Scrivener For Dummies

Saving Time on Future Projects with Custom Project Templates

It wouldn’t surprise me if this section were the reason you bought this book. I get more questions about project templates than any other topic in Scrivener, by a landslide.

Why are people so interested in finding out all about project templates? Because creating your own saves time and hassle.

When you first opened Scrivener, you had to choose a project template before you could even start working. Those templates were included with Scrivener for your convenience, but while you became familiar with the program, you probably made changes to the template so that it would work better for you.

Did you add or change root folders? Include an oft-viewed writing reference? Change the Label or Status fields? Add keywords?

Wouldn’t you like to save this new, improved version of the template so that the next time you start a project, you don’t have to make all those changes again? Then you’re in the right place because creating a custom project template is what the following sections are all about.

Creating and saving a custom project template

The key thing to remember when creating a project template is that everything gets saved, including Label and Status settings, keywords, collections, initial Compile settings, initial layout, and every item in the Binder. Project-level settings such as tinted icons, text preferences, project targets, and statistics settings are included, too.

Basically, the entire project gets copied as-is, ...