pbridges Posted November 16, 2012 Report Share Posted November 16, 2012 When working on screenplays, I like to use Acts and Sequences -- but I don't really care if they're nested or not. As long as I have a visual marker on the Outline for organizational purposes, I'm fine. On the Screenplay template, Scene Headings are automatically added as Outline elements in both the Outline and Project views. Is there any way to create a new style from the 'Scene Heading' style and have it also be an object that shows up in the Outline? For example, I create new styles called 'Act' and 'Sequence' from the 'Scene Heading' style, and each is a different text color/bold/underlined etc. as a clear visual marker in the document, while also being an element/style that creates a new card/section in the Outline and Project view. That way, ACT I and Sequence Name are displayed in the document, and its corresponding card/section can be navigated and edited with Act synopsis and Sequence synopsis. Then when it comes time to export to FDX, I can just remove/omit the Act and Sequence cards so that only Scene Heading elements are present in the presentation/reading draft. ACT I Race Sequence EXT. RACETRACK - DAY This is the scene description. INT. RACE CAR - DAY This is the scene description. Heist Sequence EXT. BANK - DAY This is the scene description. ACT II etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted November 16, 2012 Report Share Posted November 16, 2012 You should be able to change the Outline Level in the style description from Body Text to Heading 1 (2, 3) and have anything tagged with that style show up in the outline. Clever idea. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 16, 2012 Report Share Posted November 16, 2012 Hi pbridges, As Marguerite mentioned, you can use heading-level styles for this. Check out the "Screenplay with Act-Sequence-Scene Structure" post in the Sharing section. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbridges Posted November 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 Yeah, that's what I've been using so far, but it kinda makes a mess of the Index Card view when you nest/tier these elements. What I'm more looking at is whether it's possible to force a BodyText style to be recognised as an Outline/Project element, the same way that Scene Heading is. All of the Screenplay elements are BodyText, but Storyist makes Scene Heading an element that shows up in the Outline/Project views. What is it about Scene Heading that makes it an Outline/Project element, as opposed to Action, Character, Dialogue; which are also BodyText but not markers? I only really want to use Acts and Sequences as superficial markers in my documents, and my thought was that I could duplicate the Scene Heading style and make new Scene Heading-like elements called Act and Sequence that would show up in Project/Outline. They would behave exactly like Scene Headings as far as the Outline and Document are concerned, but they would have their own styles for visual reference. I tried making Scene Heading a Heading 1 element, then duplicated it and made Act and Sequence also Heading 1 elements, but then the Outline and Index Card view adds sub-documents for every Act, Sequence, Scene and Scene Heading. Is there any way I can duplicate Scene Headings, name them Act, Sequence and Scene, and have them behave exactly like a Scene Heading, including being added to Project/Outline? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbridges Posted November 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 Just for reference sake, here's what I'm trying to achieve in pictures... OUTLINE & SCRIPT INDEX CARDS & SCRIPT When it came time to export to FDX, I would just duplicate the document and delete everything except the yellow cards, giving me the final Screenplay view, properly formatted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 OK, that helps. I see what the issue is. I'm sure Steve can explain why the scene headings show up in the project outline even though they are body text, and whether it's possible to set other styles to behave the same way. You might also consider putting in a feature request for character styles. As far as I know, all styles in Storyist are paragraph styles (that is, they apply to an entire paragraph). But in this case, it would be sufficient to have everything paragraph-styled as Scene Heading and be able to apply red, green, italic, whatever, with a single key combination. Can't help with that. Beyond my pay grade. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 Hi pbridges, The Scene Heading style is handled as a special case. There isn't currently a mechanism for causing a paragraph styled with a general body text style to appear in the outline. It is a great feature request though. -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbridges Posted November 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2012 Okay, I'll keep using the nested way for now. It all ends up the same on the page, but requires a little more work in navigating. But it would definitely be a great feature to add in an update, and would put Storyist ahead of the curve for screenwriters. It would allow customisation of workflow where all other programs dictate a workflow. And that seems to be most screenwriters' issue with the major programs. To go even further, it would be ideal to have an option to exclude/turn off an Outline element from the page as well, so you could have Act, Sequence and Scene cards for navigation and notes in Outline/Cards, but they would not appear on the document itself. This would be great for those who don't like a cluttered page, but would also be invaluable for printing/exporting different documents from the one file. For example: exclude Act, Sequence and Scene elements from the document, and your screenplay is ready to print/export as a finished screenplay. But turn them back on and then exclude/turn off Scene Headings, and the document is now a more traditional Outline ready to print/export. Feel free to move this to the Feature Request section. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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