Importing a screenplay

Import a script

1. Open the import window

   On the Scripts tab, press Import Script.

2. Add the file

   Drop a .fountain, .fdx, .pdf or .txt file on the dashed box, or press Browse Files. You can also click the box and paste the script text with ⌘V. The box then shows the file name and its page and line count. Clear empties it.

3. Check the four tabs

   The window reads the script and shows four tabs: Scenes, Characters, Locations and Elements. Each tab label shows how many rows are ticked out of how many were found. Untick any row you don’t want. Back returns to the file box.

4. Import

   The button reads Import 12 Scenes, with your own count. It stays grey until at least one scene is ticked. When it finishes, you see how many scenes, characters, locations, wardrobes, breakdown elements and scouting to-dos it made, and how many scene links. The script then opens in the editor.

To write from scratch instead, press New Blank. It adds an empty script called Untitled Script and opens it in the editor.

What each file type gives you

Every file is turned into Fountain first, so clean formatting matters more than the file type.

File	How well it reads
Fountain	Best. Headings, names and action are marked in the text itself.
Final Draft .fdx	Very good. The file tags each line’s type.
PDF	Good when it uses standard screenplay margins. The app reads layout to tell a heading from a line of dialogue.
Plain text	Works if it follows standard screenplay layout.

Scenes, characters, locations and elements

What an element becomes

Each ticked element becomes a card on the Breakdown tab, tagged to the scenes it’s in, and a To find item on the Scouting tab. Props, set dressing and vehicles also get a card on the Props tab, so you can make a picture of them. Animals don’t: they are cast and handled, not designed.

A car the script calls “a parked car” in one scene and “the red car” in the next, at the same location, comes in as one Car. A car at another location stays a separate element. Things that get used up, like cigarettes and food, are never folded together.

Tuning the elements list

The Elements tab has two sliders. Propose at sets the lowest score an element needs to be listed at all. Pre-check at sets the score where it arrives already ticked. The list updates as you drag.

Press Ignore on a row to stop the app from ever suggesting that word in this project again. When you’ve unticked the misses, Never propose the 12 unticked again ignores them all at once. Your rules show under Rules for this project, and the ✕ next to a rule removes it. Rules also apply when you re-import a script later.

Words for this project

The app knows the everyday objects, and most names. When it misses one, type the word under Words for this project, pick Animal, Vehicle, Prop or Set Dressing, and press Add. The list updates, and the word stays for every script you import into this project.

It finds names from the way a script brings them in, like “the foal (JOEY)” or “a dolphin named Snowflake”. It also spots a boat, plane or car the script only ever uses: “the Orca’s diesels kick on” three times over makes the Orca a vehicle.

The project’s genre adds a word list too. A Western knows a stagecoach, and sci-fi knows a blaster. War, period, fantasy, horror, crime and nautical have lists of their own. The panel says which list is on. Set the genre in the project’s settings.