Egads, the technological generation gap seems to grow wider every day.

I have MS Word 2007. Up until now, I'm ashamed to confess, all I've ever done is open a new document and start typing. I haven't the slightest idea how to use a template or set margins or tabs or anything, not even in older versions of Word, and now that I *NEED* to, I'm panicking.

I'm writing a stage play. I've printed out the "How To Format A Stage Play" instructions from this site, but I don't know how to do what they're telling me to do. So far, all I've done is spew out dialogue and hit the Return key when each character is done talking. My pseudo-script - I can hardly call it a script at the moment - looks like a hard copy of my own stream of consciousness.

The MS Word Help button assumes basic working knowledge of formatting, of which I have none.

I feel like an absolute imbecile, but I've sworn to myself I will win Frenzy. I hereby shamelessly throw myself on the mercy of generous posters who will forgive my technological ineptitude in this day and age and can give me step-by-step instructions on how to set up my document. If you're up for the challenge, please note that you're speaking to someone who gets lost coming out of stores in the mall.

I promise to name my next goldfish after whoever can successfully get me on track.

I downloaded Celtx, some free software you can find under Writer's resources-writing software. It does half the work and is amazingly simple. I do have some experience in using Word, but this is so much easier. I guess that counts for the other software programs there too. Good luck whatever software you choose to use.

In the Writer's Resources section, there are the formatting overviews. At the end of the screenplay overview there are two guides (one for the American 8.5x11 and what I think is the European A4). Open the guide on that page and save it to your computer.
Then, after it says "THE END" click on Insert at the top of Word (I'm using Wind. 2K, by the way, so there may be differences from here on out) and select break. It'll pop up and ask you what kind of break you want. Choose "Page Break", then copy and paste the first page of the guide into the new, blank page that you've just started.
Change the names and all that then go to the next page. There should be a little box on your toolbar that says something about "TRANS IN" or something. That's your style bar. If you don't have that up, search for it and put it up. Once that's on your toolbar, scroll down through the styles (all of them are done for you by Cybele) until you hit "More...". Click that and all styles will pop up on a bar at the side of your screen in Word.
After that, all you need to do is start typing. When you press enter it will go to what is presumably the next style (from Character to Dialogue, for instance). After that, it's pretty easy.

Good luck!

Oh! Forgot something - after you've used all the styles like "style dialogue + underline" and "paranthetical", then you can delete the pre-written stuff used to show the format. If you delete the stuff Cybele wrote, then it will delete whatever styles you haven't used.

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I tried to be perfect, it just wasn't worth it.
I don't know how it got so bad.
It's hard to believe me, it never gets easy.
I guess I knew it all along.

If you want to, I can send you a template. I've got Word set up so that if you press Enter after a slug line for example, the formatting changes accordingly.
If you're interested, send me a Frenzymail with your e-mail in it.

That's my question, I guess - how exactly do I use a template? Do I just save it to my computer, erase everything you've typed in, and start typing my own stuff? That's where I'm confused.

NaNo 2005: Can't Go Back (won!)
NaNo 2006: In Between (won!)
Script Frenzy 2008: Razor's Edge (here's hoping)

I just installed the old Word 97-2003 template in my Word 2007, so I know this one:

1. Open the template like you would a normal document from inside Word. Specifically, open Word, go to Open Document, navigate to the template, and double-click.

2. Go back up to the Office Insignia, and click on "Save As".

3. When the dialogue comes up, click on the folder that says "Templates", which should be up at the top of the list on the left.

4. Now, click on New Document, and when it gives you the option up at the top of the pane on the left concerning templates, click on "My Templates". You should see an option there that says "Screenplay." Click on that, and it opens in a new window.

5. Close the first "Screenplay" document. The working document will say "Document 2" in the task bar. Save this normally (Ctrl + S) with whatever title in whatever location you so desire, and it will be a .doc. (Templates have a file extension of .dot.)

Does that help?

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NaNoWriMo 2006 - Doing Nothing With Style: Adventures of the Young and Listless - WIN!
Script Frenzy 2007 - Polly Versus the Family Curse - Miserable Failure
NaNoWriMo 2007 - Untitled, fail (in the hospital)
Script Frenzy 2008 - Mermaids in Bathtubs, working on it!

With the template I downloaded off of here, I saved it to my computer and went down a page from where the script that Cybele wrote ended and started writing.
The way the styles are set up in the template she made, they change to the next one every time you press space so there's very little adjusting.
All you have to do is start typing and make sure that you are on the right style occasionally.
After you've used all the styles that Cybele put in, you can delete what she wrote. If you delete her stuff before you use all the styles then it will delete whatever styles you haven't used.

So, let's say you've downloaded the document and saved it to your computer.
You go from
"THE END." that has already been prewritten.
Go to "Insert" and select "Break" then ask for a "Page Break"
Then copy and paste what Cybele did for the title page and change the names.
Then after you've changed the phone number and all that, press enter and look up for the STYLES bar (it should be on either TRANS IN or YOUR ADDRESS at that point and placed somewhere in your toolbar by the print button), scroll down through the style options and select "More..." There will be a button on the window that pops up on the right of your window and it will show you all the styles. At the bottom it will ask you for style filtering options. Filter it for "show available styles". That way you don't have to search for the right style.
Then, type FADE IN: at the top of the page you've just started (after the title page). After that it's all easy except for the occasional switch from "SLUGLINE" to "TRANS IN".

Does that help any?

-----------------------------------------------------------
I tried to be perfect, it just wasn't worth it.
I don't know how it got so bad.
It's hard to believe me, it never gets easy.
I guess I knew it all along.

Actually, the styles don't disappear - they're just not listed in the "Currently Used" window. We ran into this when I was setting up this template yesterday. Even if you Select All and Delete and you see all of the styles disappear from that window, you'll still have the styles available. You'll just have to kinda KNOW that they're there so that you can pull them up as needed.

If you happen to run into this problem, you can use Crtl+Shift+S to activate the "Choose Style" task. You can type in the style you want from this template, and it will be applied to the current lint. The available styles are:

* Action
* CHARACTER
* Dialogue
* General
* Parenthetical
* SCENE HEADING
* THE END
* TITLE
* TRANS IN
* TRANS OUT
* Your Name
* Your Address

It's good to know how to change back and forth between these styles quickly via the keyboard short-cut (Ctrl+Shift+S) in the frequent case of not wanting to move to an Action passage after every single line of dialogue. Once you get used to it, it's much faster than using the mouse and doesn't tear up your elbow.

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NaNoWriMo 2006 - Doing Nothing With Style: Adventures of the Young and Listless - WIN!
Script Frenzy 2007 - Polly Versus the Family Curse - Miserable Failure
NaNoWriMo 2007 - Untitled, fail (in the hospital)
Script Frenzy 2008 - Mermaids in Bathtubs, working on it!

Okay, another stupid question (you guys ROCK, by the way - thanks for all the input! I'm sorry I'm so dense: how exactly do I USE the styles?? Do I type, highlight, and click on a style from the list? I think that's where I'm getting hung up - I don't know what to do with them.

NaNo 2005: Can't Go Back (won!)
NaNo 2006: In Between (won!)
Script Frenzy 2008: Razor's Edge (here's hoping)

You don't have to highlight it (unless your computer is as annoying as mine and it forces you to highlight for underlined dialogue). When you're on the line that you want to put say, TRANS IN, on and it says that it's SLUGLINE just choose the style you want and type. Or type and then click. Everything that you typed or will type up until you hit ENTER again will be in that style.

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I tried to be perfect, it just wasn't worth it.
I don't know how it got so bad.
It's hard to believe me, it never gets easy.
I guess I knew it all along.

It will format the line where your typing cursor is located. You could highlight, but it wouldn't make a real difference unless you're changing styles in the middle of a line, which you would definitely NOT do in this situation.

So, you finish a Dialogue, you hit the Return/Enter key, and Word automagically wants to make the next line an Action, but you want to continue the dialogue. You hit Ctrl+Shift+S, type in "CHARACTER" (or the first few letters will bring it up), hit Enter, and your line is now formatted for the character's name. When you hit Enter again, it'll be formatted for Dialogue. Does that make sense?

___________________________________________________

NaNoWriMo 2006 - Doing Nothing With Style: Adventures of the Young and Listless - WIN!
Script Frenzy 2007 - Polly Versus the Family Curse - Miserable Failure
NaNoWriMo 2007 - Untitled, fail (in the hospital)
Script Frenzy 2008 - Mermaids in Bathtubs, working on it!