Dialogue and character autocomplete

In one line: how to type less while writing dialogue — the cast list grows out of the dialogue itself, the autocomplete orders it by how much each character speaks, and it guesses who speaks next.

One row of the character dropdown, taken apart

What is on the row	What it is
the colour dot	derived from the name, stable, there purely to be recognisable — it signals no status
the name	exactly the string you typed on a character line
the two numbers after it	lines of dialogue first (lines), then scenes appeared in (scenes) — both counted across every .script in the book
the divider	above it, whoever has already spoken in this scene; below it, everybody else in the book
the last row	Create new character "…" — it appears only when what you typed matches no name and no alias. It writes the name into this line; it creates no file

Both halves are ordered by lines of dialogue, most first. ↑↓ to move, Enter to take one, Esc to close. When the cast is still empty — the first character in a new book — the dropdown does not appear at all.

The cast list grows out of the dialogue

In 3.x you created a character in the Character Bible before you could use it in the script. 4.0 turns that around: the names you have typed on character lines are the cast list.

Slima reads the character lines in every .script file in the book, collects the names, and counts two things along the way: lines of dialogue and scenes appeared in. The order is most dialogue first, then most scenes, then alphabetical. So your lead is always at the top and the bystander who never speaks is at the bottom.

That has a practical consequence: the list keeps up with you. A character who first turns up in episode five is in the dropdown the moment you type the first letter of their name in episode six. Nothing to go back and file.

How the autocomplete orders itself

Type on a character line — or just land on an empty one — and the dropdown appears:

• Characters who have already spoken in this scene come first, then a divider, then everyone else. You're writing a scene between people; the next line is usually somebody already in the room.
• Each row carries a colour dot (derived from the name, stable, there purely to be recognisable — it doesn't signal status), the name, then "N lines · M scenes".
• What you type filters on the name.

Type a name you haven't used and the last row offers Create new character "Pei Zhao". Like locations, it only writes that name into this line; no file is created.

Predicting who speaks next

On an empty character line Slima pre-fills a faded name, reading backwards through the recent dialogue order:

SHEN YAN      Twelve pages. A hundred and forty-four.
GU SUI        (pushing a string of cash across) There's rush work tonight.
SHEN YAN      ← predicted, from the back-and-forth

When only one person has been speaking — a monologue, an opening — there's no exchange to read, so it falls back to character names mentioned in the nearby action. If neither yields anything, nothing is offered.

What clicking a name shows you

Click the name on a character line and a small card opens with read-only figures:

• "N scenes · M lines" — across the whole book, not just this episode.
• When the character appears in more than one episode, a bar per episode shows the distribution, so you can see at a glance where their weight sits.
• At the bottom, Open character file — if a .md of the same name exists in this book. If it doesn't, the card says so plainly rather than handing you a dead button.

Character notes — age, want, flaw, how they speak — belong in that .md. Match the name and the two join up: a dashed underline appears under the character line, and Ctrl/Cmd + click opens the file. See Characters and the cast list.

The extension badge

With the caret on a character line that already has a name, a faint (+) appears after it. Click to cycle:

Click	Hollywood prints	Taiwan prints
1	(V.O.)	（畫外音）
2	(O.S.)	（畫外）
3	(CONT'D)	（續）
4	Cleared	Cleared

What the badge shows is what the export prints. A badge that's been set always shows; an unset one only surfaces while the caret is on that line, so it doesn't clutter a read-through.

How dialogue lays out

You never indent dialogue yourself — the format does it:

Format	Layout
Taiwan	The character name and the dialogue after it are joined on one line: SHEN YAN：Twelve pages.
Hollywood	Name centred and capitalised, dialogue in an indented column

The joining is the Taiwanese convention; split across two lines it starts to look like Hollywood. You still write them as two lines in the editor — only the preview and the export join them.

Parentheticals

A parenthetical goes between the character and the dialogue and says how the line is said.

How	Works in
Type ( inside a dialogue line	Fastest; both formats
Ctrl + 4	Both formats
/ on an empty line, choose parenthetical	Both formats
Tab from a dialogue or character line	Hollywood only — the Taiwan Tab flow doesn't include parentheticals

Press Enter after a parenthetical and, if the next line is already that piece of dialogue, the caret goes straight to the start of it — no empty line wedged in.

A scene's cast list

Switch to board view and each scene card carries a row of character chips — the cast of that scene:

• Solid chips were detected from the text of the scene. Rewrite the dialogue and they update themselves.
• Dashed chips were added by hand — present but never mentioned in the text, like a guard who is silent throughout.
• The × on a chip drops it (that's how you fix a false match). Character adds one.

The list stores the difference, not a snapshot: change the dialogue and the detected part follows, while what you added or removed by hand never goes stale.

Character quick-pick on a phone

Tap a line on a phone and switch its type to Character, and a row of name chips appears above the text box: the other characters in this episode, in first-appearance order, up to twelve. Tap one instead of retyping the name.

Related

• Docs: The script element types
• Docs: Enter and Tab: the element flow
• Docs: Characters and the cast list
• Docs: Scene heading
• Docs: Action, transition and shot