Is there a way to format multiple lines of dialogue, without formatting character names, in the stage play format?

Scrivener Scrivener for Windows
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1

I would like to format my dialogue only.

For example picture this dialogue:

BOB: YUMMY APPLES
LISA: INDEED.

I would like to remove the bold from the dialogue, but not the character names.
How could I do this?

2

Finding and replacing formatting is not a feature in Scrivener, but creating a Character Style (from a text token, not a story character) could be applied to the dialogue to remove Bold formatting.

3

Not sure if find and replace could copy a bold font of character’s name and replace normal font??? If could change dialog to non bold and the replace names a bold name substitute.

4

I agree with AntoniDol. However, if you’re eager to find and change it right now, I’ll suggest a tedious and challenging method. Unfortunately, I don’t know of an easier way using Scrivener.

Here are the steps:

  1. Go to the text file you want to modify.
  2. Press Ctrl+F to open the ‘find’ window.
  3. In the find column, type the following:

(?<=:\s)(.*)

  1. In Find Options, select Regular Expression (RegEx).
  2. Press F3, then Ctrl+B. Again, Press F3, then Ctrl+B. Repeat this process.
  3. The text following the colon (which was originally bold) should now change to non-bold.

If this approach doesn’t work, consider whether you used Shift+Enter instead of Enter when changing lines. In that case, use the following pattern in the find column:

(?<=:\s)(.*?)(?=\r)

Then keep tapping F3 and Ctrl+B.

Keep in mind that if there’s a dialogue line like xxx:XXXX at the end of the file, the find pattern won’t be able to find the last line. If the last line contains dialogue, you’ll need to choose carefully and unbold it.

I hope you have fewer changes to make. If not, perhaps using a macro program or a macro keyboard could help. Good Luck!

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5

If you’re using one of the Script formats, you should be able to change it to get the results you want. I don’t have a Windows computer handy, but on the Mac the settings are under Format → Scriptwriting → Script Settings.

6

If you are using the Stage Play UK format (which would be the closest thing to your example and desired formatting), then it should already be handling that for you. The key though is to use the Tab key after you’ve typed in the character name. This will insert the colon for you, tab over to where dialogue should be, and switch off bold.

These settings can be adjusted in the place mentioned above, though. For example, maybe you don’t want the dialogue as far over on the page. The tab stop can be adjusted in the Paragraph tab (and you’d probably want to adjust the “Dialogue (Cont.)” element’s tab stop to match it, as well).

To be clear though, this is all a typing aid, not something that would go back and change things that weren’t formatted the way it expects to see them.

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