Hi there,
since I upgraded to Scriv 3 I encounter the following problem with dialogue-writing:
When I write the character name, the program not only remembers the name, but also every name plus the following dialogue line (pls see attached picture), and occasionally try to automatically insert those lines after I press return.
Also the box is somehow very sticky and doesn’t disappear in a way that I understand. I am for example looking at it now, although Scrivener is in the background.
Thank you for any hint you can give me to resolving this problem and your patience for my whacky English.
Hi 
I think you might have accidently added those sentences to your auto-complete list.
If you go to project/project settings, you will be able to see what was added for auto-completion in the “auto-complete list” tab.
From there you can clean up that list using the " – " icon at the bottom if that is the case. (If you only wanted the character’s name to be in the auto-complete list/suggestion, make sure that this is what is actually there in the list – and it only needs to appear once, so you can edit “Nancy was walking along the park” to simply “Nancy” by double clicking on it in the “Words” column, and then delete all other Nancy’s references from the list, using the – icon at the bottom.)
You can also deactivate the auto-complete altogether in the options :
Last, if you wish to keep the auto-complete feature activated, whenever a suggestion window pops-up, you can make it disappear by pressing ESC, or by simply ignoring it and go on typing. Once the suggestion becomes irrelevant, the pop-up will disappear on its own.
If you press the return key while the popup is visible, it will, yes, assume that you want the highlighted suggestion to be completed for you in the editor.
And on a whole different topic,
seeing that you had to use your phone to take a picture of your computer screen, perhaps in the future it would be more convenient for you to do real screenshots (they’ll look better too).
Here is a free and easy to use software :
Thank you vincent_vincent!
Autocompletion for the names is a feature I’d rather keep, since it saves a lot of typing.
I followed your advice, deleting the dialogues from the auto-complete list as described and it worked just fine for two new lines. After that the problem reoccurs, because the new dialogue gets added again. Please see my attached screenshot (thy, )
Maybe it has something to do with pressing return or tab to confirm the suggested name…?
Thank you for the support!
Dunja
Your issue is probably originating from somewhere around here :
Look in every item of the list on the left. My hunch is that it has something to do with your formatting and/or the CAPITALIZED name of your characters as you type them. The TAB key, yes, perhaps.
Or more simply :
I see by your screenshot that you are in scriptwriting mode…
Is that something you want/need ? If not, just leave it and go back to standard text mode.
→ Format/Scriptwriting/Script Mode … or ctrl+8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[EDIT] After testing it myself, I confirm that you need to uncheck the option I circled in the above screenshot. (Do it for all “elements” in the list on the left.) Then go back to project/project settings/auto-complete list and clean up the list one last time.
The issue should after that be resolved, as nothing will further on be automatically added to the auto-complete list.
Hmm… 
Now that I have checked those options in the Script Settings and confirmed that this was causing scriptwriting mode to add everything typed to the project’s auto-complete list, I just can’t turn them off anymore…
Looking for a solution…
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@AmberV or @Scrivener_Geeks, we seem to have a little problem here…
I have created a thread with the bug report here : Script Mode / Script settings bug
Now I have a question : in the case in which the OP of this here thread wants/needs to keep using Scriptwriting mode, what would be the best quick fix ?
– To take screenshots/notes and rebuild the needed script settings set from scratch (avoiding checking the option at fault) ?
– Or are the script settings compatible between Windows and Mac when saved to file, so that a charitable Mac owner could simply uncheck the faulty option for him/her across the script settings panel and send back the script settings as a loadable file ?
I suppose that the xml file could be directly edited, but I assume that to be something LL would most likely disapprove and not throw in as a solution.
Hello vincent_vincent,
Thank you ever so much for all the exploration you have done! I did try all the unchecking you have suggested and will try it out now. Maybe it behaves differently in Windows…?
Should luck have it so that I found a real bug, I hope it can be fixed.
Since I am a curious person, I tend to try out my new toys (in this case Scrivener 3) so I might have changed some setting or other.
I am writing in script mode (in the test script UK Stage Play, whick I have used before happily), because scriptwriting is what I do, and it might be owed to my less than perfect understanding of the english language, that I use this mode. Can I use another mode and still write dialogue as easily?
Since the about six or more years that I use Scrivener I have also used “radio drama” mode, but margins are different from german radiodrama, which I usually write for. Anyway, margins can be changed, if this works better?
Is scriptwriting mode maybe something different from writing a script in another mode?
I just finished one manuscript and am starting a new one, so it is not so much work to open an entire new project with new settings, if that would rid me of the auto-completion thingy.
Thank you again!
Dunja
I found a workaround to the option that can’t presently be turned off :
In the script settings dialog, add 4x9 in the “between” field, then 5x9 in the “and” field.
Do it for all the elements of the list on the left, under the tab “Auto-Complete”. (Except, of course, for the elements where the option wasn’t checked, and which have those two fields grayed out.)
→ Note that this will, however, completely disable the function. Whatever you want added to the project’s auto-complete list, will then have to be added manually from the right-click menu.
After which you need to manually set the scope in the project’s settings auto-complete list in order for it to auto-complete as desired in scriptwriting mode :
If you want the character’s name to auto-complete in other elements of Script Mode (ex: “Scene action”), you have to repeat the process of manually adding the character’s name to the auto-complete list, or use the " + " button in the project’s settings Auto-Complete List tab, and set the scope for that new (duplicate) entry accordingly. → Meaning that you need to have “NANCY” be represented in the list once for each desired scope.
(I would have expected setting “All (Text & Scripts)” as the scope to suggest an auto-completion everywhere, but it doesn’t.)
That workaround works for me, hopefully it’ll work for you too.
There might very well be a better solution, but, not being accustomed to script mode, that’s the best I can come up with.
P.S. I am running Scrivener for windows. Just like you.
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This is pure genius, great!
Adding character names to the auto-complete list manually is perfect. Since all nouns are spelt with a versal first lettre in German, a general autocompletion would just lead to more confusion every time a noun starts the same as the characters names.
Thank you again for bringing back the joy to my Scrivenerwriting.
Dunja
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