Post History
I could do this in Word very easily -- Short Version: Create a Style called "Character Name" Indicate that the style "Dialogue" is what follows next. (that's on the first area of the create-a-st...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-02-10T14:22:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43857 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T10:35:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43857 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
I could do this in Word very easily -- Short Version: Create a **Style** called "Character Name" Indicate that the style "Dialogue" is what follows next. (that's on the first area of the create-a-style dialogue). Then in the PARAGRAPHS section of that Character Name Style, the second/advanced tab, choose " **Keep-with-next**" I do most of my editing in drafts-view, because it's easy to see in the left pane which template is being used, and to remember to make changes via Style, not direct-formatting. * * * Screenshots! A sequence of 11 pictures. **Drafts View, "no" styles** 1) I copied some lyrics to be my "script". I chose View, Draft, to create that left-view. Shift-F1 is another great tool for knowing layout.[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/rcbjI.png) **Create A Style** 2) I manually centered one line, then selected it as my "model" - then on the Styles Menu, I chose Create-A-Style to get started[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3IEVg.png) **Name the Style & Start to Modify** 3)You can give any style any name. You can also change more properties within this. [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/CnZ6J.png) **Styles That Can Be Buddies** 4)Most of the time, after a Character Name, there's dialog - so I previously made that style (Normal, but indented .5" on L & R, smaller space before/after paragraphs.) So you can select a "Next Style" button as shown here, and then use the Modify button at the bottom, to see various other elements to change. [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/G1qG4.png) **Modify Options** 5) In the Modify box, you can go to many areas - you may want to add a Shortcut Key so you can turn on Character Name formatting at the start of said line! We want to do _paragraph_ options now[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DnQRl.png) **Paragraph Options, 2nd Tab** 6) The big feature you want is _"Keep with Next"_ (You may want to also have Scene Breaks start a new page - use "Page Break Before" then.) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6rUr8.png) **Style Gallery** 7) Hey, there are our Styles in the gallery](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6TyxO.png) **Ta-da!** 8) Screenshot of the script, now with those character and dialog Styles added. Note there's a page break here -- I played with adding blocks of text - the character-name stayed with the dialog! (But Things seem a little unbalanced, hmmmm...) [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/O7sDY.png) **Modify Style Even More** 9) So let's fix that spacing issue -- too little space between blocks and the _next_ character name. _(It's nice to know that once a style exists, it can still be modified as needed)_[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hmYhm.png) **Back to Style Paragraphs** 10) Just the front part, playing with spacing instead of adding unneeded "enter"s to add spaces [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/IiAwb.png) **Really Done** [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/4Uikj.png) If most of what you write are plays, then you can add these Styles to your Normal.dotm template -- if not, save a template (File, Save-As, choose "file-type as .dotx or .dotm, then name it) for all playwriting styles. * * * (Note - my font styles are Arial since that's work normal -- feel free to change. And the source of my "dialogue" is a song going through my head from _Heathers_ the Musical: (lyrics from [https://genius.com/Laurence-okeefe-and-kevin-murphy-dead-girl-walking-lyrics](https://genius.com/Laurence-okeefe-and-kevin-murphy-dead-girl-walking-lyrics) and [https://genius.com/Laurence-okeefe-and-kevin-murphy-dead-girl-walking-reprise-lyrics](https://genius.com/Laurence-okeefe-and-kevin-murphy-dead-girl-walking-reprise-lyrics) )
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-03-21T13:55:49Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 4