Save Time! Create a Document Template in Scrivener.

/ P. H. Solomon

All writers face the blank screen and think about what they’re going to write. Too often we start and realize we didn’t format properly and stop, then get distracted by something else and we’ve lost our train of thought all too quickly. Getting started can be daunting enough without spending time getting everything just right in your word processor.

Well, in Scrivener there’s a good way to beat back all that pre-writing distraction so you can sit down with your ideas and write. Who wants to lose their ideas while setting brand new, all over again? The answer is to make a template within your project. You may have heard of making a project template but how do you make a template within a project? Just follow these instructions.

  1. Create a folder within the project and designate it as the Template folder by clicking on Project and Set Selection as Template Folder. Some project templates come with a template folder already designated so check you binder for one. Here’s what the template folder looks like (that’s a custom name for my blog project): Scrivener Template Folder

Here’s how to set a folder as the project template folder:

Scrivener Set As Template Folder

  1. Once you’ve set the Template folder then create a document container under the folder. Configure all the settings you want with formatting in this container but leave it blank.

Scrivener Blog Template

  1. After you’ve completed configuring your document template it’s ready to use. Go to one of you folders in your project and, when creating a new document container (text), Choose Project from the upper menu bar and then go to New from Template to get a fly-out menu. On this menu you will see all the document templates created for the project in which you are working.

Scrivener New From Template

  1. You can also create such a document template from the cork-board view of a folder. Right click for a context menu, go to Add for a fly-out menu. Slide your cursor to New from Template to reveal the fly-out menu or your document templates. You can also do the same from the Binder by right clicking on a folder for a context menu and using the same directions.

Scrivener New From Template Cork

  1. At this point, you can name the new container and start writing without a need to change settings. Create as many of these document templates as necessary for your project.

One again, here’s a simple way to use Scrivener to make writing easier than ever. This only takes a few minutes but can save you a lot of time and distraction of re-configuring your documents.

Thanks for stopping by Story Empire today. Please your thoughts and questions in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

P.H. Solomon

23 thoughts on “Save Time! Create a Document Template in Scrivener.”

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  10. Thanks for a great post on Scrivener, PH. I love templates and all the time they save. I have one for mobi compilation PDF for print to save me having to remember all the compile settings each time. 🙂

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