Troubleshooting
Inconsistent fonts or paragraph styles throughout the manuscript
How you'd notice this
Scrolling through the manuscript, some paragraphs are a slightly different font, size, or line spacing than the rest, often invisible at a glance but obvious once printed, where subtle differences in a serif's weight or a paragraph's spacing stand out.
Why it happens
This almost always comes from pasting text in from another source (an old draft, an email, a web page) without stripping its original formatting, or from applying font changes by selecting text manually instead of through a paragraph/character style. Manual formatting doesn't propagate, if you fix one paragraph, the other twelve pasted the same way stay wrong.
How to fix it
You haven't picked a formatting program yet, so every program's steps are shown below, pick a tab for the one you're using.
- Select all body text (Ctrl+A) and set one font/size from the Home tab as a baseline reset, then reapply chapter title formatting only to actual headings using Word's Heading styles (not manual bold/size changes) so future edits stay consistent.
- When pasting text from elsewhere, use Home > Paste > "Keep Text Only" (or Ctrl+Shift+V) so pasted content picks up your document's formatting instead of bringing its own.
- Select all body text and reset font/size from the toolbar, then use Format > Paragraph styles for chapter titles instead of manually bolding/resizing text.
- When pasting from elsewhere, use Edit > Paste without formatting (Ctrl+Shift+V) to avoid importing foreign formatting.
- Because Atticus applies typography settings globally from the Formatting panel rather than paragraph-by-paragraph, inconsistency is rare, if you see it, check whether that text was pasted in with manual formatting Atticus preserved; select it and clear formatting (or retype it) so it inherits Atticus's global style instead.
- Create or fix your body-text Paragraph Style (Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles) once, then select any inconsistent paragraphs and reapply that style, this is the correct fix rather than manually adjusting font/size per paragraph.
- When pasting from elsewhere, use Edit > Paste without Formatting so incoming text takes on the destination paragraph's style automatically.
- Use Scrivener's own paragraph/character styles (Format > Styles) consistently rather than manual formatting, and strip incoming formatting when pasting (Edit > Paste and Match Style) so pasted text doesn't carry a foreign font.
- Because final formatting really happens after Compile, also re-check consistency in whichever program (Word/Atticus) you finish formatting in.
- Select all body text and reset font/size from the Format inspector's Style tab, then use paragraph styles for chapter titles instead of manually bolding/resizing text.
- When pasting from elsewhere, use Edit > Paste and Match Style to avoid importing foreign formatting.
- Because Reedsy Studio applies fonts globally from your chosen design theme, inconsistency is rare, if you see it, check whether that text was pasted in with formatting the editor preserved, select it and clear formatting so it inherits the theme's style instead.
- Because Vellum applies fonts globally from your chosen style, inconsistency is rare, if you see it, check whether that text was pasted in with formatting the editor preserved, select it and clear formatting so it inherits Vellum's style instead.
- Select all body text (Ctrl+A) and set one font/size as a baseline reset, then use Writer's paragraph styles (F11 sidebar) for chapter titles instead of manually bolding/resizing text.
- When pasting from elsewhere, use Edit > Paste Special > Unformatted Text (Ctrl+Shift+V) so pasted content picks up your document's formatting instead of bringing its own.