Formatting Lyrics in Movie Magic Screenwriter 6

You have two different ways to format lyrics in Screenwriter:  as modified dialogue or by using a custom outline style.

• MODIFIED DIALOGUE OPTION:  In this option, the lyrics are tied to the 'singer's name as part of dialogue.  The advantage of this option is that lyrics that fall across page breaks are properly broken.  The disadvantage is that you may need to customize the left margin if you want it to be in a different margin by manually adjusting the left margin in the ruler.  Also, the lyrics MUST be in the same font as the dialogue.
• CUSTOM LYRIC OUTLINE STYLE OPTION:  In this option, the lyrics are not part of the dialogue element but are formatted using a customized outline style.  The advantage of this is that you can set all of the style parameters -- margins, character styling, font -- specifically for the lyrics.  The disadvantage is that it will not be treated as dialogue, meaning page breaks can be a bit of a bear since Screenwriter will not automatically copy the character name to the new page.

• In both cases, you can force line breaks by pressing SHIFT+ENTER.

We have attached sample documents to show you the difference between the two approaches -- one using the Dramatists Guild musical template format, and the other using Screenwriter's default screenplay template.

MODIFIED DIALOGUE OPTION

Lyrics using the dialogue element.

To insert lyrics within dialogue:

1. Press Tab to insert a Character Name element
2. Type enough of the name for it to be recognized and press Enter to move to dialogue margins
3. Type your dialogue to the point where you wish to begin the lyrics
4. Type  SHIFT+ENTER twice to open a blank line between the dialogue and the beginning of the lyrics.  
5. Type the lyrics in your text (usually in all CAPS) and use SHIFT+ENTER to force a line end so that the lyrics wrap to the next line where you want them to wrap. 
6. Use SHIFT+ENTER twice to open a blank line between stanzas.
7. Highlight the lyric text when you're done writing it.
8. In the top ruler -- use the View>Ruler menu command if it is not showing -- click and drag the left margin to the indent you want

To insert lyrics without dialogue:

1. Press Tab to insert a Character Name element
2. Type enough of the name for it to be recognized and press Enter to move to dialogue margins
3. Type the lyrics in your text (usually in all CAPS) and use SHIFT+ENTER to force a line end so that the lyrics wrap to the next line where you want them to wrap. 
4. Use SHIFT+ENTER twice to open a blank line between stanzas.
5. Highlight the lyric text when you're done writing it.
6. In the top ruler -- use the View>Ruler menu command if it is not showing -- click and drag the left margin to the indent you want

CUSTOM LYRIC OUTLINE STYLE OPTION

You may create a custom outline style for lyrics, and here is a link to our online video tutorials for creating outline styles.

LINK:  http://www.learnmoviemagic.com/2-creating-an-outline.html

However,  If you copy the lyrics using the customized lyric element found in either of the attached documents and paste it into your document, Screenwriter automatically adds the lyric style to your list of available outline styles:

To insert lyrics using the custom lyric outline style instead of dialogue:

1. Press Tab to insert a Character Name element
2. Type enough of the name for it to be recognized and press Enter to move to dialogue margins
3. To change the dialogue element to the lyric outline style, use either the drop menu command --if it is not showing, use the Toolbar Icons>Toolbar menu command -- and select the Lyrics style (image above), or use the NaviDoc>Outline Element>Lyrics menu command.  This presupposes you have added or created a Lyrics outline style.
4. Type the lyrics in your text and use SHIFT+ENTER to force a line end so that the lyrics wrap to the next line where you want them to wrap. 
5. Use SHIFT+ENTER twice to open a blank line between stanzas.

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