Nothing appeared on a forum search so figured I’d mention a couple consistent issues I’ve experienced. My fingers are crossed that they’ll be taken care of in v.2.0. Again my apologies if these issues are already a known or have been taken care of in the betas.
Here goes…
1. Auto-Complete Issue
a) In instances where two or more common-denominated name combos exist in the CHARACTER AUTO-COMPLETE field … (e.g. POLICE OFFICER & OFFICER CUSSACK) … I’m finding that after accepting the first auto-complete suggestion the system doesn’t recognize that one name is sufficient for the Character field but rather prompts me to complete the second word in the name with the similar name that exists. So basically if I’m typing too fast and don’t ESC out of the second prompt I end up with POLICE OFFICER CUSSACK.
**Same deal with occurrences involving scene headings… e.g. AT THAT MOMENT often ends up to accidentally completed as AT THAT MOMENTS LATER.
**For anyone who might read this…you’ve probably all figured this out already…but I’ve found that that the workaround for the (O.C.), (O.S.), (V.O.), (CONT’D) auto-complete conflict is to create and add separate variants of your character names (e.g. MARCUS (O.C.), MARCUS (CONT’D), etc.) to the Edit > Edit Auto-Complete List as Keith alluded to. A bit tedious to do but it works.
b) Also I’ve noticed a second issue where after having manually added elements such as b[/b] and b[/b] to the CHARACTER AUTO-COMPLETE field the existence of a character that has the same first few letters (e.g. OCARIO) causes a conflict. Instead of prompting me for b[/b] after I’ve typed “(” and “O” I’m prompted to complete with OCARIO instead. In fact b[/b] isn’t even recognized as an option for me to arrow down and select. The system also won’t allow me to type the “.” to clarify but only allows me to ESC out of the prompt then finish typing (O.C.) manually.
2. Editing Issue
Have noticed that if you forget to use CMD+Y function and instead use a mouse or trackpad DOUBLE-CLICK to select an entire screenplay element chunk (e.g. DIALOGUE incorrectly formatted as ACTION) for editing the inclusion of the CARRIAGE RETURN in the highlighted selection causes the element that comes after what’s selected (e.g. ACTION) to take on the changes currently being made … (e.g. correctly formatted ACTION is accidentally amended into DIALOGUE).
3. Needs to have PASTE AND MATCH STYLE appear in Right-Click Contextual Menu
Hopes this helps whoever might look at it. Thanks for your time.
Auto-complete has been improved a lot for 2.0, although because Scrivener relies on the standard OS X auto-complete system it is still likely that you will see certain conflicts between similar auto-completions. For character names, by the way, it would probably be better to enter them in the project auto-complete list (Edit > Edit Auto-Complete List) rather than in the script settings directly.
Two more things I’ve found specifically in Scene Heading mode – I’m sure you’ve fixed already – are…
After typing an element such as INT … I naturally will just type the period instead of hitting tab. However doing so results in the app auto-completing to INT. . with the curson placed after extra period…
Also it would be nice addition if Scrivener would recognize that when you type Int or Int. after a chunk of Action to automatically switch to Scene Heading Mode. Fingers crossed for v2.0!
Also … granted I know nothing about the technicalities of coding an app … I just wanted to unload some random thoughts with regards to the issue with auto-complete as I personally have found it to be the most time consuming aspect of Scriptwriting mode at times…
Hopefully you can make some sense out of my ideas as they sound logical running through my head…my bad it none of it makes sense.
Is there not a way to code some sort of osx auto-completion ON/OFF toggle that would fire ONLY when the character/scene headings field is detected?
e.g. a function that on acceptance of one prompt would then toggle off and suppress any further changes until it detected that you’ve entered the next field (e.g. action/dialogue)?
Also when adding new elements in the Edit > Edit Auto-Complete List or the Scriptwriting > Script Settings… is there a way to overhaul it so that a keystroke (e.g. amend how Tab functions in both these sections) that would allows quick switching to the next new entry field?
Right now I’m finding that having to press the “+” every single time to be very cumbersome when you have a lot of characters to add to the project. The only way I’ve managed to speed the process a little is to rapidly click the “+” button 20 times to create 20 new blank entries…but then I’m still constrained to having to mouse click each new blank entry to get the blinking cursor to enter the new name.
Lastly just a technical question … I’m curious as to how Final Draft is able correctly assume two alternating characters when writing dialogue and will this be a feature in v2.0?
No plans for that, sorry. Just hit tab a couple of times though.
This will work a bit better in 2.0.
If I get time I’ll add the ability for return to create new items there as it does elsewhere. No promises for the initial 2.0 though, as there is already lots to do.
Because Final Draft is a dedicated scriptwriting program that has been going for ten years. Scrivener is not dedicated scriptwriting software and so you shouldn’t expect it to match such software feature-for-feature - it never will as it’s not intended to. Scrivener’s auto-complete features are general use; Scrivener does not know the difference between a character element and general text really. Whereas Final Draft can tailor each feature specifically to work for scriptwriting and the situations that demands, Scrivener is primarily a rich text editor with some scriptwriting features. I doubt it will ever know about alternating characters or anything and I would hate for you to get your hopes up about something unrealistic.
No worries. Figured as much. Tabbing over works just fine.
Ditto my first comment. 2.0 definitely sounds exciting.
Again no worries. Your hard work & efforts are much appreciated nonetheless!
All good. Under no illusions as I totally get your points on what Scrivener is. Was just adhering to the adage that there’s no harm in asking. Basically I’m a creature of habit so more or less trying to nail down a clearer picture of what’s coming down the road in order to streamline my writing routine to a set method for the long term.
e.g. Hammering out creative ideas, storing html clippings, PDFs, etc. in Scrivener and then doing the final thorough edit in FD prior to submission…
Since posting I added (to 2.0) the ability to create new auto-complete items in the auto-compleste list by hitting return, as you can elsewhere in the interface.
Best,
Keith
