We will review about using the menu and function keys and learn about using the toolbars and mouse right button. We will also learn about the various views you have of your script and how drag & drop works in each view. This tutorial will take about 15 minutes.
The toolbars are shortcuts for menu commands. Every toolbar command can also be run by selecting the identical command from the menu. There are two slight exceptions to this statement. The New File button will create a script with the default format rather than asking for the format you want. The Print button will print the entire document rather than presenting the print dialog box.
If you do not want a toolbar displayed, you can get rid of it. Select View, Insertbar and the toolbar for inserting paragraph types will go away. Select it again and it will re-appear.
You can also move the toolbars to different positions at the top or drag them away from the top to be separate pop-up windows. You can also drag them to different edges of the window. To move a toolbar move the mouse over a part of the toolbar that is not a button, press the left mouse button, and drag to the new position. If you are near a window border, it will attach to that border. If not, it will be a pop-up window. To change a toolbar’s size, go to an edge and re-size it. You can have your window look like this:
To determine what a given button does, just move the cursor over that button and then don’t move it. A tool-tip will pop-up giving you the function of that toolbar. The toolbars are grouped by the main menu they provide accelerators for.
The Toolbar provides commands from the File, Edit, and Help menus. The Formatbar provides commands from the Format menu. The Insertbar provides commands from the Insert menu. The Viewbar provides commands from the View menu. The Showbar provides commands from the View, Show Paragraphs sub-menu. (The Statusbar is not a toolbar, it is the status lines on the bottom of the window.)
Put the caret on page 2, line 3 “SUSAN (19 year…” and then go to the format bar and click on the dialogue toolbar button. This will change this paragraph to dialogue.
There are also several buttons that will depress showing the state of the script at the position the caret is at. (For selected text, it shows the state at the beginning of the selection.) These are the format buttons showing how the paragraph is formatted, the view button showing the view selected, the show buttons showing what paragraphs are displayed, the dual/single column buttons showing what column mode it is in, and the bold/italic/underline buttons.
Accelerators, like toolbars, are a quicker way of running menu commands. Every accelerator has an equivalent menu command. These commands are listed to the right of the menu command in the menus. Click on the Format menu and you will see that to change the paragraph back to Action, you can press ALT-A instead of clicking on Action in the menu. Press ESC twice to eliminate the menu. Then press ALT-A to change the paragraph back to Action.
Accelerators and function keys are generally the quickest way to write a script. And you can do virtually everything (and definitely every common command) using just the keyboard. The more of these you learn, the faster you will be.
At any time you can press the right mouse button to bring up a small menu of short-cuts. This is useful if you are using the mouse and want to run one of the commands in the menu. The menu is kept short to make it fast to use and consist of the most common operations used when you are using the mouse.
If you choose format from this menu, it will format the paragraph that you clicked the right mouse button above, no the paragraph that the caret is presently at. (Clicking the right mouse button does not move the caret - clicking the left mouse button does that.)
There are 4 views in Screen Writer Studio; Normal, Page, Outline, and Card. Each view is completely equal in that you can perform any edits or other commands in any of the 4 modes. There are no restrictions on a per-mode basis except:
1. There are some drag & drop commands that only make sense in a specific view.
2. You cannot access the title page or act lines in card view (they are not part of a scene)
3. You cannot select lines at a time in card view because there is no room to the left of the text to mark lines. This was done because the showing more text in card view was more important.
Select Card View.
Card View is excellent when you are first deciding what your scenes will be. You can write a short note or two for each scene and lay them out, re-arranging them as necessary. As you notice a need for scenes to bridge or separate other scenes, insert a scene and just describe what it needs to accomplish.
As you start to flesh out each scene, you can continue to use Card View to see how the scenes work with each other. At any time while creating the script, if you want to see how the scenes are working together, switch to card view.
The top of each scene window has the scene number, how far it is into the script in time (assuming each page is exactly one minute), and the scene header. To change the header just click on the header text and edit.
The scene text is below, in the index card. There are no page breaks in Card View. Pages do not exist in this view. This view is per-scene. There is also no standard formatting. The left margin is based loosely on the script format. But all lines just wrap at the right so there is no horizontal formatting.
Card view can also be used to re-arrange scenes. You re-arrange scenes by clicking on the little icon in the upper left corner of a scene and dragging it to the new location you wish to place it at. We want to move scene 7 to be between scene 9 and scene 10.
First select View, Card Layout, 4x4. This will show us 16 scenes at a time. Now put the cursor over the little icon in the upper left corner of scene 7. The cursor has changed to a hand which will grab and drag the window. Press the left mouse button down and drag the mouse down to scene 10. You will see a red bar between scenes 9 and 10. This is where the scene will be inserted when you release the left mouse button. Release the button.
Scene 7 has been moved and is now scene 9. Scenes 8 and 9 are now scenes 7 and 8. Card view is an excellent way to rearrange scenes. And at the same time you can edit the text in each scene. And remember, you can use undo if you change your mind about moving a scene.
We will now show just the notes and action in card view. Turn off displaying other paragraph types by clicking on the toolbar buttons for each other type raising it. Then select View, Card Layout, 3x3. This will give you a clear view of each scene. And even with some paragraphs hidden, you can still edit the displayed paragraphs and add new paragraphs.
Anytime you want to view or edit your script on a scene-by-scene basis, Card View is probably your best option.
Select Outline View.
Outline view is excellent when you are fleshing out your script. You can write the main action that occurs and key dialogue. In outline view you will see which scenes are weak and which are ok. You will also see where you need to add more direction or more dialogue, possibly bringing in or eliminating a character.
As you write out more and more of the script, you can continue to use outline view to see how each scene works and how the scenes work together as a script.
Each paragraph has a little icon at the beginning of it showing what type of paragraph it is. Each paragraph that is collapsible has a little box to the left of the icon, optionally with a + or - in it. All the paragraphs in outline view have a left margin that is as far to the left as can be displayed based on the icon positioning. However, the paragraph width is identical to page view and therefore each paragraph breaks at the same words and is the same number of lines long as it is in page view.
Act, Scene, and Character paragraphs can be collapsed. When you collapse a paragraph, that paragraph itself stays wholly visible. But the paragraphs under it that belong to it are then hidden. When you do this the + inside the box becomes a -. (If a paragraph has no paragraphs under it, the box is empty.)
Move the cursor over the box at the beginning of scene 1 and click it. You now have scene 2 directly under scene 1. Now click the box for scene 1 again. It’s back. Go to the box 3 lines down for the character Howard. Click on it once to make Howard’s dialogue go away and then again to bring it back.
You can move text in outline view by dragging the icon to the left of a paragraph. When you drag using the icon you drag all text in that paragraph and all paragraphs belonging to it. This makes it a very easy way to move not only scenes but dialogue blocks as it moves the character, parenthetical, and dialogue.
We are going to move Howard’s first dialogue to just after the action it is presently before. Move the cursor over the icon next to the paragraph Howard and press the left mouse button. Move down until the red line is after the action paragraph. Then release the mouse button. The paragraph will move to the new location.
Outline View does list pages. But they are not script pages. If you print in outline view it will fill each page and therefore the page breaks will fall differently. Outline view needs fewer pages than page view because nothing is double spaced. The page numbers given in outline view match outline pages.
However, outline view is essentially page-less - on purpose. This lets you view the script as a single continuous flow, which is how the final movie is viewed too. Whenever you want to work on your script as a single document, outline view may be your best option.
Paper view shows you exactly how the pages will print on the paper down to the 3 holes punched on the left. Regular view is Page view with the extra space for the paper stripped away. Normally regular view is better because it shows more lines on the screen.
However, when you are doing your final edits, you should use page view so you see exactly what you are going to print.
There is no tutorial for regular & page view because you have been using regular view all along up to now.
Sometimes you will want to view your script 2 or more different ways. No problem. First, we need to make the present view a window in Screen Writer Studio instead of taking up the entire window. To do this, go to the upper right corner of the window and in the second row, not the top row, click on the middle button. The script should now be a window inside the Screen Writer Studio window.
Now select Window, New Window. You will get a second window with the same script in it. While both windows can have the same view, make one regular view and the other outline view. Scroll them so that scene 1 is at the top of each. Screen Writer Studio should look like this:
Now go to the first line of action in the outline view and change Susan’s age from 19 to 20. You will see it change in the other window too. You can bring up as many views of the same script as you wish. And any edits in one window will be reflected in the other windows.
You can also bring up as many different scripts at once as you wish. You can cut and paste between windows or just work on each separately. You can not drag and drop between windows.
Click on the button in the far upper right corner of the window holding the outline view to close it. Click on the second from the end button in the upper right corner of the window holding the regular view to maximize it.
Go to the paragraph on page 2, line 6 and select the middle sentence. Then put the mouse anywhere over the selected text and press the left button down. The mouse cursor will change and will have a little grey box attached to it.
Now move the mouse down 6 paragraphs as shown below. The caret shows where the selected text will be inserted. Release the left mouse button. The text will be moved to where the caret is. This is a fast equivalent of cut and paste. (But the moved text is not placed in the clipboard.)
If you start to drag text and change your mind, just release the button while the mouse is over any of the selected text. To drag to a place not on the screen, move the mouse past the edges of the window.
You can Drag & Drop in Page, Regular, and Outline views. It is not implemented in Card view.
Select View, Zoom. Then click the drop-down box and select 200%. Then click OK. Now do the same thing except select 50%.
At any zoom level Screen Writer Studio has all features. There is nothing special about 100%. You can also type in a zoom level instead of picking one. You are restricted to between 50 and 200%.
To show how useful this can be, type in a zoom of 70%. Then change the view to Card view. Then select View, Card Layout, Custom… Set it to 4 columns by 6 rows. This gives you a good view of most of the script.
This has not been discussed because at the end of each tutorial you have closed the script and not saved it. When you save a script, it saves the view you are in, the zoom level, and where you are in the script. When you open the script the next time, you will be in the same view, zoom, and position as when you saved it.
Save the script.