I’ve went from enamored with Scrivener, to supremely frustrated with it. There tech support is next nil on this, by the way. What do you do?

The table of contents appears as one long list and doesn’t get divided into chapters and sub-chapters, based on the folder structure that I have specified in the Binder. Is there any way to solve this and make the table contents appear the way it should?

From this:

first line
Second line

An do this:

1) First line
2) Second line

Next I will line to create a new preset or one key function that do this:

From this:

first line
First line A
First line B
Second line
Second line A
Second line B

Tod do this:

1) first line
A) First line A
B) First line B
2) Second line
A) Second line A
B) Second line B

I will like that when I selecta “first line” and apply the style It will start with 1) and when I select “second line” will start with 2), same with the letters A), B).

How can I create a one key shortcut to do this?

I suspect you’ve been watching too many Scrivener videos made by Scrivener users who are detail freaks. I made that same mistake as a SCrivener newbie. So here’s my philosophy with Scrivener and epubs: Unless you have a very good reason to use the precompiler Formatting options then I would avoid iusing them completely because it will just complicate things. Furthermore, I can say with hand on heart, that any formatting that you can do using the pre-compiler Formatting options — you can also do using As Is — more easily.

I don’t use the precompiler Formatting options at all because there’s absolutely no need for me to use it. I just use a simple flat file structure in the Binder(using only sheets — not folders) for my TOC. Then I just set the pre-compiler Contents export options to include all sheets As Is with page-break-before throughout. So in effect what I am doing is writing my ebook in the Scrivener Editor exactly as I would do on a typewriter — I just format as I write. So what you see in your Scrivener Editor is exactly what you will get in the epub after export in terms of layout, formatting, styles etc when you export the scriv doc. So there’s really no need to learn the weird script for the headers or learn the weird relationships between Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 and sub-folders in the precompiler Formatting options. Why complicate things?

I usually always also reformat the epub TOC in Sigil after export — I add extra spacing, change font, font-size in the TOC and do several other things — such as adding the Go To guide menu items for Begin Read, Cover and TOC. I also add extra globals and presets to my epub stylesheet by hand as additional personal styling. This doesn’t take that long.

Think of it not like you are using the command line, but rather Scrivener is using the command line. I never saw a bit of code when I did it this way.

And anyway, Kindle Previewer is a window program that will convert and, at the same time, test your ebook across all emulations for Kindle devices. Kindle Previewer also uses kindlegen. Kindle has also brought out a separate Kindle Previewer 3 Beta version(no conversion) that shows just Android, iOS and KF8 Tablet emulations of your epub. It also displays Kindle’s new and improved text rendering capabilities. Both KP and KP3 are very useful for end-testing your conversions.

The one area where I do differ from you is that I would never use Calibre to convert my epub to Kindle. I would use always Kindlegen — the proper Kindle command line tool — to convert my epub to mobi. Or you could also use Kindle Previewer which also uses kindlegen under the hood.

Thank you for your contribution. I have lots of data for my subject but am having a problem with the overall outline. I have tried to determine the Chapters but am stuck. I am finding your article here to be very helpful. I am posting this OFF TOPIC reply because even though I am drafting an ebook, the outline you shared above is also very helpful. Do you have any additional notes or outlining in Scrivener ? or templates ?

Please advise.

Jon
[email protected]

So to understand this correctly, you are not placing any kind of title in the documents themselves and let the compilation take them from the binder names, right? Otherwise they would show up 2 times in the ebook.

One last question, Nick. Is the The Fiction Writer’s Guide to Writing Fiction still around? I noticed that a lot of people are asking for it, but they don’t seem to be able to receive it.

Thanks!

For images, I’ve found that including them center-aligned will work fine — Scrivener just shrinks them to fit perfectly on a compiled page!