overwhelmed by their sheer complexity is that you have got used to seeing this software being used everywhere - even you probably use it in your everyday life! I am not saying anything against word processors. On the contrary, I use a couple of them every single day, and I cannot imagine dealing with my workflow without them. But their abundance of features might seem superfluous to writers.

Enter Scrivener! Scrivener has a significant advantage: Contrary to conventional word-processing software, it provides only the features an author would need (and then some). Truth be told, there are extra features that you might not even have to deal with, but these are hidden away from the main interface to make your experience as less distracting as possible. After all, you only need to see those that you are actually going to use.

This has another implication, to Scrivener's advantage: Scrivener is a highly flexible piece of software. Its target group can be bloggers, journalists, translators, authors (fiction or non-fiction), scriptwriters, university professors or students. This means that Scrivener's functionality can extend to the individual needs of each one of us. In other words, you are free to use only the essential features that can help you finish your book and avoid using the most complex ones.

For the time being, it is my opinion, and that of many authors all over the world, that Scrivener is one of the most effective tools to create a book and have it ready for publication. And for what it's worth, it's not as complicated as many people (some of whom haven't even used it) tend to believe.

Important note

A few points need to be made before you continue with this book.

1. The navigation to the Main Menu will be shown in the following way: File > Save, which simply means go to the Main Menu, click on File and then select Save.

2. To access the main options, Windows users need to go to File > Options and Mac users to Scrivener > Preferences.

3. If you don't know what an icon does, you can use a mouse-over explanation. This means, hover over the icon with your mouse and wait until a small pop-up gives you a description of the icon.

4. Mac and Windows users please note: In the Windows version, whenever you choose a new setting, there is usually an OK button that you need to click when you are done. Sometimes there is also an Apply button. If this is the case, then press Apply for the changes to take immediate effect and only press OK when you are finally ready to accept your new settings and to close the window. Mac users should ignore these instructions, since the Apply/OK buttons do not exist in their version.

5. Lengthier chapters will have a "To sum up" section at the very end, so you can skip all the details and jump right onto the steps you need to take. If you don't like long discussions and you love lists, this section is what you'll need.

6. On a Mac, if you don't have the option to right-click (i.e. due to mouse restrictions), you can Control-click instead.

7. Selecting multiple items. There are two ways to select multiple items in your Binder:
a) Select each item while pressing the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on a Mac (⌘).
b) If you want to select sequential items (i.e. if you have consecutive items, in a row): Select the first item, hold down the Shift key, and then select the last item.

8. Screenshots and images used in this book: The image size renders according to your device screen size. If you think some images are not big enough for you and you are using an e-reader (i.e. Kindle), just tap on them, and a bigger version should appear, on which you can pinch-zoom even further. Once more, let me remind you that screenshots from the Windows version are used mostly, but they are nearly identical to the Mac version since both versions should now offer the same features. Only on very few occasions the procedure is different. In this case, I provide the screenshots from the Mac version and specific instructions. When there are screenshots from the Windows and Mac versions for specific settings, I make sure to indicate "Windows:" before the Windows screenshot and "Mac:" before the Mac screenshot. Please, if you happen to find any outdated or misleading information email me at: info@yourbookwritingcoach.com

9. Keyboard shortcuts: Because keyboard shortcuts differ between the Mac and Windows version, I have decided not to include them. Think about this: the guide would not be called "Express", nor "fast and simple" if every set of instructions was followed by two different sets of keyboard combinations. Most people prefer a concise, easy-to-follow paragraph layout, and others don't even rely on shortcuts. But fear not: another reason I have omitted keyboard shortcuts is that you can see all of them within Scrivener!

Just go to the Main Menu and click on File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac). Simply select the Keyboard tab, and you can access the keyboard shortcut list or even modify the existing shortcuts to your liking.

Alternatively, if you want to print them out, the official user manual (accessible from within the program) provides a list for both the Windows and the Mac versions. To access the list, just go to the Main Menu, click on Help > Scrivener Manual and head to the index at the end.

How to use this book

There are two ways to use the book:

1. The recommended way (most suitable for the novice user) is to start from the very beginning. The chapters are laid out in the order of the functionality that you would probably need to write your book. If you start from the beginning, this manual will guide you, taking one step at a time, through the basic Scrivener features. In this sense, you start with the basics (how to write), you move on to how to organise your chapters and finally, you learn how to "compile" your project to the format you want: Ebook, Word file, PDF manuscript, print book, etc.

2. The second method is mostly for the advanced user who doesn't have time to read through the whole book. In this case, you can go to the Table of Contents, find the topic that interests you, and then head to that specific chapter. If you are even more eager to get to the instructions, then go to the "To sum up" section at the end of the desired chapter.

Part One:

Writing

 Chapter 1: Beginning Your Project

Final reminder (in case you've decided to start reading from this Chapter): In this book, navigation to the Main Menu Bar will be pointed out as follows: File > New Project. The above example tells you to go to the Main Menu Bar, click on File and then click on New Project. Also, all commands and screen options in this book will be marked in bold.

Create a new Project

When you begin Scrivener for the first time, you are presented with the "Project Templates" screen (if you don't see this screen, go to File > New Project…)

And when you create a new project for the first time, Scrivener will ask you to choose a template. On the Project Templates screen, you will be prompted to select where to save the project and under what filename. You can either choose a physical drive location (a folder on your computer) or a cloud storage service. While there are many cloud services available, it seems that Scrivener works well with Dropbox at the moment (judging from online groups and forums). However, because I cannot vouch for a specific cloud service myself, I strongly advise you to read Scrivener's tips on its compatibility with cloud services here: https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb/cloud-syncing/using-scrivener-with-cloud-sync-services

In this book, I will be using the "Novel" template to present Scrivener's features. This shouldn't worry you, even if you have selected a different template: the core functionality, options and features remain the same. You might only notice small differences in my screenshots, which shouldn't detract you from understanding what I am trying to convey.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For the learning purposes of this book, you should also choose the Novel template if you want to closely follow the instructions of this guide. However, I need to point out that before writing your book, you should choose the template that suits your project better, i.e. it would be wise to choose "Non-Fiction" for a non-fiction book and "Fiction" ("Novel with parts") if you are writing fiction and intend to separate your chapters in different parts. If you have already written part of your book and then you realise that you have chosen the wrong Template, you can follow the simple instructions at the end of Chapter 26 (Copying Items Between Projects) to add the missing elements from another Template.

Below I am providing the New Project screenshot for both the Windows and the Mac versions, just to show how similar the interface between the two versions is in Scrivener 3.

Windows:

Mac:

Let's now see how we can create our first project. To begin, click on the Fiction option (1) and then choose Novel (2) and Create (3). You will then be prompted to select a name for your project and the location where you want it to be saved. A lot of writers choose a cloud service, but you can also select a location on your computer. When you're done click on Save.

That's it! You are now presented with the main Scrivener user interface, which will be described in the following chapters.

 Chapter 2: Auto-Saving Your Work

The first thing you must do before you begin working on any project is to make sure your projects are stored safely. The good thing about Scrivener is that you don't need to save your work manually every now and then. Scrivener auto-saves your open projects. To set the duration of the auto-save feature, go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac) and from the General tab, click on Saving. In the Windows version, go to Save after a period of inactivity and set the desired time. The Mac version should say Auto-save after … second(s) of inactivity.

Windows:

Mac:

This is perhaps the most important piece of advice in this book, and I cannot stress this enough. ALWAYS make a backup of your files on a location different from the destination folder where you keep your working project. This could be an internal or external drive (USB, HDD, SSD, etc.) or a cloud service. Luckily, Scrivener offers you a number of ways to save your work and keep backups, either manually or automatically. Let's have a look at some of these below.

Setting up Scrivener to take automatic backups

Before you start writing your book, you should really make sure you have enabled automatic Backups. Go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac) and click on the Backup icon. Double-check that Turn on automatic backups is ticked. It is also a good idea to tick Back up on project close (this means that every time you close your working project, a backup is made). You can also choose the backup location — just select a Folder (or create a new one) that is easy to remember. When you're done, don't forget to click on Apply and then OK (if you're on Windows).

How to take automatic backups as a zip (compressed) file

If you want an extra backup, you can always have Scrivener keep additional copies in the form of compressed zip files. What does this mean? Scrivener saves your projects in a multi-folder format. While this is not necessary, it is always a good idea to have a backup in a simpler format, i.e. within a single file.

To do this, go to File > Back Up > Back Up To… Choose a location different from your default project location (that is the whole point of a backup, to keep a copy elsewhere in case something goes wrong). You can use a location on the cloud, on your hard drive or any drive for that matter. Just make sure to tick Backup as ZIP file. I repeat that the reason for doing this is that some cloud services might not support Scrivener's multi-folder structure, so it is safer to also have your project stored  as a single file.

Syncing your work — how to access your work from another text Editor

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be warned that in the past there have been cases of users losing their work when using Scrivener "Sync". Some people don't know how to use it properly or, for various reasons, a synchronisation issue might occur between Scrivener and the user's cloud service of choice. The official Scrivener manual has specific cases of when not to use the "Sync" feature, and it also provides detailed instructions in case you still want to use it. For this reason, I strongly advise all users to read the Scrivener manual first before using "Sync" — trust me, you don't want to mess up or lose your work. If you don't need the "Sync" feature, then I would advise you not to use it at all. To access the official Scrivener Manual go to Help > Scrivener Manual.

If, despite the above warning, you want to go on and try it, let's see what "Sync" actually is. When you close Scrivener, your project is automatically saved in the original destination folder you have set. The only problem with that is that you won't be able to open your project using another text editor or word processor (for instance, on another device) because Scrivener has its own unique file format. However, with the Sync feature turned on, you can have Scrivener keep a Plain Text or Rich Text format (.rtf) copy of your file in a specified folder. Both text and rich text files are compatible with most text editors and word processors. To activate syncing, go to File > Sync > With External Folder… Here, you can choose the Folder — just make sure the target format (at the bottom of the window) is set to Rich Text (RTF). Once you set this, you should be fine syncing your project by using a more accessible format.

▼ To sum up ▼

How to activate three different ways to save your project, just to be on the safe side.

1. Set up the auto-saving frequency of your project. Go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac) and from the General tab, click on Saving. Go to Save after a period of inactivity (Windows) or Auto-save after…second(s) of inactivity (Mac) and set the time.

2. Set up Scrivener to take automatic backups of your project. Go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac) and click on the Backup icon. Tick the option Turn on automatic backups. It is also a good idea to tick Back up on project close (this means that every time you close your working project, a backup is made).

3. Set up Scrivener to take automatic backups as a zip (compressed) file. Go to File > Back Up > Back Up To… Choose a location and tick Backup as ZIP file.

 Chapter 3: The User Interface

The main user interface consists of the following elements: The Main Menu bar (1), the Binder (2), the Editor (3), and the Inspector (4). Their use will be outlined below. Needless to say, I have to emphasise that you will become familiar with their functions as you make your way through this book. For the time being, a brief explanation follows below:

Windows:

Mac:

Main Menu (1)

Windows:

Mac:

This is where you control the different sections of the program. As you can see, there are the following menu items (each leading to a number of options when you click on it): (Scrivener), File, Edit, Insert, View, Navigate, Project, Documents, Format, Window, Help.

Right below the Main Menu is the Main Toolbar (often referred to as just Toolbar), which contains some of Scrivener's core functions. From here you can search your documents (or even your whole project), add new folders, chapters and subchapters and even attach files and websites.

Please note that, on your Main Toolbar, you can also find the Quick Search bar. This usually displays the name of the current Document or, if you haven't assigned a name, the first few words of the Document. But hover with your mouse over the Quick Search bar, and you will notice that it starts displaying the number of words you have written compared to the number of words you have set for your whole project or session. As to how you can set these numbers, bear with me, and we will discuss this later on. (The essential features of the Main Toolbar will be explained in the following chapter.)

Binder (2)

We know that a physical binder is an item that usually keeps loose sheets of paper together. And Scrivener's Binder is basically a list of your documents that are contained and organised within folders. In fact, it consists of all your documents, chapters, research, and whatever else might end up being part of your book. It's where you can find and organise your material.

Editor (3)

This is the central section of Scrivener. It is where you will do all your writing. Your Editor features the Format Toolbar (or Formatting Toolbar). It's right at the top of the Editor, and you should be familiar with it if you have ever used a word processing program before. It helps you change your font or font size, make your text bold, italic, underlined, apply formatting, etc.

A note on Styles

Scrivener 3 introduces Styles, and they work the same way as the Styles in Word and other word processing programs. While it is not the aim of this guide to show you how to use basic formatting tools, such as how to make your text bold or align it to the centre (these tools are more or less the same in most text editing fields - even your email client probably has them!), I need to emphasise the importance of using styles. In fact, I encourage you to use Styles if you want to have a perfectly realised Table of Contents or if you want to compile your Document to eBook or print format (I will explain the Compile feature in Part Three of this book). 

Styles exist to provide consistency across your book layout and book formatting. All headings should have the same style. Similarly, all subheadings should have their own distinct style, and so on. How does this work in practice and how do you apply them?

Every time you start writing a new chapter in your Editor, make sure to highlight your chapter heading and then choose "Heading 1" from the drop-down menu under Styles (see image above).

Do the same for your section headings or subheadings and select "Heading 2".

As a general rule, it is recommended to stick to "No Style" for the main text in your Editor. Just keep that in mind when writing the main body of your chapters.

This way, you are telling Scrivener to recognise all headings or subheading as the same section type, something that will be very useful when you Compile your project and which I will explain in detail later on.

Inspector (4)

The Inspector is a compact tool that displays valuable information about your open document. Here you can write a brief synopsis for your document, add notes, metadata (more of this later) or even images. If you can't see the Inspector, click on the "i" icon at the top-right of the screen (see screenshot that follows). Or go to View > Inspector.

Later, I will show you how the Inspector can be used to take and utilise notes, and also how you can use metadata to assign characters and locations to each chapter.

 Chapter 4: Creating Your First Chapter

Scrivener Folder structure

Scrivener displays your documents in a tree-like structure that is reflected in your Binder. What does this mean? There is a hierarchy of Folders and Documents within the Binder. The documents are sometimes called Texts and other times Documents (depending on what info they have in them), so this can be a bit confusing, but you should bear in mind that, essentially, they are the same thing.

To get a better visual understanding of what Folders and Documents (or Texts) look like, see the screenshot below.

Bear in mind that the Manuscript folder is the root folder (or main folder) of your book where all your other Folders and Documents are stored. It is very important to also note that you can later select any items that are in your Manuscript folder to be compiled or exported to your final book. Finally, the Manuscript Folder might be called Draft or Screenplay if you have chosen a Template different from the Novel Template.

In book writing terms, think of a Folder as a book chapter. And think of a Document/Text as a scene within that chapter. In order to understand this parallelism, look at the screenshot below:

Each chapter can have as many scenes as you want. Of course, if you are writing a non-fiction book, you will not have scenes. Your "scenes" will be your chapter sections.

The relationship between Folders and Documents, and how they translate according to your book type, is shown in the following table:

Fiction | Non-Fiction
Folder = Chapter | Folder = Chapter
Text/Document = Chapter Scene | Text/Document = Chapter Section

How to create your first chapter

So how do you get about creating your first chapter and scene?

First, make sure that your Editor is active. I really cannot stress this enough: when you click on an item in the Binder, what displays will depend on what mode you are on. If you just want to edit the Document that you have selected in your Binder, double-check that you are in the "Document view" mode (you need to press the first of the three icons in your Main Toolbar):

(If you press the second icon shown in the screenshot, you will get the "Corkboard" mode, i.e. you will display your selected items in the form of index cards on a virtual Corkboard. And if you press the third icon, you will view your Document in the "Outliner". These different modes will be explained in detail later.)

So, whenever you want to edit one of the Documents that you choose in your Binder, double-check that your Editor is active first. In other words, just click on the first icon shown in the previous screenshot.

You are now ready to create your first chapter. First, click on the Manuscript Folder in your Binder. Reminder: The Manuscript Folder might be called Draft or Screenplay if you have chosen a Template different from the Novel Template.

Then find the + button on your Main Toolbar (right at the top of the Binder) and click on the arrow next to it. From the drop-down menu that will appear, click on New Folder.

A new Folder will be created under your Manuscript Folder. You can follow the same procedure to add as many new Folders as you like. These Folders will be your book chapters. As you can see in your Binder, for the time being, each one of these is automatically called "Untitled Folder" by Scrivener, simply because you haven't given them a name yet.

This can be easily taken care of. Choose a Folder in your Binder, double-click on it and give it any name. You could just type "Introduction" or the name of your chapter if you know it (at this point, avoid adding numbers to your chapters because you might decide to rearrange their order later on — for this reason, just a name or description should be sufficient).

So now you know how to create chapters for your books in the form of Folders. Each chapter should have its own scenes or sections, and this is what we are going to do now.

Click on the Folder that you have just created. Again, find the + button at the top of the Toolbar, but this time click on it directly. You will see that a new Document has been created right below the Folder and it has been automatically given the name "Untitled Document". This new Document will serve as a new scene or section in your book. Press the + button a few more times to add as many scenes/sections as you wish. Like before, you can rename them by double-clicking on them.

At this point, you'll probably be wondering, "Why would I want to split my chapter into different sections?" The answer is simple — because it is easier to manage them. It is usually more convenient to split up a big chapter of 5,000 words into four different sections, for instance. Don't worry — when you "Compile" your manuscript in the end, every section will fit into its chapter accordingly. And it will be done automatically. So, go ahead and split your chapters into smaller scenes or sections; eventually, they will still appear as a single chapter when you compile your book.

It is important to select the "Manuscript" Folder first before you add any Folders or Documents to your Binder because it is the Binder that contains the body of your book. Otherwise, if you choose any other Folder (that is not part of your Manuscript) and then press the + button, the new Documents will be added right below that Folder.

Other Ways to Create Folders and Documents

The reason I introduced the above method of creating Folders and Documents first is that I wanted to familiarise you with the + toolbar button for adding things to your Binder - it is a method which seems more standard because it gives you more options. But if you find the whole process a bit tedious, there are at least three faster methods you could try:

1. At the bottom of the Binder you can find the "Footer": there is an icon there that shows a Document with a + in the middle (screenshot A). Click on it to create a New Folder.

(A)

To create a new Document, first click on the folder under which you want to create it. Go to the bottom of the Binder once more and click on the + button (screenshot B).

(B)

2. The super-easy way to create a Document is to choose a folder from your Binder and then just hit the Enter key. This will create a new Document right below.

3. Alternatively, right-click on any item in your Binder and select Add > New Folder or Add > New Text.

What do Chapters and Documents look like in your Binder

When you create your Chapters and Documents, you will realise that the icons that represent them don’t always look the same. This happens because Scrivener classifies your Binder items according to the information they contain.

Look at the above screenshot, and you’ll probably wonder what a Synopsis is. To put it simply, a synopsis is a summary of your document. The role of the Synopsis and how you can use this feature will be discussed in a later chapter. For the time being, just think of it as a brief summary that tells you what happens in a specific chapter or scene.

The above icons can be explained as follows:

(1) This is self-explanatory. It means that you have created a Folder without writing a Synopsis for it.
(2) This is what your folder icon will look like when you add a Synopsis (as promised, more of this later…)
(3) The blank page icon means that you have created just a plain Document or Text with nothing written in it.
(4) Start writing something in your Document, and the icon will change to this.
(5) If you have taken Snapshots (i.e. if you have kept older versions of your Document so you can revert back to them, as I will explain later), you will be presented with a dog-eared document icon.
(6) If you create a single document but write nothing in it, apart from a Synopsis, then you will get icon no. 6. As we will see later, a Synopsis Document is basically an index card with a summary written on it.

Grouping different Documents together to create new Folders, Chapters or Parts

Now, let's say that you would like to group your existing chapters under a new Folder to form a new part in your book. For example, you have written 10 chapters already (i.e. you have 10 different Folders), and you want some of these to form Part 1 of your novel. Go to the Binder and click on each chapter you wish to include in the new Part while pressing the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on a Mac (⌘). Then, right-click on any of these selected chapters and choose New Folder From Selection. You can rename this new Folder to "Part 1" or whatever you prefer.

In case you want to select consecutive chapters in a row, instead of individual ones, select the first item, hold down the Shift key, and then select the last item of your choice. Right-click on any of these items and again choose New Folder From Selection.

If you wish to move this new Folder (or any Binder item) outside the hierarchy of a Folder, go to Edit > Move > Move Left. To move items inside the hierarchy, go to Edit > Move > Move Right.

Scrivenings Mode

It should be common knowledge by now that each time you click on an item, it appears in your Editor. But try clicking on a Folder. You will see that the Document view icon on your Main Toolbar (which is the default view when you're working on a Document) changes to the "Scrivenings Document" icon. This change is shown in the following screenshot.

Click on it and have a look. In practical terms, it means that your Editor is now displaying all the contents of the Folder as a single Document. Scrivenings mode can be very helpful when you want to see what a chapter looks like with all its scenes in it. You can even click anywhere in your Editor, while in Scrivenings mode, and make changes to your documents.

Corkboard Mode

If you click on the second icon from your Main Toolbar, right next to Document View, you will activate Corkboard mode: this is basically a virtual board with index cards.

You can type a title on each card and a brief description (Synopsis) and also move them around as you see fit. All this will all be explained in Part Two of this guide.

The Outliner

We already know that the first icon displays the Document View/Scrivenings, the second icon opens up your Corkboard. So, what does the third one do? It shows the Outliner.

The Outliner is a list of all your Folders and Documents which displays their extra attributes. This can be anything from a simple word count, the date the document was created, and the characters involved or the main theme. As is the case with the Corkboard, the Outliner will also be explained later in this book.

▼ To sum up ▼

To create new Folders (i.e. Chapters):

1.  Click on Manuscript (in your Binder).

2.  Click on the arrow next to the + button on your Main Toolbar.

3.  Select New Folder.

4.  Alternatively, find the New Folder icon on your Footer (just below the Binder).

5.  If you want to rename this Folder, just double click on it.

To create new Documents/Texts (i.e. sub-chapters, sections or scenes):

1.  Click on a Folder.

2.  Click directly on the + button (on the Main Toolbar) or the + button on your Footer (just below the Binder).

3.  Your section/scene has been created under the Folder you have selected. Double-click on it to rename it.

To group different Documents together in order to create a new part:

1.  Go to the Binder and select each item you wish to include in the new Part while pressing the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on a Mac (⌘).

2.  Right-click on any of these selected items and choose New Folder From Selection. You can then rename this new Folder to "Part 1" or whatever you prefer.

3.  Remember that you can select consecutive chapters in a row: Go to your Binder and select the first item, hold down the Shift key, and then select the last item that you want to include. Then right-click on any of these items and again choose New Folder From Selection.

There are 3 different Modes in Scrivener (see screenshot after each description):

a) Document View. This is the standard view which opens the item you have selected in the Editor.

b) Scrivenings Mode (it automatically appears when you select a Folder in your Binder). It displays all the items contained within a Folder as a single Document in the Editor.

c) Corkboard Mode. It displays your Binder in a new Index Card-view where each Folder is shown as an index card.

d) The Outliner. A list-type view of all your Folders and Documents, complete with all the extra attributes you might have assigned to them.

 Chapter 5: Rearranging Your Chapters & Scenes

Re-arranging items in your Binder

OK, this is going to be really easy: rearranging your chapters or scenes. Let's say that you decide that Chapter 2 of your book should really become Chapter 1. All you have to do is drag and drop these chapters to a new spot into your Binder. How?

Go to your Binder, click on Chapter 2 and, while holding the left mouse button, drag the Folder to the spot where you want to place it (in this case above Chapter 1). Then release the mouse button.

Before placing the Folder anywhere, Scrivener shows you a horizontal line indicating where your Folder will be placed.

Drag and drop works with both Folders and Documents, i.e. you can move around both Chapters and Scenes. Dead simple. You can even drag a scene from Chapter 3 (for example) and drop it into Chapter 1 (in this case, instead of showing you a horizontal line, Scrivener will be circling the destination Folder when you go over it with your mouse. This means your scene will land right into that circled Folder).

Some further notes on using your Binder:

● You might have noticed that the Folders that contain Documents in them have an arrow pointing to the right. This is called the "disclosure indicator", and if you click on it, all the items that are included in the Folder will be revealed (expanded). Click on it again, and the items will be contracted within the Folder.

● In any case, let's say that you are not satisfied with the hierarchy of your Folders or Documents, or that you have made a mistake, and you want to move an item within the hierarchy of another Folder. As explained in the previous chapter, the procedure is simple (I am repeating it here, in case you've skipped it): All you have to do is select the item in your Binder and go to Edit > Move > Move Right. This will move the item within your structured hierarchy, but you can also choose Edit > Move > Move Left to move it outside the hierarchy.

● Finally, if you want to select different items in your Binder at the same time, follow the procedure that has been mentioned before: on a Mac hold down the Command key while clicking on each item you want to select. On Windows, hold down the Ctrl key while selecting your items. If you are going to choose items that are in a sequence (i.e. Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3), then click on the first item (in this case, Chapter 1) and, while holding the Shift key, click on the last item (Chapter 3). The Shift key method works on both Mac and Windows.

● Last but not least, it's worth noticing that every time you start Scrivener, it starts exactly where you left off.

Hoist Binder (Focus mode for the Binder)

I call this the "Focus mode" for the Binder because it hides all Folders apart from the one you are working on at the time. Try it out now: from your Binder click on any Folder, and then go to View > Outline > Hoist Binder. This is really useful when you have a very busy Binder, and you don't want to be distracted by anything else in it. To revert back to your normal Binder view, go to View > Outline and untick Hoist Binder.

Converting Documents to Folders and vice versa

You can convert a Folder to a Document and vice versa. Just right-click on it in your Binder and choose Convert to Folder or Convert to File.

Assigning icons to your Binder items

Another option you have when you right-click on a Binder item is to change the icon (right-click on the item and choose Change Icon). You can do this to make some Folders/Documents stand out and have their own unique appearance.

Splitting a single Document into more Documents

In your Editor, go to the location in the Document where you want it to be split, right-click there and select Split at Selection. The part below your mouse cursor will then be moved into a new Document.

Page View

Some Scrivener users miss the Microsoft Word page view; that is, how the Editor splits your Document into different pages. You don't need to worry because Scrivener also has this feature.

To turn it on, go to View > Text Editing > Page View (On Mac it should say "Show Page View").

The good thing about Scrivener's Page View is that you can visualise how your text will be arranged on your printed pages, according to your book size. Let me clarify this: let's say you want your paperback to be 5x7 inches, which is one of the most popular book sizes. Go to File > Page Setup… Go to the Size or Paper Size (Mac) drop-down menu and select 5x7in (Mac version might have different size options). Then turn on the Page View option as explained above, and you will get a rough idea of how your text will be presented when printed under the page view settings that you have specified (be warned that the visual representation is not always entirely accurate and it should only be used as a guide).

Windows:

Mac:

Deleting items in your Binder

What happens if you want to delete a chapter or scene? Just click on it in the Binder and press the Trashcan icon on the Main Toolbar.

▼ To sum up ▼

  ● To arrange the order of your Chapters/Documents: Drag and drop any Chapter or Document anywhere in your Binder. To do that, go to the Binder, select your item with the left mouse button and, while still holding the button, release the item onto the spot where you want to place it. This applies to all items in your Binder, be it Chapters or Documents.

  ● To delete something: Just select it from the Binder and then click on the Trashcan icon that is on the Main Toolbar.

  ● To move something within or without the hierarchy of your Binder structure: Select the item from your Binder and go to Edit > Move > Move Right. This will move the item within your structured hierarchy. Choose Edit > Move > Move Left to move it outside the hierarchy.

  ● To convert Documents to Folders (and vice versa): In your Binder, right-click on the item you want to convert and choose Convert to Folder or Convert to File.

  ● To assign an icon to your Binder items: In your Binder, right-click on the item and choose Change Icon.

  ● To split a single Document into more Documents: In your Editor, go to the location in the Document where you want it to be split, right-click there and select Split at Selection. The part below your mouse cursor will then be moved into a new Document.

  ● To view your working project as separate pages in your Editor (like Microsoft Word does), go to View > Text Editing > Page View.

  ● To change the page size of your Editor, go to File > Page Setup… Go to the Size or Paper Size (Mac) drop-down menu and select your desired size.

 Chapter 6: The Distraction-Free Composition Mode

Composition Mode

One of my favourite Scrivener features is the distraction-free mode or "Composition Mode". Basically, this strips away every user-interface element that is not necessary and keeps only your text visible while you are writing. Think of it like a blank page where the only thing on it are the words you are typing.

To try it, go to View > Enter Composition Mode. All you should now see is just your text. But head to the bottom of the screen, and some icons automatically appear. These have self-explanatory descriptions: Move the sliders and adjust the paper position or the paper width, etc. To exit Composition Mode, just press the Escape key or click on the icon at the bottom right of the screen.

Now, let's find a beautiful background for your Composition Mode. Fire up your Internet browser and go to a website that provides free images you can use. Two such sites are Pixabay and Unsplash (please remember to check the copyright licence on each image before you use it):

https://pixabay.com

https://unsplash.com

Do a search there (i.e. "medieval village") and once you find an image that you think suits the mood of your book, save it on your computer.

Now, go back to Scrivener. Go to Project > Project Settings… From the new window, choose Background Images and from the right pane (Composition Mode Backdrop), select Choose from disk and find the file you saved earlier. Hit OK.

The next time you enter Composition mode again (View > Enter Composition Mode), the background image you chose will be there. At the bottom right corner of the screen, there should be a slider called Paper Fade (or Background Fade if you are on a Mac). Drag this to adjust the transparency of your background.

Customise Composition Mode

It goes without saying that you can customise the colours in Composition mode, change the fonts, and literally make this distraction-free environment tailor-made to your needs. The procedure to change these settings is as follows:

For Windows users: First, go to File > Options (Windows). Click on the Appearance tab and then on Colors. In the middle pane, choose Composition Mode (click on the little arrow on the left to expand the options). If you want to change the text colour, just select Text and, in the right-hand pane, click on the coloured box and pick a colour of your choice. Remember to click on Apply and then OK (if you are a Windows user). 

Windows:

For Mac users: On a Mac the procedure is slightly different. Go to Scrivener > Preferences. Click on Appearance (1), then from the left panel Composition Mode (2), and from the right panel Colors (3). Click on Text (4) and then on the rectangular color (5) to change the text color. In a similar way you can change the other elements that are presented here.

Mac:

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Go to Menu > View > Enter Composition Mode.

2. To use a background, press the Escape key to exit Composition Mode, then go to Menu > Project > Project Settings... From there, select Background Images and Choose from disk to choose an image.

3. Go back to Composition Mode. Use the Paper Fade slider (or Background Fade on a Mac), at the bottom of the screen, to adjust the transparency of your background.

 Chapter 7: Streamline Your Writing: Auto-Correct, Auto-Complete, Spell-Checker

Auto-correct

Another favourite Scrivener feature is the auto-correct option. True, there are a few other Editors that have it (albeit not many); however, none that I know of work for me as well as the one in Scrivener.

But what is auto-correct in the first place? For impatient typists like me, it is not uncommon to type "knigth" instead of "knight" or to make similar clumsy spelling mistakes. Enter Scrivener! The auto-correct feature will automatically correct it to "knight" as soon as you finish writing the misspelt word. Neat, isn't it? How do you get about activating it? Let me show you how to enable it in both the Windows and the Mac versions.

In the Windows version, go to File > Options. Click on the Corrections button. First, select Check spelling as you type and then tick Correct spelling errors as you type. That's it! Windows users, remember to click on Apply and then OK.

Windows:

In the Mac version, go to Scrivener > Preferences. Click on the Corrections tab and make sure the Correct spelling errors as you type option is ticked.

Mac:

Word Auto-Completion

Let's take a look at another cool feature called "Word Auto-Completion". Let's say that you have a character in your novel named Valdemar. Or a fictional place called Manudascar. Instead of typing Valdemar and Manudascar every other second, you can just type the first two letters of each word, and Scrivener will complete the rest.

To see how it works, go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac). Click on Corrections and tick the box that says Suggest completions as you type. Click on Apply and then OK if you are on Windows. (See also previous screenshot.)

Then, go back to the main menu and select Project > Project Settings... From there, click on Auto-Complete List (1). This is the list with all the words that you want Scrivener to auto-complete. Let's see how to populate this with some items. Click on the + (2) button at the bottom and insert the word you want Scrivener to auto-complete from now on. Type the word and press OK.

Now, let's say you have added the word "Manudascar". As soon as you type the first two letters in your Editor (Ma), a small prompt appears right below, suggesting the full word. Either press Enter or the Tab key to have Scrivener auto-complete it.

Spell-checker

For Windows users: If all you need is a simple spell-checker, head to File > Options, click on the Corrections tab and tick Check spelling as you type. Next to Dictionary, there are two buttons. Click on Select… to select your spelling language. If the language you are looking for is not on the list, then click on Download…, find your desired language from the list and then click on Download. Now, choose the Select… button again to select the downloaded language.

For Mac users: Go to Edit > Spelling and Grammar and tick Check Spelling While Typing. To change the spelling language go to Scrivener > Preferences, go to the Corrections tab and click on System Text Preferences… to go to your system settings and change the language options from there.

▼ To sum up ▼

To enable Auto-Correct: Go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac). Click on the Corrections button. First, tick on Check spelling as you type and then tick Correct spelling errors as you type.

To enable Word Auto-Completion:

1.  Go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac). Click on Corrections and tick the box that says Suggest completions as you type. Click on Apply and then OK (if you are on Windows).

2.  From the main menu, go to Project > Project Settings... From there, click on Auto-Complete List.

3.  Click on the + button at the bottom and insert the word you want Scrivener to auto-complete from now on. Type the word and press OK.

4.  Every time you type the first few letters of that word in your Editor, a prompt will appear underneath suggesting the full word. Either press Enter or the Tab key to have Scrivener auto-complete it.

 Chapter 8: Inserting Comments & Footnotes

In Scrivener, there are three different kinds of comments that you can use: plain comments, inline annotations, and footnotes. You should bear in mind that when you insert comments or footnotes, they are visible in your Inspector (unless you choose Inline comments). You shouldn't worry about that. When you "Compile" your project, you can choose whether you want your footnotes/comments to appear at the bottom of the page or if they should be visible at all. Now let's have a look at the different options Scrivener offers.

Plain comments

Highlight something in your Editor. Go to Insert > Comment. You will notice that your selected text is now highlighted in yellow. The Inspector should open automatically but if it doesn't, go to View > Inspector. When you click on the last icon (called Footnotes & Comments, see the screenshot that follows), you will find that the comment appears there. If you want to delete it, just go to the comment in your Inspector and click on the x that will appear at the top-right corner.

Inline annotations

Again, select some text in your Editor. Go to Insert > Inline Annotation. You will see that your text is now red with a rectangle around it. Inline annotations are basically comments that are integrated into your Document. This way, you can't miss them. To delete an inline annotation, just select it and, again, choose Insert > Inline Annotation.

Footnotes

To add footnotes to your text, just place the cursor where you want your footnote number to appear and then go to Insert > Footnote. Your text turns blue. Notice that your footnote field appears in your Inspector (Footnotes & Comments icon), which is where you can type in your footnote text. There is also an option for an Inline Footnote, in case you wish your footnotes to show within your text. To delete a footnote, just find it in your Inspector and click on the x that will appear at the top-right corner.

▼ To sum up ▼

 ● Plain comments: highlight your text and go to Insert > Comment. The comment will show in your Inspector.

 ● Inline annotations: If you want your comments to appear within your text, highlight the text and go to Insert > Inline Annotation.

 ● Footnotes: Just place the cursor where you want your footnote to appear and then go to Insert > Footnote.

Part Two:

Organising

 Chapter 9: Organise Your Chapters with Coloured Labels

Let's say that you want to follow up on the state of things in your Manuscript. Is it your first draft? The second? Are you in the final editing stage? Is your scene an action scene? A flashback? You can keep track of all these by labelling or colour-coding your Binder items.

The procedure is pretty straightforward: From your Binder, choose an item you want to colour-code. Right-click on it and select Label → Red. You will notice that a red dot appears next to it.

If you don't see the red dot, there is a simple solution. Go to View > Use Label Color in > Binder. Now, if you'd rather see a more prominent colour marking instead of a red dot, go to View > Use Label Color in > Show as Background Color in Binder. The following screenshot shows what you will get, more or less, depending on your Binder.

If you are not good at remembering what each colour means, there is an easy solution. Again, right-click on an item in the Binder and select Label > Edit… Double-click on Red to rename it as you wish, i.e. "Action scene". Or double click on the coloured dot itself and change the colour. Or even click on the + and - buttons to add/remove labels. For example, you can double click on a label to rename it to something like "Past" and then have another label called "Present" if some of your chapters take part in the present and others are just flashbacks that take part in the past.

▼ To sum up ▼

To add coloured labels:

1.  Go to the Binder, right-click on an item and select Label > Red.

2.  If you don't see the red dot, go to View > Use Label Color in > Binder.

 Chapter 10: Outline Your Plot Using the Corkboard

Let's take a look at the different methods of outlining your book. These mostly depend on whether you are a pantser or a plotter. For those unfamiliar with the jargon, a pantser is a person who creates his or her story on the go, usually starting from the main idea and deciding on the plot along the way. In other words, a pantser often doesn't know how the plot is going to develop. A plotter, on the other hand, is someone who plans out everything, creates a plot outline, and then actually starts writing. Whichever category you fall into, Scrivener can accommodate your needs. After all, you might be a combination of a plotter and a pantser. What I call a plontser!

The Pantser/Plotter Dimension

The Pantser: Being a pantser is the most obvious choice for most writers. You start by adding each new chapter on the go — the process is exactly as I have already explained earlier in Part One of this book. For example, you begin by writing your first chapter, you add to it some scenes, then you start with your second chapter, you add more scenes, and so on.

In other words, this process is really straightforward:  Pantsers usually don't have an outline; they can change their minds and kill off a fictional character on their way or go back and delete a previous chapter. Of course, as we have seen, you can easily reorder your chapters by dragging and dropping, so that shouldn't really worry you. But there is a simpler solution: you can visualise your plot by using Scrivener's super-useful Corkboard view, so even if you don't like plotting and insist on calling yourself a pantser, you should really carry on and read the "Plotter" section below: once you realise how powerful Scrivener's Corkboard mode is, you are bound to start using it.

After all, why not be both? Why should one have to choose to be either a pantser or a plotter? Why not be the plontser type that I described earlier, i.e. a person who can switch between being a pantser and being a plotter while writing their book? So, do read on and discover the magic of plotting out your books using virtual index cards, also known as the Corkboard mode.

The Plotter: To access your Corkboard, find the rectangular windows-like icon on your Main Toolbar (as shown below).

The Corkboard is basically a visual representation of your Binder in the form of index cards. Whatever changes you make in your Binder will be copied over to your Corkboard and vice versa. What does this mean? That there are two ways to write your books: either you begin by creating and writing your chapters in your Binder, and then you organise them on the Corkboard. Or you start directly from the Corkboard: you create your chapters first as index cards. You write a title on each card and a short summary (synopsis) below. Then you can go back to your Binder and open these chapters in your Editor (as we have seen) to write on them. The tutorial below will show you how both methods work and how easy it is to switch from one to the other in no time.

First, you need to create some chapters. Let's say that you calculate your novel to contain around 20 chapters. You might have already created some of them in your Binder.

Method 1: Outline your book chapters in your Binder

You can create these chapters as already shown: go to the Binder, click on Manuscript and then, from the Main Toolbar, click on the arrow next to the + button and select New Folder (or just use the New Folder icon at the bottom of your Binder, as shown below).

Click on New Folder as many times as the number of chapters you think you might need (don't worry, you can add or delete Folders later if you change your mind). So, for 20 chapters, you'll need 20 Folders.

When you're done, make sure to select the Manuscript Folder from your Binder, and then click on the Corkboard icon on your Main Toolbar.

You will now see all your chapters arranged on the Corkboard. This is a great way to have a bird's-eye view of your book: think of this Corkboard as a real-life corkboard where you can pin your chapters on index cards (each index card represents a chapter).

You can now start writing on your index cards or play around and rearrange them any way you want. Method 2 below shows you exactly how to do this.

Method 2: Outline your book chapters in your Corkboard

Above, I explained how you can create your Chapters one by one in your Binder. But what if you prefer to visually outline them first? This is what the Corkboard feature is all about: a visual representation of your Chapters as index cards. First, go the Binder and click on your Manuscript folder. Then click on the Corkboard icon to enter Corkboard mode.

To create new chapters, click on the arrow next to the + button on the Main Toolbar and select New Folder. If you want to try a faster method, just click on the New Folder icon on your Footer (just below the Binder).

Click on it as many times as your chapters, so 20 times for 20 chapters. You should now have 20 index cards in front of you, each one representing a different chapter.

Now, double click on the top part of the index card (next to the notebook icon) to give your chapter a name. It should be something that is easy to identify. If, for example, you are writing fiction and your chapter is about your hero's (let's call him David) upbringing, just call it "David's upbringing" or "David's childhood" or something along those lines. Then double click on the empty area of the index card right below and type a brief summary of what this chapter is going to be about. You will notice that if you don't type in something yourself, this area usually features the first few lines from your text so that you know what this index card is about.

Do this for all 20 chapters. When you're done, you can easily re-arrange your chapters on the Corkboard by dragging and dropping again. How? Same procedure as before: click on the title of your index card, and while holding the left mouse button, drag it to a new spot on your Corkboard. By releasing the mouse button, you drop the card onto that spot. Easy, isn't it?

And now the great part: you will notice that when you rearrange your index cards on the Corkboard, they are also automatically rearranged in your Binder! How cool is that? In other words, changes in your Corkboard are reflected in your Binder and vice versa, as I've already mentioned.

So, there you are! A perfect way to arrange, rearrange and re-rearrange all your chapters again for the umpteenth time, for all you plotters out there. And that doesn't really concern plotters only. Even if you have finished writing your book in one go, you can still go back to the Corkboard and have a bird's-eye view of your creation and make sure everything is in the right order.

Stamps and Labels

In the previous chapter, we saw that you can assign colour-coded Labels to your Scrivener chapters. Another thing you can do is assign Status labels. Right-click on any item in your Binder, click on Status and choose any of the pre-defined Statuses or click on Edit to create your own. Once you have assigned a Status to some of your chapters, go to View > Corkboard Options > Status Stamps (the Mac version says "Show Status Stamps"). Then head back to your Corkboard, click on Manuscript to make sure you get a view of all your index cards, and you will now see that your index cards have a stamp that reflects their status. This is illustrated in the screenshot that follows:

In case you want to also view your coloured labels within your Corkboard, go to View > Use Label(s) Color in > Index Cards. And if you think that having the whole index card coloured is too obtrusive, there is a more subtle approach: you can just tell Scrivener to highlight the side of your index cards. To do that go to View > Corkboard Options > Labels Colors Along Edges (Mac version says Show Label Colors Along Edges). This is shown in the previous screenshot.

Sort by Label

A new power feature that has been introduced in Scrivener 3 is sorting your Corkboard index cards by label. In the footer (bottom-right) of your Corkboard, you will notice four icons:

Hover with your mouse over the third icon, and you will notice it says, "Arrange by label". Click on it, and your first two icons should change, resembling the screenshot above. The first new icon arranges your labels horizontally and the second vertically. Click on the first one for the time being, and you will notice that your chapters are shown on your Corkboard according to your labels. Why is this useful? In my screenshot below, the purple cards are scenes that take part in the forest, the pink cards take part in the castle, and the yellow ones take part in the village (if you are reading this ebook on a black-and-white screen, don't worry: the colours still display in different shades of grey). At the same time, you can see which chapters are in the first draft, which need further work ("To Do") and which are "Done". Exit the "Arrange by label" mode by clicking on the third icon again. But don't limit yourself to my piece of advice above. Try to imagine all the different ways you can use the label view to visualise your project.

Labels & Colours on your Corkboard

Now, let's see what all this colour-coding looks like on your Corkboard. Go to the Binder, click on Manuscript, then from the Main Toolbar, choose the Corkboard icon. You will notice that your chapters, which have the red dot in the Binder, are now also colour-coded on the Corkboard.

In fact, instead of labelling your chapters with a coloured dot in the Binder in the first place, you can do that directly in Corkboard mode. While viewing the Corkboard, right-click on a chapter and select Label > Red. It's the same thing as working in the Binder. In fact, most changes that can be made in your Binder can also be made directly within your Corkboard.

Freeform index cards

If you don't like having your chapters appear in the sequential order that they are in the Binder, but would rather re-arrange them freely any way you want, you can set the Freeform Mode, which allows you to drag and drop your index cards anywhere and in any order. While in your Corkboard, go to the bottom-right footer of the screen and choose the second icon (when you hover over it with your mouse, it should say "Freeform Corkboard"), as shown in the following image. To exit Freeform mode, click on the first icon again.

Change the Corkboard grid size, colour, background

On the same footer (bottom-right part of your Corkboard page), you can choose the last icon which reveals the Corkboard customisation options:

As you can see from the screenshot, you can specify how many index cards to show in every column/row, you can arrange the spacing between them, change their size, etc. You can try adjusting the sliders and changing the figures just to experiment. If you want to make the Corkboard more personal, or if you don't like the default grey background, go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac), click on the Appearance tab and then select Corkboard from the left panel, as shown in the following screenshot. Mac users get three further tabs when they click on Corkboard: Options, Fonts, Colors. This gives them the freedom to further customise their Corkboard!

Here, you can change completely the way your Corkboard looks. Do you want your index cards to have rounded/square corners? Do you want to fine-tune the shadows? Or better still—and this is my favourite setting—why not go to the Corkboard Background setting and change it to "Corkboard Pattern". This will give you the beautiful wooden corkboard background, familiar from Scrivener 2. Try it out — it might be more to your liking and, therefore, more inspirational.

▼ To sum up ▼

Scrivener's Corkboard mode is a way to visualise all your chapters as index cards. You can move these cards around to change the order of the chapters, and this change will also be reflected in your Binder (and vice versa). You can also write a title on each card or a chapter summary (called a Synopsis).

There are at least two main ways to create chapters in Scrivener.

A) The first one is to create your Chapters in your Binder (as shown earlier) and then go to your Corkboard to view and rearrange them as index cards.

B) The second is to create your Chapters as index cards directly in your Corkboard. Then you can go to your Binder to work on them.

● Using the Binder (Method A):

1.  Add as many chapters in your Binder as you want: Click on Manuscript in the Binder, then on the arrow next to the + button and select New Folder or simply click on the New Folder icon on your Footer (just below the Binder).

2.  From the Binder select Manuscript and then click on View > Corkboard or on the Corkboard mode button.

3.  Each Chapter is now represented as an index card. You can type notes on them or drag and drop them to rearrange them. Any changes will also be reflected in your Binder.

● Using the Corkboard (Method B):

1.  From the Binder select Manuscript and then click on View > Corkboard or the on the Corkboard mode button.

2.  Add as many chapters on your Corkboard as you want: Click on the arrow next to the + button and select New Folder or simply click on the New Folder icon on your Footer (just below the Binder). 

3.  Each Chapter is now represented as an index card. You can type notes on them or drag and drop them to rearrange them. Any changes will also be reflected in your Binder.

   To customise the index cards on the Corkboard:

•     Stamps and Labels: Right-click on any chapter or scene in your Binder, click on Status and choose any of the pre-defined Statuses or click on Edit to create your own. Once you have assigned a Status to your chapters, go to View > Corkboard Options > Status Stamps (or Show Status Stamps on a Mac).

•     Colour-code your index cards: While in Corkboard mode, right-click on a chapter and select Label > Red (or the colour you prefer). Go to View > Corkboard Options > Labels Colors Along Edges (or Show Label Colors Along Edges in the Mac version).

•     Sort index cards by Label: On your Footer (bottom part of your corkboard), there are four icons. Hover your mouse over the third icon, and you will notice it says, "Arrange by label". Click on it, and your first two icons should change. The first new icon arranges your labels horizontally and the second vertically.

•     Sort your index cards in free-form: While in Corkboard view, go to the bottom-right of the screen and choose the second icon (when you hover over it with your mouse, it should say "Freeform Corkboard"). To exit Freeform mode, click on the first icon again.

•     To change the appearance of the Corkboard: go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac), click on the Appearance tab and then select Corkboard from the left panel.

 Chapter 11: Set Your Targets

Project Targets

Procrastination is one of the most important reasons for not getting things done when writing. If you read articles aiming to help you combat procrastination, you will soon realise that most of them agree on one thing: setting targets for your writing. Word targets, that is.

We are lucky that Scrivener has project targets as a built-in feature. And it's a very easy one to use. For Windows users, all you have to do is go to Project > Project Targets. A small window pops up. Here you can set the manuscript target, i.e. how many words you want (or you think you want) the whole book to be, as well as the session target, i.e. how many words you want to write in each of your writing sessions (see screenshot below).

For Mac users, again go to Project > Project Targets. You will get the following window:

Click on field 1 (it should say "0") and input your manuscript target. Then click on field 2 and enter your session target.

If you are unsure about that, 50,000 words are considered to be a reasonable goal by Nanowrimo. From their site: "Our experiences since 1999 show that 50,000 words is a challenging but achievable goal, even for people with full-time jobs and children. This is about the length of The Great Gatsby." (https://nanowrimo.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/329132-why-50-000-words-and-how-do-you-define-novel)

If you want some more control as to what the length of each session should be and how often you wish your daily word count to reset, press the Options button. Then, click on the Session Target tab and from the drop-down menu, select how often you want your sessions to reset.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Go to the main menu, click on Project > Project Targets.

2. In the pop-up window, enter the Manuscript Target word count.

3. In the Session Target field, enter the number of words you want to write in each session (until you close and open Scrivener again).

 Chapter 12: Collections

Grouping Items Into Collections

Let's say that you want to single out specific chapters of your book so you can display them separately in your Binder. Why would you want to do that? First scenario: If you're writing fiction, you want to display all the chapters that take part in the past. Second scenario: you want to display only the chapters where your main character appears. Third scenario: you want to display only chapters that take place in a specific location to check whether your descriptions are consistent. Or let's suppose you are writing non-fiction and you want to see only the chapters where one of your main theories is presented. As you can see, there are numerous case study scenarios.

This grouping of different chapters is what the "Collections" feature is all about.

Go to your Binder and select the chapters that you want to include in your collection by holding the Ctrl key. Then right-click and select Add to Collection > New Collection.

As seen in the screenshot above, you will be prompted to enter a name for your Collection. A few points need to be made:

•     The collection will exist above your Binder so you can visit it at any time.

•     You can follow the same steps to create a new Collection.

•     Or if you want to add new Documents to your existing Collection, select the desired documents by holding the Ctrl key while clicking on them. Then right-click and choose Add to Collection and then choose the name of the Collection you want to add them to.

•     To delete a Collection just select it and then click on the - button at the top-right of the Collections window.

•     In case you have deleted all your Collections, but you are stuck with the Collections title on top of your Binder, go to View (from the Main Menu) and untick Collections or click on Hide Collections if you are using a Mac.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Select the items from your Binder you want to group together as a collection. Reminder: On Windows, you can press the Ctrl key while clicking on multiple items. On a Mac, you can press the Command key (⌘).

2. Right-click on them and select Add to Collection > New Collection.

3. If you want to add new Documents to your existing Collection, select the new documents, right-click and choose Add to Collection and then select the Collection you want to add them to.

4. To delete a Collection just select it and then click on the - (minus) button at the top-right of the Collections window.

 Chapter 13: Synopsis & Notes

This section will show you how to write a synopsis (a brief summary) for your Binder items and how to take notes, either for a single Document or for your whole project.

Writing a Synopsis

A synopsis is a brief summary. Scrivener has a special field where you can write the synopsis for each one of your Documents. It can even auto-generate one if you don't feel like typing it yourself.

First, open your Inspector. This is the blue "i" icon at the top-right of your Main Toolbar (otherwise go to View > Inspector). From there, click on the very first icon.

Click on the small arrow on the left of "Synopsis", so that it opens the Synopsis field, and then click above the red line to enter a title for your Synopsis. Notice that this will also become the title of your Document in the Binder. Then click below the red line and enter your brief description. If you would rather have Scrivener write a synopsis for you, go to Documents > Auto-Fill > Set Synopsis from Main Text (the Mac menu says "Synopses" instead of "Synopsis"). This tells Scrivener to use your first Document paragraph to create a synopsis.

If you want your Synopsis to contain an image instead, click on the image icon next to Synopsis and select an image file of your choice. This can be useful when you want to display a character, a specific location, or even an image that suits the mood of your chapter. Bear in mind that this Synopsis (be it text or image) will also show in your Corkboard index cards, which is very handy.

Taking and keeping notes

Keeping notes by your sidebar is one of Scrivener's main assets. In fact, when you start using notes in your manuscript, you'll be wondering how you've managed to live without this handy feature all this time.

Apart from your usual notes, Scrivener also introduces a feature called Bookmarks. There are two kinds of bookmarks, Document Bookmarks and Project Bookmarks. The former refers to notes that are relevant to your current chapter or scene. The latter refers to universal notes regarding your whole book. Let's see how you can use both.

How to take Document notes

In the yellow field below the synopsis (the one called Notes), you can jot down any notes that concern the current section you're working on. Be warned that any notes that you type in here will only be available for the Document that is open in your Editor. So, in order to access them in the future, you will have to first select this Document from your Binder.

How to add bookmarks

Now let's say that you want to take some universal notes that concern your whole project and not just a specific document. And that you also want to have these notes available to you at hand, always by your side. First, in your Inspector, click on the second icon called "Bookmarks".

Below the Document's name, it should say "Document Bookmarks". You should also see a note saying, "Drag in documents or external files to create bookmarks". This simply means that you can drag any Document from your Binder into this area to have it appear by the side of your Editor. This is very handy for research. What's more, you can also drag in any type of file that you want here, for example, an image. Let's say your chapter introduces a new character or place. You could just drop a picture here showing this character or location so that you can have a visual representation that you can consult while writing. Or if you are writing an academic paper, you might want to include a PDF article to have at hand.

If you don't want to drag and drop, you can right-click in this area and select Add Internal Bookmark (to add a document from your current project), Add External Bookmark (to add a website) or Add External File Bookmark… (to attach a file).

The above procedure will only add bookmarks for the Document you have open in the Editor. If you want to add bookmarks that apply to the whole book, you need to add a Project Bookmark: you will notice a little drop-down arrow at the top (next to Document bookmarks). Click on that and select Project Bookmarks.

Three new items should appear: Characters, Places, Notes (you might have different items here depending on your project and template). Click on Notes and then on the blank area below, jot down your ideas, this time for your whole project. The great thing is that these notes will be right there, no matter what chapter you're working on. All you have to do is make sure your Inspector always stays open, and that you have already clicked on the second icon (Bookmarks) and then selected Project Bookmarks from the drop-down arrow.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Go to your Inspector (little "i" icon on the top right corner).

2. Click on the second icon called Bookmarks.

3. Under Document Bookmarks, you can add any files, images or notes to the specific Document you have open in your Editor at that time.

4. Click on the arrow next to Document Bookmarks and select Project Bookmarks. Here you can add files, images, notes, etc., but this time, these will apply to your whole project and will, therefore, be available for you to see no matter which Document you have open in your Editor.

5. Click on Notes and, in the blank area below, fill in your ideas or notes.

 Chapter 14: Putting All Your Research Together

Putting together your research sources

No matter what kind of book you have decided to create, fiction or non-fiction, Scrivener should have a Research folder pre-created in your Binder. Even if you have chosen a Blank template, the Folder should be there. Let's say that for some reason, the Folder isn't there or that you have accidentally deleted it. No worries. Just create a new Folder and call it "Research" (and drag it outside the hierarchy of your main Manuscript Folder). As the name suggests, this is the Folder where you'll want to store all your research.

There are different ways to use this feature, but I think the easiest is to just click on the Research Folder itself. Then, from the Main Toolbar, click on the drop-down arrow next to the + button and choose:

Windows:

(1) New Text if you want to add some text notes
(2) New Folder if you want to add a Folder (in which you can later add notes or files)
(3) Existing Files… to add files
(4) Web Page to insert a URL (a website address)

The Mac version has different options, but the main functionality is the same.

Mac:

We've already covered how to add text and Folders in your Binder structure, so let's see how you can add files and websites. Because let's be honest, your Research Folder will more than likely consist of these.

Let's also assume that you are writing a historical fiction book about the Middle Ages. You want to describe the clothes of a knight, but you're not quite sure what they looked like back then. Go to your browser and do a search, for example, for "knights clothing middle ages" (of course, not all knights' attire was the same - it differed according to status, nobility, origin, etc., but I'm just using a generic search term here for demonstration purposes only). When you come across an image that you want to keep, save it on your hard drive or cloud drive. Then, back in Scrivener, select the Research Folder from your Binder. From the Main Toolbar, click on the drop-down arrow next to the + button and choose Existing Files. A file explorer window will pop up where you can find and select the image you have just saved. Mac users: Since you don't have this option in the menu, just go to your Editor, click in it, and then from the Main Menu select Insert > Image from File…

Now, in case you wanted to save a whole website, you could choose Web Page (or Import Web Page if you are on a Mac) from the drop-down arrow menu, instead of selecting Existing files. A new pop-up window will ask you to input the URL (that is, the address beginning with http://) of the website and also to name your source in a meaningful way you can remember (for example, knights' attire). Saving whole websites is particularly useful because Scrivener allows you to surf the website within your Editor!

In the following chapter, we'll see how you can display your research right next to the chapter you're currently writing, so you can access it directly.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Go to the Binder and click on the Research Folder.

2. From the Main Toolbar, click on the arrow next to the + button.

3. Choose:

   — New Text, to add some text notes

   — New Folder, to add a Folder (in which you can later add notes or files)

   — Existing files…, to add files (PDFs, images, etc.) Mac users: go to your Editor, click in it, and then from the Main Menu select Insert > Image from File…

   — Web page, to insert a URL, i.e. a complete webpage Mac users: your option should read Import Web Page

 Chapter 15: Split Screen for Efficient Writing

Split screen is a handy feature. Its value can only be appreciated once you try it out. Not only will I show you how split-screen works, but I will also demonstrate a couple of the most common case scenarios.

Side-to-Side (vertical) split

First, choose a Document in your Binder. Then, click on the split screen icon at the top right-hand side of your Editor. (Or if you want to access this from the main menu, go to View > Editor Layout > Split Vertically.)

You will see two Editor windows next to each other. What if you want to display a different Document in each Editor?

First, we need to tell Scrivener that we want our selected Binder item to be displayed in our selected Editor. To do this, go to Navigate > Binder Selection Affects > Current Editor.

This simply means that by first clicking on an Editor window and then on a Document in the Binder, you tell Scrivener to display that Document in your selected Editor. So, go ahead and click anywhere in the first Editor and then, from your Binder, choose the Document you want to display here. Then do the same for the second Editor.

This is useful when you want to compare two different Documents or chapters side-by-side. I use it quite often when I translate documents. I keep my original Document in the left Editor and work on my translation in the Editor on the right.

Another great way to use the split screen feature is when you want to have your research in one Editor and work on your Document in the other. Imagine this scenario: you are writing a chapter where you're describing the clothing of medieval knights, as we saw earlier. For this reason, you have already saved an image in your Research Folder.

First, click on the "Toggle split" icon to activate the split screen mode (as shown in the previous screenshot). Click in the first Editor, and from your Binder open the chapter you're working on (for example, the one where you describe the knight's clothes). Then click in the second Editor (the one on the right). From your Binder, find the image of the knight (probably in your Research Folder) and click on it. You will see that the left Editor now shows the chapter you're working on, and the right Editor shows the image of the knight (see screenshot that follows). In this way, you can have easy, direct access to your research when you're writing a chapter. Remember, this doesn't have to be an image: it can be a PDF file or a website (for example, a Wikipedia article about the clothing of medieval knights).

To exit split-screen mode and return to a single Editor, just click on the split-screen icon again.

Top-bottom (horizontal) split

Another great way to use the split image feature, this time in horizontal split mode, is to have your Corkboard with the chapter plan at the top part of the screen and the current chapter you're working on, at the bottom half of the screen.

To do this, press on the Toggle Split button while holding the Alt key on Windows or the Option key (⌥) on a Mac (or, alternatively, go to View > Editor Layout > Split Horizontally).

This will split your screen horizontally. Click on the top window, then click on Manuscript from your Binder. Finally, click on the Corkboard mode button.

This should display the Corkboard at the top. Now click on the bottom Editor and from your Binder select the chapter you want to work on. That's it!

Surely, there are more uses for the Split View option in Scrivener, and I'll let you find your own way of using it. But let me just mention a case-scenario I find particularly useful when transcribing documents from audio files. I use the horizontal split to have my audio file on the top window and open the Editor in the bottom window where I transcribe. I just make sure to minimise the top part so that I have enough space in my editor. But I'm sure you'll find your own case scenarios, or you could try googling it so see how other people use Split Mode.

▼ To sum up ▼

 ● Select a Document from your Binder and then click on the Toggle split button from your Main Toolbar.

 ● Click on the left Editor window and, from your Binder, select the Document you want to have displayed in there. Do the same for the right Editor.

 ● To exit, press the Toggle Split icon again.

 ● If you want to use a horizontal split, go to View > Editor Layout > Split Horizontally.

 Chapter 16: How to Assign Characters & Locations in the Outliner

In this important bonus section, I will show you how to assign your fictional characters and your story locations to your chapters. Why would you do that? So that you can track them down later in your Outliner: you'll be able to see which characters appear in each chapter, which locations are used in each scene, and so on. You can even display your scenes on your Corkboard according to the characters or locations involved. Even if you're writing a non-fiction book, you can assign specific metadata to your chapters, so you can view them (or sort them) according to this metadata later. Let me give you an example. This book consists of three main parts: Writing, Organising, Completing. I have used Scrivener's Metadata function to assign one of these categories to each chapter, so I can later view all the chapters in a list, with a tag telling me whether this chapter is about Writing, Organising or Completing.

The great thing about the following section is that it will show you directly how the Outliner mode works in Scrivener. Just by following this brief tutorial, you will be able to get the gist of it.

But let's start. First, make sure your Inspector is open.

Find the third icon in a row (the one that looks like a tag — see screenshot that follows). There are three options here General Metadata, Custom Metadata, and Keywords. Click on the arrow next to Custom Metadata because this is what we need. Then click on the button Set Up Custom Metadata…

Click on the + button (top-right) and in the Input field that will open up type "Characters" and hit Return/Enter. It is a good idea to tick the Wrap Text option so that your data will look more compact later. Make sure that Type: Text is selected. Now we also need to add a "Locations" category. Press on the + button again and type "Locations" (again tick Wrap Text). Click on OK. You will see that your Custom Metadata section in your Inspector has been populated with the fields "Characters" and "Locations" (if you want to add more metadata categories, just click on the three dots next to "Custom Metadata" to bring back the Custom Metadata window).

In your Inspector, fill in the "Characters" field with a name and enter a location under "Location". Your Inspector should now resemble the image below:

Now, having followed the above steps, click on your Manuscript Folder (usually the top Folder in your Binder) and then go to the Outliner (it's right next to the Corkboard button on the Main Toolbar).

On the far right of the Outliner window, there is an arrow pointing to the right. Click on it and then select Characters and Location.

Each scene should now have all the info you need regarding your characters, locations, and items. Of course, you are free to add any other such fields that you find useful by following the above steps.

And that's it, really. Now you have an idea of how to use Scrivener's Metadata feature to assign specific attributes to your Binder items, such as characters, locations, thematic tags, even check-lists.

But, most importantly, you know how to use the Outliner to see all your Manuscript items in a list-type view and how to add columns that display special attributes for each document.

Part Three:

Completing

 Chapter 17: Compile

Understanding Compile

Compile is one of the most robust Scriveners features, and its understanding is essential if you want Scrivener to convert your post-edited draft: this is the very last feature you are going to use to get your book out to the world. How powerful is it as a tool? Just imagine that Compile can transform your book entirely and produce a new format no matter what kind of formatting you have used or how you have split your chapters into scenes or subsections in your Binder. But only to the point you want it to.

But what is Compile? It is a Scrivener function that takes your selected Folders and Documents in your Binder and converts them to a single book, ebook, submission manuscript, PDF, Word Document, etc. In other words, Compile takes your Binder data and creates your end product.

If you have been following online group discussions or Scrivener forums, you will have realised that Compile is the single feature with the most queries. However, Literature and Latte have done a fantastic job in Scrivener 3, and they have made the whole process more meaningful. Not that there was anything wrong with Compile in the previous versions; it's just that now we have visual aids to assist us and let us see what the final version of our book will look like.

If you stick to the basics, that is to say, the default options provided by Scrivener in Compile, you should be fine. But if things go wrong, there is a detailed discussion in this chapter explaining how to make sure you have connected the corresponding parts of your book to each other.

Let's take a look.

Please note: The Compile feature in Scrivener is often referred to as the "Compiler". In this book, I will be using both terms.

Front Matter & Back Matter

First and foremost, let me tell you that there are two ways to prepare your Front Matter, i.e. the pages that precede the beginning of your book.

The first one is to include them in your Binder just before your first chapter. For example, if you have a dedication page, a disclaimer, a copyright page, or even an introduction, then you can just add these pages there.

The second way is by filling in the Documents in the Front Matter Folder, which is at the bottom of your Binder. You will notice that this Folder already includes three sub-folders (if you have chosen the Novel template): Manuscript Format, Paperback, and Ebook. Fill in the info in each Document of every folder (all three folders if you plan to compile a manuscript, a paperback and an ebook), but make sure you do not edit the sections that start with <$. These are placeholders that will be populated automatically with the information you will provide in the Compiler, and which I will explain in a bit.

You can do the same with the Back Matter, i.e. the pages that come after the end of your book. You can either add them yourself to the Binder after your last chapter or fill in the Documents in the Back Matter Folder that Scrivener has already provided for you.

Using Compile out of the box

Scrivener users often consider the Compile function a brain teaser, but this shouldn't be the case. Let's be honest: if you take Scrivener's compile feature as it is and use it out of the box with all the default settings, it should work fine, provided that you had selected a Scrivener template that corresponds to your output format when you first created your project. In other words, if you chose the Fiction template, and you want to compile a novel (print book or ebook), the compile should work out fine, but remember, you will probably have to do some further tinkering that will be explained later on. First, I will show you some adjustments you can make to fine-tune the main settings. But truth be told and a word of warning: The Scrivener Compile feature is the only place where you might have to do some tweaking of your own to get the end-product exactly to your liking, be it a book, an ebook, a PDF or whatever your preferred format is. And before you use the compile feature, please make sure to have an extra backup of your project in an external drive or cloud service. In fact, I cannot stress this enough: always have a backup!

Now let's get on with it.

On your Main Toolbar, find the Compile button.

Windows:

Please note that on the Mac version the Compile button looks slightly different:

Mac:

Alternatively, go to File > Compile... This will open the main Compile window.

First, I will demonstrate how you can compile a PDF file. At the top of the Compile window, there is a Compile For drop-down menu. Click on it and select "PDF". On the left-hand side of the screen, under "Formats", click on Default. The "Default" setting will only convert your project to a single PDF without any extra formatting. The reason for choosing "Default" at this stage is only for demonstration purposes, just to get a quick glimpse of how the Compile feature works. If you want to see how your project will look as a Manuscript, then select the "Manuscript (Times)" format instead.

Before you proceed, have a look at the right-hand side of the window and make sure you have chosen Compile: Manuscript.

Now take a look at the third pane to the right (under Compile: Manuscript). All the ticks under "Include"(the Mac version might not actually say "Include") indicate which chapters will be included in the final version of your book and, in this case, we want all the chapters. For the time being untick both "Add front matter" and "Add back matter" just to get a straightforward compile of what is in your Binder. Click on Compile at the bottom of the screen and enter a filename and a location for your file to be saved. This should compile your project into a PDF. Now, if your PDF file doesn't turn out the way you want it or if you intend to compile a different format, then please carry on reading.

Compile using Compiler's power features

The tutorial below will demonstrate how to compile an ebook, but also, in reality, it will show you how to compile to most formats. Let me explain. When you choose to compile an ebook Scrivener populates the Compiler with more options to let you fine-tune every single detail of your book. Therefore, if you follow the ebook Compile guide below carefully, in the end, you should be equipped with the knowledge to handle the extra features that will allow you to compile any format. So please bear in mind that if you choose to compile something other than ebook format, you will get different options below.

Finally, I would like to point out that if you are planning to compile an Amazon .mobi file, it doesn't really matter if you choose to compile your Scrivener project to Word (.docx) or ePub format. The reason for this is that Amazon allows you to upload your manuscript in both .docx and .epub formats, and it automatically converts them to .mobi on its KDP platform. But if you do choose to compile directly to .mobi, just bear in mind that Scrivener will ask you to install an extra file that adds support for .mobi conversion (don't worry, Scrivener will automatically give you the link for that, and there are easy instructions from then onwards that any novice user can follow).

a. Enter your metadata

To create an ebook (epub format), first of all, open Compile (File > Compile...). In the Compile for field at the top of the window, choose ePub 3 Ebook (.epub). If you want to compile a Kindle ebook, then select Kindle Ebook (.mobi). The Scrivener compile options are the same for all these ebook formats. From Formats, click on Ebook. Skip the Section Layouts part and go to the third part of the window and make sure it says Compile: Manuscript (so you can have your own manuscript made into an ebook). You will see that each chapter has a tick next to it. Right below, there will be a few icons, all of which are of crucial importance and which I will explain at once:

To begin with, click on the second icon that shows a tag (2). Here, you can enter the basic details of your book, such as the title, author name, etc. In the Subjects: field, make sure to type in your keywords. If this is an Amazon book you are compiling, then you can use the same keywords that you will use on your Amazon product page. Lastly, tick the field that says Use custom book ID, and enter your ISBN if you have one, or the ASIN number you will get from Amazon when you publish your book. (If you don't have one, you can always come back and fill it in later, after Amazon has already published your book and given you your ASIN. This means you will have to re-compile and re-upload the ebook on Amazon. Amazon allows you to upload updated versions of your ebook so you shouldn't worry about that.)

Now click on the third icon, the cogwheel (3). Here, you get to choose what you want to keep in the final version of your ebook and what to discard. For example, you will see that, by default, Remove comments and Remove annotations are ticked, which makes sense (you don't want your personal annotations to be in the final ebook, do you?) Bear in mind that you need to click on Convert document links to HTML links, so the reader can click on your links (if you have any). Also, pay attention to the setting Book begins after front matter. Untick this if you want your ebook to begin from the cover page when someone opens it. Otherwise, it will start after the front matter, which is the standard practice for many books.

Click on the fourth icon, the one with the "ab-ac" sign (4) to replace any word or phrase in your book with a new one. First, click on the + button at the bottom-right of the window. Then, click in the field under "Replace" to enter the word that you want to replace. Under "With" enter the new word. Remember to put a tick on the left-hand side, next to the word. If you want to delete an entry, click on the - (minus) button, again at the bottom-right of the window.

In the fifth icon that shows a rectangular image (5), you can choose your book cover. Under "Cover Image", select First Image in Front Matter Folder. If you have included an image in the Front Matter Folder of your Binder, this image should appear here as your book cover image. Make sure you tick the box Add HTML Cover Page, but only if you are compiling an epub. If you are compiling a Kindle mobi, then you need to untick this (in fact if you are compiling a Kindle mobi, this option shouldn't be here).

Icon (6) which concerns the creation of a Table of Contents will be discussed in more detail right below.

b. Create your Table of Contents

There are two main ways to create a Table of Content (ToC) in Scrivener:

a) Let Scrivener create a Table of Contents automatically through Compile.

b) Create the Table of Contents manually.

You are probably thinking that the second option is time-consuming and more difficult but, in fact, creating a Table of Contents manually in Scrivener only takes a few seconds and is usually more customisable than letting Scrivener create it automatically. Anyway, let's see how both options work and I'll leave it to you to decide.

Option 1: Create a Table of Contents automatically

First of all, click on the last icon, as shown in the image below, the one showing bullet points (6).

Here you should tick Generate HTML table of contents if you want your ebook to have a contents page. You can even add a title for this page. Scrivener automatically looks at your Binder structure and creates a Table of Contents according to your section breaks. If you decide to follow this method, you should do a test Compile first to see how the ToC comes out and then make any adjustments to your Binder structure.

But if you are not satisfied with the end result or you want to choose what is included in your Table of Contents and what is not, then follow Option 2 below.

Option 2: Create a Table of Contents manually

The manual method of inserting a Table of Contents is super easy. You just select the items from your Binder that you want to include in your Table of Contents and paste them into a blank Document. Let's see how:

Select a spot in your Binder where you would like your Table of Contents to display. Create a blank Document there and call it "Table of Contents".

From your Binder, select the items that you want to include in your Table of Contents. Just to remind you, to do this you need to click on every item that you wish to include while holding down the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on a Mac (⌘). As we have seen before, if the items are in sequential order, just select the first item, and while holding down the Shift key, select the last item that you want to include.

Now you need to copy and paste these selected items in your blank Document.

● If you are creating an eBook:  Go to Edit > Copy Special > Copy Document as Structured Link List.

● If you are creating a print book:  Go to Edit > Copy Special > Copy Document as ToC.

Finally, go to the blank Document that you have named "Table of Contents", right-click in it in the Editor and choose Paste.

That's it really. You can then further edit this new Table of Contents in your Editor if you wish (i.e. enter or remove spaces between chapter headings, etc.)

c. Assign Section Layouts

If you have trouble making your compiled book look the way you want, let's take a look at how you can customise the basic compile settings.

In case some parts are missing, the following tutorial should help: Press the Compile button to go to the main window of Compile (or go to File > Compile…). In the middle pane, choose Compile For: ePub 3 Ebook (.epub). From the left-hand pane (Formats), right-click on Ebook. Select Duplicate & Edit Format… This will open a new window, as shown in the screenshot below (at this point, don't worry if your contents under "Layout Name" are different from my screenshot).

You can change the "Format Name" or leave it as it is. For the time being, leave it as it is (probably Ebook Copy) and click on Save. Now close the Compiler window by pressing on the X on the top-right corner if you're on Windows (or press Cancel if you're on a Mac).

I know what you're thinking at the moment: all this doesn't make sense, and you feel like you don't know what you're doing, apart from following instructions. Don't worry: for everything to make sense, we need to leave the Compile feature aside for a while and head over to the Outliner. I can tell you that we are not going to do anything at all in the Outliner, we will only observe — I just want to draw your attention to some things that will help you understand how Compile works.

First, click on Manuscript in your Binder. Then open the Outliner from your Main Toolbar.

Click anywhere in the Outliner to activate it and then go to View > Outline > Expand All. This will show all your Folders and Documents (chapters and sections) in the Outliner.

One of the columns at the top of the Outliner should say "Section Type". This basically tells you which part of the book each Document belongs to.

In our example, all the Chapters are labelled as "Chapter Heading" under Section Type, while all sections are labelled as "Scene". You can double click on any of these Section Types and change its value if it has the wrong one. For example, in my screenshot above, Chapter 2: Scene 1 is incorrectly labelled as "Chapter", whereas this should be marked as "Scene" to follow the pattern of the rest of the Manuscript. For this reason, I need to double-click on it (or single-click if you are a Mac user) and change it into a "Scene".

Make a note of what Scrivener calls your Folders under Section Type. As I said, I just want you to notice how Scrivener assigns (or how you can assign) different section types to each chapter and scene. And please remember that what you will see might differ from my screenshot.

It's time to go back to our Compiler to see how these section types now make sense. So, go to File > Compile...

Now you should be back at the main Compile window. Again, choose Compile For: ePub 3 Ebook (.epub) or Kindle Ebook (.mobi). Select the Ebook Copy (which we created earlier) under Project Formats (left-hand pane). Now click on the button that says Assign Section Layouts… at the bottom of the second pane. A new window opens up.

Under the left pane called Section Types (1), you get a list of the section types that were listed in your Outliner. If you have changed these in your Outliner or added new ones, they should be listed here.

According to my example in the image above, all I get listed here is "Chapter Heading", "Scene" and "Front Matter" (you will probably have different layouts listed). What you have to do is match the items from Pane 1 (Section Types) to the items in Pane 2 (Layouts), according to how you want your book to look like in its final, published version.

If you remember correctly, "Chapter Heading" in the Outliner referred to my chapters, so basically, what Scrivener now tells me to do is choose how I want my chapters to look in the final version. This is how I will personally match the items (in this case, for my current project):

•     First, from pane 1, I will select "Chapter Heading", and then from pane 2, I will choose "Chapter Heading" to match them. According to the illustration Scrivener provides, this shows my Chapter number in uppercase letters, and that is precisely how I want my chapters to look in my finished ebook. This is illustrated below:

•     Then I will click on "Scene" from pane 1, and I will choose "Section with Title" from pane 2 because I want to display both my section title and the section text underneath it, just like the illustration that follows:

•     For my "Front Matter", I will choose the "as-is" option because I want all my front matter pages to appear exactly as I had prepared them in my Editor. The only thing left is to click on OK.

d. Customise the look of Section Layouts

Now we are back at the main Compile window. First, make sure that you have selected Compile For: ePub 3 Ebook (.epub) or Kindle Ebook (.mobi) and from Project Formats, right-click on Ebook Copy (the template we made earlier) and select Edit Format... The following window will open.

There is a lot of info here, but all you need to look for is the column titled Layout Name. Scroll down, and you will find the sections you have just assigned, highlighted in bold. In this case, as you can see from the screenshot above, "Chapter Heading" is in bold.

Once you find them, you can customise the way they will be formatted. So, in my case, I will select "Chapter Heading" and then in the bottom-pane (the one that says Formatting), I can choose the font, font-size, etc. that I want my heading to have. Remember to tick on Override text and notes formatting first (this lets Scrivener know that you want to apply new formatting to all sections and not use the default formatting you have used in your Editor. The Mac version is a bit different here: it has a dropwdown menu where you need to choose Text and notes use custom formatting if you plan to use new formatting (instead of the formatting you have used in your Editor) and define it here.

Mac version:

Then I will scroll further down in the "Section Layouts" pane, and click on "Section with Title" (as I said, it is already in bold to show me that this is actually the layout I have used). In the formatting pane below, I can customise this too.

Placeholders

Now, an important note on using placeholders. A placeholder is a string of characters that takes the place of your final data. In Scrivener, placeholders can be dynamic, this means that they can change according to your document. But let me give you a specific example:

Suppose that you want Scrivener to number each chapter in consecutive order so that you don't have to number the chapters yourself. Why would you do that in the first place? Let's say that even though you have already numbered all your chapters, you suddenly realise you want to change their order. This means you would have to manually re-type every chapter number. To avoid this, it is better to trust Scrivener to do all the chapter numbering for you. How? Using placeholders!

Look at the screenshot that follows: you need to click on "Chapter Heading" from the "Section Layouts" pane on the right. This opens the Formatting pane below that allows you to make any changes to your chapter headings.

Click on the Title Options tab. Under "Title Prefix" the value "Chapter < $t:chapter> " might have already been inserted, depending on how you have assigned your different layouts (if it's not there, don't worry about it). This tells Scrivener to begin each chapter title with the word "Chapter" and then to number it according to your Binder order (this is what the value "< $t:chapter >" means!)

The "Title Suffix" might have the value "< $rst_scene >" (again, don't worry if it's not there). This tells Scriveners to restart numbering your scenes for each chapter and display them after your chapter title. If you don't want your section title to show at all, just delete this value.

Let's say that none of these values have been pre-inserted in your configuration. Or let's say that instead of the title "Chapter One" you prefer your chapter titles to display the numerical values instead (i.e. "Chapter 1"). To do this, edit your Title Prefix to look like this: Chapter '< $n >' (without the extra spacing before and after the $n). Now you're telling Scrivener to begin each chapter title with the word "Chapter" followed by the numerical value of your chapter according to your Binder order.

To see how your placeholders will look, click again on the Formatting tab and have a look at the visual preview.

But where can you find all the placeholders you can use? And how can you know what they mean? Scrivener has a complete list, and it's right there within the program. Just go to Help > List of All Placeholders…

So now you have every single placeholder code at hand in order to customise your formatting any way you want.

Further book layout customisations

Having explained how placeholders work, let's carry on with further layout customisations. In the left-hand-side pane, back in the Compiler, you can click on the available options to further customise the final version of your book.

For instance, under the Separators tab, you can choose how your chapters and sections will be separated (for example, a Page Break in Folders means that each Folder will begin on a new page).

Under the Sections Layout pane, choose each layout and then select how you want your separators to function.

Under Transformations, you can choose to convert your quotes style.

Under Replacements, you can replace any word or phrase in your book with another.

In the Footnotes and comments tab, you can deal with how your footnotes and notes will appear, etc.

Once you're done, click on Save, and you will be back at the main Compile window when you can just press the Compile button in the bottom-right corner and have your project compiled to the format you have chosen.

I have to remind the reader that it is not the purpose of this guide to go into a detailed analysis of the Compiler but to provide an Express guide to writing your book using Scrivener's features. Despite that, I feel I have ended up covering the vast majority of the Compiler functions (which was not the original intent of this "Express" guide - but, well, so much the better!). In my defence, it is really more effective for you to experiment with these layout options on your own because the settings I choose for my books will probably be different from how you want your book to be formatted. And, apart from that, the customisations in the above layout formatting screen are really easy to follow and self-explanatory. This further implies that if you have followed the above instructions in this chapter, you should have a clear idea of the core functionality behind the powerful Compile feature.

Compile for other formats

As stated earlier, the reason I demonstrated the Compile feature for an ebook is that it gives the user the widest range of options available. This means that if you follow the above instructions, you should be able to Compile to other formats easily. Just go to the main Compile window and choose your output format from "Compile For:" In fact, if you decide to compile a Word, PDF or Paperback format, the options will be fewer than when compiling an ebook, and the whole process should be a bit easier.

If Compile is not for you, and you want to follow another route…

Scrivener's Compile feature is a powerful tool, but it might be daunting for the novice user. If this is the case for you, then I suggest that you compile to Word and carry out your final editing there.

Now, you will probably think that this defeats the purpose of using Scrivener, let alone buying it in the first place. But this is not the case: remember that you have purchased a piece of software that has allowed you to write and organise your book efficiently, providing you with many options most word processors don't even have. It doesn't mean that you also have to use Scrivener's compile feature if you can't get round to using it. In fact, many authors claim that they usually export their manuscript to Word, or Compile to Word; they make their final editing there and then submit it using the Word file. After all, Amazon KDP supports Word file uploads.

If you want to go ahead and follow this road, in the main Compile window select Compile For "Microsoft Word (.docx)" If the end result is not what you were hoping for, follow my instructions in the section "Compile using Compiler's power features" to make sure you have assigned the layouts correctly. But really, Compiling for Word is one of the easiest methods, and your book should come out fine. When your Word document is ready, you can then carry out the final editing stage within Word (hopefully, you will be familiar with Word). But even if you are not familiar with it, fear not. Amazon has set out two different guides on how to use Microsoft Word to prepare your manuscript for a paperback or an ebook. You can follow the links below.

Amazon's paperback submission Overview: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834190

Amazon's ebook Manuscript formatting guide using Word: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200645680

And, finally, don't forget my recommended book on Scrivener 3 Compile by Karen Prince: "Scrivener 3 For Mac: Compiling for Export (Scrivener Quick Start Visual Guides Book 4)". As I've said again, I am not affiliated with the product but having bought and read the book myself, I can tell you that it is an in-depth guide on the Compile feature alone.

▼ To sum up ▼

To be totally honest, it is impossible to explain the Compile feature in a nutshell. This is probably the only part in this book where the "To sum up" section will not be of much help to you unless you read the entire Chapter and follow my examples. You should really spend some time on your own checking out the multitude of options but first remember to make a backup.

•     When you are in the Compile screen, remember that you can fill in all the meta-information (author's name, book title, cover, which sections will be compiled, etc.) using the options and metadata icons.

•     Before you change any settings, it is a good idea to go to the left-hand pane (Formats), choose a Format, right-click on it and select Duplicate & Edit Format… to create your own copy of the template format without messing up the originals. Make sure to always use your own copy if you want to experiment.

•     Go to your Outliner and check your Section Types. You can edit them if you think something has been classified in the wrong section. You will know that this is the case if your compiled book, PDF or .mobi file doesn't come out the way you expected.

•     When you are done editing your Section Types in the Outliner, go back to your Compile screen and click on Assign Layouts… to assign your new layouts to the sections you want to link them too. Those sections will resemble what the final version of your book will look like.

•     Remember that in Compile, you can right-click on any Format under the left-hand "Formats" pane and select Edit Format… to edit it. There, you can customise how your sections will be separated, what your layout is going to be, etc.

Part Four:

Extras

 Chapter 18: Don't Be Afraid of Changes, Take a Snapshot

The magic of snapshots: how you can always return to the previous version of your Document

Snapshots are a killer feature that allows you to keep a backup copy of your chapters at any time before you make crucial changes.

Let's say you have finished working on a chapter, but then you decide to change the beginning. Still, you are not sure whether you want to keep the new changes or stick to the previous version. What you can do is take a snapshot of the chapter. This means saving a copy of the chapter as it is so you can go on and make any changes you want. When you are done, you press a button called Compare, which automatically compares the saved copy with the new changes and highlights the revisions you have made.

To try it out, select any Document in your Binder. Make sure the Inspector is open (View > Inspector) and click on the penultimate icon, the one that shows a camera (when you hover over it with your mouse, it should say Snapshots). Now click on the + button next to Snapshots. This will automatically save a backup of your open Document, and you will see it listed right below, with a timestamp next to it. By default, it is saved as "Untitled" (or something along those lines). You can double-click on the title to rename it to something more useful.

Now add some text to your Document. Go to the Inspector and click on the snapshot you took a few seconds ago. Then click on Compare right above. The window at the bottom part of the Inspector will show you your saved Document plus the changes that you have made which will be marked in blue.

If you have taken many snapshots and you want to go back to a specific one, first click on the desired snapshot from your snapshot list and then on the Roll Back button below the + - buttons. This will do what is says: roll back your Document to that specific snapshot.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Make sure the Inspector is open and click on the Snapshot (camera) icon.

2. Click on the + button next to Snapshots.

3. Make any changes you want to your Document. If you want to revert to a previously saved snapshot, select the snapshot under "Date" and "Title" and click on Roll Back.

 Chapter 19: Use Themes to Suit Your Mood

Themes: Dark Mode, Light Mode, setting the perfect ambience!

Dark mode is the new hip standard nowadays. All it means is that all big white spaces on your screen are now substituted by dark areas. Dark is supposed to be easier on the eyes, especially if you are working at night or in a dark room. Be warned, though, that the opponents of dark mode claim that the high contrast of white text on a dark background is also tiring for the eyes. It's best to try both and choose the environment you feel more comfortable with — be it light or dark.

With Scrivener 3 supporting themes, it is very easy to switch between these different modes.

The procedure is different on Mac and Windows and will be explained below accordingly:

Windows: Go to the main menu, choose File > Options At the bottom of the page, there is a button called "Manage". Click on it, and you will see that there are different themes to choose from (beginning with "Default"). When you select one, click on Apply and then OK. You will get a warning that you need to restart Scrivener for the changes to be visible. Go ahead and try the pre-installed themes: all of them look really professional and have been optimised for different environments.

Mac: For those who are on a Mac, the procedure is even more straightforward, and there are two ways to activate dark mode:

● Go to your Mac System Preferences and set the light/dark mode there (you can follow the instructions here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208976).

● Go to Scrivener > Appearance and choose between Light, Dark and System Default. If you want to check out some pre-installed themes, go to Scrivener > Theme and check out the available options.

▼ To sum up ▼

1. Go to File > Options (Windows).

2. Click on Manage at the bottom of the window.

3. Select your Theme, click on Apply and then OK.

4. Save your project and restart Scrivener for the changes to take effect.

5. Mac users go to Scrivener > Appearance and Scrivener > Theme to check out the different colour schemes and themes.

 Chapter 20: Export

Exporting single Documents instead of Compiling your whole project

Suppose you have finished your manuscript, and you are ready to export it into a Microsoft Word document (your publisher might want to deal with Word files only), a PDF or an ebook. Of course, we have seen that we should use the Compiler to compile the whole project to Word. But you can also export it into different Word documents using Scrivener's Export function. This will only export the selected Document (or Documents) into your Binder, and it only supports export to very few formats (i.e. you cannot export into an ebook).

In any case, if you want to use Export, select the file you wish to export from your Binder and then go to File > Export > Files… Remember you can hold down the Ctrl key or the Command key on a Mac (⌘) to select multiple Binder items to export. Or hold down the Shift key and select the first and last Binder items if your items are in a sequence.

Choose a filename for your exported file and then, in the field Export text files as, specify the file format that you want. As I've said earlier, Rich Text format (.rtf) will be editable through most word editors. You can also export it to a Word file (.docx) or a PDF. The options of whether you also want to export your notes, metadata, etc., are self-explanatory. If you wish to export your manuscript without any notes, etc., just leave the default options as they are.

 Chapter 21: Search

Scrivener 3 offers two different search methods: Project Search and Quick Search.

Project Search

In case you want to search for a word or a phrase throughout your project, click on the magnifying glass icon on the Main Toolbar.

Right below, you'll be able to enter the word or phrase you're looking for. A list of the results will populate in real-time. Click on any of these to see the word/phrase highlighted in your Document.

If you want to find a specific word/phrase and replace it with another one, click on the little arrow icon next to the magnifier and select Search in Document. A new window will appear where you can enter the word you're looking for and the one you want to replace it with.

If you want to find and replace something throughout your whole project, then click on the drop-down arrow next to the magnifying glass, but this time choose Project Replace…

The most interesting option, however, is Find by Formatting.

From the image above, you can see that if you click on "Find:" you get a wide selection of different places where you can search for a word or phrase. In my screenshot, for example, I am trying to find a specific link. You can choose to look only in the selected Document or in the whole project.

To exit search mode, just click on the magnifier icon.

Quick Search

Quick Search is a new Scrivener feature that does what it says: you can search your Document or project just by clicking on the Quick Search bar on your Main Toolbar.

This will only give you the top 10 results that feature your search keyword. If you need a more detailed search, you can just click on Full Project Search at the bottom of the results to open up the Project Search functionality that we discussed earlier.

 Chapter 22: Typewriter Scrolling

If any of you have ever used a typewriter, you might remember that the text you type always remains vertically centred on the page: that is, with every new line, the page moves upwards, so that your "cursor" remains at middle height. Scrivener also has this feature, which is called Typewriter Scrolling.

What it does is precisely what I have described above: Each new line you type stays in the middle of the screen instead of moving towards the bottom of the page. This has the advantage of letting you focus on what you're writing at that moment since you don't have to move your eyes up and down all the time in order to follow what you're typing: once your typing reaches the middle of the screen, it will stay there.

To activate this handy feature, go to View > Text Editing > Typewriter Scrolling.

 Chapter 23: Easily Locate any Scrivener Command

Scrivener 3 introduces a neat help tool that allows you to quickly and easily locate any feature. How?

Go to Help > Search Menubar (Windows) or Help > Search (Mac) and enter your query. Try typing: "typewriter". You will notice that the menu location for Typewriter Scrolling is automatically revealed. You can either click on that link or navigate to the location through the menu.

 Chapter 24: Bigger Fonts, More Efficient Writing

Scrivener's default font for Windows is Calibri, size 13. While size 13 should be an OK size for most, you will probably need a bigger font if you usually type for hours.

Instead of changing your font size and messing up how your Documents look, you can just change the Text Scale, in other words, you can zoom in and out of your Editor, making it easier for you to read your writing. Right at the bottom-left of your Editor, there is a percentage count (default is 100%). Click on it and increase the percentage to zoom in. Don't worry your font size will remain intact and zooming in won't affect the actual text size of your published Document. You're just telling Scrivener to bring the text closer to you, that's why the fonts look bigger.

 Chapter 25: Customisation Options

Customising the Toolbars

Scrivener makes it very easy to add extra items both to your Main Toolbar and to the Format Toolbar.

In this section, I will show you how you can add the Move Item Left / Move Item Right icons to your Main Toolbar so that you can easily move your Binder items within or without your hierarchy.

The procedure is slightly different between the Mac and Windows versions, but both will be outlined below:

Windows: First, go to View > Customize Toolbars…

Then, make sure the Main Toolbar (1) is selected. Let's say that you want to place the new icons next to the Quick Reference icon of your toolbar. In the right-hand pane, find the Quick Reference icon (2) and click on it. Now, we need to find the button we want to add. Go to the left-hand pane and find the Move Item Left icon (3). Click on it to select it and then go to the other pane again and click on the arrow pointing to the right → (4) to move the icon to the right pane, under Quick Reference. Make sure to click on Apply (5) and then, using the same procedure, add the Move Item Right icon. After you click on Apply again, click on OK to close the window.

Mac: On a Mac, it is much simpler to customize your Toolbar.

Go to View > Customize Toolbars

This will open up a window with all the available icons. Just find the ones you want, click on them and drag them up into your Toolbar. If you want to remove icons from your Toolbar, just drag them from the Toolbar back onto the icons window.  That's it really!

Customising the User Interface

You can change virtually everything when it comes to customising the user interface of Scrivener. Any element can be altered: The Binder, Menus, the Editor, the Corkboard and the Outliner. You can change the way most items look, the fonts, the background or foreground colours.

Simply go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac) and click on the Appearance tab.

For example, under Appearance, if you click on Corkboard, you will see that you can make your Corkboard index cards have rectangular or rounded corners, transparency, and so on — you can even change the Corkboard's background. The options are endless.

I would need many more pages to go into detail for every one of the countless options under the Appearance tab, which would defeat the purpose of this Express guide. Most of these are self-explanatory and don't have to do with the actual writing process but with customising the interface, so I will leave it to you to experiment with them if you wish.

Finally, make sure to check out the well-written Scrivener guides provided by Literature and Latte, which you can access by going to Help > Scrivener Manual or Help > Interactive Tutorial.

 Chapter 26: Default Fonts

If you want to change the default fonts and font size for all your Documents from now on, the procedure is rather straightforward.

First, from your Formatting Bar, choose the font, font size, etc. that you want to set as the default for all Documents. Having done that, go to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac), select Editing, and then click on the Formatting tab. Click the button that says Use Formatting in Current Editor.

If you have already typed part of your book using different formatting, and you now want to convert everything to the new default formatting, go to Documents > Convert > Text to Default Formatting... That should do the trick.

 Chapter 27: Goodies

Scriptwriting

I might have left this for the end of this book, but make no mistake, Scrivener's Script Mode is very robust and full-featured.

One of the main reasons I haven't written about it so far is because Scrivener's own Scriptwriting mode is so powerful, that it needs its own space to be explained. Scrivener doesn't just allow you to apply a Scriptwriting template, it is a nearly complete suite of Scriptwriting tools that can save you a lot of precious time and produce a consistent format if you are writing scripts.

The best part? You can even import from other scriptwriting apps, such as Final Draft® or export to them. To import just go to File > Import > Files… and find the file you want to import. To export to Final Draft®, select the items you want to export from your Binder, go to File > Export > Files... and, from the "Export text files as" drop-down menu, select Final Draft (.fdx).

But let's go back to Scrivener's powerful Scriptwriting features. All these can be accessed from the Script Mode menu. To enable it, go to Format > Scriptwriting and tick the option that says Script Mode - Screenplay.

You will notice that the document icon in your Binder immediately changes to a yellow script icon. This indicates that you have activated Script Mode.

If you go again to Format > Scriptwriting, you will notice that there are different options such as Screenplay, BBC Radio Scene Style, Transcript, etc. to choose from. These are project templates that you can select. Otherwise, you can just stay in your current template and tick on Script Mode - Screenplay to quickly enable Script Mode.

Once you have done that, try typing something in your Editor, and you will notice that your default formatting changes. Press Enter on a blank line, and a drop-down menu appears.

You will also notice that your footer (bottom-right to be specific) changes and, instead of showing a word count, it now shows you which scriptwriting element you are using.

Finally, in the middle of your Footer, Scrivener will now give you keyword hints to help you transition logically from one element to another (this will be demonstrated below). Bear in mind that you can either press the Enter key on a blank line or just click on the Footer elements to change to a new element (for example, to Dialogue, Character, Transition, etc.).

In the picture below, I have written part of a script using the main Scriptwriting features.

Let's try it out by following my steps below, so you can see for yourself how powerful Script Mode can be:

1.  Press Enter on a blank line and choose "Scene Heading". We want to describe an interior scene that takes place in the living room. Just by pressing "i" a menu pops up so you can choose where the scene takes place. Choose "INT." either by clicking on it or use the cursor keys to select it and press the Tab key.  Type "INT. LIVING ROOM" and press Tab (this will insert a dash) and type "NIGHT". Again, you will notice that by just typing "ni" Scrivener auto-suggests the word "night" for you.

You can see that in Script Mode not only does Scrivener auto-suggest and auto-complete your words, but it also applies the correct formatting (be it uppercase, italics, brackets, and so on).

2. Now, press Enter and type "Mary and Tom are watching TV". The element has automatically changed to "Action", while you've been typing your description.

3. Press Enter and hit the Tab key to move the cursor inwards. Now, type "Mary". Scrivener automatically changes to the "Character" element and capitalises the name.

4.  Hit Enter, press Tab and type "Sarcastically".  This will automatically change the element to "Parenthetical".

5. Click outside the brackets, press Enter and type "That's what I call an exciting Friday evening." The element has now changed to "Dialogue". If you look at your Footer, you will notice that Scrivener says "[Tab] Parenthetical, [Enter] Action". In other words, it tells you that if you press the Tab key, you will enter the "Parenthetical" mode, and if you press Enter, you will enter "Action" mode.

6. Press Enter, then Tab and type "Tom" (once more Scrivener changes to the "Character" element).

7. Finally, press Enter and type "It seems to me you're avoiding the real issue here."

And so on...

In other words, it should be now obvious that there are two ways to write something in Scriptwriting mode: you can manually choose a scriptwriting element from your Footer (or from the drop-down menu, when you press Enter) or you can let Scrivener suggest the element to use according to what you are currently typing. For example, after a character name, your input will transform into Dialogue mode, etc.

You will notice that writing a script using Scrivener will save you lots of time (I really can't emphasise this enough). And there's more! As you type in more names and locations in your script, Scrivener will remember these and offer them as suggestions while you type, so you can make sure your script is 100% consistent.

If you want to see or edit your list of suggested words, go to Project > Project Settings… and click on the Auto-Complete List tab. Here, by clicking on the + and - buttons, you can add and remove suggested words for your project.

What is more, if you find Scrivener's pre-defined Script Mode formats limited, you needn't worry: You can change every single detail when it comes to formatting and layout. Just head to Format > Script Writing and select Script Settings… Here you can fine-tune most things so that the layout can satisfy even the most discerning scriptwriter in you.

Finally, a piece of advice: If you don't write scripts yourself, do recommend Scrivener to friends who might be scriptwriters — you will literally be doing them a great favour.

Scratch Pad

Scrivener comes with its own built-in notepad application, called "Scratch Pad". To use it, go to Window > Scratchpad or Window > Show Scratchpad if you are a Mac user. This will open a notepad where you can keep notes organised within Folders. On the top part of the window, you can add Folders by pressing on the + button. You can then click on a Folder and write the note into the bottom part of the screen. By double-clicking on the Folder, you can rename it. If you click on the button Send to Project…, you can send the selected note anywhere into your Binder.

By going to File > Options (Windows) or Scrivener > Preferences (Mac), under the General tab, you can find the Scratchpad options where you can choose the destination folder of the Scratch Pad. The cool thing is that when you navigate to this folder on your Windows PC or Mac, you will find all the notes saved as Rich Text format (.rtf) files, a format compatible with most text editors and word processors. This means you can view your scratch pad notes even when you are not using Scrivener, through a word processor or a simple text editor.

Name Generator

Yes, you've heard it right, Scrivener does come with a character name generator. Just head to Edit > Writing Tools > Name Generator... The window that will pop up has a variety of criteria you can choose to generate original names.

Character & Settings Sketch

If you have chosen the Novel Template, there should be a "Template Sheets" Folder at the end of your Binder. In there, you will find two different Documents: "Character Sketch" and "Setting Sketch". These are templates that you can fill in (using the pre-made fields) with information regarding your characters and scenes. You can even drag-and-drop images here to visualise your characters and scenes if you want to take things a step further. Just remember to make copies of both Documents before you start filling them in so that you can use these templates for all your characters and scenes. To do this just right-click on each one of the Documents and choose Duplicate. Make enough duplicates to accommodate all your main characters and scenes if you choose to use this feature.

Project Statistics

This is one of my favourite features that usually remains unnoticed. It's hidden under Project > Statistics... Click on it, and you get the following statistics for your project: the word count, the number of pages it corresponds to, the size of the longest Document, and much more useful information that will help you keep track of your progress and also give you an approximation of what the complete version will look like.

What I like most, however, is the "Word Frequency" section, which lists how often you repeat words in your book (click on the little arrow on the left to expand it). By using this feature, it is very easy to see which are the most used words, so you can then go on and find synonyms or alternative expressions to avoid repetitions. This is the kind of feature you would usually pay for in a Grammar checker app!

Internal Links

In any Document, you can link a specific word or phrase to any other Document in your Binder by creating an internal link. Whenever you click on that link, you will be taken to the Document you have associated it with. Just highlight any word or phrase in your Document and right-click on it. From the context menu that will appear, select Link to Document and then, from the pop-up, choose the Binder location that you want this link to lead to. It's that simple.

Thesaurus, Wikipedia & Translate

You can look up any word from the text in your Editor. Select it, right-click on it and choose Writing Tools to see suggestions from the thesaurus, look it up on Wikipedia, etc.

Copying Items Between Projects

If you want to copy a Folder, file (PDF, image or whatever) or Document from one project to another, the procedure is pretty straightforward. Make sure you open both projects. Resize their windows so that you can see both of them on your screen. Choose an item from the Binder of one project and drag and drop it into the Binder of the other Project. That's it!

Let's say you selected the wrong template when you first created your project. And now it's too late to change to a new Template because you have written most of your book in the current one. Or let's assume that you are using a Template that is missing a Folder or a Document that another Template offers. There is no need to panic: Keep your project open and go to File > New Project… to create a project based on the Template that you wish to use. Once the new project opens, drag the desired Binder items from the new project right into the Binder of your working project.

If, for example, you choose the "Non-Fiction" template by mistake, you will realise that the "Template Sheets" folder, which includes the "Character Sketch" and "Setting Sketch" Documents, is missing. Just create a new project based on the "Fiction" (Novel) Template and drag and drop the "Template Sheets" folder from the new project into your working project. It's that simple!

Importing Your Manuscript From Microsoft Word Or Other Programs

If you have already written part (or all) of your manuscript in another word processor, such as Word, it is very easy to import it into Scrivener and, at the same time, transfer each chapter into a separate Folder in your Binder.

The first thing you need to do is fire up Microsoft Word and open your document. Then, place your cursor where you want to split your chapters or sections and enter the hash symbol (#). Normally, you should type a # just before each Chapter title (or before each chapter number if you don't use titles) and also before each new scene.

When you're done, save your Word file and go back to Scrivener. Now, do the following:

Go to File > Import > Import and Split.

In the box that says "Sections are separated by:" type the hash symbol if it's not already there. Click on Browse… and select the Word file you want to import. If you're on a Mac, there should be an extra option saying, "Split into sections by finding separators in the text", and you will need to select this. Finally, click on OK.

You will notice that the chapter headings will be capitalised if they were also capitalised in the original Word document. Also, bear in mind that, as is usually the case, each new Scene in your Binder will be named after the first sentence of your text.

 Chapter 28: Postscript

Hopefully, this guide has been a valuable resource for you. I'd be glad to know that Scrivener 3 Express has helped you finish your book and that you have successfully published it. Please do leave a review or star rating if you liked this visual guide or email me with your success story at: info@thedialectical.com. Also, make sure to email me if you happen to find any outdated or misleading information.

In the Introduction of my book, I quoted best-selling author Michael Marshall Smith (http://www.michaelmarshallsmith.com/), saying that Scrivener is “the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor”. Some people might think this is pure hyperbole, but Scrivener can be the ultimate tool for authors and writers who want to have a single piece of software that handles everything for them. Not only is Scrivener effective in this regard, but having all your research, editing and formatting options as well as publishing tools within a single program can be a lifesaver for people who write.

My aim with this book has been to make Scrivener 3 accessible to the novice user by avoiding any unnecessary discussion on features that might get in your way and, at the same time, by providing a complete account of this great software: this is what I call the SEF approach (Simple, Effective, Fast). Even users familiar with Scrivener from version 2 should be able to gather some valuable insights into how things work in this new version.

In case you require personal help in writing your book, I now offer both Book Writing Coaching and Life Coaching services as a certified life coach. You can check out my website, YourBookWritingCoach.com for my book writing services and coachconstantine.com for my life coaching services.

Also, please do make an effort to read indie books and support indie authors. If you have the time, try to leave a review for them (my opinion is that even when we provide criticism, we should always try to offer some words of encouragement — after all, think about all the effort needed to self-publish a book. If you write a favourable review, this is all the better). Think that one day, you will be in the author's place with your books published and the need to have people review your books.

Apart from writing a review or giving a star rating, another way you can help indie authors is to recommend their books to people you think might find them useful.

Now, go and get your book out there, the world needs it!

 Chapter 29: Shameless Plug with a Wink: Introducing Your Book Writing Coach

As you draw near to the conclusion of this book, it is my sincere hope that the insights and guidance shared within these pages have been both valuable and inspiring on your journey as a writer. Writing, as you know, is a pursuit filled with challenges and rewards alike, and I understand this from my own personal experience.

Should you find yourself eager to delve further into the multifaceted world of book writing and publishing, it would be my honor to assist you in navigating this exciting path.

Additionally, I occasionally (when time permits) offer a free consultation to discuss your book project on my website.

As a book writing coach, I have had the privilege of working with a diverse array of writers, providing them with the tools and support necessary for overcoming obstacles and achieving their goals.

At YourBookWritingCoach.com, you will discover resources and my personalized coaching services designed to meet your unique needs. In our collaboration, we will delve into a wide range of topics, including:

•            Why writing a book matters

•            Anticipating and overcoming potential obstacles

•            The advantages of self-publishing

•            Estimating the costs associated with publishing

•            Identifying your topic and target audience

•            Determining the ideal length for your book

•            Selecting the most suitable apps and tools

•            Crafting the perfect title

•            Conquering writer's block

•            Exploring various writing processes

•            Harnessing the power of social media and pre-launch marketing

•            Designing an eye-catching cover

•            Developing engaging book blurbs and descriptions

•            Recruiting valuable beta readers and reviewers

•            Unveiling the secrets of publishing a bestseller

•            Launch day marketing to ensure success

•            Post-launch marketing to ensure long-term sales

•            And so much more…

My mission as a book writing coach is to guide you, show you the tools and provide the guidance necessary to transform your ideas into a successful book. Whether you are a seasoned author or just beginning to explore the world of writing, let us join forces to bring your vision to fruition.

With warmest regards and best wishes for your writing endeavors,
Ryan van Konsgaard* (and yes, this is just a pen name - and if you work with me you will learn why occasionally it’s a good idea to use one)

Visit YourBookWritingCoach.com

 Chapter 30: Your Review is Important

If you have found this book useful, please leave a review on Amazon and feel free to recommend it to more people.

And if you are interested in learning about my services, please feel free to contact me on social media or through my website. I am a certified Life Coach & Business Coach and offer both Life Coaching and Book Coaching services to individuals.

My website and social media accounts are listed below:

https://yourbookwritingcoach.com/

https://www.instagram.com/yourbookwritingcoach/

https://coachconstantine.com/

https://www.instagram.com/coachconstantine/

https://twitter.com/CoachLifeArtTec

I sincerely wish you all the best with your own creations!

— Ryan van Konsgaard