How To Create A Screenplay Template In Word

If y'all have Microsoft Give-and-take, even the basic one, this article volition show you how to format it then you can write your screenplays.

A side note: If you're writing screenplays and making a living from them, I highly recommend Final Draft (Amazon, B&H). The program gets out of the way and allows you to focus completely on your craft. Also, it's the industry standard.

For a complimentary software that works great, accept a expect at Fade In. Yous will have to pay to remove the watermark and publish your pages, but at to the lowest degree you tin get your script written.

Exclusive Bonus: Download your FREE Design: How to make a movie. A consummate visual representation of the filmmaking process from offset to finish.

I accept used MS Word for 6 years without any problems.

The only two 'must-haves' for a serious screenplay writer are a not bad keyboard and a great chair. If y'all're writing on a tablet, get a bluetooth keyboard and pound away.

I'thou assuming you know what the correct format is. If not, delight first by reading this article:

https://wolfcrow.com/what-is-the-format-of-a-screenplay/

How is A4 different from U.s.a. Letter of the alphabet for screenplays?

Y'all might exist wondering if there are any practical ramifications of using A4 over the standard US Letter format. If you're sending a web PDF document, then consider where it will be printed. If information technology is going to the United states, and then it volition be printed on US Letter.

The screenplay format is designed for U.s. alphabetic character, and non for A4. I've been using it for A4, since that'southward the just kind of paper I can buy in India.

Courier 12-point should give you 4.23mm (0.166″) per line. For A4 newspaper, this ways 55-64 lines , and for Usa Letter paper, this ways a maximum of 51-lx lines. How many characters does that make?

A4 – Betwixt 3,135 to 3,648 per page.
Letter – Between 3,060 to three,600 per page.

That's an approximate divergence of 2% between the two. If 1 page equals 1 minute (60 seconds) in The states Letter, it would mean 61 seconds on A4. For a 100 page script, it would approximate 100 minutes in Usa Letter, and 102 minutes in A4. There is no divergence. Also, don't forget to take note that you are allowed to use double or fifty-fifty triple spaces between lines, or suspension up your page breaks for better readability. This past itself is a x% difference per page!

To recap, don't worry about the paper size. Stick to the margins, and proceed your font fixed at Courier 12-point 10-pitch.

The font for a screenplay

The font is Courier 12-point 10-pitch.

Where practise you detect Courier 12 pt 10-pitch?

The easiest way is to download a demo version of Final Typhoon. Then copy the font to your font directory before the trial version expires. Then you'll have information technology bachelor for Microsoft Word or another discussion processing awarding.

Before you lot use fonts for any commercial action, make sure in that location are no licensing fees involved. Some fonts are non usable for any purpose, commercial or personal. When in dubiousness, use the default Courier font on your word processor. Nada bad will happen.

How to format MS Discussion for the page layout

I'thousand going to be using Microsoft Word, simply you can practice the same with any word processor.

Open a new blank certificate. Go to Layout and choose the newspaper size – stick to US Letter or A4.

Become to Margins and select Custom Margins…:

Click OK. Get to Insert > Page Numbers and select Top and Correct. Page numbers should be displayed from the offset folio. Notation: Some people shift the page numbers a bit to the right just it doesn't matter. Start the numbering from 2 (1 is reserved for the title folio).

Finally, select the Courier 12pt font.

That's it, your main certificate is ready. Salvage information technology on your hard drive before proceeding. We'll come dorsum to information technology later the side by side section.

How to create the title page for your screenplay

Create your title page only after you've finished writing your script. Otherwise you might spend months with only the name of your film!

Open a new Discussion document and select the aforementioned paper size as your preferred screenplay format. Choose your font.

The title is centered somewhere only above the centre (doesn't matter). On the adjacent line (or y'all could exit a couple of lines) you write 'by'. On the next line write your full name (merely first letter is capitalized).

No jazzy stuff, bold fonts or styles or colors. The page number shouldn't be visible on the title page.

On the lesser right (align to the right), write down your address, phone number and/or e-mail accost (Many competitions forbid you to include this information). Nobody'due south going to study your title folio and gush at your layout skills. It shouldn't describe attention to itself. If your script is practiced, then the reader will want to meet yous.

Save this equally a championship template and you're done.

Side by side let'south look at the elements that form a screenplay, and how you can ensure the smoothest writing experience with Microsoft Discussion.

At present let'southward create the elements of a screenplay.

How to become elements into Microsoft Word

Word has a crazy arrangement of calculation spacing to the margin, so you demand to get rid of that first. Type these to the script template:

Slug
Description or actions
Character name
Parenthetical action
Dialogue
Transition
Folio break
Title

Select them and right click. Select Paragraph…. Make sure the Alignment is 'Left' and Indentation is '0 cm or inches'. Hit OK.

Character name

Identify the curser at the offset of 'Graphic symbol proper noun'. Right click and select Paragraph…. You lot accept two choices:

Change the left indentation to six.86 cm (2.7″). Use this if you're using the 4.2″ formatting.
Change the alignment to 'Centered'. Use this if you're just centering the grapheme name.

Parenthetical action

Place the cursor on Parenthetical activity. Repeat the steps above to get to the Paragraph popup. Because the paranthetical activeness position is related to the grapheme name, you accept two choices:

If you have opted for the iv.2″ organization, set the left indentation at 5.59 cm (2.2″).
If yous take opted for the centered system, set the alignment to 'Centered'. So prepare the left indentation at -1.27 cm (0.v″).

Dialogue

Place the cursor on Dialogue. Repeat the steps above to get to the Paragraph popup. Considering the position of the dialogue is relative to the character proper noun, yous take 2 choices:

If you have opted for the 4.2″ system, set the left indentation at three.84 cm (1.five″). Prepare the right indentation at two.54 cm (1″).
If you lot have opted for the centered arrangement, set the alignment to 'Centered'. And so gear up the left indentation at -3.81 cm (one.five″). Set the right indentation at -4.44 cm (1.75″). This will center the text and give you a width of 3″.

Centered looks better for online reading but the 4.ii″ system is better for MS Discussion formatting. The 'centering system' is harder to implement in Give-and-take, don't worry.

Transition

Same steps. Marshal to the Right.

Page break

Same as Graphic symbol proper noun.

For Slug, Title and Description, don't make any changes yet. If you've done everything okay, this is what your template should look like:

Changing the fonts and line spacing

The next step is to make sure the fonts that are always in upper case be assigned that style.

Fonts

Choose Slug, Grapheme proper noun, Page pause, Transitions and Title one past 1, right click and select Font…. Check 'All caps'. This is what information technology volition look like:

Finally, we dispense the line spacing so each element behaves the mode it is supposed to.

Line Spacing

This part could have been done alongside indentation and alignment, but this manner it is more foolproof for first timers. First, let'southward sympathise how line spacing works in a screenplay:

Double spacing follows these elements, e'er:

Slug
Each paragraph of a description or action.
Diagloue.
Transition.

Why not add together them in automatically? Nosotros tin can do that.

Select each of these elements one by ane, right click and select Paragraph…. Change the Spacing, After to 12 pt. This is what it will look similar:

There shouldn't exist a double spacing before the Page pause. Yet, this simply applies rarely to a screenplay, so y'all can but striking backspace when you need information technology. There are some writers who like to have ii spaces prior to every slug. You can use the same method to change things upwardly.

With this organization, yous don't accept to worry most line spaces before whatsoever element because information technology volition follow automatically later another element.

Add together Actions to your template

What are actions? Simply put, there are some rules that always concord true in a screenplay format:

A slug or scene heading is always followed by activeness/clarification.
The end of a transition is ever a slug or scene heading.
Dialogue is assumed after each grapheme's name, unless a parenthetical activeness is necessary. After every parenthetical at that place is e'er a dialogue.
More probable than not a dialogue will be followed past another character's name.

Software like Final Draft makes it easy to write because every bit shortly every bit you finish one line of the above and hit ENTER the next line assumes the next logical stride – saving you many keystrokes. To get the same benefits in Microsoft Word, you lot must attempt to create actions (term borrowed from Photoshop) that make it as piece of cake as possible.

Let's go in this lodge:

Clarification or activeness

Select/Highlight Clarification or actions in your template. Become to Format > Style > New…:

Name the mode as 'Action'. Click OK. Give-and-take will automatically assign the 'Style for following paragraph' to 'Action'. To create a shortcut, click on the 'Format' driblet downward on the lower left:

Select Shortcut key…. You'll become this box:

Alt is assigned to the card and Shift is assigned to upper instance messages. I recommend using CTRL+SHIFT+Number. East.g., for Action you could have CTRL+SHIFT+ii. Click on Assign then OK.

Slug

Highlight 'Slug' and repeat the above steps. In the New Mode popup, name information technology 'Slug' and assign the 'Mode for following paragraph' to 'Action'. ClickOK.

Fix the shortcut as CTRL+SHIFT+1.

Transition

Aforementioned as to a higher place. In the New Style popup, proper noun it 'Transition' and assign the 'Style for following paragraph' to 'Slug'. ClickOK.

Fix the shortcut as CTRL+SHIFT+6.

Graphic symbol proper noun

Aforementioned every bit above. In the New Manner popup, name it 'CharacterName'. ClickOK.

Set the shortcut as CTRL+SHIFT+3.

Dialogue

Same as above. In the New Style popup, proper noun it 'Dialogue' and assign the 'Style for following paragraph' to 'CharacterName'. ClickOK.

Go back to the CharacterName style and assign the 'Fashion for following paragraph' to 'Dialogue'. ClickOK.

Set the shortcut as CTRL+SHIFT+five.

Parenthetical action

Same as above. In the New Style popup, proper name it 'Paranthetical' and assign the 'Style for following paragraph' to 'Dialogue'. ClickOK.

Gear up the shortcut equally CTRL+SHIFT+4.

Title

Same as above. In the New Style popup, proper name it 'TitleOver' and assign the 'Manner for following paragraph' to 'Dialogue'. ClickOK.

Set the shortcut equally CTRL+SHIFT+vii.

Now we take our styles. Page break has the exact same style equally CharacterName then y'all can use that instead. Endeavor playing effectually with the styles. Information technology works!

Don't forget to save your template!

If y'all're having trouble with my shortcuts, feel free to choose your own. Keep it simple and repeatable so yous but have to learn one set of movements and you'll be doing it fast in no fourth dimension.

Microsoft Give-and-take tells you whether your preferred shortcut is already in use for an of import office or not. You tin can also relieve your shortcuts and styles to apply to all documents created in Word (only that isn't a skilful thought if yous're using Word for other stuff as well).

There you lot have it, how to prepare upward Microsoft Word to write a screenplay. Happy writing!