Use the settings below to add them and make sure your page numbers appear in 12 point Courier. You need page numbers in case someone prints your screenplay out to read it. It's also a good idea to add some contact details to the bottom of this page for people to find you if they like the screenplay. Select everything on the page and align it to the center. Now type your screenplay title in all capitals and make it bold.Ĭreate another two blank lines, type "Written by", then type another blank line and type your name. Start with a blank page and use the action style to create five blank lines. Spend some time with these motivational and planning writing apps to get your head down and write your story.īut before you send it out to anyone, you still need to add a couple of finishing touches. You need to hold Fn to use the function keys as shortcuts on a Mac.Īt this point, the body of your screenplay should be perfectly formatted.
Choose a Shortcut from the available options. Hover over one of your new styles and click the Arrow that appears.
From the menu in the bottom-left corner, select Shortcut Key, then press any keyboard shortcut you want to use and click Assign.Īpple Pages: Open the Format sidebar, then click the arrow at the top to reveal the styles dropdown menu. 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.
#How to change letter spacing in word update
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. Google Docs: Go to Format > Line Spacing and select the relevant options at the bottom. 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. Google Docs: You can't create a capitalized style in Google Docs, so you need to remember to capitalize these lines yourself as you write. Enable the box for All Caps.Īpple Pages: Open the Format sidebar, go to the Style tab, and open the Advanced Options menu beneath the font size.
Microsoft Word: Right-click the selected line and open the Font menu. Double-click to select the following lines, one at a time, then use the settings below to make them capitalized: CapitalizationĬertain lines in a screenplay only ever appear in all capital letters. But whichever slugline style you choose, keep it consistent across every page of your screenplay. You can choose a different style if you wish. To do so, double-click the word "Slugline" and press Ctrl + B (or Cmd + B on a Mac). We made our slugline bold, to match the Avengers: Endgame script. You may see them bold, underlined, or just capitalized. Sluglines, or scene headers, appear in a range of styles across different screenplays.