Hints and Tips: Screenplays

• Before doing anything else, switch to Screenplay Mode and change the font to Courier 12 point or Courier New 12 point.
• AutoWords can be put to good use for common directions (INT., EXT., ENTER, etc.) or for character names, which appear far more frequently in screenplays than in short stories or novels. Don't type character names in capitals for the AutoWords: anything written while in Character format will automatically be capitalised as soon as you press <Return>.
• Make use of the Pad for any notes.
• The "Search > Find Current" menu item (F4) can be used while the cursor is over a character name to find the next occurrence of that name, and therefore that character's next line of dialogue.
• The Count Occurrences function can be used with capitalised character names to see how often that character appears in the screenplay, and therefore also how many lines of dialogue they have.