Highlight current line--appearance in Scriv 3

[Claudia]

Anyone else upset with the change in the appearance of the highlighted current line in Scriv 3? I REALLY dislike the way it's outlined now, instead of just a slightly different color. Yick. Very amateur design look, when everything else is more streamlined. I don't see a way to change this in preferences, but if there is, please advise! I mean, this is the point at which my gaze is directed the ENTIRE time I'm in the project.

[SarsenLintel]

Preferences | Appearance | General Interface | Draw border around current line highlights

You can change the colour of the highlight at
Preferences | Appearance | Main Editor | Colours | Current Line Highlight

[KB]

"Amateur"? There's really is no need to throw insults around just because something isn't to your taste. Forum rule no. 1: "Be polite." Sarsenlintel has put you on the right track if you wish to change it.

[Silverdragon]

FWIW, the line highlight in Ulysses does the same with the hard edge outline, but in keeping with Ulysses' design philosophy, there's no way to turn it off. Just one of the many reasons I stick with Scrivener.

[Claudia]

Hm...I understand how to get rid of the current line color. But I don't want to change the color, just get rid of the border for it that has shown up in v 3.... It didn't used to have an edge. Why does it have one now?

I apologize for letting my frustration turn into an insult. This is the feedback area, and my feedback is this border thing is ugly. I built a gorgeous color scheme and now it has this command line/terminal feel. It also adds to my sense of pressure by really zeroing in on what I'm composing in that line. Every time I open my project (actually it launches on boot up) I just cringe and want to look away. It's removed some of the joy in the work, in point of fact.

I do want faintly contrasting color for the current line and have gone to quite a bit of trouble to set up all my exact color preferences for each type of project (which btw loaded just fine into Scriv 3 without my telling it anything--awesome, and thank you very much!). I just don't want it outlined with that thin black rectangular line. Is there a way to erase that specifically, or is my only choice to erase the current line highlight and lose my place?

Thanks for letting me know, and again, sorry for ruffling feathers. I'm just hoping I can have my line back the way I like it, as when I run workshops on how great Scrivener is, I start by explaining how it's built for long projects, and that its personalization features are a large part of what support its endurance features. As you know, if you're writing something long you have to look at the screen for hours on end. That's why it matters what colors and fonts you use. That's why it matters what the current line looks like. Because this is where you always are. If there's anything that needs to be HIGHLY customizable, it's this.

[Silverdragon]

To get rid of the border, just as SarsenLintel said,

1. Select Scrivener > Preferences
2. follow the steps in the screenshot below:

HowToTurnOffBorder.png (118.11 KiB) Viewed 4139 times

[Claudia]

THANK YOU!! That's wonderful!

For some reason I didn't even see the part about General Interface among the instructions above... it seemed more like a header in the comments, I don't know why. My eye skimmed right over it; I apologize for the lack of thoroughness.

As a separate but related matter, when I was searching for a solution on my own, I guess I stopped in the area where you deal with the appearances related to current line highlight. So that's feedback on usability/finding the fix on one's own. Wherever it makes the most sense to put the functions controlling current line, I'd make an argument for placing them all together, because I think a lot of people would expect that. I'm not a COMPLETE idiot about this...I used to be somewhat involved with usability for partner portals & websites for a software company you love to hate.

I'll try to remember to hunt around even more than I think necessary and to remember that not everyone assigns categories the way I do.

Thanks again, very happy.

[Silverdragon]

You're welcome! I had trouble finding it when KB first added it, also, and had to ask on the forum... so I remember it easily now.

[Silverdragon]

... I thought about it a bit more--and then checked. The current line highlight can be turned on independently for the Main Editor, for Quick References and for Composition Mode. Its colour can be set independently for each of these views as well. Each of those views' appearances are controlled in its respective panel. My thought on the highlight outline control is that for whatever reason it can't be controlled independently for each of these views, so its on/off appearance control went into the General Appearance panel.

Not that it makes the highlight outline control any easier to find, if, as I do, you use one editing location almost exclusively (in my case, I'm in the Main Editor 95% of the time.) I tend to forget that the other editing modes exist, and that they have separate appearance controls until my nose is rubbed in the fact.

[scottyweeks]

Wow, super happy that border can be turned off. Is there any way to turn off or adjust the appearance of the highlight for comments and footnotes? I can find the spot to change the color but for the life of me cannot figure out how to turn off those borders.

And yes, they are awful. I love Scrivener and I am beyond impressed (and enamored) with its utility, but that doesn't mean that the design choices are beyond reproach.

[Carl201010]

So to be clear from the outset, I am a Srivener fan and I think the strength of the application is in its flexibility. Scriv 3 has significant improvements over Scriv 2, which was pretty blinking good in itself. That all being said, greatest strength is also greatest weakness, and it's that flexibility that can sometimes leave you wondering what on earth it is you've done to make this project look subtle different from the last project.

I certainly wouldn't want to lose any of that flexibility though - so what's the work-around? Would it be possible to offer a somewhat wider series of presets for projects, such as: 'this is for a manuscript, 12 point double-spaced TNR in European style with no outline on highlight, prefaced without chapter heading and ideal for anyone wanting to write gruesome crime novels?' And if you tweak that, to be able to save a global preset yourself across projects (not just the style preset).

It seems that frequently you need the flexibility and complexity Scrivener offers - but sometimes you just need the cut-down version to bootstrap a project. Maybe a 'simple' and an 'advanced' mode?

I suspect these are all thoughts that have occurred to the Scriv dev team, and the answer will most likely be: because that's a shed-load of work - but keep up the good work!

[kewms]

I certainly wouldn't want to lose any of that flexibility though - so what's the work-around? Would it be possible to offer a somewhat wider series of presets for projects, such as: 'this is for a manuscript, 12 point double-spaced TNR in European style with no outline on highlight, prefaced without chapter heading and ideal for anyone wanting to write gruesome crime novels?' And if you tweak that, to be able to save a global preset yourself across projects (not just the style preset).

Project templates, maybe? Or, for the final output document, saved Compile formats.

Katherine

[Carl201010]

I certainly wouldn't want to lose any of that flexibility though - so what's the work-around? Would it be possible to offer a somewhat wider series of presets for projects, such as: 'this is for a manuscript, 12 point double-spaced TNR in European style with no outline on highlight, prefaced without chapter heading and ideal for anyone wanting to write gruesome crime novels?' And if you tweak that, to be able to save a global preset yourself across projects (not just the style preset).

Project templates, maybe? Or, for the final output document, saved Compile formats.

Katherine

Yes. I wonder if you'd need to go as far as separating Compile formats from the rest of the project though? I would imagine (assumption) that most projects would have similar requirements for - not sure what you'd call it, input and output maybe, just meaning that if you're writing a novel aimed at a European agent (only using as example because of difference in paragraph conventions from US) you're probably going to have a preferred style of writing environment versus a series of set requirement for output. I guess the same would apply for a non-fiction e-book at the other end of the spectrum, or an academic paper. Being able to define a series of templates that could be applied to any project providing it adhered to some basic rules (folder structure for chapters etc) would be pretty spectacular. Can't immediately think of any examples this wouldn't work for

[kewms]

The whole point of Compile formats, particularly in Scrivener 3, is that they are separable from the underlying project.

So you would create a template to ensure that *this* project follows whatever structure you want to be standard, and then a Compile format to normalize formatting for a particular market. Both these functions already exist. See Sections 5.4 and 23.2, respectively, in the Scrivener 3 manual.

Katherine