Chapter 17 · Formats
SmartType: Scene, Character and Transition Suggestions
A screenplay repeats itself on purpose. The same dozen locations, the same cast, the same handful of times of day and transitions, typed hundreds of times over a draft. SmartType keeps a list of each and offers the right one under the caret, so a heading becomes a few keystrokes and a cue never gets misspelled on page 84. It suggests only what is already yours: words from your script and your Story Bible, plus the industry's standard abbreviations.
Where the list appears
SmartType works in screenplays only, and in three elements: Scene Heading, Character and Transition. Action, dialogue and parentheticals never get a list. If those element names are new to you, start with Chapter 16.
The list opens only when the caret sits at the end of the line with nothing selected. Click into
the middle of a heading and the list stays shut, because accepting there would replace everything
after the caret. It shows at most eight matches, and matching ignores case: typing
jo finds JOHN, and what goes into the script is the capitalised form.
When Enter or Tab lands you on a fresh, empty heading, cue or transition, the list opens straight away, before you type anything.
Scene headings in three keys
A heading is built in three steps, and each accepted step opens the next list for you:
| Step | What the list offers | What accepting adds |
|---|---|---|
| Intro | INT., EXT., INT./EXT.,
I/E. | The intro and a space, then the locations open |
| Location | Every location the script has used | The location and
- , then the times of day open |
| Time of day | The script's own times first, then any of DAY,
NIGHT, MORNING, EVENING, CONTINUOUS,
LATER, MOMENTS LATER, SAME not yet used |
The time, and the list closes |
So INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT can be Enter, K, Enter,
N, Enter. EST. is understood when you type it, and its
locations are offered after it, but it is not in the intro list.
The time of day is whatever follows the last spaced dash. INT. HOUSE - KITCHEN -
NIGHT is the location HOUSE - KITCHEN at NIGHT. A hyphen with no
spaces round it, as in SEVEN-ELEVEN, is part of the name. While you type after a dash,
a known location that still matches wins over the times, so HOUSE - K can still finish
as HOUSE - KITCHEN.
Character cues and extensions
In a Character element the list offers the cast. Type an opening parenthesis after the name and
it switches to the extensions: V.O., O.S., O.C. and
CONT'D. Accepting one adds the closing parenthesis for you. A curly apostrophe, which is
what smart quotes make of CONT’D, matches the same entry. Once the parenthesis is
closed, the list stays away. An opening parenthesis with no name before it brings up nothing.
The extension list is fixed. It is the same four the ribbon's extension menu offers, and it does not learn from your script.
Transitions
In a Transition element the list offers the transitions the script already uses, then any of
CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:, MATCH CUT
TO:, FADE OUT. and FADE TO BLACK. that it does not.
What the lists learn from
The cast, the locations, the times of day and the transitions are read from the document every time you move to another line. Nothing is stored separately, so a list is only ever as right as the script.
- Order. The most used comes first. When two are used equally often, the one used most recently leads, which mid-scene usually means whoever spoke last.
- The Story Bible. A Character or Location entry in the Story Bible joins the list even before it appears in a scene. Those entries come after everything the script itself uses.
- Cues are cleaned first.
JANE (V.O.)and the dual-dialogue caret inJANE ^both count asJANE. - The line you are typing does not count. A half-typed
HOUis never offered back as a location. - Struck text does not count. A name inside a suggested deletion is not on the page, so it is not in the list. Dual-dialogue columns do count.
Edits made elsewhere, such as Replace All or renaming a character, reach the lists within a few seconds.
Choosing, keeping, dismissing
| Key | With the list open |
|---|---|
| ↓ / ↑ | Move through the suggestions. The list wraps round at either end. |
| Enter or Tab | Accept the highlighted suggestion |
| Esc | Close the list and leave the line as typed |
| A click on a suggestion | Accept it. A click anywhere else closes the list. |
| Enter or Tab with ⇧, ⌘, Ctrl or ⌥ | Close the list and do their usual job |
Two rules keep the list from getting in the way of the element keys:
- On an empty line, the list is an offer. Enter and Tab keep their element jobs there, so you can skip past a cue without the top name landing in it. To take a suggestion from an empty line, press ↓ first, then Enter.
- What you typed in full comes first. If you have typed
JOHNand the Story Bible also holdsJOHNNY,JOHNis the highlighted option, and Enter moves on to the dialogue as it would with no list at all. A whole location still advances: acceptingHOUSEadds its dash and opens the times.
The full keyboard map is in Chapter 10.
Turning SmartType off
SmartType is on for every screenplay until you turn it off. Open the View tab of the ribbon and clear the SmartType box. The box only appears on a screenplay.
The setting belongs to the document, so turning it off in one script leaves the others alone. That is deliberate: a script imported with hundreds of one-off locations is where the list gets in the way, and a fresh draft is where it helps most.
Only the document's owner can change it. Anyone you have shared the script with sees the box greyed out, with the tooltip "The document owner sets this.", and gets the owner's choice.
When the list misbehaves
| What you see | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| No list at all | Check that the document is a screenplay, that the SmartType box on the View tab is ticked, that the caret is at the very end of the line, and that you are in a Scene Heading, Character or Transition element. |
| A misspelled name keeps coming back | The list reads the script, so the misspelling is still in a cue somewhere, or in a Story Bible entry. Fix the script with Find and Replace or Rename Character on the Script tab, or correct the entry in the Story Bible, and it drops out within a few seconds. |
| Enter on an empty cue did not take the top name | That is the empty-line rule above. Press ↓, then Enter. |
| Your time of day became part of the location | The separator needs a space on both
sides: HOUSE - NIGHT, not HOUSE-NIGHT. |
| The checkbox will not stay cleared | If the save indicator reads That setting did not save, the change did not reach Storskarvia. Check your connection and clear the box again. |
Typing with an input method editor works too: the list waits for the composition to finish before it reads the line. With a screen reader, each list announces itself once when it opens, as in "3 character suggestions", and the highlighted option is reported as you move.
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