Scrivener Saturday: Full-Screen Mode – RAVEN OAK

Scrivener Saturday: Full-Screen Mode

This week’s Scrivener Saturday: Unique Ways to Use Full-Screen Mode.

By default, full-screen mode in Scrivener is rather clutter free with basic settings at the bottom:

  • text scale–how large you want the text to be
  • paper position–left, right, or center of the screen
  • paper width–how wide the sheet of paper is displayed
  • keywords–toggles the keyword pop-up box on and off (click here for more on using keywords)
  • inspector–pulls up the side inspector so you can display document notes, keywords, meta-data, or whatever else you need while you work. I find this the most helpful of the options.
  • Go-To–allows you to jump to different documents in your project file without leaving full-screen mode
  • word count
  • character count
  • paper fade–allows you to see through to the background or not
  • exit full-screen mode button

I want to take a moment to talk about paper fade, as this is one item I feel people overlook. When I was writing Amaskan’s Blood, I set my full-screen composition mode background to the map of Boahim so that when I’m writing, I don’t have to exit full-screen mode to check where a city or road is in my world. Then I fade the paper to whatever it takes to see my map. See image below:

Scrivener Saturday Full Screen Mode

To change your background, go to Scrivener –> Preferences and click on Compose. Under Customizable Colors, click on Background, then Choose Texture. Then find your image.

Scrivener Saturday Full Screen Mode Changing the Background

Another way I’ve used Full-Screen Mode is by pulling up the Inspector in a pop-up box with a running list of characters (project notes) or the diagram/map of a ship (picture), research and references, or whatever else I need up beside me while I write.

The point of full-screen mode is not to be as cluttered as some people find the normal writing mode in Scrivener, so be careful what you put as your background or what pop-ups you place nearby.

What I Love about This Feature: When I need distraction free writing or I’m feeling rather ADD, this is a great mode to use while still having access to important chunks of information.

Downside to This Feature: I really wish the background images didn’t tile. Or that there was a setting to either tile them or resize them.


Check out the entire series of Scrivener Saturday posts here.


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