Writing a screenplay

Choose Screenplay at project creation and the Draft becomes a script editor. Courier Prime on a properly margined page, scene counts in the bottom bar, scene-by-scene Navigation, and screenplay-aware blocks make script entry faster.

The screenplay blocks

The block picker includes 13 types: Scene Heading, Action, Character Name, Dialogue, Parenthetical, Transition, Shot, Cast List, New Act, Voice Over, End Of Act, Sequence, and General. Character cues support extensions such as V.O., O.S., and CONT’D. A Cast List is filled from the character blocks in its current scene and is read-only. The block indicator at the top right always names where you are standing and switches types when clicked.

Behaviour: what Enter and Tab do next

In a screenplay, the Document Editor’s Format tab grows a Behaviour section. For each block type, choose whether it starts a new page, what it paginates as, what Enter creates next, and where Tab moves. The defaults follow screenplay convention, but they do not enforce one structure; every rule can be changed by block type.

SmartType

The middle tab of the Document Editor. Six lists: Characters, Scene Intros, Locations, Times of Day, Transitions, Extensions. Characters and Locations are derived from the open script; add entries, search and sort the lists, or rebuild them from the document. As you type a saved entry, Skrib suggests it; Tab or Enter accepts. Auto-guess next character predicts who speaks next, and Transitions can use Tab to move into an Extension.

Layout, the full industry set

Paper and margins (with header and footer margins), page numbering (position, starting number, first-page visibility, number format), scene numbering, and mores and continueds. Each in its own section of the Layout tab. The title page isn’t in here — it sits above page one in the script itself, peeking in with Edit Title Page. Click the arrow to unfold it, type straight onto the page, and use the arrow at its bottom edge to tuck it away again.

At the bottom of a screenplay, switch between Page view for the laid-out script and Free view for a continuous writing surface. The content is the same in both views.

Getting scripts in and out

Import .fdx (Final Draft), .fountain, Word, LibreOffice, PDF, or plain text. FDX and Fountain carry screenplay structure most reliably. Export as FDX, Fountain, or PDF.