Getting Familiar with the Scrivener 3 Screen

Scrivener Has a Different Word for Everything

Just to make sure we’re all using the same terminology, let’s review each part of the Scrivener 3 interface.

Viewing the Inspector

If your project is only split into two sections (as shown below), click the circular blue button with an “i” in it to view the Inspector.

New project window with I button annotated

Learning the Scrivener 3 Interface

The very top row of your window—which contains words like Scrivener, File, Edit, and so on—is the menu bar. So if the lesson tells you to click on the File menu—or something like “Go to File”—the menu bar is where you’ll find it.

The next row down filled with colorful icons/buttons is the toolbar.

The thin row just below the toolbar, which has font and other style options, is called the format bar.

Now, the main elements of Scrivener. Your project window is split into three panes. The far left pane is the Binder, the center is the Editor, and the far right is the Inspector.

annotated interface overview

Identifying Headers and Footers

If I refer to a header, that’s found at the top of the window or section I’m discussing. A footer runs along the bottom. The following image shows the header and footer in the Editor.

header and footer annotated on Editor

When the Editor is split, each pane has its own header and footer, as shown below.

split panes header and footer

Video Review – 3:06 minutes

2 thoughts on “Getting Familiar with the Scrivener 3 Screen”

  1. Arthur Strimling says:

    Question: I am coming to Scrivener with about 300 pp of a novel drafted. I want to download the text into Scrivener in the most useful way possible. I have many individual chapters, sometimes in multiple drafts, in separate files in Word. And I have about 150 pp of a draft, with a TOC. I would like to download both the draft and individual files of each of the chapters therein, because I probably will want to move them around. I have a lot of other questions about working with this situation, but let’s start here: HOW DO I DOWNLOAD MY CHAPTERS AND DRAFT FROM WORK INTO SCRIVENER. Thanks ~Arthur

    1. Hi, Arthur. You can import your files, no problem. Check out the Importing Files lesson (https://scrivenerclasses.com/lesson/importing-files-4/) in the “Working with Documents and Folders” section of the course.

Leave a Reply