Review option

I would like to have the option to review my work before compiling :laughing:
Thanks

What does that mean? The main activity that I would consider calling a “review” would be best done on the compiled copy, so obviously that isn’t what you mean.

I think he means something like the Quick Export preview in Ulysses.

Im very sorry, My intention was to PREVIEW instead of review. My big mistake because english is not my mother tongue.
Thanks

But still, what do you mean?

Scrivenings mode allows you to read through your text in a single stream. Compiling to PDF allows you to see what your output will look like. What’s missing?

Katherine

What I mean is to have the option to review my work without the need to compile, into the same screen

Yes, but what do you want to review?

As I said, the Scrivenings mode will allow you to review your text. But formatting, page layout, headers, footers, and other features are not even defined until the Compile command runs and the document is converted to final format. How is Scrivener supposed to tell you how the Word or Kindle output will look without creating a Word document or a Kindle file?

Katherine

I see
Thanks

It’s also worth noting that there are two stages to compile. The first stage, after setting up options, is a preview. You can swipe through that as you wish, check the word count, and cancel when you’re done. It’s only when you’ve reached that preview stage that you can then save or export a file using the compiled document.

Can you tell me how to do to get those two steps of compile, to have the referred preview?
Im sorry but I dont find it

Amber, also I don’t understand what you are talking about. Not if you are compiling to PDF, Word or whatever. The closest I get to the preview you are talking about is if I compile it for print. Then I can preview it, and optionally use the print menu to export it as a PDF. If I’m not happy I can cancel the whole process and start it all over. Practically this is not much more convenient than to compile for PDF, export it I as a PDF and watch the result in Preview.

OTH I understand that you can’t preview the compilation before it is compiled. The only thing I can think of that would save a small step (provided that it is only the compile settings that need tweaking) is if cancelling before print/export would take you back to the compile settings—even if I don’t find pressing Opt-Cmd-E an additional time particularly bothersome.

I know what you are talking about but this is not a real PREVIEW as there is in Ulysess for example. So, the true is that you don’t have any solution to my request. Instead, it could be better to inform your programmer team to work harder in order to find some other option. This is my request. It is not clear?

So to clarify you want to compile but call it preview instead, and then decide whether to compile (again) based on the first compile? To generate a so-called preview Scrivener needs to run a full compile - unless you want a preivew that won’t actually look like the compiled document, in which case it’s hard to see the point.

What are you wanting to accomplish/what problem are you trying to solve?

Bear in mind also that Preview in Ulysses is much less robust, without a tenth of the customization options available in Scrivener.

From a logical point of view this is impossible.

‘Compile’ produces an output of your text in Scrivener in a format of your choice – print, docx, pdf, epub, etc, - and you want to see the result of the compile before you compile. In order to do that, Scrivener has to compile an output of your text in a format of your choice. But you want to see the result of the compile before you compile, and the only way to do that is to let Scrivener compile an output of your text in a format of your choice, before you compile. But again, to see the result of the compile you will have to let Scrivener actually compile the output, or you can’t see it.

Do you see where this is going?

You can preview a document before sending it to a printer, because the sending app has compiled it for the printer and shows you the resulting output that it is about to send. But you cannot preview the result of a compile unless you allow the software to actually compile the document. So what you are really asking for is for the compile command not to save the output, but only to hold it in memory and to show it to you, which is more or less impossible because Scrivener can’t emulate all possible outputs in a meaningful visual way. How would you for example emulate what an epub or Kindle output would look like in a meaningful way, without actually creating the epub and viewing it on an iDevice?

So why go to all that trouble, having Scrivener emulate all kinds of softwares, just to prevent Scrivener from saving the output from the compile? What’s the point? Isn’t it easier to compile and then check the result in the designated software, the target of your compile?

I understand
Josef