[Word Fan]

Sorry if this has been asked already, and I think it might have been, but I could not find it in my search, so I'll ask (again?): Brads, are you planning on making Vellum non-fiction friendly for authors? Is that at all in the works? Scrivener can do the links to citations and on and on, but the formatting and look is...well, left much desired. Thanks to anyone who already knows this answer and can smack me down with a 'duh' answer. I swear I couldn't find the answer I'm looking for!

There is no "duh" answer so no smackdown. Making Vellum truly useful for non-fiction would entail adding so many features that, in my humble opinion, it ain't going to happen soon. This is not to denigrate in any way its usefulness for fiction books, for which it is outstanding.

However, if you have a Mac with the Sierra operating system, you have an answer: Apple's Pages app version 6.2. After several years of us suffering through the loss of the wonderful usefulness of Pages 4.1 (which did so many things that it had a User Guide of 279 pages!), many of those features have now been put back. Especially great is the ability to create internal links, so you can jump to citations and end notes, and even design and create your own multi-level table of contents that will look and operate exactly the way that you want.

You might want to give it a look.

 

[Flay Otters]

Sorry if this has been dealt with earlier.
I searched, but maybe my search-fu is lacking.

In a traditional trade paperback (basic book without tons of introduction) the pages go as follows:
Inside cover - half title
blank page - full title
copyright - blank page (or dedication)
blank page - Ch 1

I'm trying to get that order in print Vellum, but by filling in the title page info it gives me a full title as the first page.
Not sure how to create a half title page or how to arrange it to come before the full title.

Any help or direction to online help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Flay Otters]

Bumping to see if there is an answer to my question.
Thanks!

 

[Brad West]

Sorry if this has been dealt with earlier.
I searched, but maybe my search-fu is lacking.

In a traditional trade paperback (basic book without tons of introduction) the pages go as follows:
Inside cover - half title
blank page - full title
copyright - blank page (or dedication)
blank page - Ch 1

I'm trying to get that order in print Vellum, but by filling in the title page info it gives me a full title as the first page.
Not sure how to create a half title page or how to arrange it to come before the full title.

Hi Flay,

Vellum doesn't currently have a way to create a proper half title. We do have a suggestion on file for this, and would like to add this in the future. In the meantime, though, you can get something like what you're looking for using a Blurbs element, which will be inserted before the (full) title page:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Create a Blurbs Element (Chapter > Add Element > Blurbs)
[*]Rename the Blurbs from "Praise for Watery Fowls" to something like "Half title"
[*]Hide the Heading (Chapter > Heading > Hide Heading in Book)
[*]Add whatever text you'd like for your half title (you can use an Alignment Block to center)
[/list]
Hope that helps.

Update 1/23/18: We've since released Vellum 2.1, which includes a dedicated element for Half Title.

 

[Flay Otters]

Hi Flay,

Vellum doesn't currently have a way to create a proper half title. We do have a suggestion on file for this, and would like to add this in the future. In the meantime, though, you can get something like what you're looking for using a Blurbs element, which will be inserted before the (full) title page:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Create a Blurbs Element (Chapter > Add Element > Blurbs)
[*]Rename the Blurbs from "Praise for Watery Fowls" to something like "Half title"
[*]Hide the Heading (Chapter > Heading > Hide Heading in Book)
[*]Add whatever text you'd like for your half title (you can use an Alignment Block to center)
[/list]
Hope that helps.

Thanks!
I'll give that a go.
And "Watery Fowls" - it's always funny when somebody gets the joke.

 

[LeeMountford]

Not sure if anyone can help with this. Just going through my first book making some edits, and I noticed that when I copied the word file from Scrivener, the quotation marks are just vertical marks, like so: '

I would like these to show as quotation marks (the curvy ones), but going through the whole manuscript changing each one is a bit of a task. And I can't do a find and replace as I'd end up with opening quotation marks being used everywhere, even when closing speech.

So, does anyone know of a quick way to convert these? Just hoping there is an easy way I'm not aware of, otherwise I'm going to have to go through the whole manuscript changing all of the speech marks. And that will suck! lol

 

[Guest]

Not sure if anyone can help with this. Just going through my first book making some edits, and I noticed that when I copied the word file from Scrivener, the quotation marks are just vertical marks, like so: '

I would like these to show as quotation marks (the curvy ones), but going through the whole manuscript changing each one is a bit of a task. And I can't do a find and replace as I'd end up with opening quotation marks being used everywhere, even when closing speech.

So, does anyone know of a quick way to convert these? Just hoping there is an easy way I'm not aware of, otherwise I'm going to have to go through the whole manuscript changing all of the speech marks. And that will suck! lol

If you are still working in the Word file, make sure you have smart quotes turned on in (File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > Auto Format tab). Then open Find/Replace (CTRL+H on windows), put " in the find and replace and hit Replace All. Word will automatically format them correctly for the smart quotes. Do the same for the single quotes.

 

[Word Fan]

Do the same for the single quotes.

The single quotes thing works for all but the occasional contraction that begins with an apostrophe ('til for until and 'em as in Go get 'em.). Those you have to track down and do manually. If you don't, they will end up being curved the wrong way.

 

[Guest]

The single quotes thing works for all but the occasional contraction that begins with an apostrophe ('til for until and 'em as in Go get 'em.). Those you have to track down and do manually. If you don't, they will end up being curved the wrong way.

Weird...I just tested it in my version Word (365) and it seemed to curve them the right way when I did a search/replace as described

 

[Word Fan]

Weird...I just tested it in my version Word (365) and it seemed to curve them the right way when I did a search/replace as described

I doubt it. (Not you. Microsoft.)

There should be no space between the apostrophe and the text of the contraction, and a beginning apostrophe curves like an ending parenthesis: )

So you get this: Go get [size=6pt])em.[/size]

Word, and other apps, always end up substituting a opening single quote, which curves like an opening apostrophe: (

Go get [size=6pt](em.[/size]

To clearly see if it's working correctly, you have to use a typeface that has curly quotes, not those straight-line, slanted wedges that some typefaces use and that are difficult to discern at small sizes.

If Word 365 has really, truly fixed that, my hat is off to them.

(But I would have to see it to believe it.)

 

[Guest]

Ahhhh...then yep, you're right.  I've always though the curve like an opening was the right one 

 

[LeeMountford]

If you are still working in the Word file, make sure you have smart quotes turned on in (File > Options > Proofing > AutoCorrect Options > Auto Format tab). Then open Find/Replace (CTRL+H on windows), put " in the find and replace and hit Replace All. Word will automatically format them correctly for the smart quotes. Do the same for the single quotes.

Unfortunately I'm past using the word document as I have previously made changes in the Vellum file. Looks like I'll have to do it the long way

Thank for the help, though, it is appreciated.

 

[Brad Andalman]

Unfortunately I'm past using the word document as I have previously made changes in the Vellum file. Looks like I'll have to do it the long way

Thank for the help, though, it is appreciated.

Hi Lee,

Though it isn't as ideal as fixing your whole document in Word, you can select your chapter's text in Vellum and then right-click (or control-click) to bring up a context menu with Apply Smart Quotes. Choosing that menu item will fix up the straight quotes in your selected text.

Hope that helps,
Brad

 

[LeeMountford]

Hi Lee,

Though it isn't as ideal as fixing your whole document in Word, you can select your chapter's text in Vellum and then right-click (or control-click) to bring up a context menu with Apply Smart Quotes. Choosing that menu item will fix up the straight quotes in your selected text.

Hope that helps,
Brad

Brad, you are my hero!!! This worked like a charm and has saved me a massive amount of work. Thank you so much!

 

[Gone 9/21/18]

I really love the option now on my Kindle to have ragged right margin, which takes out the huge gaps between words and silly hyphenating that regularly occurs in justified right ebooks. It's not available in all ebooks, so I decided to check my own. The recent books I formatted with Vellum don't allow this choice. I assume I either checked or didn't check something when formatting that I need to remedy. Can someone save me experimenting and tell me what that is?

 

[novotny]

I am new to this forum but I would like to ask this question:

Assuming you have constructed an Index in Word 2016 for Mac, does this transfer over to Vellum smoothly?

I am writing a non-fiction book with footnotes, bibliography, and Index.

Will this be an issue?

Thanks for any advice

 

[toddhoffious]

I really love the option now on my Kindle to have ragged right margin, which takes out the huge gaps between words and silly hyphenating that regularly occurs in justified right ebooks. It's not available in all ebooks, so I decided to check my own. The recent books I formatted with Vellum don't allow this choice. I assume I either checked or didn't check something when formatting that I need to remedy. Can someone save me experimenting and tell me what that is?

There's a "Justify Text" option on the Styles page. Does that do what you want?

 

[Gone 9/21/18]

There's a "Justify Text" option on the Styles page. Does that do what you want?

I haven't regenerated, sideloaded, and tested yet, but I wouldn't think so. Was hoping someone knew. I don't want to set it to ragged right for everyone. I want the reader to be able to choose ragged right if, like me, they want it. I suspect it may have something to do with enhanced page options. I may have them off because for a while that stopped page flip. Now that nothing stops page flip, when I get time to play with it, I'll enable it and see if that does it.

 

[C L Salaski]

Has anyone experienced this problem I've had with Vellum.

I purchased the product and absolutely loved it. However, after correcting a few minor problems the software generated in my original manuscript, I began making lots of changes to my novel in Vellum. I have a habit of obsessively saving my files in Word, Pages, Scrivener, and did the same with Vellum. After about three days of revisions and constant saving, I encountered an agonizing problem.

I had been leaving the Vellum app open while doing all my work. When I was finished with a session, I would simply close the lid on my MacBook Air. However on Tuesday night my Mac was running slow so I shut down several programs including Vellum. The next morning I opened the Vellum app and discovered that all of my saved changes were GONE. The only thing in Vellum was my original imported manuscript. And the revised file is not on my hard drive. I followed Brad's instructions to search and it is nowhere to be found.

How could this possibly have happened? I've been going back and forth with one of the Brads who created Vellum and he keeps telling me the program saves the same as Word, Pages, and Scrivener. Well, it didn't for me. And I did nothing that should have caused this problem. I'm a perfectionist and save all docs constantly.

Has anyone here had this happen to them? Did my download of Vellum get corrupted somehow?

 

[Flay Otters]

Has anyone experienced this problem I've had with Vellum.

I purchased the product and absolutely loved it. However, after correcting a few minor problems the software generated in my original manuscript, I began making lots of changes to my novel in Vellum. I have a habit of obsessively saving my files in Word, Pages, Scrivener, and did the same with Vellum. After about three days of revisions and constant saving, I encountered an agonizing problem.

I had been leaving the Vellum app open while doing all my work. When I was finished with a session, I would simply close the lid on my MacBook Air. However on Tuesday night my Mac was running slow so I shut down several programs including Vellum. The next morning I opened the Vellum app and discovered that all of my saved changes were GONE. The only thing in Vellum was my original imported manuscript. And the revised file is not on my hard drive. I followed Brad's instructions to search and it is nowhere to be found.

How could this possibly have happened? I've been going back and forth with one of the Brads who created Vellum and he keeps telling me the program saves the same as Word, Pages, and Scrivener. Well, it didn't for me. And I did nothing that should have caused this problem. I'm a perfectionist and save all docs constantly.

Has anyone here had this happen to them? Did my download of Vellum get corrupted somehow?

I am so sorry you have had this happen, but at least you didn't lose the entire document! (Been there, which has made me paranoid).

This doesn't help now, but at the end of each session I duplicate the work document (Vellum, Word, whatever). That way I'm always working on the prime document but there are generations saved (copy 1, copy 2, copy 3... copy 200). When disaster strikes I can step backward to the most recent duplicate and hopefully lose only a day's work at most.

One other thing, if I make changes in... let's say "untested software" (Vellum, Scrivener etc.) I always make the same changes in the master Word file. I know it's laborious but this way you always have a master Word file (Word being a default format pretty much everywhere).