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The Tab and Enter Keys

The grease that allows you to just write

Designed to be Intuitive and Practical

One key to having a useful script editor is the idea that it should just let you write while handling all the layout and formatting for you. Like other script editors, depressing the Enter and Tab keys (as well as the backspace key in some situations) takes on vital importance in helping you write and not have to overly think about how it appears.

Let’s review how our editor deal with each case

The Tab Key

In the previous topic we discussed our typeahead feature (Smart Type) for Scene Headings, Characters and Transitions. If you see a popup when in any of those elements, depressing the Tab key will enter the current typeahead shown to allow you to allow you to type just a character or two and have the editor type in the rest:

Note that the image on the right entered the FEMALE VOICE just by depressing the Tab key.

One thing to note

You can also click on any entry in the popup box to enter THAT entry, and you can also arrow up and down the popup list, which will change the text that will be inserted if you then depress the Tab key.

Special Case – Character to Parenthetical

If the blinking caret is sitting at the End of a character name, the Editor will add a parenthetical element after that character if you dress the Tab key. This allows you to either add dialogue (when hitting the Enter key) or a parenthetical (the aforementioned Tab key) after entering a character name.

When in empty Paragraphs

This special case changes the current paragraph to a different element if the paragraph is completely empty. The built in paragraph changes are as follows:

  • Scene Heading → Action
  • Action → Character Name
  • Character Name → Transition

In addition, depressing the Shift-Tab reverses that order (i.e. Character Name -> Action). So, you can very easily change paragraph types easily without moving your fingers away from the keyboard.

The Enter Key

Every element type in Script360 knows what sort of element is normally added after any other given element. Scene Heading to Action, Transition to Scene Heading, Character Name to Dialogue – Those are the Industry-standard defaults that allow you to just write and know what type of paragraph is usually next.

When your cursor is positioned at the end of a paragraph, depressing the Enter key will add a new paragraph using the rules built into the Elements. Some of the defaults include:

  • Scene Heading → Enter key adds Action
  • Action → Adds another Action paragraph
  • Character Name → Adds a dialogue paragraph
  • Transition → Adds a Scene Heading

You can Change the Defaults (but use with caution!)

To change the Enter Key functionality (what gets added next), use the Elements popup to see and change what gets added: