# SCRIVENER Q: Pasting from Word to Scrivener - formatting



## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

Hi All:

I've decided to give Scrivener a go since you can just have Scrivener do all the work re: formatting and creating your ebook.

However, when I cut and paste from a Word doc to a Scrivener text document, the alignment and formatting goes weird. I've hit "compile" as a tester and the indentation, paragraph breaks, etc. are all wrong.

I've Googled this, but I may not be inputting the correct search terms.

Does anyone know how to re-format Word doc pastes into Scrivener so that it'll come out ok in the end?

Thank you!


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Don't paste. Import. It's much easier.


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Don't paste. Import. It's much easier.


What the what! Import? There is such a thing?

And this is why I'm a tech failure. I shall look into this.

Thank you!


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Don't paste. Import. It's much easier.


+1


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

I think it's under File, about halfway down. You can even tell it to split into chapters.


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

ShayneRutherford said:


> I think it's under File, about halfway down. You can even tell it to split into chapters.


I did import, but the indentation is still very shallow.  Is Word's indentation not enough for Scrivener?


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Lydia Young said:


> I did import, but the indentation is still very shallow.  Is Word's indentation not enough for Scrivener?


Just to clarify, do you want there to be a little indentation, or a big one, or not one?

IIRC, what you see indentation-wise in Scrivener is not indicative of what you see when you compile back out to Word.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Also, when you say 'so it will come out okay in the end', do you mean it will look okay in Scrivener while you're working on it? Or when you compile it to ebook when you're ready to publish?


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Also, when you say 'so it will come out okay in the end', do you mean it will look okay in Scrivener while you're working on it? Or when you compile it to ebook when you're ready to publish?


When it comes out in ebook format to publish. That's pretty much the only reason why I'm using Scrivener.

In terms of indentation, I just would like normal indentation when it's compiled into ebook format (.epub or .mobi). Right now, when I compile it to .epub, the indentation is so shallow that it *almost* looks like there's no indentation.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

I haven't used it for compiling to ebook yet, just RTF, but it's going to be similar. When you click compile there's a smaller menu and then a full menu where you can choose all your settings and page layout, etc. It's a tab at the top of the compile window thingy.


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## Thisiswhywecan&#039;thavenicethings (May 3, 2013)

Try this. Highlight and copy your Word document and then in Scrivener, select "paste and match style".


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

ReGina W said:


> Try this. Highlight and copy your Word document and then in Scrivener, select "paste and match style".


Scrivener's compile feature controls the way the output ebook looks. I don't think paste and match will effect the output product at all.

Instead, choose Compile > All Options > Formatting, and make your adjustments there.


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

ReGina W said:


> Try this. Highlight and copy your Word document and then in Scrivener, select "paste and match style".


Unfortunately, that got rid of the indents altogether.

I am so doing something wrong. Ok, this is something to bring up during this weekend's writer's workshop! Hands on help for this hopeless tech person!

Thank you for your suggestion


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

ShayneRutherford said:


> Scrivener's compile feature controls the way the output ebook looks. I don't think paste and match will effect the output product at all.
> 
> Instead, choose Compile > All Options > Formatting, and make your adjustments there.


Oh, ok! I'll try that! I just realized that cutting and pasting also got rid of my italics.


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## ShayneRutherford (Mar 24, 2014)

Lydia Young said:


> Oh, ok! I'll try that! I just realized that cutting and pasting also got rid of my italics.


Good luck. I'm crossing my fingers for you.


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

Thanks for all your suggestions! I'll report back...if I ever come back from the Scrivener-Zone... doo doo doo doo...


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

No One Stars Please.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

I use Scrivener for Windows. There are 2 different indent settings you can set for Scrivener. One is in the Editor window where you will see what you're writing. For instance, mine has an indent of as I remember .4 and uses the Georgia font set at 13 and a zoom of 145%. Those are my choices. The best thing to do to achieve what you want is make those settings before you ever write or import a word. You can choose different templates, modify them, and save them as your own. In the Windows version, you go to Tools, Options, Editor. Open up the Editor settings, and then you see a little screen that lets you set these things pretty much the same way you would in any word processing program. You also see at the very top of that window where it says, "Default Main Text Attributes (only applies to new documents)." So you want to set things up first, then start and name your new project, and then do your import or paste. If you paste, you do want to do it with Paste and Match Style.

I've never brought anything from Word as I don't use it, but I originally brought a short story with 3 chapters in from Word Perfect just to see how the program worked and played around with that.

In Compile, which is what will affect your ebook (no matter what the settings are in your Editor window), you can control the settings such as indent and size of chapter headings and indent of text under File, Compile, Formatting. You see the window where you do it to the right. You have to actually click on and activate one of the levels above such as Level1 and then you see a mock up of what Level 1 does in the lower half of the window and can adjust things there.

IMO it's worthwhile to set up your own template that's exactly the way you want it as to the Editor window, save it, and then start your new project from that template, whether writing from scratch or bringing in something from another program. Maybe that's because I'm OCD about such things and if it's not the way I want it will bug me every word of the way.

A good many KBoards people have posted in the past that they only use Scrivener users to Compile and bring books written in Word into Scrivener at the end. From their posts, I always assumed they did a paste, but it can't be that hard to do or they wouldn't use Scriv that way.


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## Lyoung (Oct 21, 2013)

Wow, thank you so much for your tips. I can see it's a lot of work, but I'm determined. 

I'm not the hugest fan of typing directly in Scrivener, but as anything else it just takes getting used to...

However, yes, I've seen authors note that they've pasted/imported from Word, so I thought it must be doable and not overly complicated or time-consuming?


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