Final Draft can make writing dialogue even easier by changing the Dialogue element to transition to Character with Return rather than keeping it set to its default transition-to element, Action.
- Go to Format > Elements and choose Dialogue from the list on the left:
- From the Next Element dropdown menu, change the value from Action to Character:
From this point forward, pressing Return after a character is finished speaking will insert a new Character paragraph instead of a new Action paragraph. Final Draft's Auto-guess Next Character function is enabled by default and once it sees that two characters are having a conversation, it will automatically insert the other character's name after the first character's dialogue is over.
To see this work (after making the change to the Dialogue SmartType element as above):
- Go to Help > Sample Scripts > Script to open the sample script Tangle & Moss FD13 - Script;
- Scroll towards the bottom of Page 2 and click the mouse at the end of 's Uncle's line, “Then better not to find it."
- Press Return to create a new Character paragraph;
- SmartType displays the choice TANGLE in gray;
- Press Return to accept this option and the cursor will move to a blank dialogue paragraph, waiting for you to type Tangle's next line.
Once again, if Dialogue is set to return a Character paragraph with the Return key and there have been a couple of exchanges between two characters, Final Draft will supply their names automatically with the Return key.
To choose a different character name from the SmartType list or to enter a new name, simply overtype the auto-suggestion. If there is a character match in SmartType, it will sketch in. If there is no character match, finish typing the new character name, press Return and it will be added to the Character SmartType list.