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Topic : Re: WYSIWYG-type editor for dialog? I'm writing dialog for my game in a format kind of similar to screenwriting. I have dialog, mixed with a little "action", like this: John: Can you pass me - selfpublishingguru.com

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I think I know what you mean - I've found from experience that it's rather onerous having to type names and colons over and over again - it really disrupts the flow of my thoughts when I have to do that.
There are a couple of solutions that I've tried myself:

I type a block of names and (if necessary) an action line and then copy and paste them several times. I then end up with a template that I can fill in without getting distracted. This generally works well if the conversation ping-pongs back and forth in a regular way. It will look like this (before it gets filled in):

John:
Sally:
ACTION:
John:
Sally:
ACTION:

I use repeated characters for each name/colon/space block. For example 'John: ' would be 'jjj' and 'Sally: ' would be 'sss'. Then, when I've completed the section/scene/session I just do a find/replace (e.g. 'John: ' for 'jjj'). The beauty of this method is that 'jjj' or 'sss' is quick and easy to type and does not disturb my flow. This method is good for irregular conversations involving more than two characters. You would (prior to the find/replace) type it directly like this:

jjj Can you pass me the salt?
sss Sure
aaa Sally passes the salt

I don't know of any software that can do what you ask, but I hope that you can benefit from my experience in this matter.
Good luck going forward.


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