We will learn several miscellaneous items. You can learn these sections when you need them. There is no need to learn them now. If you want to customize Screen Writer Studio, you should at least go through the last sub-section on the Options. This section takes about 15 minutes.
Every movie script is supposed to be 118 pages long. No problem. Since our sample is only 30 pages long, we’ll have to work proportionally. But let’s assume you have a script that comes in at 140 pages. That’s 15% too long. We need to drop down to 25 pages.
For our 30 page sample, you would select Tools, Auto Cheat… Then type 25 for the number of pages you want. Then click on Apply. If you compare one of your new pages that you have cheated on, with one of your old ones, the difference is barely noticeable. But that’s reducing the script by 15%.
But if all you need is a small percentage. Even up to 4 or 5% is very hard to see. And the beauty of this method is two-fold. First, it just shrinks everything slightly making more room on the page. This makes everything look perfectly normal as the script still looks right.
Second, it’s very easy for you. Just set the number of pages and it will do the minimal shrinking or expanding to reach your goal.
Select File, Send… You should now have an e-mail message from your e-mail program that is blank but has the script attached. Send it to yourself by putting your e-mail address in the send line and send it. That’s it, you’ve e-mailed your script.
This only works if you have an e-mail program and it supports the MAPI protocol. If this does not work in Screen Writer Studio and you think it should, bring up WordPad and see if you can send a file from WordPad. If you cannot send from WordPad either, your e-mail client does not support MAPI.
Go to page 3, line 17. This is the start of about a page of dialogue. Select the entire set of dialogue from VIVIAN to …for later. You do not need to have every character of the end paragraphs selected, just some of them.
Select Format, Dual Column, Dual Non-aligned. This will give you the following:
When you place single column into dual column mode, Screen Writer Studio assumes you have intermixed dialogue and alternates it in the two columns. Also, note that the 4th set of dialog in both columns does not line up. This is because the previous dialog was a different number of lines in each column. In non-aligned mode each column spaces itself based on the text above it and ignores the column next to it.
It is best to view non-aligned columns as the left column goes all the way down and then you go to the top of the right column and go down again.
With all the paragraphs still selected, select Format, Dual Column, Dual Aligned. This will give you:
Note that the two columns line up at each Character. In aligned mode the two columns will be kept aligned with each other. It’s best to think of the text going through a set of dialog in one column and then moving to the other column in this mode.
To change columns back to Single Column, you can select Format, Dual Column, Single Column. To move from one column to the other, select Format, Dual Column, Left Column or Format, Dual Column, Right Column.
Dual column text will appear in a single column in outline and card views. This is because dual column displays of text did not look good in those views.
You do not need to ever look at most of the options. You can customize just about everything in Screen Writer Studio. By the same token, the settings it starts with are those that most people prefer. So do not worry if you don’t learn what most of the options are for.
We are going to look at 4 options. These are the ones that you are most likely going to want to set.
Select Tools, Options... Look at the first check box, Select Entire Word. If you check this, then when you select text with the mouse, it will move each end of your selection to include all of the word you are on. If you have trouble getting selected text to end exactly where you want it to end, and you are almost always selecting entire words or phrases, check this box. (You can always uncheck it later.)
Now look at the Script Directory. This is where Screen Writer Studio will initially go to open and save scripts. If you want to keep your scripts in a different directory, click on the Browse button and choose the directory you want to use.
Now click on the User tab at the top. This takes us to the settings that describe you. You will see:
Under User it should have your name. If it does not have it here, enter it. Or if you want a different name, change it to that name. This is the name that will be placed in the script properties for each script you create.
Under Title Page… list your name, address, copyright, etc. This will be placed on the title page for you. (You can edit it there later if you wish.)
Now click on OK. All option changes take effect as soon as you exit the Options dialogue box.