Stuck at Part 4 of the manual - Help?

Hi,
I have been going through the tutorial (It says It takes 2 hours to complete, but I’m three days in and I’m still only halfway through it. Finding it quite challenging…)
Anyway, I was getting through it (albeit slowly) until I reached “Part 4: Text Tools”.
I got as far as:
" Try putting the cursor at the beginning of the next paragraph and doing that now."
I did that, and the page was split by a horizontal dotted line. But then the manual goes on to say:

“You should see that your input focus has been moved to the Binder so you can name this new chunk of text, and everything prior to the point above has been removed from this document. Click on the prior document in the Binder, and you’ll see the previous bit of text from before the split. Use the back button to return here when you are done.”

I’m not seeing that the “imput focus has been moved to the Binder” (what does this mean?)
And I see no option to “name this new chunk of text”. Where? How?
Nor has everything prior to the point above been removed from the document (I can still see the preceding text).
“Click on the prior document in the Binder, and you’ll see the previous bit of text from before the split.”
The prior document in the Binder is “Step 16: Compiling the Draft”, and when I view that I don’t see the previous bit of text from before the split. That page still ends with “Now on to the fourth part…”
Obviously I’m doing something wrong, because I’m not seeing what I’m supposed to be seeing. And this is probably the most important feature of the software, so I don’t want to skip this part without knowing what’s gone wrong. Any suggestions/advice?
I’m attaching a screenshot of the page.
Thanks

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Screenshot 2015-09-18 11.45.19.png1053×787 67.1 KB

From the picture above, you can see that when I followed the directions, the name of the new split document was highlighted. If at that moment I started typing, then whatever I typed would be the new name of the text file. That’s what they mean by the “input focus”. Essentially, there are visual cues as to where your input (typing on the keyboard) will go. Input focus is a term that usually implies keyboard input from the user (you) to the program.

The dotted line in your screenshot is there because you’re viewing all of the documents in the folder titled “Part 4: Text Tools”. This is called “Scrivenings mode”, where it stiches together all the documents indented under the folder, and is very handy for when you split a chapter into scenes or sub-section documents. Try clicking on each of the documents in the binder; the editor will show you the contents of just those documents.

Thanks for your help…

The title in the Binder didn’t highlight for me when I split the page, as it did for you. I can highlight it manually by clicking on it, but if it’s supposed to highlight automatically does that mean I might have a glitch?

Also, the instructions say “everything prior to the point above has been removed from this document” - and in your screenshot everything above the line has been removed. But on my page I can still see the preceding text - ie, above the dotted line. Should I be seeing that text?

Hard to tell. If you immediately clicked into the document’s text, then the blue highlight would go away. Try following the directions to merge the two pieces into one document again (once you’ve got a handle on the rest of this) and repeating the split.

Yes, that’s the “Scrivenings mode” I was referencing earlier. Try clicking on the document in the binder titled “Step 17: Split and Merge-1”. Also go back to Steps 7 and 11 in the tutorial; they should help you better understand what you’re seeing when you’ve selected a ‘container’ such as the “Part 2” folder.

Now I’m really confused. I’ve been following the instructions all the way through, step by step, so whatever mode I’m in must be the mode I’m supposed to be in. Can you tell me what mode I should be in? And how do I get out of Scrivenings mode and back to whatever mode I’m supposed to be in? I thought Scrivenings mode was when you could view the entire project - ie, all the documents joined together? That’s not what I’m seeing. I’m only seeing the page that you can see in my screenshot. But it’s showing text above the dotted line which, apparently, I shouldn’t be able to see.

Note that I’m no longer at my Windows computer, and the tutorials are not exactly the same, so if you don’t find the exact wording or exact same document titles that I’m quoting below, just look for something similar.

From “Step 7: Changing Editor View”:

Scrivenings mode is for viewing multiple documents as if they were all in one, but it’s not limited to your entire project. It can be any folder, including the one you have selected.

Just try clicking on the individual documents. Trust me, nothing will explode.

Well that’s reassuring… but this software is far more complicated than I had expected, and I’m not the most technical person in the world. If I’m doing something wrong I want to find out what it is before I continue to the next part.

Okay - but what mode should I have been in when I split the page (so that the text above the break disappeared), and how do I get to that mode?

Thanks

Okay, here’s the in-depth explanation of what you’re seeing, sorry if it’s overwhelming…

You have a folder selected (I don’t see where it says if you should or not, but that does make a difference–I’ll suggest they be explicit about this if I remember to). Because of this, you have the potential of 4 views of the documents indented under that folder: Cork board (of the synopses), Outline view, Scrivenings mode (the view you’re in) and Single Document mode.

You can change the mode of viewing the folder you have selected by clicking on one of the icons below:

You’ll notice if you choose the left-most of the icons, that you’ll see no text. That’s because folders can also contain text. Think of this as a manilla folder that you write on, and the documents indented under it as pieces of paper in the folder.

Clicking on the left-most icon again will show you the contents of every document indented under the folder, as you have been viewing them so far. The dotted lines are where one document ends and the next begins.

To see what the author of the tutorial intended, you’d have to click on one of the documents in the binder, instead of the folder. Doing so will automatically change the view mode from Scrivenings to Single-document mode. Try it now, while you’re reading this: Click on the first “Step 17” file in the binder. Then click on the next one (with the -1 at the end of the file name). Then click back to the folder. See how the dotted line is only present when you select the folder?

My previous assertions that you were in the wrong mode were imprecise, fyi. I should have said that you had the wrong thing selected in the binder. Again, I don’t think the tutorial says that you should select the document instead of the folder, but you have to in order to see the results that the author intended you to see. It’s an oversight that I’ll suggest they change.

I hope that helps. And do keep in mind, that if you can master navigating the binder, adjusting the view modes, and then doing a basic compile (later in the tutorial), you can ignore the rest of the features as you use it. Going through the tutorial should just make you aware of what tools are available, so don’t feel as if you must master ever single part of Scrivener to start using it, much like you don’t have to know how to use MS Word’s styles sytem, mail merge, or track changes to write the rough draft of a short story.

Good luck!

Thanks, that makes things a lot clearer.