Re: Reformatting from left-justified
I was glad to hear that you enjoy Fade In. It is definitely the screenwriting application for any serious writer. (Yeah, yeah, I know all about "You've got to use Final Draft, because it's the standard," etc., but if you actually sell anything and somebody insists that you use Final Draft, you can then fork out the money for that overpriced program). By the way, Final Draft is really a file format, when you get right down to it, and Fade In can import and save files in Final Draft .fdx file format; I have traded files back and forth with Final Draft users with no problem. The price is only $80, and you can use it on all your personal computers.
As for margins ...
Look, every professional who has ever posted here says not to tinker with margins to try to fool anybody about number of pages. Use standard margins.
Now, having said that, I will add that there is no strict standard for margins. Final Draft itself, which is often used as the standard for everything, includes several screenplay templates, and they do not have the same margins (at least not all of them).
In my opinion, the Final Draft margins make the dialogue column too narrow by one or two characters. You end up with a lot of very short lines, because long words at the end of a line (if they do not fit) wrap to the next line.
You ought to read my articles on Fade In, available here. You can also download my Bells-and-Whistles template for Fade In. That is what I use. It is very similar to the Final Draft template in terms of margins, except that I use a slightly wider dialogue column (two characters, I think).
Seriously, read the articles and my Quick Start. The Quick Start is out of date, because I wrote it a few years ago, but it still gets you going. The articles cover some really great features of Fade In.
The default Fade In screenwriting template is good except that it uses a left margin (the page margin) that is smaller than the more standard 1.5". The programmer, Kent Tessman, may have done this to accommodate A4 paper. I do not know. I am used to thinking in terms of US Letter paper (8.5 x 11").
Good luck, and let us know how things go!
EDIT TO ADD:
When you are finally through, and if you have a Fade In script with the watermarks, you are welcome to send it to me. I will open it in Fade In, save it, and return it to you. I will also make a PDF for you.
But you really ought to get Fade In if you are serious about screenwriting and you do not want to go the Final Draft route.
I was glad to hear that you enjoy Fade In. It is definitely the screenwriting application for any serious writer. (Yeah, yeah, I know all about "You've got to use Final Draft, because it's the standard," etc., but if you actually sell anything and somebody insists that you use Final Draft, you can then fork out the money for that overpriced program). By the way, Final Draft is really a file format, when you get right down to it, and Fade In can import and save files in Final Draft .fdx file format; I have traded files back and forth with Final Draft users with no problem. The price is only $80, and you can use it on all your personal computers.
As for margins ...
Look, every professional who has ever posted here says not to tinker with margins to try to fool anybody about number of pages. Use standard margins.
Now, having said that, I will add that there is no strict standard for margins. Final Draft itself, which is often used as the standard for everything, includes several screenplay templates, and they do not have the same margins (at least not all of them).
In my opinion, the Final Draft margins make the dialogue column too narrow by one or two characters. You end up with a lot of very short lines, because long words at the end of a line (if they do not fit) wrap to the next line.
You ought to read my articles on Fade In, available here. You can also download my Bells-and-Whistles template for Fade In. That is what I use. It is very similar to the Final Draft template in terms of margins, except that I use a slightly wider dialogue column (two characters, I think).
Seriously, read the articles and my Quick Start. The Quick Start is out of date, because I wrote it a few years ago, but it still gets you going. The articles cover some really great features of Fade In.
The default Fade In screenwriting template is good except that it uses a left margin (the page margin) that is smaller than the more standard 1.5". The programmer, Kent Tessman, may have done this to accommodate A4 paper. I do not know. I am used to thinking in terms of US Letter paper (8.5 x 11").
Good luck, and let us know how things go!
EDIT TO ADD:
When you are finally through, and if you have a Fade In script with the watermarks, you are welcome to send it to me. I will open it in Fade In, save it, and return it to you. I will also make a PDF for you.
But you really ought to get Fade In if you are serious about screenwriting and you do not want to go the Final Draft route.
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