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Final Draft Query

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HardtobetheBard View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HardtobetheBard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Final Draft Query
    Posted: 01 Dec 2021 at 1:36pm
I hope it's ok to ask this here! I haven't been able to find answers elsewhere on the internet, though I'm sure I'm missing something obvious. I've been trying to use Final Draft recently, and I can't get to grips with something.

How can I make it recognise my characters' names and treat them as characters each time I write them, so that I can write dialogue interactions quickly? At the moment it seems to default to having the names as action lines every time, and I have to manually change the names to 'characters' each time in order to get them in the centre of the page for dialogue. WriterDuet does this automatically when I start typing a character name during a dialogue exchange, but I can't seem to make it happen in Final Draft? 

Thank you!

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NilesPerry View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote NilesPerry Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2021 at 5:43pm
When you drop to a new line, ready to do dialogue, use the TAB key to position the cursor where the character name goes. Final Draft remembers character names in a project, so if you type the first 2-3 letters, you'll see a drop down list of names. Either click the character you want, or if it's there in the character line, use TAB again to complete auto-typing the name. When you hit ENTER, your cursor should be right where you want it to start writing the dialogue.

The TAB key is one of the most useful keys in Final Draft. Hope this helps.
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HardtobetheBard View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HardtobetheBard Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 Dec 2021 at 8:12pm
Thank you so much! Can't believe I missed that!
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JeffreyHowe View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JeffreyHowe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Mar 2022 at 10:38am
Bear in mind FD will also happily take typos into its stored character names--so if you're in a project for a while it doesn't hurt to review and prune the list (under Document/SmartType/Characters tab) to keep the auto-fill function from perpetuating them.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Suave Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Mar 2022 at 10:54pm
One other thing. If you save more than one copy of your script with changes in each, then you should set up the FD to not open anything automatically as it will open the last thing shut down, and that is not always what you want. I ended up working on the wrong version of something for this contest. I have it set up now so that it opens to a blank doc and then I have to pick what I want opened, just safer all around....
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