

Microsoft Word: Open the Styles Pane, hover over one of your new styles, open the dropdown menu, and choose to Modify Style.

However, the available shortcuts depend on your word processor. Keyboard shortcuts make it easier to select styles and format text as you write your screenplay. Google Docs: You can't choose a following style in Google Docs. Use the Following Paragraph Style dropdown to choose the following style. In the window that appears, choose an appropriate Style for following paragraph.Īpple Pages: Select the first line, open the Format sidebar, and go to the More tab. Microsoft Word: Open the Styles Pane and hover over the first style, then open the dropdown menu and select Modify Style. Use the settings below to make your word processor automatically select an appropriate style whenever you create a new line.Ĭhoose these following styles for each line in your screenplay: Choose the Following StyleĬertain styles are almost always grouped together in a screenplay, such as character and dialog. You need to match the Heading styles so you can use them with shortcuts.
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To do this, select a line and go to Format > Paragraph styles > Update to match. Instead, update the existing styles to match different lines. Google Docs: You can't create new styles in Google Docs. Click the Add ( +) button where it says Paragraph Styles to create a new style, then name it after the selected line. Click New Style and name it after the selected line.Īpple Pages: Open the styles dropdown menu at the top of the Format sidebar. Microsoft Word: Go to the Home tab and open the Styles Pane. Double-click to select a single line, then follow the steps below to turn it into a style. You need to save each line as a style in your word processor so you can automatically format text as you write your screenplay. Microsoft Word: Go to the Line and Page Breaks tab to choose your settings.Īpple Pages: Open the Format sidebar, then go the More tab. Then use the same settings to turn on Keep lines together (or Keep lines on same page in Google Docs) for: Use the settings below to enable the Keep with next option for: This way, sluglines or character names always appear with the action or dialog lines that follow them. It's important to keep certain lines together in a screenplay, even if that means leaving white space at the bottom of a page. The only exception to this is transition lines, which are aligned to the right.ĭouble-click to select the Transition line, then align it to the right. AlignmentĪlmost all text in a screenplay is aligned to the left, which is the default for most word processors. Google Docs: Go to Format > Align and Indent > Indentation options. Set the First indent to the same as the Left one. Microsoft Word: Open the Layout tab in the toolbar.Īpple Pages: Open the Format sidebar and go to the Layout tab.
