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Bring an existing screenplay in: Final Draft, Fountain, Word, or a folder of drafts

Last updated September 9, 2026 · 9 min read

In one line: which old drafts arrive as a screenplay you can edit, which ones only arrive as a text file, what to do with a format Slima can't read, and the six things to check afterwards.

The short answer: what becomes a screenplay

What you have What arrives Format decision
.fdx (Final Draft) a .script file, scenes and elements already split Hollywood
.fountain a .script file Hollywood
.rtf a .script file guessed from the content: Taiwan or Hollywood
pasted text a .script file guessed from the content
.docx (Word) a .md manuscript, not a screenplay —
.pdf it asks you which: Convert to Markdown (text extracted into a .md manuscript) or Keep PDF Original —
.txt / .md a .md manuscript —
.srt (subtitles) a .md manuscript —
.zip (a Slima backup) the whole bundle restored as it was —

The row that matters most is Word. A .docx does not become a screenplay — it becomes a Markdown manuscript, and the line types (dialogue, action, character) are flattened into ordinary paragraphs. To turn a screenplay that lives in Word into a real screenplay, use "Paste screenplay text" in the third section below.

Three routes in

Moving an old draft in

Drag it onto the file tree or Import Files → pick a file or Paste screenplay text

All three run the same parsers. The difference is only what you happen to be holding.

  1. Drag it onto the file tree. Drop it exactly where you want it. A whole folder works too — the folder and everything inside it are recreated in the same shape (folders whose names start with a dot are skipped).
  2. The Import Files dialog. Right-click in the tree → More → Upload File, or "import existing text" from an empty book. You can pick several files at once. If a name already exists you're asked to Skip / Rename / Overwrite. The dialog prints the current list of accepted extensions right underneath the drop zone.
  3. Paste screenplay text. Inside the same dialog — see below.

Final Draft, Fountain, RTF: straight into a screenplay

These three arrive as an editable .script: scene headings, character names, dialogue, action and transitions are already separate elements, so you can press Enter and keep writing.

At the moment of import, Slima does this:

  • Renumbers the scenes 1, 2, 3… (the source's own numbering is not carried over).
  • Recomputes each scene's word count and runtime estimate, so the readout doesn't sit at zero.
  • Carries over title, writer, episode number and subtitle when the source had a title page the parser could read. They land at the top of the page.
  • Does not invent acts. Fountain and plain-text screenplay formats carry no act markers, so the outline panel shows a flat list of scenes. (An earlier version split scenes 1:2:1 into three acts with hard-coded Chinese act names — that was a guess dressed up as data, and it's gone.)

Word and PDF: text first, then paste it as a screenplay

A screenplay that lives in Word

Select all and copy in Word Open Import Files in Slima Hit "Paste screenplay text" Paste → title (optional) → "Import as Script"

The paste route analyses what you pasted and produces real scenes and elements — not at all the same thing as dragging the .docx in.

Leave the title field blank and you get a default filename; rename it in the tree afterwards.

PDF has one extra step: dropping it in pops a "PDF Import Mode" dialog asking for Convert to Markdown or Keep PDF Original — pick the first if you want it as a screenplay source. After that it is the same story: look at how clean the extracted text is, then copy from that .md into a screenplay. If the original file still exists, use the .fdx — don't route through PDF. Extracted PDF text is only text; every line type is lost.

When Slima can't read the format

If an extension isn't on the accepted list, the file picker won't even offer it, and dragging it in returns Unsupported file format in red. The one people hit most is an old .doc (not .docx).

Two ways out:

  1. Export to .fdx or .fountain from the tool it lives in. Both arrive as an editable screenplay; this is by far the least work.
  2. No export option? Copy the text and use "Paste screenplay text".

No import route lets you say "this is Taiwan format". .rtf and pasted text are guessed from features in the content (a tie goes to Taiwan); .fdx and .fountain are always parsed as Hollywood.
If the guess is wrong, the Hollywood / Taiwan toggle in the toolbar only changes the layout — it does not re-analyse your lines. Element types were decided at import. So the cheapest fix is preventive: before importing, make sure the source's scene headings are recognisable (a Taiwan-format source starts its headings with 內景 / 外景; a Hollywood one with INT. / EXT.).

Six things to check afterwards

  1. The format toggle — the Hollywood | Taiwan pair on the right of the toolbar.
  2. Element types. A few misclassified lines are normal. Put the caret on the line and press Ctrl+1 for action, 2 character, 3 dialogue, 4 parenthetical, 5 shot — or right-click the line.
  3. The three scene-heading fields: INT/EXT, location, time of day.
  4. The top of the page: episode number, title, subtitle, writer. Fill in whatever the source didn't carry — these four are printed on the exported title page.
  5. The target minutes. Import doesn't set one. Type it into the Est. / target readout on the right of the toolbar.
  6. Character names. If a same-named .md exists in the book, the name in the screenplay picks up a dashed underline and Ctrl-click opens it. If it doesn't, nothing breaks — you don't need to create character files before importing.

Bringing in twelve episodes at once

One episode is one file, so select all twelve .fdx files at once, or just drag the folder in.

Import won't order them for you — tree order is drop order, and you drag from there. Folder and filename suggestions are in Write a TV series: one folder per season, one file per episode.

Limits, and what failure looks like

  • 10MB per file; 100MB for a .zip, and at most 500 files inside it.
  • Unsupported files inside a zip are not silently dropped. After the import you're told how many didn't come in, with up to three named as examples.
  • A corrupted Slima structured file (.script, .map, .timeline) is stopped at the door with not a valid Slima file — it won't land as a file that refuses to open.

When not to use import

  • Don't use import to move a whole old Script Studio work. That has its own route: the "⋯" menu on the old work has Copy as a new writing book. It converts each episode into a .script, characters and places into .md files, and the structure into a beat board — none of which import does. What comes across and what doesn't is in The old Script Studio: what still works, and how to move a project across.
  • Don't expect .zip to convert anything. A .zip here is a bundle Slima exported; it restores a file structure, it doesn't turn outside screenplays into screenplay files.

Related

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