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CYS TEMPLATER©

SCRIPTING TEMPLATE WITH HELP FILE:

V. 3.1.1CA By Barry Pearson

©2000-2004 Barry Pearson

Below is a facsmile of the help file
that comes with the CYS Templater©.

This help file shows how the CYS Templater works

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For support click here to send email TEMPLATER SUPPORT Please respect the copyright of your fellow writer. Do not copy and distribute. Table of contents INTRODUCTION LINE SPACES AND PAGE NUMBERS MOVING BETWEEN STYLES EXAMPLE FORMATTED SCENE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS CHART OF MACROS EXAMPLE OF HOW TO USE SHORTCUT KEYS SAMPLE SCENE WITH SYMBOLS INPUTTING NAME SHORTCUTS TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT YOUR SCREENPLAY WRITING PAGE

INTRODUCTION

LIST OF EMBEDDED MACROS

Action......................Alt +a
Cut to.......................Alt +t
Character name.... Alt +n
Dialogue.................Alt +d
Dissolve to............ Alt +s
Ext ..........................Alt +e
Ext(3 space)...........Alt +x
Int.............................Alt +I
Int(3 space).............Alt +m
Parenthetical..........Alt +p

Action....................Ctrl +2
Character name...Ctrl +3
Dialogue................Ctrl +5
Scene slug............Ctrl +7
Numbered Slug....Ctrl +9
3-space slug.........Ctrl +0
Parenthetical.........Ctrl +4
Transition...............Ctrl +6

LINE SPACES AND PAGE NUMBERS

MOVING BETWEEN STYLES

Example OF A SCENE formatted BY THE CYS TEMPLATER©:
(Note: Browser may distort some formatting and spacing.)

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

George Brewster’s car pulls up to the house, stops beside
Jerry.

......................GEORGE
..........Hey, Jerry, how y’doin’?

......................JERRY
..........Okay, I guess.

......................GEORGE
..............(As he gets out of
...............his car)
..........I been lookin’ for ya’.

...................... ..................................................CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE – DAY

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Example of formatted scene with explanations of how to use shortcut keys.

 

Imagine that you are writing the Example Scene above.

The first thing you’ll do will be to:

Type the SHORTCUT, Control + 7,

then you’ll type your SCENE HEADING, or "scene slug" (highlighted in blue) as follows:

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

Now that you’ve finished typing your SCENE HEADING, you’ll hit the enter key, then you will:

type the SHORTCUT, Control + 2

which sets the style for ACTION description in your script, as follows:

George Brewster’s car pulls up to the house, stops beside
Jerry.

Now imagine that you’re going to write dialogue. Your cursor is sitting at the end of the above line. You’ll hit the enter key, then you will:

Type the SHORTCUT, Control + 3

which sets the style for CHARACTER NAME in your script, and you’ll type the word "george" (all in lower case, to make it easy) and the name will be automatically margined and capitalized as follows:

......................GEORGE

When you’ve typed the name GEORGE, you’ll want to start your dialogue, so you’ll hit the enter key, and the templater will take you automatically to right format for DIALOGUE. (You don’t have to type any shortcut).

All you do then is type your line or lines of dialogue, as follows:

..........Hey, Jerry, how y’doin’?

Now, suppose that you’re ready to write the other character’s dialogue. All you need to do is hit the enter key and type his name, as follows

......................JERRY

As above, all you need to do when you’ve finished typing the character’s name is to hit the enter key, and you’ll be ready to write dialogue, as follows:

..........Okay, I guess.

Then hit the enter key to type "GEORGE" for his character name.

......................GEORGE

Suppose at this point you need to give a parenthetical direction. You’ll

type the SHORTCUT, Control + 4

to get the automatic formatting so you can write the direction as follows:

............... (As he gets out of
.................his car)

At the end of the line, hit the enter key, and you’re back to DIALOGUE format.

..........I been lookin’ for ya’.

Now say you need a TRANSITION . Hit the enter key and

type the SHORTCUT Control + 6

then type "cut to:" for example, and it’ll come out as follows:

..................................................CUT TO:

Now hit the enter key and you’ll go automatically to SCENE HEADING format

INT. HOUSE – DAY

SAMPLE SCENE WITH SYMBOLS

Let’s look at the same script sequence with the shortcuts and return keystrokes in blue:

(Note: the symbol # in the script example below indicates manual selection of macro, everything else is automatic).

#(CONTROL + 7)

EXT. HOUSE– DAY (¶)

George Brewster’s car pulls up to the house, stops beside
Jerry. (¶)

......................#(CONTROL + 3)GEORGE (¶)
..........Hey, Jerry, how y’doin’. (¶)

......................JERRY (¶)
..........Okay, I guess. (¶)

......................GEORGE (¶)
.......... ....#(CONTROL + 4) (As he gets out of
...............his car) (¶)
..........I been lookin’ for ya’. (¶)

#(CONTROL + 6)cut to: (¶)

INT. HOUSE – DAY

CHART of ALL macros:

 

 

INPUTTING NAME SHORTCUTS

Ever thought about how many times you type the name of your Hero? Or your Villain? Or all those other recurring characters?

When you use the CYS Templater, there's a better way.

HERE'S HOW:

Suppose your Hero's name is Michael (I hope it's not Guilfyllianyd if you've been typing it repeatedly{:>) and you'd like to install a shortcut code for it.

Step one:

Go to your "Tools" menu, and click "Autocorrect." You'll get a pop-up window entitled "Autocorrect" with four tabs. One of these tabs is also called "Autocorrect." (Versions may vary slightly.) click on this tab.

Step two:

Halfway down in the pop-up window, you'll see two side-by-side boxes, one called "Replace" and the other called "With."

Step three:

Click in the "Replace" box. This is where you're going to put your keyboard shortcut. You'll need to make up a two letter code for your Hero's name. This code must not be a real word, and it must not be identical to any of the autocorrect selections already pre-entered in this tool.

Actually, James is the name of a character in my current script. I selected the letters "j" and "s." I can't write them in here because my autocorrect will immediately change them to "James".

What about your character, "Michael." You need to create a suitable keyboard shortcut code. Your code can't be "me," for example, because it's a real word. You could try "mc" or "mh" or "ml" or whatever else works. Type this shortcut code in the "Replace" box.

Step four:

Put your cursor in the "With" box. Type in your character's name. In the example above, that would be "Michael" spelled in upper/lower case.

This shortcut will work for both the upper case MICHAEL (in the Character Name style or the Scene Heading style) and for the upper/lower case Michael in the Action, Dialogue, or Parenthetical style.

Step five:

Click on the "Add" button to save your shortcut to the Autocorrect list.

Step six:

Repeat steps one to five for any other characters you want to shortcut, and also for repeated locations, etc.

 

Using your shortcuts.

When you reach a place in your script where you need one of your shortcuts, you type the code letters. Any space or punctuation added after the letters activates the full name you entered in the "With" box.

Example: Let's you used "ml" for your shortcut to Michael, and you were writing a scene slug, as follows:

EXT MICHAEL'S HOUSE - DAY

You would type,

EXT (plus a space)

Then you would type ml

As soon as you type the apostrophe after ml, the ml becomes MICHAEL' almost faster than you can see it. Then of course you continue to type the "S" and proceed with the rest of your scene heading.

If you find that the code you've chosen activates inappropriately, you can easily go back to the "Autocorrect" function under the "Tools" menu and replace it with a different one.

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TITLE PAGE

Do your title page as shown on the Title Page below. No pictures, no quotations, no fancy graphics, no copyright notice. That’s right, no copyright notice. But DO register your script, as follows:

 

COPYRIGHT

You would be wise to register your screenplay. You can find out how to register
your script by going to the WGA's website at

http://www.wga.org

Then surf to the information on registering your script.

Better still, check out the official Library of Congress Copyright Office's
Web Page,at

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

 

or call them at 1-800-688-9889

Then register your screenplay with them.

This is the perfect protection. No one can deny a Library of Congress Copyright.

Now back to your title page.

Unadorned is best. (No "second pages" either. No character bios. No cast lists. No writer’s CV.

The first line on the second page of your screenplay is "FADE IN:" That’s it.)

On the page after the Title Page (page 2) put FADE IN: and the text of your script.

Do not put dates or copyright notices on your script pages.

INCLUDE NOTHING ELSE. NO CAST LISTS, PROLOGUES, RESUMES, SCENE LISTS, OR INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGES. NOTHING!

You’re welcome to use the following title page as a model.

The Title of a Screenplay

By

Alice Writer & Michael Scrivener

Michael Scrivener and Alice Writer
2001 Inspiration Blvd.
Screenwriter City
Idyllicnation zipcode

Ph. (111) 555-2000
Fax: (111) 555-0909
Almic@emailad.com

FADE IN

Start writing on the next line, then erase this line

  

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NUMBERING PAGES: You need to set your page numbers.

There is a number 1 in the header at the top right of this page.

Double click on it to open the header, then highlight the "1,"

Then select "insert page number" from the header and footer toolbar.

Double click anywhere outside the header to return to this page.

 

For your quick reference, here is a guide to the shortcut keys:

Ext 2-space..........Alt +e
Ext 3-space..........Alt +x

Int 2-space..........Alt +i
Int 3-space..........Alt +m

2-Space Scene slug...Control +7
3-Space Scene Slug...Control +0

# scene slug (don’t
number scenes unless
absolutely necessary
for some reason).....Control +9

Action...... ... ....Control +2 or Alt +a
Character Name.......Control +3 or Alt +n
Parenthetical........Control +4

Parenthetical,
(with parentheses and
placed cursor) ... ..Alt +p
Dialog...............Control +5 or Alt +d
Transition...........Control +6

 

Example formatting:

EXT. HOUSE – DAY

George Brewster’s car pulls up to the house, stops beside
Jerry.

......................GEORGE
..........Hey, Jerry, how y’doin’?

......................JERRY
..........Okay, I guess.

......................GEORGE
..............(As he gets out of
...............his car)
..........I been lookin’ for ya’.

...................... ..................................................CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE – DAY

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