Once you have imported your document from a text file, Word document, or by copying from a PDF file and pasting into Screenwriter (links to directions for each at end this article), you should go through the document to make sure everything is properly formatted.
REASSIGN ELEMENT STYLES
Go through the document and reassign the element styles. You may do this by using the drop-down list in the top toolbar, or by using the keyboard shortcut keys.
MACINTOSH SHORTCUT KEYS
The keyboard shortcuts for Mac Screenwriter are:
- CMD+1 -- Scene Heading
- CMD+2 -- Action
- CMD+3 -- Dialogue
- CMD+4 -- Parenthetical
- CMD+5 -- Character Name
- CMD+6 -- Shot
- CMD+7 -- Transition
- CMD+9 -- Note
The other useful shortcut is CMD+DOWN ARROW, which moves you to the next element.
WINDOWS SHORTCUT KEYS
To change element styles in Windows Screenwriter 6:
- Press F4 -- this brings up an element style menu
- Type the letter underlined for the element you wans, e.g. 'i" (as in Indigo) to change the style to Action -- or use the arrow key to highlight Action and hit Enter, or use the mouse to click on Action. This changes the paragraph to an action element.
- H -- Scene Heading
- I -- Action
- D -- Dialogue
- P -- Parenthetical
- C -- Character Name
- R -- Transition
- T -- Act
- Press CTRL+DOWN ARROW to move to the next element/paragraph
- Repeat steps 1 thru 3 as needed
The other useful shortcut is CTRL+DOWN ARROW, which moves you to the next element.
THE CORRECTION PROCESS
The process for reassigning element styles is as follows:
- Import your document
- If necessary, change the element style of the current element.
- Use CTRL+DOWN ARROW to move to the next element until you've located an incorrectly formatted element.
- Press the appropriate CTRL key to reassign the element to the correct style.
- REPEAT STEPS 3 & 4 until you reach the end of the document
NOTE: PDF files store text in strange ways, especially around page breaks, that is not visible when displayed as a PDF. However, when you copy and paste the text into a word processor, those anomalies show up as text moved to other places within the new document.
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