Has Dialogue Changed?

[Kosh]

I recently got some new software and it's formatting all my dialogue at 2.5 - 6.5 instead of 2.5 - 6.0. Is this the new standard?

[dpaterso]

Tell us more. What is the new software? What's the default page size?

-Derek

[English Dave]

Tell us more. What is the new software? What's the default page size?

-Derek


/I sent him it. Don't tell him.

[dpaterso]

Dave, sex thread in Office Party, immediate action.

-Derek

[English Dave]

Dave, sex thread in Office Party, immediate action.

-Derek

That was enough. I did. My apologies to Office Party.

[Kosh]

Tell us more. What is the new software? What's the default page size?

-Derek

I have Final Draft 7 (I was using 6 for a long time) and the dialogue is set at 2.63" to 6.63".

[Kosh]

Anyone?

[dpaterso]

Hmm. When I look at Dialogue element in FD7 the indents are set to 2.75" and 6.25"

-Derek

[whistlelock]

I avoid this problem by not using Final Draft. It's very simple and elegant that way.

[Mike The Mover]

I use Corel Wordperfect. I know some people say it's amateurish but I find that if you stick to the formatting conventions you can produce a screenplay just the same. On paper nobody could tell the difference.

[Goodwriterguy]

I use Corel Wordperfect. I know some people say it's amateurish but I find that if you stick to the formatting conventions you can produce a screenplay just the same. On paper nobody could tell the difference.
Whatever one uses to produce pages of screenplay that comport to the accepted norms ... doesn't matter. What matters is the product, not the tool that's used to produce it. A guy could chisel it in stone and if it printed a nice looking page in Courier 12, who would care besides nobody? Right, nobody.

I'm looking at David Trottier's "Screenwriter's Bible" and he says the indent for dialogue should be 2.5 inches from the left margin, which he suggests ought to be 1.5 inches. He goes on to say that a line of dialogue should be no wider than 3.5 inches, then adds that some writers perfer 3.0 inches.

Then he says, "The above guides are not written in stone."

As long as we keep our form somewhere near these guidelines, we'll be fine. I use Sophocles and it indents dialogue 2 and 5/8 inches from the left edge and keeps the lines within a 3.25 inch width. I'm happy with that. It's default left margin is 1.5 inches so dialogue is indented one and one-eighth inches in from that.

It sure's heck isn't worth a lot of sweat.

[Kosh]

Thanks, everyone!

[wordmonkey]

Does it matter?

I mean, most of the scriptwriting software programs have ways to nudge the format settings to make the script longer or shorter.

If it's a pre-set, I wouldn't worry about it. That half-inch really won't make that much difference. And if you want, change the settings to what you like. Beyond the basic format issues, it's about the the story/characters/idea.*

To me, this is almost up there with the two vs three brad dilemma.

Man, do I need more sleep at nights and more coffee in a morning!

(*OK, actually it's about the writing, the voice, but you know what I mean.)

[Mike The Mover]

I don't even use brads. I put my screenplays in three-holed binders. Not that I've shown my screenplays to anyone but my family and friends....