This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Printing Index Cards
Although Scrivener provides great flexibility in the Corkboard, there is still something about the feel of holding a stack of physical index cards in your hands and quickly arranging them in various ways. You can print index cards directly from the Corkboard to bring the virtual into physical form.
NOTE
The instructions here are for the Mac platform. If you use Scrivener for Windows, see “A Windows View: Printing Index Cards from Scrivener for Windows,” later in this section.
The settings for printing index cards are optimized to work with Avery Perforated Index Card stock, but you can print on plain paper or card stock and cut the cards yourself.
Before printing index cards, ensure that the virtual index cards contain the proper titles and synopses you want to print. If a synopsis is too long for a 3×5 index card, the additional text prints on subsequent cards. If this is the desired behavior, you’re all set. If you want each virtual index card to be limited to a single physical index card, however, you may need to edit your synopses to fit. If an index card is displaying an image rather than text on the Corkboard, the image is used when printing. If this is not what you intend, use the Inspector to change the item to the synopsis text view.
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Before you potentially waste expensive card stock, you can save your index cards to PDF so you can view the layout exactly as it will appear on the printed cards. In the Print window, click the PDF button, then select either Save as PDF or Open PDF in Preview from the drop-down menu.
Before you print index cards, you need to set up the print options by doing the following:
- Go to File, Page Setup.
- In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Settings drop-down list and select Scrivener. The window changes to display margin settings.
- Click Options below the list of margin settings.
- In the Print Options dialog box, click Index Cards in the center, as shown in Figure 6.11.
Figure 6.11The Print Options dialog box displays a sample preview of your printed index cards based on the options you select.
- Choose from the following options:
- Include Titles: Selected by default, this prints the document title at the top of each card.
- Include Card Numbers: This includes the card number with the title.
NOTE
Cards are numbered based on their order within the selected container on the Corkboard. Without this context, printing card numbers on physical index cards may be of limited use to you.
- Ignore Cards with Titles Only: If a card contains only a document title and no synopsis, the card will not be printed.
- Highlight Titles with Label Color: Selected by default, this uses the label color in the title. The label name is also added in parentheses after the title.
- Include Keywords: This adds keywords below the title. Keywords are underlined and separated by commas on the card.
- Print Cutting Guides: Selected by default, this adds dashed lines around the card to guide cutting them with scissors or a cutting block. This option is not necessary if you are printing on perforated card stock.
- Force Landscape Orientation: If you are printing to regular sheets of paper or card stock instead of perforated index cards, you can opt to print in landscape orientation. This increases the number of cards per page from three to four.
- Embolden Titles: Selected by default, this prints document titles in bold typeface.
- Print Using Font: This allows you to override the Corkboard fonts you set in the preferences window and print in a different font and font size.
- Click OK to close the Print Options window.
- Click OK to close the Page Setup window.
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Once the print options are configured, you are ready to print your cards. If you are printing on perforated index cards or another specialty paper, load the stock into your printer’s paper tray. To print:
- Select the container or files you want to print by loading them into the Corkboard.
- Choose File, Print Current Document from the menu.
- In the Print window, shown in Figure 6.12, click Print.
Figure 6.12Use the Print dialog box to print your index cards or save them as a PDF file.
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A Windows View: Printing Index Cards from Scrivener for Windows
The procedure for printing index cards in Scrivener for Windows is a bit different from that of the Mac. To print index cards in Windows, view the cards on the Corkboard and then choose File, Print Preview from the menu. The print settings use the last printer settings from your project. Thus, if you previously printed other portions of your project, the settings may not be conducive to printing index cards. Click the Page Settings icon to adjust the settings.
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If you want to change the margins or print in landscape orientation, make those changes in the toolbar at the top of the Print Preview dialog box. When you are ready to print, click the Print button in the right corner of the Print Preview toolbar.