Library of themes (similar to Ulysses Style Exchange)

[joseph_anton]

I am a big fan of the community-submitted library of themes in Ulysses (see here: http://styles.ulyssesapp.com/tagged/Theme). I also like how easy it is to switch between visual themes for composition within the application. The themes even sync over between the OS X and iOS versions.

I'd be delighted to see something similar come to Scrivener so that it would be possible to work in a similar visual environment across the two apps. Of course, if something like this is already out there, I would be really glad to hear of it.

[xiamenese]

On the Mac, Window > Layouts > Manage Layouts is your friend.

Saved layouts can be found in ~/Library/Application Support/Scrivener/Layouts from where they can be copied and transferred into the same location on any other (Mac) computers or even no doubt zipped up and posted somewhere that other people can be given access to.

I presume Windows users can do the equivalent, but one of them will have to explain how. I would also suspect that layouts are probably not shareable across platforms.

Let me say, I have never been interested in "themes", layouts or templates designed by other people. All my Scrivener projects start from the "Blank" template; in ten years of using Scrivener, I've only ever created one document template and that is in a project with particular requirements; even my word-processor documents start from a totally minimalist "New File" template or "Blank" template, though I have a small number of Nisus Writer Pro style-sheets of my own creation—currently 3 of them—that I then import and modify as necessary. But each to their own.

Mark

[joseph_anton]

This reply is much appreciated Mark, and thank you for pointing me to Layouts, which I hadn't paid much attention to before. It looks as though that is intended for saving the layout of the working environment, whereas what I'm thinking of has more to do with with how text is displayed when composing.

I was also skeptical of the idea of using themes and templates that other people had put together, but I found that the Ulysses Style Exchange offered the opportunity to quickly try out various color schemes and so forth until I found one that suited me. I would never have thought of setting up my own writing environment to use white text on a dark blue background, but I am finding that works better for me than the classic black text on a white background. I have also found that switching to a monospaced font (Cousine) has made composing text easier for me. But as you say, to each their own!

[xiamenese]

You can make all those changes to your set up using the Scrivener Preferences. Whether different layouts can have different colour schemes, I don't know.

Perhaps someone who does know will be along soon.



Mark

[ptram]

Scrivener has a Manage > Theme Preference series of menu commands in the Preference window. This is very similar to what you do with themes in Ulysses. Presets can be saved and exchanged between users, and we could open a thread for this.

I like to have more themes in Scrivener, for example a green one for daywork, and an amber one for working at night. I also like to use themes in Ulysses, where I appreciate the on/off switch for the Dark mode (day/night).

Paolo

[xiamenese]

just shows how little attention I pay to themes that I didn't even know that preference existed!

Mark

[Tridens92]

I too am interested in sharing themes for Scrivener (Windows user here). Is there are thread that has been started for this that I'm not seeing ? I could start one, but then again, I don't have any themes to share yet.

[AmberV]

A good idea! Let’s get this started.