Hi,
Is there a way to auto-number dialogue lines in my screenplay? I’m using the autonumber option, but when I compile and export, it doesn’t show up with numbers, just the code.
I think it will be helpful to know what file format you are compiling to.
[EDIT: Ah, I see this is an iOS question. I don’t really do any of my compiling on iOS, so can’t really help here. -gr]
On iOS that answer is simply no, there is not a way of doing that.
Otherwise if you can compile from a Mac or PC, then yes it could be possible to do that, in theory. The complication is that you have to bear in mind that that “dialogue line” is mainly a human concept rather than something concrete in terms of computing. It’s a paragraph with some punctuation marks in it, and how those punctuation marks are used may vary widely from one line to the next.
So while we might tentatively say that a Replacement could look for a line that looks like a dialogue line using strict procedural logic, and insert a numbering placeholder at the beginning of such a line, it might take a few rules to really catch every shred of text you conceptualise as a dialogue line. I think it could be done though, it would just take some trial and error, based largely on your syntax and style. If you unerringly start every dialogue line with a double-quote, well then that makes the job fairly simple!
Since this is a script we are talking about, this can be done unerringly,* but requires a tweaked version of your chosen Script format. Essentially, the modification would make each dialogue item (and perhaps continue-dialog) start with a tag (a unique character/string). This then can be replaced via Replacements at compile time with a Scrivener counter placeholder. The resulting compiled script would then have numbered dialog items.
There has been some pretty thorough discussion on this Forum as to how this might be done. I am not sure what the most effective forum search term/phrase would be to turn it up.
(*) This strategy will not retroactively put placeholders on your existing dialogue lines, but you might easily do so youself, e.g., pasting something like ‘:>’ at the front of each dialogue line or whatever.
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Ah, a script, yes that is a different matter. It would still require a Mac or PC (in fact that might be Mac-only at the moment, I’d have to double-check), and would be done by going into Format ▸ Scriptwriting ▸ Script Settings.... In the Dialogue options area, under the Paragraph tab, is an Options... button, wherein one would find an, Add prefix when compiling setting. That is where you could put <$n>) , or whatever you wanted.
