Screenplay Tab¶
The screenplay shown in screenshots are from the 2019 film Knives Out. The original screenplay can be downloaded from here and all rights for the screenplay rests with its owners. We are using the screenplay only for explaining features in the product.
Capturing The Logline¶
A logline is a 2–3 line pitch for your screenplay. It often appears as the short description of your film on IMDb.
If you want to capture the logline of your screenplay in Scrite, you can toggle the logline editor in the Screenplay Editor Options Dialog.
Once enabled, Scrite presents a logline field below the title page on the Screenplay Editor. You can capture the logline in this field.
As you can see, Scrite highlights the last few words in the logline in red color. This is because they spill over the recommend character limit for loglines. While it is recommended that you don't exceed this limit, Scrite does not prohibit you from capturing longer logline.
Color Coding Scenes¶
While plotting, many writers use post‑it notes on a pinboard. Some prefer color coding; others don’t. If you like color coding scenes, Scrite supports it.
Select one or more scenes on the Scene List Panel, and right-click to view a menu. From here you can select a color to assign to your selected scenes.
As you assign colors to different scenes, the Scene List panel uses the same color coding to display scene headings, as does the scene heading area in the screenplay editor.
Infact, you can also open the scene options menu in the screenplay editor to assign scene color for a specific scene.
Color Intensity¶
Some writers prefer to see intense colors for their scenes, and some prefer subdued colors. You can change the color intensity by clicking on Screenplay Editor Options Dialog, and dragging to color intensity slider as you see fit.
Scene Blocks¶
As mentioned in the quick start, Scrite offers a scene centric approach to
writing screenplays. Each scene is a distint block of text, even if they show up
line a single long document. If you prefer to see each scene as a distinct
block, then toggle the Scene Blocks option either in Screenplay Editor
Options, or by using the Command Center.
When Scene Blocks is toggled ON, each scene is shown as a separate block on
the screenplay editor.
Scene List Panel¶
You can toggle the visibility of the Scene List panel by clicking on the button
along the left edge of the app window, or by using the keyboard shortcut
Alt+0.
Using the Scene List Panel you can get a quick overview of all scenes in your screenplay and even jump to a scene.
By default, clicking on a scene in the Scene List panel causes the scene to get
selected. You can select multiple scenes using Ctrl+Click.
Or hold Shift to select a range.
Whether you select one scene or many, you can right‑click to change colors for all selected scenes.
Scene Heading vs Scene Summary¶
By default the Scene List Panel shows scene heading for each scene in a list view. You can, however, configure the scene list panel to show scene synopsis or summary instead.
You can change the number of lines from the synopsis to display in Settings.
Empty Scene Icon¶
The Scene List panel shows an “empty‑scene” icon for scenes with only a scene‑heading but no content. This icon disappears as soon as some content is typed or pasted into the scene.
Length Estimates¶
You can toggle display of scene lengths against each scene in the scene list panel, either in terms of page count or screentime.
Notice how the scene list panel shows aggregate time for act breaks. This helps in getting a quick impression of pacing in your screenplay.
Tooltips¶
You can enable tooltips and get additional information about each scene as you hover over them in the scene list panel. Additionally, when you select a bunch of scenes a separate tooltip shows up along the top with aggregate lengths of the selected scenes.
Sequences¶
As a writer you may want to bundle multiple scenes into a sequence, because they all form a logical group in your story. Simply select a range of scenes and bundle them together into a sequence.
Scenes that are part of a sequence have a arrow prior to their scene number in the scene list panel.
You can easily add/remove scenes to a sequence by using the context menu. Bundling scenes together like this allows you to capture rich detail about the way you look at elements of the story unfolding across scenes in the screenplay.
Story Tracks¶
Scrite lets you tag keywords and formal story beats (from Save The Cat, or your own beat sheet) against each scene, or on a bunch of them at once. You can enable the display of tracks to get a quick overview of story elements along side the scene headings in the scene list panel.
Notice how the tracks on the left also shows a bar for each sequence (#1, #2 etc..) in a separate track.
More on formal story beats, and scene keywords in a later section.
Page Number and Screen Time¶
Although Scrite isn’t page‑centric, page counts still matter:
- Each page ≈ 1 minute of screen time, so page count helps estimate duration.
- Many structures are page‑centric (e.g., Save The Cat breaks into Act II at page 25).
Scrite lets you keep track of current page, total page count, current time and total time on the status bar. In the editor area, page breaks are shown in a bubble to the left of the editing area.
NOTE: When exporting to PDF, page count may change depending on MORE and CONT’D usage.
Time values are approximate (1 page ≈ 1 minute). You can adjust 'Time Per Page' in Settings → Screenplay → Page Setup.
Scrite automatically recalculates page count and time estimate as you type in a background thread. You can, however, force a full refersh of these estimates by clicking on the reload icon in the status bar.
NOTE: Page counts vary across apps. Final Draft, Scrite, and Fade In Pro may report different counts for the same screenplay; making them identical is rarely possible. Infact, page count estimates done by Scrite on Windows, macOS and Linux vary as well.
Formatting Paragraphs¶
You can format paragraph types and have that format applied to all paragraphs of those types. Go to Settings → Screenplay → Formatting Rules to view and edit the currently applied rules.
Click any paragraph in the preview and alter properties.
Close the dialog and Scrite applies your formatting rules across all scenes.
These formats are used in preview, exported PDFs, and reports.
Scrite does not apply special formatting to fragments of text (bold, italic, underline, color) within paragraphs via Formatting Rules. Use Markup Tools for inline formatting.
Formatting options are saved with the file and reused each time you open it, even if another file used different options. Scrite maintains two sets of formatting options:
- Default formatting options used for new files.
- Document‑specific options used for the current file.
Click “Factory Reset” to discard document‑specific options and use defaults. Click “Make Default” to set current options as your defaults.
Page Setup and Watermark¶
You can configure the page size, and content to show in header & footer of generated PDFs by opening Settings > Screenplay > Page Setup tab.
In the same page you can also configure the watermark to use in generated PDF files.
Watermarks are File Specific¶
Please note that watermarks are file-specific. This means that any change you make to watermark settings only applies to the file that is currently open. If you open another file, the watermark settings wont carry over to that file. Said in other words, watermark settings are saved along with the file and will be loaded whenever that file is opened.
You could save modified watermark settings as defaults, so that new documents created from then on will use those settings.
Impromptu Watermarks¶
While generating PDF of your screenplay or extracting reports, you can change the watermark text in the report generation dialog box.
NOTE: The ability to configure or turn off watermark is restricted in certain subscription plans. Please lookup plan features for more information.
Title Page¶
Editing the title page is described in the Quick Start guide.
Markup Tools¶
Markup Tools let you apply inline formatting to specific snippets of text. The Markup Tools dock is hidden by default; toggle it from the Screenplay Editor Options menu. You can move the dock to any part of the screen.
Select any text snippet and use Markup Tools to apply custom formatting. Hover over buttons to see shortcuts:
- Bold:
Ctrl+B - Italics:
Ctrl+I - Underline:
Ctrl+U - Strikeout:
Ctrl+R - ALL CAPS:
Shift+F3 - small caps:
Ctrl+Shift+F3
Find & Replace¶
The find and replace feature works like it does in most other text editors, except that it searches for and replaces text in scene content only, and not within scene headings and notes.
Use the Ctrl+F shortcut, or click on the Find icon (as shown in the screenshot
below) to pull up the Find panel along the top edge of the screenplay editor.
You can type a text to search in the find field and hit Return key to lookup search results.
Use the Ctrl+Shift+F shortcut to show the replace field and options.
Rename Locations¶
To rename a location referenced in scene headings, you can trigger the Rename
Location option in command center.
In the dialog box that's shown next select a location to rename.
Type the new location name and then click the Rename button.
This will cause location names to be renamed in scene headings across the entire screenplay.
Rename Characters¶
To rename a character referenced in scenes, you can trigger the Rename
Character option in command center.
In the dialog box that's shown next select a character to rename.
Type the new character name and then click the Rename button.
This will cause character names to be renamed in scene headings across the entire screenplay.
In a later section, yet another option to rename and merge characters is explained.
Custom Scene Numbers¶
By default, Scrite generates scene numbers automatically and regenerates them if you change order or insert scenes.
You can apply custom numbers (e.g., 1, 1A, 1B) by editing the scene number field. Automatic numbering resumes for scenes without custom numbers. Custom numbers appear in preview, exported PDFs, and reports.
Scene Type¶
Many writers, specificially Indian writers, prefer to mark a scene as action, montage or song scene. This helps them with production planning and more.
Side Panel¶
Scrite lets you capture additional information per scene. While the Notebook tab is best for capturing this information, the Screenplay editor also offers access to Comments, Featured Image, and Index Card Fields.
Comments¶
Check the "Show Comments Panel" in Screenplay Editor Options to show a pullout for each scene.
Clicking it opens a comment box per scene. For long scenes, the comment box scrolls with the scene and shows a title bar for clarity.
Featured Image¶
The comment box has multiple tabs. Click the Featured Image tab to assign a photo per scene. Drag and drop or click “Select Photo”. Typically this is a storyboard sketch or location photo, but you can choose any image.
Index Card Fields¶
Use the last tab to capture structured metadata per scene. By default, Index Card Fields includes:
- Conflict
- Emotional Change
- Page Target
You can edit these fields by clicking the Edit icon; configure up to five fields. These fields can also be edited in the Structure tab.
Scene Meta Data¶
When synopsis, characters & tags are hidden in screenplay editor, they show up in the fourth tab on the comments panel. This can be handy, because the comments panel scrolls along with the scene.
Character Presense¶
Scrite automatically tags character presence in a scene if they have dialogue.
For example, in the scene #23 below Linda has a dialogue, and you can notice that Scrite has automatically captured the presence of this character.
Same is the case with scene #24, where Blank, Joni, Elliot, Linda, Richard and Walt are captured as characters present in that scene.
This kind of tagging is especially useful when it comes to extracting reports. For example, you may want to extract dialogues of a specific character across all scenes, or get a table of character presence across all scenes in the film.
Adding Mute Characters¶
Notice that in Scene #23, while Linda has a dialogue, Meg, Richard and Joni are also present in the scene, but they are mute. So, strictly speaking they are present in the scene and as such should be tagged as well.
You can add mute characters to the scene either manually, or by asking Scrite to scan for mute characters automatically. To manually add a mute character, click on the + icon and enter the character name.
You can add as multiple mute characters. Notice that mute characters will have a cancel icon, which makes it possible to remove them from the scene.
To automatically scan for mute characters, trigger the "Scan Mute Characters" action from the command center.
Scrite will look for references to character names in the scene, who may not have a dialogue but are present in the scene nevertheless. However, please note that Scrite only recognizes characters as mute in a scene if they are present in atleast one other scene in the screenplay, either because they have a dialogue or because they are mute.
NOTE: Scanning for mute characters currently works only for character names in English.
Invisible Characters¶
In some cases, it is possible that a character has a dialogue in the scene but is invisible.
In the scene above, Joni has a dialogue but is invisible, because we only hear Joni’s voice but don’t actually see Joni on the scene. Said in other words, Joni is invisible.
While extracting character presence reports, we need to make sure that Joni’s presence is not marked in this scene, let it impacts scheduling chart that an AD may create for the actor who plays Joni.
Invisible character names are shown in italics, if "Capture Invisible Character" is checked in Settings > Screenplay > Options page.
Alter Character Name¶
If you have “Show Scene Characters and Tags” turned on in Screenplay Editor options, then you can click on a character name in the character list shown under scene heading and select “Rename/Merge Character” option ….
… and Scrite will then present a dialog box for you where you can provide a new name for your character.
In this dialog you can either provide a new name and Scrite will rename it for you.
Once renamed, the changes cannot be undone. However, you can rename the new name back to its original name.
Scrite not only changes the name in character paragraphs, but also in scene headings and other paragraphs, including references to the name in scene synopsis and notes.
NOTE: Character renaming works best with English names written in Latin charset. If you have written your entire Screenplay in other language(s), then Scrite can’t properly rename your characters unless an entire word is found with the character name in it.
Merge Characters¶
Suppose that you have a screenplay where you may have accidentally used two names for the same character. In this case, Maya and Mayavi.
You may want to merge Mayavi into Maya across the entire screenplay, even if the name is used in action or dialogue paragraphs. Just like you would rename characters, you can click on Mayavi and select the “Rename/Merge Character” option.
Scrite will present a dialog for you to enter the new character name. In that dialog box, write the name of the character you want to merge this one with.
Now, upon clicking the “Rename” button, you will notice that Scrite recognizes it as a merge workflow and will ask you to confirm it.
Upon clicking “Yes” in this dialog box, Scrite not only changes Mayavi to Maya everywhere in the screenplay, but it will also move notes, attachments, and photos associated with Mayavi with the notes, attachments, and photos of Maya.
NOTE: This works works best with English names written in Latin charset. If you have written your entire Screenplay in other language(s), then Scrite can’t properly rename your characters unless an entire word is found with the character name in it.
Story Beats & Keywords¶
Scrite lets you tag additional meta-data to your scenes to get an overall impression of your story structure, design or flow. The way in which all of this is shown in the screenplay tab differs from the way in which its shown in the structure tab. Together they give you a comprehensive view of your story.
Formal Story Beats¶
By formal story beats we mean beats from story structures like Save The Cat,
or Hero's Journey, or even custom beat sheets you may create.
With Characters & Tags enabled you can click on the plus sign next to Formal
Tags to tag the scene with one or more beats from your story structure.
By default, Scrite offers beats from Save The Cat beat sheet. But you can add
your own beats by clicking on the Customize button in the popup.
The syntax for describing story beats is self-explanatory.
Keywords¶
In addition to formal story beats, you can tag your scenes with custom keywords which can offer additional context to your scenes.
Just click on the plus icon next to Keywords ...
... and add a keyword in the text field shown there. You can add any number of keywords to a scene.
Keywords and tags thus added will be rendered as tracks along side scenes in the scene list panel.
Sequences¶
As a writer you may want to bundle multiple scenes into a sequence, because they all form a logical group in your story. Simply select a range of scenes and bundle them together into a sequence.
Scenes that are part of a sequence have a arrow prior to their scene number in the scene list panel.
You can easily add/remove scenes to a sequence by using the context menu. Bundling scenes together like this allows you to capture rich detail about the way you look at elements of the story unfolding across scenes in the screenplay.
Writing with Scene‑Centric Precision in Scrite¶
Scrite’s scene‑centric architecture treats each scene as a discrete block of text, loading only what’s visible to keep memory usage low and performance smooth. Most professional screenplays use short scenes, with occasional longer ones. Scrite is optimized for this style. If most scenes exceed two pages, performance may degrade.
Best practices:
- Keep most scenes under a page.
- Use a few two‑page scenes sparingly.
- For long sequences in one location, break into smaller scenes: start with a proper heading, divide into logical beats, and omit headings for subsequent beats if desired.
Long Scene Warning¶
By default, Scrite displays a warning icon next to scenes that have more than 150 words.
You can edit this treshold, or turn off long scene warning all together in Settings > Screenplay > Options page.
Scenes Without Heading¶
You can turn off scene headings for specific scenes. Pull out the scene menu and uncheck “Scene Heading”. The editor shows “NO SCENE HEADING”. Such scenes are shown as is in preview and exported as such in PDF and reports.
Inserting Scenes¶
To insert a scene in-between two existing scenes in the screenplay, simply make the first of the two scenes active…
… then click on the add scene button in the toolbar …
… or use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+N.
Scrite automatically adds a scene, whose heading is a slight variation of the previous scene. You can edit both the scene heading and the scene contents.
By default, Scrite places cursor in the newly added scene's content area. If you
want to alter the auto-generated heading for the new scene, then you can hit
Ctrl+0 to switch focus to the scene heading. Alternatively, you can check the
"Set Cursor on Heading in New Scenes" options in "Screenplay Editor Options"
accessible from the command center.
Removing Scenes¶
Removing a scene is as simple as pulling out the scene menu and selecting the “Remove” option.
NOTE: Removed scenes are not deleted, they are just no longer a part of the screenplay. You can always add them back by switching to the Structure tab.
Omit Scenes¶
Sometimes, the entire script is handed over to the production team, who may have used the scene numbers as stated in the screenplay. Later, you might want to remove a scene. However, removing a scene alters the scene numbers of all subsequent scenes, which can be an issue. Instead, you can omit the scene.
Omitted scenes appear in the screenplay but are hidden in the UI and generated PDFs. This reduces the screenplay’s time and page count. You can click the "Include" button to bring them back.
This approach keeps the scene numbers intact while effectively removing the scene.
Splitting Scenes¶
Place the cursor before the first character of the paragraph where you want to
split, then right‑click and select “Split Scene” or use Ctrl+Shift+Enter
(Windows/Linux) or ⌘+Shift+Return (macOS). Dialogue character lists are split
accurately; mute characters remain in the original scene.
Merging Scenes¶
Place the cursor at the first line of the scene to merge into the previous one,
then right‑click “Join Previous Scene” or use Ctrl+Shift+Backspace
(Windows/Linux) or ⌘+Shift+Backspace (macOS). Scrite inserts a separator
paragraph; you can delete it.
Reordering Scenes¶
Drag scenes in the Scene List panel to reorder. Heading‑less scenes inherit context from the previous scene in their new location.
Page Breaks¶
While generating PDF files you can configure Scrite to generate each scene, or episode, or act on a new page. In addition to that, you can also insert page breaks before and after scenes. This allows you to bunch a group of scenes in sequence while generating PDFs.
Acts¶
You can break your screenplay into multiple acts by adding act breaks. Simply
click on the Act Break icon in the toolbar, or use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+B to insert an act break after the current scene.
By default, Scrite uses Save The Cat story structure. So acts are named ACT 1,
ACT 2A, ACT 2B and ACT 3. But you can offer your own act naming convention by
editing the formal story beats used in your screenplay.
You can move act breaks up and down the scene list panel, just like you can move up and down scenes.
Episodes¶
Just like act breaks, you can add episode breaks as well. This is especially
useful when you are writing screenplay for multiple episodes in a single
document. To insert an episode break after the current scene use the Episode
Break button on the toolbar, or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P.
Episode Scene Numbers¶
Act numbers reset after each episode, but scene numbers remain linear by
default. You can restart scene numbers after each episode by toggling the
Restart Episode Scene Numbers option.
Copy / Paste¶
You can copy a text snippet, a couple of paragraphs, an entire scene or several scenes at once to the clipboard. You can also pasted text from a second Scrite instance, or from another application too. Copy/paste in an app like Scrite, while easy to use, has certain nuances which is useful to be aware of.
Coping text snippets¶
When you select a snippet of text and copy Ctrl+C, Scrite copies the selected
text to clipboard.
You can paste the copied text elsewhere in the same Scrite document, or into another, or into a document opened in any 3rd party app on your Desktop.
Copying an entire scene¶
If your selection includes more than one block of text or an entire scene, ...
...then by default, Scrite copies a Fountain representation of the selection
when you trigger Copy Ctrl+C.
The benefit of copying text in Fountain format is that it makes pasting into Scrite, or 3rd-party screenwriting apps more productive because Fountain preserves formatting.
However, if you prefer to copy in plain-text, then you can uncheck the Copy
text in Fountain format in Settings > Screenplay > Options.
Copying several scenes at once¶
You can select one or more scenes on the scene list panel, right click and click
on Copy or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the selected scenes at
once.
Scrite copies a Fountain representation to the clipboard.
Pasting content¶
Text snippets are pasted inline, much like other apps do.
However if the text on the clipboard contains several blocks of text, then
Scrite parses it as a Fountain file and lets you paste content into a specific
scene. You could also select the Paste After option (Ctrl+Shift+V) to paste
content after the current scene. This is especially useful while copy/pasting
content to 3rd party apps.
Copy/Pasting Scenes to 3rd Party Apps¶
After selecting one or more scenes on the scene list panel, you can right click and copy selected scenes in Fountain format to the clipboard. If the clipboard has plain text or Fountain, "Paste After" lets you insert it after the current scene.
This way you can copy content out of Scrite to third party apps, and back.
Undo / Redo¶
Scrite offers undo Ctrl+Z and redo Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z much like other
Desktop apps. However, since Scrite has a hierarchy of documents some edits
cannot be undone.
Note: As of writing, Undo/Redo is a work in progress. As you face issues please consider adding a description of the issue to this dedicated thread on our Discord community server.
Spell Check¶
Scrite integrates with your operating system’s spell check, sharing dictionaries with other apps. If the language pack installed in your OS for a given language comes bundled with a spell-check dictionary, then Scrite will simply make use of that to mark mispelled words and offer suggestions from the same.
NOTE: Scrite completely relies on the operating-system to drive the spell-check functionality. It does not come bundled with a dictionary of its own.
Misspelled words are highlighted in red; right‑click for corrections.
Choose “Add to dictionary” (system‑wide) or “Ignore” (current document only). Scrite recognizes character names as correct by default.
NOTE: Grammar check is not yet available.
You can enable/disable spell-check in Settings > Screenplay > Options page.
