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Paste text into a screenplay

Who can do this: All plans. Editing the script needs the organization owner, an admin, or a member with Edit script.
A few pages from a writer’s Google Doc, a scene a collaborator sent in an email, the back half of a draft that only exists in Word: paste it and the editor sorts it into screenplay elements. Where to find it: click Writing in the project nav, then Script.

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Paste a scene

  1. Click in the script where the text should go.
  2. Press ⌘V (Ctrl+V on Windows).
A pasted scene in the editor: a scene heading, action, two character cues, a parenthetical, and dialogue Formatting from the source app is dropped on the way in. Only the words come through, so there is no need to paste as plain text first. If text is selected when you paste, the pasted text replaces the selection inside that element and is not split into new elements.

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What the editor recognizes

  • A line starting with INT., EXT., INT/EXT., or I/E becomes a scene heading.
  • A line in caps followed directly by a line of text becomes a character cue, and the line after it dialogue. A capitalized name like Maya works too.
  • A caps line followed by a blank line is action, not a character. OPENING CREDITS on its own stays action.
  • A line in parentheses becomes a parenthetical.
  • CUT TO: and FADE IN: become transitions.
  • A blank line ends dialogue and starts a new action paragraph.
  • A line starting with ! is always action.

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Prepare text from Word or Google Docs

  • Put each scene heading on its own line in caps: INT. HOUSE - DAY.
  • Put each character name on its own line, with the dialogue on the next line and no blank line between them.
  • Leave a blank line between action paragraphs and after each block of dialogue.
If a block comes in as action, check that the character name has its dialogue directly beneath it.

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Bring in a Final Draft script

For a whole script, export from Final Draft as a .fdx file and use Import a script. Pasting a few pages from Final Draft works as above, since the copied text already follows screenplay conventions.

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Paste from Celtx, Highland, and similar

These apps write Fountain or plain text with the same conventions, so pasting keeps the structure. For a whole script, export a .fountain file and import it instead.