Writing a script

A script is a file for writing a screenplay. It looks like a script page, in Courier with the standard margins, and it does the formatting for you: press Enter and Tab to move between scene headings, action, character names and dialogue, and Studio puts each one where it belongs.

Scripts are free on every plan, like text files. Underneath, a script is plain text in Fountain, the plain-text format screenwriters use, so it's easy to take anywhere. When it's ready to share, export it as a PDF, a Final Draft file or Fountain.

Make a script

A new script starts with a title page (its name, Written by and your name, when Studio knows it) and a first scene heading with INT. already typed, ready for the place. In the drawer, scripts have a clapperboard icon.

The parts of a script

Every line of a script is one part. The empty line you're on shows its part faintly, so you always know what you're about to type.

Click the A button at the top right of the script for its toolbar: bold, italic and underline, the part picker, the Scene list and Title page buttons, and find and replace.

Enter and Tab

You rarely need the mouse. Enter and Tab work like in Final Draft.

Enter at the end of a line starts the part that usually comes next:

Enter on an empty line changes it instead. An empty action line becomes a scene heading; an empty scene heading, character, dialogue or transition becomes action.

Tab changes the line you're on: action, then character, then transition, then scene heading, and round again. Shift+Tab goes the other way. On a dialogue line, Tab makes it a parenthetical, brackets included: type the direction and press Enter to carry on with the dialogue.

Shift+Enter starts a new line inside the same action or dialogue, and Enter in the middle of a line splits it in two.

Pick a part

To change the part of the line you're on, pick it from the part picker in the toolbar, or press:

Lyrics, Section and Scene summary are in the part picker. Every part is also in the palette: press Cmd+K and type Script: make this.

What Studio does for you

• Capitals. Scene headings, character names and transitions come out in capitals, however you type them.
• Quick scene headings. On an empty action line, type int and a space and it becomes a scene heading starting INT. The same works for ext, est, int/ext and i/e.
• Brackets. A parenthetical gets its brackets by itself. Type ( on an empty dialogue line to start one.
• (CONT'D). When a character speaks again with only action in between, in the same scene, a faint (CONT'D) appears after their name. You don't type it, and it isn't saved in the file. The PDF adds it too, unless you turn that off when you export.
• Spelling. Character names aren't marked as misspelled, in their cues or in action and dialogue. Scene headings and transitions aren't spell checked.

Menus as you type

Start a scene heading, a character name or a transition and a menu offers ways to finish it. It waits for your first letter, so Enter and Tab on an empty line still change the part.

• Scene headings: INT., EXT., INT./EXT., EST. and I/E, then the places already in your script (pick one and the dash comes with it). After the place, type a space, a dash and a space for the time of day: DAY, NIGHT, CONTINUOUS, LATER and more, plus any you've used.
• Characters: the names already in your script. Type ( after a name for V.O., O.S., O.C., CONT'D, PRE-LAP or FILTERED.
• Transitions: CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO:, SMASH CUT TO:, FADE OUT. and others.

↑/↓ move through the menu. Enter picks, and when the line is complete it moves on, so after a name you're straight into dialogue. Tab picks and stays on the line. Esc hides the menu.

The title page

The title page sits at the top of the script as a card, laid out the way it prints. Click it, or the Title page button in the toolbar, to fill it in:

• Title
• Credit line, such as Written by or Screenplay by
• Writer's name
• Based on, for an adaptation
• Draft date
• Contact: an address, phone number or email, on as many lines as you need

Click Save (or press Cmd+Enter). An empty field is left off the page.

Pages and running time

Studio works out where each page ends as you write and draws a thin line with the page number where a new page starts. The bottom right of the script shows the page count and the running time, at about a minute a page: 12 pages · 12 min. Pages are counted on US Letter paper.

To start a new page yourself, press Cmd+K and run Script: insert page break.

The scene list

Click the Scene list button in the toolbar for a numbered list of your scenes beside the script. Click a scene to go to it. The scene you're in is highlighted, sections appear as dividers, and each scene's summary shows under it.

Dual dialogue

When two characters talk at the same time, their lines can print side by side. Put the cursor on the second character's name, press Cmd+K and run Script: dual dialogue on this character. DUAL appears beside the name. Run it again to undo.

Rename a character

Press Cmd+K, run Script: rename a character…, pick the character and type the new name. Studio changes every cue and every mention in action and dialogue, keeps capitals where the name was in capitals, and tells you how many places it changed.

Paste and import

• Paste a scene and Studio reads it as a script: scene headings, names and dialogue each land in their part.
• Import Fountain (.fountain) and Final Draft (.fdx) files and they come in as scripts. See Exporting a script.

Your script on your BYOK

Link a script to your BYOK like any text file. On the device it's plain text in Fountain: each part on its own line, a blank line between parts, and a character's dialogue right under their name.

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

Rain on the window.

MAYA
You're late.

Edit it on the BYOK and it comes back to Studio as a script. Studio reads the lines the Fountain way: a line that starts with INT. or EXT. is a scene heading, and a name in capitals with a line right under it is a character and their dialogue.

On your phone

On a phone or tablet, scripts open in screenplay layout and you can edit them. Each line takes its part from how it's written, as on your BYOK. The writing help on this page (Enter and Tab, the menus, the part picker, the scene list and the title page form) is on the web and in the desktop app.