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FORMAT GUIDELINES - THE BASICS

Open the script with a FADE IN followed by your first
slugline:
FADE IN:
EXT. RAYS PIZZARIA/NEW YORK CITY DAY
Each scene needs a complete slugline stating whether
its interior or exterior, giving a reasonably
specific description of the location and indicating
day or night.
If its important to indicate the exact location of
a scene -- you can mention that in the initial
slugline. But once youve established, for example,
that Rays is in New York, drop the New York in
subsequent sluglines.
Or you could use a SUPER to indicate the city:
SUPER IN/OUT: NEW YORK CITY
The term SUPER IN/OUT is movie shorthand for
super-imposition of words that appear briefly over the
image on the screen and then disappear.
You could also use this to identify a certain time.
EXT. RAYS PIZZARIA/NEW YORK CITY DAY
A long, narrow small street-level shop in a three-story
brownstone.
SUPER IN/OUT: FEBRUARY 2, 1953
A PANHANDLER stands nearby shaking a cup at PEDESTRIANS -a plea for spare change.
EXT. ALLEY BETWEEN TWO BROWNSTONE BUILDINGS DAY
When you switch to a new location, use another
slugline to indicate this. And always follow a slug
with an action line.
A MIDDLE-AGED BUSINSESS MAN runs through the alley. He
looks back to see if anyone has followed. And when he sees
no one, he stops near a dumpster to catch his breath.

SPECIAL SLUGLINES -- CONTINUOUS

If you follow one character the same character
from one location to another in real time, instead of
DAY or NIGHT you would add the word CONTINUOUS to the
slug line.
For example:
INT. CLASSROOM DAY
The teacher dismisses the class. One student jumps up
quickly and runs out into the hall INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS
The student makes a mad dash for the restroom at the end of
the hall.
SPECIAL SLUGLINES -- INT./EXT.
Some situations arent exclusively interior or
exterior shots but a combination of both. In a scene
takes place in a moving, car, for example -- you would
use an interior shot. But if the action outside the
car is also significant -- normally, we would
write separate sluglines to show that.
EXT. OLDSMOBILE STATION WAGON DAY
The station wagon races along Mulholland Drive, swerving to
make the turns on the winding hilltop road.
INT. OLDSMOBILE STATION WAGON - DAY
Dave glances over at Renee riding shotgun. Her hands press
against the dashboard. Shes clearly nervous.
DAVID
Relax, I know this road like the
back of my hand.
David makes another quick turn.
EXT. OLDSMOBILE STATION WAGON DAY
The wheels SCREECH as the vehicle passes by a steep drop
off with inches to spare.

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Or we could cheat and indicate in the slugline that
the action cuts back and forth between interior and
exterior shots. To do this would write INT./EXT. in
the slugline to suggest cuts between interior and
exterior shots.
INT./EXT. OLDSMOBILE STATION WAGON DAY
David races along Mulholland Drive, swerving to make the
turns on winding hilltop road.
He turns and looks to Renee riding shotgun. Her hands
press against the dashboard. Shes clearly nervous.
DAVID
Relax, I know this road like the
back of my hand.
David makes another quick turn.
The wheels SCREECH as the vehicle passes by a steep drop
off with inches to spare.
TRANSITIONS -Generally, there is no need to write CUT TO: between
scenes. It is assumed that we cut from one scene to
another. There are some transitions that you can use
for specific reasons. For example -- DISSOLVE TO -suggests a significant passage of time.
And sometimes you may need a DISSOLVE TO within a
scene. This is because every second of screen time
must be accounted for in a script.
Look at the following paragraph written by one of my
students:
Helen enters her bathroom, looking exhausted and wilted.
She takes a quick shower, does her hair and makeup and
changes into a formal evening dress.
This is not acceptable screenwriting, since the above
may take an hour or more. Instead you could break
this up with a second slug line and a transition cut
like DISSOLVE TO which suggests a passage of time.

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INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
Helen enters, looking exhausted and wilted. She looks at
herself in the mirror on her medicine cabinet and groans.
She reaches into the shower and turns on the water.
begins to unbutton her blouse.

She

DISSOLVE TO:
INT. BATHROOM - LATER
Helen is now dressed to the nines, her hair and makeup are
completely redone.
You can also choose moments to cut from and return to
the scene to accomplish the same transition. For
example:
INT. BATHROOM - NIGHT
Helen enters, looking exhausted and wilted.
CLOSE ON A LIPSTICK as Helen picks it up and applies it to
her lips.
PULL BACK TO REVEAL: Helen now dressed to the nines, her
hair and makeup completely redone.
CLOSE UPS -Generally, avoid explicit camera references -- keep
them implicit. For example: "A bead of sweat drops
off Harry's brow" implies a close-up of the Harry's
brow -- you don't have to specify CLOSE UP of Harry's
brow.
On those rare occasions where you absolutely must make
a close up explicit, it works like this:
CLOSE ON - HARRY'S BROW
A bead of sweat drops off.
Once youre in a close-up, you have to get out of it
and back into the scene. So you can follow-up the
close-up with a camera shot on what we see after the
close-up:

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ON HARRY
He wipes it off and goes about his business.
Or you can condense this and eliminate the camera shot
that follows as long as your action line states
clearly what the next shot would be:
CLOSE ON HARRY'S BROW: A bead of sweat drops off.
Harry wipes it off and goes about his business.
Many close-ups are used for a detail thats vital to
the story and important for the viewer to see. Or
theyre used on signs, letters or any kind of writing
thats important for the viewer to read.
Mary opens the envelope quickly and pulls out a folded
paper.
CLOSE ON LETTER: The words are spelled out with letters cut
out from magazine headlines. It reads -- $1,000 or you
cat dies.
Mary gasps and staggers back.
the kitchen counter.

She steadies herself against

CHARACTER NAMES -The first time you refer to a character in the

description, capitalize the entire name, as when JOE
HALLACK enters a bar and weve not seen this character
before.
In all subsequent references, such as when Hallack
crosses the room, hes in plain old upper and lower
case.
However, when writing dialogue -- the character name
above the dialogue is always written in all-caps:
HALLACK
Anyway, its in all-caps in the
identifying line above.
FLYNN
Although if I were to call out to Joe
Hallack in my dialogue, the name would
not be in all-caps.

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Sometimes you may want the audience to hear a
character before seeing him/her. In this instance,
the character is in the scene -- but not immediately
visible. The character might utter a line, for
example, and then appear unexpectedly from behind a
door. In such a case, put (O.S.) after the name:
HALLACK (O.S.)
This is an abbreviation for Off
Screen.
Sometimes the audience can hear a characters thoughts
or there is a narrator speaking to us who is not in
the scene. In that case, the use of V.O. is
appropriate:
ROBASHAW (V.O.)
This is an abbreviation for Voice
Over.
SOUNDS -Important sounds are also written with all caps, as
when FOOTSTEPS APPROACH.
ACTION LINES -In terms of style, the basic idea is to give the
briefest complete description possible that emphasizes
what is important and de-emphasizes what is not.
Clarity and economy are crucial. And it is best to
limit your descriptions to what can be seen and heard.
Try to live by the rule: every sentence is a shot.
And every shot should have a subject-predicate
something doing something.
You should write your action lines with active verbs.
Avoid passive verbs like is and are when followed
by verbs ending in --ing. You shouldnt write -The jogger is sprinting...
The customer is buying an expensive purse...
You should write -The jogger sprints across the park..
The customer buys an expensive purse...

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Long paragraphs of description or action lines are a
bear to read. If your paragraph (or block of action
lines) is more than four or five lines long, edit it
down or break it up into smaller paragraphs.
Instead of writing this:
MEL WATERS, late thirties, an aging jock with a body thats
just starting to sag, sleeps on a couch. Dirty frozen
dinner containers and liquor bottles are piled up end
tables and chairs. Old baseball memorabilia and books are
scattered throughout the room. In the background, a radio
personality discusses sports. A door SLAMS in another room
and Mel wakes with a jump. He looks about, disoriented.
NOREEN, 35 and still attractive but with a slightly haggard
look, enters the room in a hurry, with a box. She pulls
framed pictures and books off his shelves, tossing them
into the box. She unplugs a lamp and puts that in the box
as well.
You should write it this way:
MEL WATERS, late thirties, an aging jock with a body thats
just starting to sag, sleeps on a couch.
Dirty frozen dinner containers and liquor bottles are piled
up end tables and chairs. Old baseball memorabilia and
books are scattered throughout the room. In the background,
a radio personality discusses sports.
A door SLAMS in another room and Mel wakes with a jump.
looks about, disoriented.

He

NOREEN, 35 and still attractive but with a slightly haggard

look, enters the room in a hurry, with a box.
She pulls framed pictures and books off his shelves,
tossing them into the box. She unplugs a lamp and puts that
in the box as well.

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Long blocks of dialogue are a bear to read, as
well. You could break up a monologue with a
parenthetical -- or an action line.
And when you pick up the dialogue after the action
line, place a (CONTD) after the character name:
GINA
Use parenthetical descriptions beneath
the character names sparingly. For
instance, its appropriate when the
characters manner or expression might
change dramatically.
(feigns anger)
Are you listening to me, dammit!
Gina laughs and waves her hand to show she was
only kidding.
GINA (CONTD)
You can also break up dialogue with
action lines.
SPACING -If youre writing the script in Microsoft Word, youll
have to do all of the formatting by hand. Here are
some guidelines when setting up your own format.
Set your left margin to 1.5, your right margin to 1.
1
1.5 Indent dialogue 2.5 from the left side of the page, and 2
from the right side of the page.
3.5 KYLE ROBASHAW
Character names are set at 3.5 from
the left side of the page.
3 (winks)
Parentheticals both beneath the
2.5 character name and within dialogue
are set at about 3 from the left side 2
of the page and 2.5 from the right
side of the page
2.5
(winks again)
So that if you have a particularly long
parenthetical, itll look like that.
Top and bottom margins are approximately 1. Skip 2 lines
between the end of one scene and the slug line
of the
next.

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Another way to do this with Microsoft Word is to simply use
tab stops -CHARACTER NAMES -- four tab stops
(parentheticals) -- three tab stops
Dialogue -- two tab stops
GINA
(laughs)
Arent tab stops easier to deal
with?
NO CENTERING -One formatting approach to avoid at all costs is
centering character names and dialogue, as in:
GINSBERG
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked.
ROBERT FROST
No kiddin.
PARENTHETICALS -Parentheticals are brief directions to the actor on
how to say a particular line -- like (upset) or
(sarcastic). Or they indicate a brief action -- like
(nods emphatically) or (points for emphasis).
Parentheticals are not capitalized.
They should be used sparingly -- most actors and
directors do not want the writer telling the actor
how to say a specific line.
If the parenthetical is more than three or four words
long it should be rewritten as an action line.

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This is wrong way to write parentheticals -GINA
(sarcastically refers to
the awkwardly constructed
kitchen table)
Well, that was easy.
(leans against the counter
and laughs)
Maybe we should open up our own home
repair shop.
(and then she laughs
again)
This is the correct way to do so -Gina nods toward the awkwardly constructed kitchen table.
GINA
(sarcastic)
Well, that was easy.
She leans against the counter and laughs.
GINA (CONTD)
Maybe we should open up our own home
repair shop.
Gina laughs again.
FONTS -The typical font is Courier 12 pt. This font
resembles that of a typewriter. It dates from the
time long ago when scripts were actually written on
typewriters. There are two good reasons why you
should not use one of the more attractive fonts that
came with your computer:
--The Courier font is still the standard in Hollywood,
so if you dont use it your script will immediately
seem odd and, quite likely, amateur.
--Its much easier to judge how long a script will run
if it uses the standard font rather than something
exotic.

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PAGE BREAKS -If dialogue breaks across a page, handle it like this:
CHARLA
Start the dialogue normally, then when
(MORE)
----page break------------------------------------------CHARLA (CONTD)
the page breaks, type that MORE as
indicated. Repeat the character name
at the top of the next page and put the
CONTD in. You wont regret it.
(MORE) isnt necessary if you break the dialogue
at period -- and this is preferable! Final Draft
would do this for you. You would still put
(CONTD) next to the character name at the top of
the next page.
CHARLA
Start the dialogue normally, then when
the page breaks at the period, dont
type MORE.
----page break------------------------------------------CHARLA (CONTD)
Repeat the character name at the top of
the next page and put the CONTD in.
You wont regret it.
PAGE NUMBERS -Page numbers are in the upper right corner and do not
have a period after them. (They should look like they
do on these pages.)
ENDING -FADE OUT
THE END

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PHONE CALLS -There are three ways to write phone conversations.
Lets presume a character named JESSICA is on the
phone.
1) If we dont see or hear who Jessica is talking to,
youd write it this way:
INT. EMERSON LIBRARY DAY
Jessica sits at a computer, occasionally typing with one
hand. She holds a cell phone in the other.
JESSICA
(into phone)
Yeah, its a format question...
Phone calls. Im stuck on
this. How do you write phone
calls in correct format...?
Jessica presses the phone closer to her ear.
JESSICA (CONTD)
(into phone)
What was that...? You said three
ways...? Oh, okay.
Note you need a parenthetical (into phone) when
Jessica talks to her cell phone. Also, the ellipsis
(...) indicates Jessica has paused to listen because
the other party is talking.
2) If we hear who Jessica is talking to but dont see
that person, youd write it this way:
INT. EMERSON LIBRARY DAY
Jessica sits at a computer, occasionally typing with one
hand. She holds a cell phone in the other.
JESSICA
(into phone)
Yeah, its a format question.
JIM (V.O.)
(over phone)
Fire away.

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JESSICA
(into phone)
Phone calls. Im stuck on this.
How do you write phone calls in
correct format?
JIM (V.O.)
(over phone)
Well, there are three ways you can
do this... Damn.
Jessica presses the phone closer to her ear.
JESSICA
(into phone)
What was that?
JIM (V.O.)
(over phone)
Nothing.
JESSICA
(into phone)
You said three ways?
JIM (V.O.)
(over phone)
It depends on whether we see and
hear the party at the other end of
the phone conversation.
JESSICA
(into phone)
Oh, okay.
Note that each line of Jims dialogue would also have
a parenthetical (over phone) and that he would have
(V.O.) for Voice Over after his name.
3) If we see and hear both parties on the phone you
need to set up the scene for each party with separate
slug lines and then you can INTERCUT between the two.
This eliminates the need to write another slug line
for each alternating line of dialogue by the two
parties.

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INT. EMERSON LIBRARY DAY
Jessica sits at a computer, occasionally typing with one
hand. She holds a cell phone in the other.
JESSICA
(into phone)
Yeah, its a format question.
INT. ANSIN BUILDING - JIMS OFFICE DAY
Jim sits in his small office with photos of his students
taped to the wall with bulls-eye circles drawn on each one.
As he talks on his phone he throws darts at various
students.
JIM
(into phone)
Fire away.
INTERCUT JESSICA/JIM
JESSICA
Phone calls. Im stuck on this.
How you write phone calls in
correct format?
JIM
Well, there are three ways you
can do this.
Jim throws another dart at another student photo but the
dart ricochets off the wall and lands at his feet.
JIM (CONTD)
Damn.
Jessica presses the phone closer to her ear.
JESSICA
What was that?
JIM
Nothing.
JESSICA
You said three ways?

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JIM
It depends on whether we see
and hear the party at the other
end of the phone conversation.
JESSICA
Oh, okay.
There are different ways to write INTERCUT. I suggest
you use the style here: INTERCUT JESSICA/JIM.
After the INTERCUT you can write the dialogue as if
both characters are talking in the same room. You can
also write action lines for both characters.

SERIES OF SHOTS -A SERIES OF SHOTS is the screenwriters equivalent of

a generic shopping list. The intent of any series of
shots is to convey an overall impression in which the
individual shots are less important that the unity of
the whole.
It can be a very useful time-saving and space-saving
devise eliminating the need for individual sluglines
and scenes for each shot.
Each shot must be thematically related to the
description in the slug line that introduces the
series.
Youd introduce the series with a DISSOLVE TO: and end
the series with a DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. BUS - DAY
John steps off the bus carrying his suitcase.
around the campus and smiles.

He looks
DISSOLVE TO:

SERIES OF SHOTS - CAMPUS LIFE

a) STUDENTS move luggage, stereos and refrigerators into
dorm rooms.
b) OTHER STUDENTS laugh and swap stories at a fraternity
mixer with LOUD MUSIC.

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c) STUDENTS study at the library at night, coffee cups and
soda cans at hand.
d) OTHER STUDENTS practice running sprints and jumping
hurdles at an athletic field.
e) STUDENTS carry texts and notebooks into a classroom and
take their seats.
DISSOLVE TO:
Again note how each shot is labeled -- a) b) c)
Also, since each shot takes place at a different
location -- the location is indicated in the one-line
description of the shot.
Heres another example. Note in this one that theres
an introduction to the series after the slug line
SERIES OF SHOTS that describes the music in the
background.
INT. TEACHING SUITE - DAY
A small room
wall of past
her backpack
chair, takes

with a piano, a few chairs and posters on the

recitals at the school. Elena enters carrying
and leather valise. She drops them both on a
off her coat and looks around the room.
DISSOLVE TO:

SERIES OF SHOTS - ELENA AND HER STUDENTS

As one shot DISSOLVES into the other, Elena tries to
actively engage her students. BACHS GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
continues uninterrupted over these shots.
a) Elena sits on the bench with a FIVE-YEAR-OLD BOY with
bangs and shows him how to find the middle C on the
piano.
b) Elena listens patiently as an ELDERLY MAN plays. He
stops and coughs phlegm into his hand and then wipes it on
his pants.
c) Elena claps excited as a TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL concludes a
song. The Elena holds up a hand and the girl high-fives
her.

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d) Elena leans over the piano and writes a chord
progression onto a piece of manuscript paper for a YOUNG
MOTHER, early thirties. The mothers infant sits in a
stroller near the piano.
DISSOLE TO:
INT. TEACHING SUITE - LATER
And youd pick up Elenas story at this point.
Heres one more example -EXT. BACKYARD GARDEN - DAY
Joseph looks over his produce, evaluating the state of his
supply. He picks a squash and examines it at arms length
-- the squash is covered with some puffy infestation and
covered with ants. He grimaces.
DISSOLVE TO:
SERIES OF SHOTS - JOSEPH TRIES AGAIN
a) Joseph wheels down the aisle of hardware store. He
grabs a spade, rake, hose head, fertilizer, twine and
insect killer. He tries to balance all these items on his
lap but they CLANG or THUMP to the floor.
b) Joseph waits while waiting for a CASHIER to ring up his
supplies. He spots a book on a rack at the cash register - Gardening for Dummies. He starts leafing through it.
c) Joseph on his hands and knees uses a rake to loosen the
dirt around some of the plants. A bag of fertilizer rests
on the seat of his empty wheel chair at the edge of the
garden.
d) Joseph waters down his garden.
e) Joseph uses a spray bottle sprays or squirt insect
repellant on the plants.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. APARTMENT KITCHEN - DAY
Joseph sits at the table, eating cereal and thumbing
through his book Gardening for Dummies.

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FLASHBACK
The FLASHBACK concept allows you to move back and
forth in time. And its a very effective tool as long
as you clearly differentiate when the scenes take
place in the past and in the present.
In a few scenes from this student script -- a young
woman builds a canoe to help relieve the heartache she
feels when her romance with a young man sputters out
and dies. The scenes in the present -- of the young
woman building the canoe -- alternate with scenes in
the past of her relationship -- how it started and how
the relationship came to an end.
FADE IN:
EXT. WOODED AREA - DAY
CAROL SHEPHERD, mid-twenties, swings an axe, hacking away
at the base of a large tulip poplar. Carl, trim but
strongly built, might be considered attractive if she
wasnt smudged with dirt.
Her hair is pulled back into a pony although strands still
land on her face and she stops swinging just enough to push
them back. Carols long-sleeve t-shirt is pushed up at the
elbows and soaked with sweat. And her well-worn jeans are
torn but not in a fashionable way.
Carol continues to hack at the base of the tree -- the tree
sways. She leans back and takes one more powerful swing,
calling out with an ANGRY GRUNT. The ax connects with a
loud THUMP.
The tree shudders, starts to give and the falls from the
stump, CRASHING to the fern-covered ground, sending up a
cloud of dirt.
Carol stands, panting, the axe at her side, staring at the
tree.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CABIN-STYLE HOME - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)
The rustic home is in a clearing in the woods with a long
dirt driveway leading to a car port.
Three cars are
parked in the drive. DVDs of JAZZ MUSICAL spills out
through the open windows.

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INT. CABIN-STYLE HOME - NIGHT (FLASHBACK)

In this scene the writer describes a second character,
standing silently, nursing a beer. And this scene is
about how Carol sees this young man and crosses over
to meet him. Note that the slugline has a (FLASHBACK)
as well. And after these two people do meet -DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WOODED AREA - DAY (BACK TO PRESENT)
Carol now hacks at the toppled tree, lying on the dirt and
fern...
Note that the flashback scene begins and ends with
DISSOLVE TO: And when you come out of the flashback
you have to make that clear with (BACK TO PRESENT) in
the slugline.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
Its good to introduce a character in the process of
doing some action. In your description, start with
physical characteristics that give us some sense of
what this guy or girl looks like. And then you could
add a detail or two about the attire.
NEIL CRAWFORD, early twenties, moussed hair, narrow face
and tall as a professional basketball center, flips through
a file cabinet next to his desk. He wears khakis, a white
shirt and black tie. His sport coat is drape across the
back of his desk chair.
--CARLOS RODREGUIZ, mid-twenties, lean and fit like a
marathon runner with a buzz cut and goatee, puts on his
jacket.
--AN OLD FISHERMAN, wizened with pinched features and
scattered white hair, limps as he carries a rolled up net
and a flask toward a counter. The Fisherman wears pants
held up by suspenders and as he drops the items on the
counter -- one of the suspenders snaps loose. His pants
droop for a moment until he fixes it.
---

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You could have the character perform a series of

actions that also help define his appearance -patting down his thick hear wet with sweat, for
example. And you description of clothes could also
add to the overall appearance of the characters body
type -THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER, a 36-year-old bearded man wearing a
battered fedora and a long coat, steps up into the chamber.
He carries two oil cans and hes winded because of the
climb. He takes off his hat and pats down his thick hair
wet with sweat. He takes off his coat to reveal a collarless shirt damp with sweat at the armpits. The shirt
covers a muscular frame and a bit of gut.
--Or you could hold off on any description of the
character until after you define her location and
whatever action shes performing -CAROL, 16, sits on a large windowsill and watches the
children and the teenagers in the park. Carols appearance
is a mix of Gothic and Emo with thick black horn-rimmed
glasses, piercings, black nails and Marylyn Manson attire.
She signs sadly -- perhaps because shes not in the park as
well.
--DR. ERIC SEIFMAN, mid-thirties, escorts Elena into the
office and gestures for her to sit. Eric looks more like a
GQ model than a therapist. Hes square-jawed with broad
shoulders and neatly trimmed hair. He wears a cashmere
sweater, slacks and loafers.
--ELENA CROSSGROVE, 21, hurries up the steps toward the front
entrance, carrying a large tote bag over one shoulder.
Elena, tall and slender, has the build of a ballerina but
none of the grace. She trips on one of the steps and
stumbles forward. But she manages to grab the railing and
steady herself.

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NOTES ON CELTX -This free screenwriting software is popular with
students -- mostly because, well, its free.
You can find it at -http://celtx.com
Celtx does present some format issues for students to
address -- and I asked students to e-mail me their
suggestions on how they dealt with certain Celtx
problems.
Here are some of their responses -CHANGING YOUR CELTX SCRIPTS TO PDFS
If youre working in Celtx -- you need to change your
script to a PDF before attaching it to your e-mail.
To do so -- move to the Typeset tab at the bottom of
the window. You should print or save a PDF copy from
here, because doing so from the Script tab tends to
leave dialogue broken by page breaks and otherwise
screws with your formatting. Also, be sure to double
check the formatting options of the script menu to
make sure that the automatic markers for page breaks
match what you need.
CELTX FORMAT CHANGES
To remove the continueds at the bottom of the page
and to change other formatting options its really
simple.
Go to the bottom of your screen and click on TYPE SET.
You need to have internet turned on for it to work. It
gives you a preview of what the printed screenplay (or
teleplay) will look like. At the top of this page are
2 buttons. One is a SAVE button and the other is a
FORMAT button. Click format and you will see all your
options. Check OFF the continued's at the bottom and
mess around with anything else you want/need.

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As for making lines for Acts, Tags, and Tease. You
need to be in the SCRIPT page (which you should
automatically be on one when you open Celtx). If
you're not its at the bottom of the page where the
TYPE SET button is at the top there is a pull down
menu that gives you all the different types of lines
(Action, Dialogue, Parenthetical, Transition, etc.).
In this menu click on the TEXT button. You can then
write in a text piece centered in the page.
PAGE BREAKS FOR CELTX SCRIPTS
To make a page break in between acts in Celtx, the
keyboard shortcut on a Mac and PC is ALT+ENTER.
ACT BREAKS FOR CELTX SCRIPTS - GUESS & CHECK SYSTEM
You wanted me to send you a message about how I broke
up the acts onto a new page using Celtx. So this is
what I did. I used a guess and check system. I started
with an arbitrary number of times to press enter to
guess when Act One would appear at the top of a new
page. I opened a pdf to see if it was correct, and
checked to see how close I was. I did this several
times with several pdf files until I got it right. I
noticed though in my version of Celtx that there is a
tab for script, and there is also a tab that says
tab you can see how the script would paginate, instead
of guessing.
UNDERLINING TEXT IN YOUR CELTX SCRIPTS
Open the PDF in Preview.
Highlight the section that you want to underline
On the menu bar go to Tools --> Annotate -->
Underline Text