Newbie - a few techical issues (paste text and pdf use)

[AndreaMadeley_SA]

Hello from Australia

I am currently trialing this software and in principle it seems like such a great product but I am finding some time consuming issues that are I think may be restricted to Windows users?

1. When bringing in some text from a website (either drag and drop or copy - paste) the format is really rather odd with squashed lines and strange characters (like some words have letters that appear to look like hyperlinks but they aren't)

I can't see a way to overcome this - and it's time consuming to have to go through the text and fix all the formatting - for example some title text is dropped in but it overlaps the body text - I have to manually click on each and correct it.

It would be helpful if it was either all plain text or is brought in formatted (this looks like heading text so Scriverner allocated it default heading text) ...

Is this generally a standard issue?

2. Research folder - PDF handling

I use Scrivener to do non-fiction work so research is a fairlyy important aspect to what I need. I have watched videos and read help topics that suggest MAC users can select text and highlight text in PDF files imported into the program but I don't seem to be able to do that.

I have tried then to open the PDF in my external program (FOXIT) and highlighted and annotated in there and then saved - but cannot see how I can then bring those changes into the PDF in SCR - it's not an ideal workaround but it would be better than nothing. Help?

Thank you in advance for your help

[Major Major]

For the first part, try Documents | Convert | Formatting to Default Text Style.

[AndreaMadeley_SA]

Thank you for the reply but that command seems to do nothing at all

[AndreaMadeley_SA]

For the first part, try Documents | Convert | Formatting to Default Text Style.

Is there a way to clear a style or underlying formatting at all?

[steveshank]

HTML files.

1. I find no ability to import html files, and simply point to the website with a link.
1b. Converting to text: I use AceText which copies everything I copy, and saves as text. Or you could use any decent text editor (I use Editpad Pro, but notepad ++ is widely used, or notepad. Just paste into the text editor and copy from there. Once the stuff is converted to text, you will be able to copy and paste.
1c. Within Firefox and Cliqz, there is a reader mode which strips out a lot of the crap and might make it easier to copy. I use that to paste into Evernote for my research. Again, I can't make html import, convert, copy, etc. work to Scrivener, but with the reader mode, it works fine to Evernote.

2. PDF files convert just as well as HTML. So I also simply have a folder with PDF files and link to those files so I read and open and edit etc. in my pdf editor program. You can copy and paste quotes from the pdf files and a simple click brings up the file to read and figure out how to use.

I am very happy with Scrivener and believe it is a fantastic value, but do not find it useful for dealing with HTML or PDF files. I also have picked up ProWriting Aid which works well with it, because I wanted a Style tool.

"A man's gotta know a program's limitations"

[rdale]

In order for Documents | Convert | Formatting to Default Text Style to work, you have to select the document(s) in the binder first, in case that wasn't clear. When pasting in text, you can use Edit | Paste and Match Style to avoid inheriting the odd formatting from the source.