Chapter 1. Creating and Manipulating Pages and Page Templates

In this chapter, we will cover the basics of creating and managing pages in Manga Studio EX 5. We will be covering the following recipes:

Setting up and saving a standard-sized comic page file
Adding the story's title to the page
Adding the author's name to the page
Adding page numbers and folio information to the page
Creating a multi-page file
Setting up cover pages
Creating two-page spreads
Applying a framing template
Creating a custom framing template
Making and using cover templates
Accessing the Page Manager
Rearranging story pages
Deleting story pages
Editing the story information
Editing the basic work settings
Using the Story Editor to enter text
Searching and replacing entered text

Introduction

The features of story files and the ability to create entire chapters or books all at once, rearrange the pages, and give a full overview of your comic story, set Manga Studio EX 5/ Clip Studio Paint apart from most other graphics packages. This feature will save your time both in your production stage and in editing the page, and with the new text editor, in the scripting phase as well.

Story files are only available in the EX version of Manga Studio 5. If you are using the regular version of MS5, you can still create page templates and custom page setups, but the multiple page files will not apply to you. This means that the recipes on Story Editor, page numbering, two-page spreads, creating cover pages, accessing the Page Manager, rearranging pages, deleting pages, story information, and making multi-page files in this chapter will not apply if you have Manga Studio 5. If you have Manga Studio EX 5, all the recipes in this chapter will work for you.

Also, if you have Manga Studio 5 instead of EX, most other recipes in the entire book will also apply. So don't feel bad if you can't follow along with a portion of this chapter; the rest of the book will still be useful. If you ever upgrade to Manga Studio EX 5, you will already know how to use these features.

If you have purchased the digital download of Manga Studio 5 or EX 5, you may have a program called Clip Studio Paint Pro or Clip Studio Paint EX. These are the same as Manga Studio 5 and Manga Studio EX 5, respectively; they just had a name change for the digital files.

A full chart of the differences between Manga Studio 4, Manga Studio 4 EX, Manga Studio 5, and Manga Studio 5 EX is available at the time of writing this book at http://my.smithmicro.com/manga-studio-ex-5-compare.html.

The recipes in this chapter will get you familiar with everything about making pages and using the Story Editor menu. Let's get started!

Setting up and saving a standard-sized comic page file

In this recipe, you're going to learn how to create a custom-sized page file and save it for future use in Manga Studio EX 5. This is invaluable when you are looking to get your comics printed after drawing them. Make sure that you first carry out research on standard printing sizes, though. If you know which printing service you want to use, check out their file setup or artwork guidelines for the dimensions you will need.

Getting ready

You will need the dimensions of the finished page that you want to print as well as any bleed information and safe area dimensions. Bleeds are standardly 0.25 inches, but check with your preferred printer to be sure.

How to do it...

Creating a page properly from the start of a project will save time later. The following directions should work for any printer that prints standard-sized American comic books—roughly 6.75 inches wide by 10.25 inches tall:

Click on the New icon or go to File | New to create a new file.
Change the Unit drop-down menu to in (inches).
Be sure that the checkbox next to Manga draft settings is checked.
Under the Binding (finish) size options, enter 6.75 for Width and 10.25 for Height.
Set the Bleed width value to 0.25.
Under Default border (inner) size, enter 6.25 for Width and 9.75 for Height. Leave X offset and Y offset at 0.00.
Under the Canvas settings, enter 7.5 as Width and 11.5 as Height. Refer to the following screenshot to understand this:
At the top of the New dialog box, click on the save icon to the right of the Preset drop-down menu. This will bring up the Register to preset window.
Enter Standard Comic Page as Preset name.
Under Canvas setting, be sure that the Resolution, Template, Paper color, and Basic expression color(D) boxes are all given a check mark, as shown here:
Click on OK.

How it works…

There are three parts to setting up a custom-sized page in Manga Studio EX 5:

Setting Binding (finish) size (the trim size). The Binding (finish) size is the size of the finished page after the publisher has trimmed off any bleed areas. If you have a comic book sitting near you, grab it and grab a ruler. You'll find that the comic book will measure roughly 6.75 x 10.25 inches. This is the trim size of the book.
Setting Default border (inner) size (the live area). The Default border (inner) size is the live area of the page. This is the area inside which any panel borders, text, or other important elements should be placed in order to ensure that they are not accidentally trimmed off in the printing process. Any artwork that goes outside of this area should extend all the way to the edge of the canvas as a bleed.
Setting Canvas (overall page size). This is the total size of the page, including any bleed areas. Manga Studio has two bleed areas to take into consideration: one for displaying the folio information set in the program, and one for the publisher. The number set in Bleed Width Setting is the publisher's bleed requirement. In the case of the page we just set up, we used a .25-inch bleed all around. Manga Studio automatically calculates this and makes another crop mark at the correct measurement. The rest of the canvas is used to display story information and page numbers, if included. The following illustration will assist you with setting up more custom page sizes in the future:

Using the Register to preset box, we can save our settings for this page and load it easily the next time we need to use it. We simply choose Standard Comic Page from the Preset menu, and the settings we saved will be loaded without us having to set up the page dimensions all over again.

Adding the story's title to the page

There may be times when we need or want to include the title of our comic's story on each page, either for a publisher submission or to keep track of the printed pages that we're storing at home. There are a myriad of reasons for us to mark our pages, and Manga Studio EX 5 makes this easy to do.

How to do it...

The following steps will help you add a story title to the pages of your project:

Create a new page by going to File | New or using the New icon.
Go to the Story Information section of the New dialog box.
In the Story name box, type the name of your story. For this example, I'll use Living Glory Bound as the name of the story.
Choose the position to display the story name using the drop-down menu to the right of the textbox.
If we wish to, we can check the box next to Number of stories and add the volume or chapter number. Let's use 1 in this case, as it's the first chapter of our story. Alternately, you can leave this box unchecked if you do not wish to display a story number.
If the story has a subtitle, add it in the Subtitle textbox. It will be displayed with the story name.
Click on OK. If there is any Author or Page number information to add, go to the relevant one of the next two recipes. The following screenshot shows how these fields should be filled in, according to the example in the preceding steps:

Adding the author's name to the page

Other than adding our story's name, we can also add the name of the author or artist.

Getting ready

Before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it…

The following steps will teach you how to add the author's name to your project page:

Go to the Story Information section of the New dialog box.
In the Author textbox, type in the name to be displayed.
Use the drop-down menu to the right of the textbox to choose where the text will be displayed on the page, as shown in the following screenshot:
Click on OK. If there is page number information to add, go to the next recipe.

Adding page numbers and folio information to the page

Manga Studio can automatically add page numbers to your pages. Let's see how this works and explore some different options for page numbering.

Getting ready

Before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it...

Follow these simple steps to add a page number to your project:

Go to the Story Information section of the New dialog box.
Make sure that the checkbox next to Page number is checked.
Use the drop-down menu to the right of the Page number checkbox to choose the display position.
Choose a number in Start number.

How it works…

Using the Page number option will display a number in Manga Studio's margin (outside of the trim area). This number will not be visible after the page has been trimmed down to the finish size.

There's more…

Manga Studio EX 5 has multiple options for page numbers. The following subsection shows you how to add folio page numbers.

Including a folio page number

Folio numbers are inside of the finish size, and so they are visible on the page after the printing is done and the bleeds have been trimmed:

In the New dialog box, go to the Folio section.
Check the box next to Folio(P) to turn this option on.
Use the drop-down menu to the right of the checkbox to choose the display position for the number.
Add any leading or trailing formatting for the page number in the Format textboxes.
Choose the number to begin with using the Start number option, either by typing the number manually in the textbox or by using the slider to the right.
Using the Font drop-down menu, select the font to use from those installed on your computer.
Adjust the display size of the folio page number information using the Size option. Again, either type the desired value in the text box or use the slider to the right by clicking on the black arrow icon.
Using the Color drop-down menu, select whether to display the text in black or white.
To add a contrasting outline around the page number, check the box next to Put edges. Black folio information will have a white border around it, and vice versa.
Choose the thickness of the outline using the textbox to the right of the Put edges option. The larger the number, the thicker the outline.
Click on OK to create the new page.

Using the Format boxes, we can make our page number read Page 1 of 12. Simply enter Page in the first textbox (before the number) and of 12 in the textbox after the number. See the following screenshot.

Tip

Note the extra spaces in Page and of 12 in the preceding example. These need to be added to make the folio information read correctly. If the spaces are not added, they will not be included when the new page is generated.

Blind folio(H) is a page number in the margin of the book. When the book is printed and bound, it will not be seen.

Check out this screenshot to learn how the story name, author information, and page numbers are displayed using information from the preceding recipes:

Creating a multi-page file

Manga Studio 5 and Manga Studio EX 5 have one major difference: the EX version gives you the ability to create story files. These .cmc files collect a number of page files (.lip) and allow them to be viewed together, opened easily, and rearranged. We can think of the story file as a folder on our desk that has papers in it. You can open the folder and spread the pages inside to see them, rearrange them, and pull out the ones you don't want. Let's create a story file with 12 pages in this recipe.

Getting ready

Before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it…

The following steps show you how to create a file with 12 pages:

Find the Multiple pages checkbox and click on it to open the options, as shown in the following screenshot:
Next to Number of pages:, either enter the desired number of pages manually in the textbox, or use a preset number of pages by clicking on the black down arrow and choosing from the list.
Choose which side of the book the binding will be on.
Choose which side the starting page will be on.
At the top of the New window, enter a filename for the story to be saved under, in the File name textbox.
The Save to(F) box will show the currently selected folder for the file to save in. To select a different folder, click on the Refer… button on the right-hand side of the dialog box.
Note
The Refer… button will show only after the Multiple pages checkbox is activated.
Navigate to the desired save folder and click on OK. Our New screen should now look like what is shown in this screenshot:
Click on OK in the New dialog box.

Setting up cover pages

Manga Studio EX 5 recently added options for cover pages in the multi-page file settings. This feature designates pages in your story file as covers, both back and front.

Getting ready

Again, before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it…

The following steps show you how to create a multi-page file with a front and a back cover page:

Locate the Cover Page checkbox and click on it to activate the options. The following screenshot shows where the checkbox is located:
Select Resolution (dpi) for the cover pages. For this example, let's leave it at 600 dpi.
Select a color under Basic expression color. Our cover in this example will be colored at the end, so we'll leave it at Color. If your cover will be grayscale or pure black and white, select the applicable expression color.
Then, select a color under Paper color.
Next, select a layout under Cover page layout, either a two-page spread layout, or two separate covers.
If you are using a two-page spread cover page layout, use the Specify back width option to set the spine width, if applicable.
Be sure to have the Multiple pages option turned on and a number of pages higher than four selected.
Enter a filename under File name in the textbox at the top of the dialog window.
Select a folder to save the story file in.
Click on OK and wait a moment for your story file to generate.

How it works…

Manga Studio EX 5 allows us to set a different resolution for the cover pages than for the interior images. This means that if we're working on black-and-white or grayscale comic pages, we can keep them at a relatively low resolution (at least 300 dpi) and still get a nice-looking print. However, we want our cover pages to look sharp and detailed, so we can create our covers with a higher dpi without affecting our interior pages.

Within the program, we can also set the paper color. This option automatically fills a bottom layer in the page file with the chosen color. Let's say that we already know that our cover is going to have a blue background. We can choose for the paper color to be blue and then work on our cover on top of it, eliminating the need to fill the background with blue later. If we want a transparent background with no color fill at all, we can simply turn this option off by deselecting the checkbox.

Note

You can change the paper color of individual pages at any time by double-clicking on the Paper layer's thumbnail in the Layer palette. Choose a new color and click on OK to set it.

We can select to either have separate front and back covers, or have the cover pages automatically joined as a two-page spread. The two-page spread option is perfect for wraparound covers. Simply select this option when creating your new file to make a two-page spread.

When creating a two-page spread or wraparound cover, we have the Specify Back Width option. This is the width of the spine of the book. For a typical monthly issue of about 30 pages, this shouldn't be needed, but for larger graphic novels, it's very handy. The spine of a larger book could have the title and author information displayed on it. Be sure to carry out some research beforehand if you are creating a large book, and account for the spine by calculating the number of pages. Your publisher or printer should be able to assist you with this.

Creating two-page spreads

Sometimes, the action of comics is so huge that it cannot be contained in one page. In these instances, we can use the two-page spread for big, attention-grabbing splash pages. Let's learn how to create them in Manga Studio EX 5.

Getting ready

Before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it…

The following steps show you how to create a multi-page file with two-page spreads set up:

Locate the Multiple pages option in the New dialog window.
Check the box next to Spread corresponding page(M), which is located in the Multiple pages section, as shown in the following screenshot:
Make sure that the binding point is set correctly for your publisher (books that read left to right will have the binding on the left).
Enter a filename for your story under File name, and choose a destination folder to save it in.
Click on OK.

How it works...

When we turn on the Spread corresponding page(M) option, Manga Studio will automatically join facing pages (for example, pages 2 and 3). Once your story is generated, it will look something like this:

Tip

In the preceding story, the cover has been set as a two-page spread as well. The back page of the inside cover is not attached to page 3, because page 3 is the first page of our comic interior. Page 10 is the last page of our comic interior, and so it is not joined with the inside of the back cover.

There's more…

What if we've already made a story file with individual pages, but then we realize that we need to join two pages to make a splash page as we're working? Not a problem!

Creating two-page spreads in existing story files

The following instructions show you how to join two pages in an existing file into a two-page spread:

With your story file open, go to Page Manager. If Page Manager is not visible, go to Story(P) | Page Manager(W) to open it.
Locate the two pages that you wish to join. Remember that only two facing pages can be combined into a spread. Facing pages will be grouped together in boxes in Page Manager.
Click on one of the pages that you want in the two-page spread.
With the page still selected, go to Story(P) | Combine Pages… (alternately, in Windows, right-click on the selected page and click on Combine Pages… from the menu that appears).
An option box, as shown in the following screenshot should appear:
Set Gap(D) if needed. Gap means the number of joined pages that will not be visible because of the binding of the book.
Be absolutely certain that you want to combine the pages. As this box warns, we cannot undo this change. The pages can be split afterwards, but this operation cannot be taken away by choosing Edit and Undo!
Click on OK.

Our pages are now combined. Look at the next screenshot for the example. Note that pages 6 and 7 are still single pages, but 4 and 5 have been joined.

Creating two-page spreads in existing story files

Applying a framing template

Some comics, such as comic strips, don't necessarily vary their panel layout from page to page. We can save time in Manga Studio EX 5 by applying a framing template to all of our interior pages.

Getting ready

Before you start, have the New dialog window opened by going to File | New or clicking on the New icon in the top toolbar.

How to do it…

The following steps detail how to load a pre-existing comic template into the interior pages of a story file:

Under the Canvas options, locate the Template checkbox. It is shown under Paper color in the following screenshot:
Check the box next to Template to bring up the Template library.
Select a template to use on the pages. For this recipe, let's use the template called 4 frames 2 strips. Click on the template so that it is highlighted. Refer to the following screenshot to understand this:
Click on the OK button to confirm the template selection.
Finish making the other selections for your new story file, and then click on OK to create it.

How it works…

The template that we select will automatically be fitted for the Default border(inner) size value of our page and included on each page of the story file. See the following screenshot:

Creating a custom framing template

In the previous recipe, we saw how to use a framing template to speed up our comic creation time when each of our comics uses the same layout. Well, what if our desired panel setup isn't available in the Template library? No worries! We can create it and save it in the Template library to use in the future.

How to do it…

Let's create a custom frame template and add it to all the interior pages of our story file with this recipe:

Open a blank page that includes a Default border (inner) size margin.
Create a panel layout using the panel tools.
Go to Edit | Register Layer as Template Material.
In the Material property window, add a descriptive material name.
Under Location to save material, navigate to Manga material | Framing template and select it as the folder to save the new template.
Enter search tags.
Tip
Tag every material that you add to the materials library with a tag unique to you, such as custom or your name. This makes it easy to find the materials that you've created later. Just search for the tag that you've chosen. Personally, I use custom to tag all my new materials.
Click OK.
Go to File | New to start another new file.
Choose a page template to use that has Default border (inner) size in it.
Under the Canvas options, check the Template box.
Navigate to the custom framing template created earlier. Click on it to select it.
Click on OK.
Create a file with multiple pages.
Then click on OK to finish creating the file.

How it works…

First, we have to create our frames before we can save them as a framing template, which is why we opened a blank page to start our recipe. Having the default border gives us measurements for the center of each side of our page by looking at the crop markings.

Use the frame tools of your choice to mark the frames for the template. The easiest way for us to do this is by using the rectangle frame tool and drawing our squares.

We can also go to Layer | New Layer | Frame Border folder(C). This will create a frame with the dimensions of the default inner border. Then we can use the divide frame border tool to slice out our frames. The benefit of using this tool is that the borders of our panels will line up perfectly, with even gutters all around.

Registering the layer as a template material allows us to select our new framing template on new files. However, we have to save it in the Framing template folder, which is in Manga material, to make sure that it shows up when we create a new file. Only the materials in this folder will show up while we are creating files that use a template on all pages.

Tagging the material makes it easy to find later. We should always tag our new materials when we add them to the library, because it eliminates scrolling through all the materials to find what we need.

After we've saved the template as a material, we can apply it to any new file. All our interior pages will share the same framing template, which means that we save time by putting new frames in.

Creating and using cover templates

Covers catch the reader's eye and convey information about the comic. Sure, they will tell you the title, the publisher, and perhaps the people who worked on the comic. They can also convey the subject matter and tone of the comic. Some elements of a cover will appear on each one that's made, so let's create a template to save time in our art process and apply it to our cover pages.

How to do it...

This recipe shows you how to create a cover, save it as a material, and then apply it as a template to a new file:

Open a blank page that has the default size (inner) margins set up.
Add a text or logo design for the comic title at the top of the page, resizing, rotating, or transforming as needed.
Add the name of the comic's author and/or artist, colorist, and so on as needed.
Add any other graphics that will be on each cover.
If a Paper layer is included in the current file, select it. Then delete the paper layer. The following screenshot is an example of what a cover template might include, such as comic title and logo, subtitle, author, and artist information:
Go to Edit | Register Layer as Template Material.
In the Material property window, enter Material name (for example, Living Glory Bound Cover Template).
Check the Material image thumbnail to ensure that all the elements that you wish to include in the template are shown.
Click on the arrow to the left of Material under Location to save material to open the material categories.
Navigate to Manga material | Framing template and click to select it as the location to save the cover template in.
Enter some search tags to find the cover template easily. Refer to this screenshot for suggestions:
Click on OK.
Go to File | New and create a new story file with multiple pages and a cover page.
Under the Cover page options, click on the Template checkbox.
Locate the cover template that you just created and select it. In the following screenshot, our saved cover template is visible:
Click on OK.
Then click on OK in the New dialog window to create the new story file, with the template for the front cover.

How it works…

Before we can use a cover template, we have to create the cover. By laying out the title and any other elements that will be on each cover, we'll save time later on during the creation of our comic by not having to set the cover elements each time we create a new chapter or book.

By erasing the paper layer, we ensure that our template will show up in all new covers without a white background all around it. This will allow us to use other paper colors and draw directly behind the template to create our cover art.

Currently, if we want to put a different image on the front and back cover, we have to go to the back cover, delete the layer containing the template, and then add the back cover images. As of Manga Studio EX 5.0.5, there is no way to use different templates on the front and back covers. As shown in this screenshot, the two-page spread cover has the same template on both the front and the back:

Accessing the Page Manager

The Page Manager is where we can take a look at our entire story at once, with each page in thumbnail form. Manga Studio EX 5 gives you lots of options on how to display the Page Manager, depending on the structure of your workflow.

How to do it…

The following steps show how to open Page Manager(W) as a Tab in Manga Studio EX 5:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Story(P) | Page Manager Layout(Q) | Tab.
Note
If Tab is already checked, as shown in the following screenshot, skip this step:
Now go to Story(P) | Page Manager(W) to show the Page Manager as a new tab inside of Manga Studio EX 5. Refer to this screenshot to understand what the tab will look like:

There's more…

Depending on your workflow, you may want to have the Page Manager shown in orientations other than the tab. The following subsection shows how to do this.

Viewing the Page Manager in other orientations

Follow these steps to open a Page Manager at the top of the screen:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Story | Page Manager Layout(Q) | Up to make the Page Manager appear at the top of the Manga Studio EX 5 window.
If a tab Page Manager is open, close it by clicking on the X mark on the right-hand side of the tab.
Go to Story(P) | Page Manager(W) to open the new Page Manager. Here is an example of the manager set to Up:

Experiment with the other Page Manager layout options to find out which layout is right for you and your workflow.

Rearranging story pages

Sometimes, you just realize that a page, or pages, of a comic would fit better earlier or later in the story. Manga Studio EX 5's Page Manager gives us an easy way to rearrange pages so that we can make a perfect story.

How to do it…

This recipe teaches you how to rearrange pages in a story file:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Page Manager. If the Page Manager is not visible, go to Story(P) | Page Manager(W) to open it.
Locate and select the page that needs to be moved.
Click on the page and hold down the mouse button.
With the mouse button still pressed, drag the page to the new location. A red line shows where the page will be moved, as shown in the following screenshot:
Release the mouse button once the new location has been reached.
Wait a moment as Manga Studio adjusts the story information and page numbers.

There's more…

Manga Studio EX 5 allows us to rearrange more than one page at a time.

Rearranging multiple pages

Follow these steps to change the position of multiple pages at once:

From the Page Manager, locate the pages that need to be moved.
Hold down the Ctrl key (PC) or command key (Mac) and click to select all the pages to move.
Once selected, hold down the mouse button and drag the pages to their new location.

Deleting story pages

Sometimes, we realize that some content no longer works in our story. This section will teach you how to delete pages that are no longer necessary in the project.

How to do it…

Follow these steps to delete a story page:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Page Manager. If the Page Manager is not visible, go to Story(P) | Page Manager(W) to open it.
Locate the page to be deleted. Click on it to highlight it.
Go to Story(P) | Delete Page (or right-click on windows and select Delete Page from the menu that appears).
The window shown in the following screenshot will appear. If you are sure that you wish to delete the page, click on OK. This operation cannot be undone, so be sure that this is the correct page!

Manga Studio will update the story information and page numbers.

There's more…

We can also delete more than one page at a time. If an entire section of a story needs to be erased, we can do so very easily.

Deleting multiple pages

Follow these steps to delete more than one page from a story file at a time:

From Page Manager, locate the pages that need to be deleted.
Hold down the Ctrl key (PC) or command key (Mac) and click to select all the pages to delete.
Go to Story(P) | Delete Page (or in Windows, right-click and select Delete Page from the menu that appears).
The window that you saw in the previous section will appear to confirm the deletion. If you are sure that you wish to delete the page, click on OK. This operation also cannot be undone, so be sure that this is the correct page!

Manga Studio will update the story information and page numbers.

Editing the story information

We've all done it—get halfway through a project and then notice that we spelled the title wrong! Or suddenly, we think of a better title for the graphic novel for which we just drew 150 pages, and the old title is on every page of the Manga Studio file! No need to fret; we can edit it!

How to do it…

This recipe shows us how to make changes to the story information:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Story | Set story information, as shown in the following screenshot:
In the window that appears, make any changes needed to the story title, author information, folio, or blind folio information. In this screenshot, the subtitle, font, and display position of the author's name have been changed:
Click on OK.
Wait a moment for Manga Studio 5 to process the changes.

Editing the basic work settings

What if we decide that we need to change our binding position, or that we don't want to use the cover page settings anymore? Not a problem! We just need to edit the basic work settings.

How to do it…

These very simple steps show us how to make changes to the basic work settings:

Open a file with multiple pages.
Go to Story | Change basic work settings. Refer to the following screenshot to know the location:
Update any information in the basic work settings as needed. Refer to this screenshot to understand what the basic work settings dialog box looks like:
Click on OK.
Wait a moment for Manga Studio EX 5 to update the pages.

Using the Story Editor to enter text

Creating a comic (usually) means putting in text for dialog, narration, and other story indicators (words such as "Meanwhile…" or "The Next Day…"). With Manga Studio EX 5's Story Editor, we can input all our dialogs and other text quickly, all from one screen, and make them show up on our page files. With just a little editing once the text is in the page files, we'll have our text all laid out and be ready to draw.

Getting ready

First, we need to create a multi-page file. We will also need a comic script (or at least an idea of some text to include in our pages).

How to do it...

Let's learn how to use the Story Editor in this recipe:

Go to File | Preferences.
In the Preferences window, click on the Edit text option on the left-hand-side menu.
Under New text property, set the drop-down menu to Selected text tool property.
Tip
To view the entered text in the font being used for the comic, select it from the font drop-down menus under View.
Click on OK to save the preferences.
On the main Manga Studio EX 5 screen, select Text tool, and in Tool Properties, select the font to use for lettering in the comic project.
Go to Story | Edit text. If this is the first time you are using the Story Editor in this file but other changes have been made, you may be asked about the page histories. Click on OK to continue.
Now we are in Story Editor. Each page is listed and has a textbox. Enter some dialog or narration for the pages according to the script, as shown in this screenshot:
Once all of the text is entered, save the file.
Go to the Page Manager and open a page where some text has been entered.
Edit the text placement and layout as needed. As shown in the following screenshot, all of the text will be set in the corner after you've used the Story Editor:
To continue editing or adding text, simply go back to the Story Editor tab and make any changes required.

How it works...

Before we use the Story Editor, we should check out the preferences and make sure that they will work the way we want them to. Changing the New text property ensures that the font and settings in the text tool that's active will be applied to all new text.

Tip

Make a custom text tool with the settings for each comic's project that you letter! It will save time because you won't have to change the settings manually each time text needs to be written.

The Story Editor is where we can enter all of the text that we would like to apply to our comic pages. This is much faster than entering it page by page. Simply go through the script and enter all the dialog, narration, and sound effects.

Depending on how we have our preferences set, one press of the Enter key may create a new line of text on the same page. Personally, I like to set Preferences to hitting the Enter key twice for a new line of text. Do whatever is best for the way you work!

Once we've entered all our text, we can go to individual pages. Then we can edit the position of the text, add speech balloons, change the text size, and so on. To add more text to a page, either go back to the Story Editor and enter it there, or click on the page with the text tool and type directly on the page. Any text entered in this way will also show up in the Story Editor.

When closing the Story Editor tab, you may be asked whether you'd like to continue. We must be certain that we've saved after using the Story Editor and before closing out of it! Closing the Story Editor without saving will make us lose our changes!

Searching and replacing entered text

It happens… The script is perfect, the Manga Studio file is all set up, and the text is entered. We're all ready to get down to drawing. And then we realize that we have got a character's name wrong or have misspelled the name of the Elven city in all of the text! Rather than going through and fixing an error like this by hand, we can use the Search and replacement tool to edit at the push of a button. Let's give it a try!

Getting ready

We'll need a story file that has text in it. The more the text, the better!

How to do it...

To find and replace text in the story file, follow these steps:

Go to Story(P) | Edit text(Z) | Search and replacement(F).
In the Search string(F) box, type the word or phrase to search for.
In the Replacement string box, type the word or phrase to insert as a replacement for the searched string.
To search and replace the terms without worrying about case sensitivity, check the box next to Do not differentiate case.
We then select a search direction: Forward(P) if we are at the beginning of the entered text, and Backward(N) if we are at the end.
Simply click on the Search button to go to the next occurrence of the search string.
Click on the Replacement button to replace one occurrence of the search string.
Also, you can click on All replacement to search for all occurrences and replace them with the replacement string.
Once you're done, click on Close.

How it works...

This feature is very much like the Find and Replace option in many popular word processing programs. It works in the same way, so if you're familiar with those, this should be a snap!

The Search string box is the text that we want to search for. Say, we typed a character's name as Bryan for an entire graphic novel and the name was supposed to be Byron. We have to type Bryan in to the Search string box.

Then, the Replacement string text box is where we type the text that we want to use to replace the search string. In the preceding example, we type Byron in the Replacement string box.

We can simply search for the next occurrence of the word or phrase that we're looking for by clicking on Search.

Tip

Can't find the page where you mentioned the axionic microfilament shaft or some other specific name in your story? Enter the word or phrase and click on Search without entering a replacement string. Manga Studio EX 5 will take you directly to the page you're looking for.

Clicking on the Replacement button will replace the occurrence that we just searched for. Clicking on All replacement will automatically search for and replace every occurrence of the search string in the text.