If you open a new Scrivener Project you will see a clean interface as illustrated below that includes the Editor Window in the center with a header bar (above) and a footer bar (below) with the active window inbetween. Above the will first be your Format Tool Bar and above that your Main Toolbar. This is the default view to start. (see below) As you become more comfortable with the program many of these elements can be changed to suit your preferences.

The Interface of a New Scrivener Project.

The Binder and Inspector can be removed by using the menu bar and View> and unchecking their boxes.

The Header and Footer can be removed as well by View> Editor Layout> and unchecking the Header View and Footer View. However, doing this will remove many valuable Editor tools from easy access.

The above window is the classic Editor window, but you can also see three other Views.

1. Scrivening- Here all selected files are viewed as one and you can move between files by moving the editor window up or down. Each file will have a separator and title.

Border between files in the Scrivening View.

2. Corkboard- Which resembles a collection of Index Cards

3. Outliner View- Which looks like the title says.

An Example of a the Outliner view of a folder and its subdocuments.

If you click inside the classic Editor window, you can begin typing right away. However, we will talk about some useful things to consider before starting. You can set your formatting for writing for the project in Project Settings. This can be reached by the menu bar Project>Project Settings. This will bring up the Project Settings Panel and you can click on Formatting.

The Active Formatting option is highlighted in orange.

In the beginning you can start with the default settings from Scrivener and easily change later. Once you have chosen a preferred font, size, spacing, pargraph indent, etc then you can change your work to your preferred font settings by highlighting all your documents and then going to the menu bar Documents>Convert>Text to default Formatting. This will change your existing documents to your chosen default font and all new documents will be formatted that way. These settings will also now be in your Project Settings. You can also import styles/formats from other projects using the Style Panel under Format in the menu bar. (Note: do not use the tab key for paragraph indent as this will mess up the formatting in compile.)

Another menu bar command which will help you personalize your Editor appearance is the View>Text Editing>

You can choose multiple options about what is visible including the:

Format Bar
Ruler
Page View (a simulation of how your writing would appear on book pages)
Typewriter Scrolling (this will keep your cursor always in the middle of the editor while typing)

The Editor appearance can be further adjusted in the Options Panel by:

File>Options>Editing
File>Options>Appearance>Main Editor (Here you can set editor window width, margins at the top and bottom as well as choices of the color of the editor window (light or dark), text color, text selection highlight, default text zoom, and current line highlight among other options.

The Color options tab is highlighted here, but the other tab Options has multiple ways to personalize the experience as well.

Now, that you have the view and text you want to write with it is time to learn the tools you have at your disposal starting with the Header and Footer bars which each contain many useful tools.

A modified image of the Header Bar of the Scrivener Editor.

Header Bar

1. History- clicking the < and > carets will move the Editor backwards or forward in the viewing history of the files/folders in the Binder and NOT in the physical file order (Much like a web browser). If you click a caret and hold the mouse button down, then you will see the full history listing.

2. The Icon of a File/Folder in the Header Bar- will be same as in the binder. (right clicking on this icon will reveal multiple options including reveal file location in the binder). This Editor Icon can be dragged just as icons in the binder can be.

Right clicking on the Icon in the editor will show multiple options that can be very helpful.

3. The File/Folder Title- This will be just to the right of the icon. This can be edited by a single click within the title. Changing the title here will change your entry in the Binder.

4. Next/Previous Documents on the right- These up and down carets change the file/folder being viewed in the editor window based on the current Binder order. The particular file/folder will being viewed will appear in the last mode it was open in such as the corkboard or outliner view. The original file will still retain the active highlight colors in the binder, to help identify this as the starting file or folder.

5. Split View control- this button when clicked creates a split view editor in a horizontal or vertical orientation. Holding down the Alt Key and clicking the Split view button will flip orientation from vertical to horizontal.

In Scrivener, you can lock the Inspector to a specific Editor split view window by right clicking on the icon in the editor header, or any caret in the header. This will keep information displayed by the inspector locked ONLY to that window till you break the lock. You will see a red I to indicate this function is active.

Right Click menu options after clicking on a caret in the Header Bar of the Editor.

Lock in Place will lock a window so that the view will not change no matter what other files you click till you unlock it. Your window will retain the active selection color and a red line underneath the header.

Lock the Inspector with the I in a red circle.

Lock the Inspector will force the Inspector to only reveal the data about that one file even if other files are clicked on in the other editor windows.Note: if this occurs will see a red I appear in the affected window of the editor. (Close window or right click on icon and uncheck option to remove this setting.)

Active Editor Window with a blue underline.

Note: In split view, the active window will have a blue line just above the editor window (or Ruler if that option is chosen)

In a split screen view (up to 4 windows with copyholders) the active window will be underlined in blue and a locked window will be underlined in red. Copyholders will be discussed in a separate blog in the future.

The 3 bars if clicked on will show a listing of a folder’s content that can be clicked on.

When a Folder is selected in the editor window AND you are in the Scrivening view, then you will see 3 lines in the header bar on the right. Clicking on this will show all the files contained in the currently selected folder. Clicking on one of the files in the list displayed will move you to the beginning of the that file in the Editor window.

Clicking on the 3 bars shows a list of the contained subdocuments in the folder.

The Footer Bar

Footer Bar

Modified Footer Image

1. Zoom- can be changed for a specific editor window by clicking in lower left corner where you will see current level and can adjust by clicking the caret and choosing a default value or use other to set a custom zoom. The primary use is to help old eyes read more easily and does not effect the compile function.

Zoom can also be set globally from File > Options > Editing > Options Pane

The Default text zoom can be set individually for the -

Main Text Editor
Copyholder
Document Notes
Bookmark Previews
Snapshot Previews

Here you can set the zoom function individually for each option.

2. Word Count is in the center of the Editor. (Note this is not visible in Scriptwriting Mode. If the word count suddenly disappears you have accidentally gone into script mode. Click Ctrl + 8 to leave this and go back to standard mode.)

Real-Time Text Statistics

When writing or editing text, in the middle of the footer a word or character count will be displayed. Hovering your mouse pointer over the word count reveals additional info after a brief delay. By default the word count reflects the whole file. If you select only part of the file the word count will change color to red and begin with the phrase Selection.

Clicking the mouse when this field is open, opens a new box with even more information.

If you click the mouse while the above information is displayed, you will see even more information.

File>Options>Editing>options includes the option to choose a Live count of words, characters, or characters without spaces.

3. Document Targets at the far right of the footer allows you to set specific word or character targets for the documents with the minimum, overrun and overall target numbers. You can also create Chapter and Scene templates with built in targets to use again and again to quickly create a novel framework. This will be visible in the Outliner as numbers if you choose certain options such as Total Target and Target as numbers, or as color bars showing progress towards your goal with Progress and Total Progress.

Progress and Total Progress show the words counts with graphics and the colors are set in the Options Panel.

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4. The Compile Icon will show the file or folder Compile status with a checkmark for included or an X for not included. This information will also be seen in the Inspector in Metadata panel below general metadata.

Now that you know your way around the editor window, we will tackle different ways to use the Editor including split views and the Quick Reference Panel in future blogs.

the basic series-The Scrivener editor layout

Header Bar

The Footer Bar

Back Up Options

The Overall Scrivener Interface