Scrivener
I have used Scrivener for over five years. I own Scrivener for Mac and Scrivener for Windows. I love Scrivener. I’m a twenty plus year IT professional. Scrivener has been a challenge to learn. I have attended several online and courses at writer’s conferences in my quest to master the software. Scrivener’s has many awesome features. One thing about I hate about it is the default font is Courier New. I despise Courier New. For years I dutifully changed each new document to Times New Roman 12 being unable to figure out how to change the default font. The leaders of the conferences I attended had no idea how to change the default. I read the Scrivener manual and online help. The solution eluded me.
I finally figured it out.
Yeah me! I don’t give up. I finally figured it out and how to change all my existing documents to my default font in one magical moment. Woohoo!
So, I wrote a little help or knowledge base article. The title (drum roll please) …
How To Change The Default Font
This is not obvious. From the Scrivener Toolbar go to Tools.
Next, you click on Tools and select Options
When you select Options then select Editor. Then you have to select Font. It is the letter A below that I have circled in red. My goodness, what a hard thing to find.
That will get you to this window. Now see that little random italicized A? Yeah, that’s the button. That’s what they use as their symbol for FONT. It is not like any other software. So click the button. That takes you here. Pick your preferred font. This will only affect new work going forward.
If you want to change the default on existing work you need to select all the chapter and scenes you want to change and then go here.
That takes you to this window. Now you decide what you want to change.
In my case, I just converted everything. It is my understanding that if you run this feature on existing scenes (or other documents), it will keep font size, alignment, tabs, and indents, spacing BUT NOT ANY ITALICS OR OTHER FONT FORMATTING. So use on existing stuff at your peril.
This event, this is how you change the default font and I call it”How To Change The Default Font In Scrivener For Windows.” Use at your own risk. Make a backup before you start in case you don’t get what you want. I am sharing my experience and make no guarantees that it will give you what you want. I worked for me.
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Thank you, Jimmie, still helpful!
Oh my god! Thank you thank you a million times thank you!!! I was changing manually the font and spacing for every scene and it was killing me. You are a life saver!
Thanks! I would never have found it by myself!
Thank you
Thank you! This was exactly what I needed.
Thank you so much. And the bonus is your instructions were clear and easy to follow.
Wow. Unbelievably non-intuitive, and incredible you found it! Thanks
Thanks for your kind words. I remember researching this for hours. At the time my day job was working IT as an application support engineer and I still felt like I was looking for the needle in a haystack. I was just wanting to save myself some work and time. Ultimately, I did. Thanks again.
thanks for the help with the least intuitive software in the world with the possible exception of Instagram 🙂
You are welcome.
I just tested this against two documents that had italics in them and it preserved the italics. I chose “Convert font only”.
I would have never ever found this out myself!
Thanks!
Thank you for letting me know this helped.
Fabulous, I was getting so sick of Courier New. Scriviner is wonderful, but there is such a learning curve with it. Thanks.
I also found the learning curve steep. I use both the Windows and the Mac versions. The versions are so different and the Mac has many additional features. I plan on adding from time to time more shorter how-to articles on us Scrivener.
That will be useful 😀
Thank you Thank you Thank you. I was going crazy….
You are welcome. I hope to post more “quick and dirty” Scrivener how tos in the future.
Thank you so much!! That had been driving me crazy! lol
Exactly what I needed. I thank you!
Thank you!