Adding a Character List to your stage play document

Occasionally you may want to add a list of characters to the head of your document, especially if you are writing a stage play or musical.  To do this in Movie Magic Screenwriter 6, you must do the following:

1. Create new outline styles for each element type, such as for the Character Names (not associated with dialogue), Character Descriptions, etc.  These outline styles need to be set to print so they appear in the document.
2. Use the outline styles in the document.
3. Insert a Forced Page Break to separate the frontispiece from the body of the document.
4. Decrement the first page number to make sure the body of the document begins on page one.

Short Cut:  Use the attached sample file.  Open it in Screenwriter 6 (or higher) and copy its contents into your own document to add the styles and cast list.

1. CREATE NEW OUTLINE STYLES

• Use the Format > Element Styles menu command to open the Element Styles window.
• Click on the Outline tab.
• For each new style, click on the + button, then:
  • Give a Style Name
  • Click the Print checkbox
  • Set the Frame to None
  • Set the text color to black
  • Set the text background color to white
    
    EXAMPLE:
    

    

  • Set the margins and character styles for each outline style.
• Press OK to save the additions
• For additional help with creating Outline Styles, please watch the free video online tutorial:  Create an Outline Style

2. USE THE OUTLINE STYLES IN THE DOCUMENT

• Add an element, then set the element style by choosing it from the element style list, or by using the Format > Change Element Type menu command and selecting the element style, such as Character Description.
  
  Example:

3. INSERT FORCED PAGE BREAK

• After you have entered your list of characters, and any other information you want to appear before main document, use the Edit > Add Forced Page Break menu command to force a new page.
  
  

4. DECREMENT FIRST PAGE NUMBER

• To make sure your document begins on page one, you must reduce the Starting Page Number to offset the page(s) added by inserting the list of characters.
• Use the Format > Element Styles menu command to open the Element Styles window.
• Click on the Page Breaks tab.
• Set the Starting Page Number 1 minus the number of added pages.  So, if you added one page for the cast list, the Starting Page number should be set to zero (0).  If you added two pages, the Starting Page number should be set to minus one (-1).