Change it to your trim size of choice by going to File → Page Setup. This will, by default, give you an A4 page view. Now to go View → Page View → Show Page View to change to Page View. I’m using my book 27 Un-Procrastination Tips as an example. in the “Compile” window), you apply the rest of the formatting such as headers, footers, page numbers, titles, margins, etc. Before compilation is when you can apply your basic internal formatting such as bold, italics, bullet points, numbers, images, etc. Before compilation means that you apply your formatting during the actual writing process. Here is an example from the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad.Īnother thing that you have to note, is that there are two places where you can apply your formatting for the book: before compilation and during compilation. So, you will have to insert a deliberately blank page before the title page so that it ends up on the right. For example, the title page of the book always appears on the recto side. Sometimes, when formatting your book, you will need to insert a deliberately blank page in a location to conform with recto/verso conventions of particular pages. Basically, in an open paperback book, recto means the right-hand side page, and verso means the left-hand side page. If you did not understand the third step, you first have to understand the definition of recto and verso. Perform a lot of formatting (such as titles, page numbers, headers, footers, margins, etc.) during the compilation process.

So, before we begin, here’s a basic gist of what we are going to do: If you are using the Windows version, check out Ed Ditto’s awesome tutorial by clicking here. Although it isn't entirely necessary, going through that tutorial will help you understand the basic formatting functions of Scrivener, and will make this tutorial much easier to follow.Īlso, this tutorial makes use of an important feature (add front matter) that is available only in the Mac version of Scrivener. I highly recommend spending about 30 minutes to an hour going through the interactive tutorial for Scrivener (launch it by going to Help → Interactive Tutorial). This guide is going to take you through the process of formatting your book in Scrivener for Createspace in the drop-dead easiest way. Well, there are a whole lot of things you can do with Scrivener, but it actually doesn't take long to master the basics and start using it consistently for all your writing, and your book formatting as well. Scrivener is an application that can seem pretty intimidating at first, what with its 200-page manual, making the whole idea of working with Scrivener seem like a daunting prospect.

How to set right margin in scrivener