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Start a screenplay: create a .script file

Last updated September 9, 2026 · 9 min read

In one line: this shows you how to open episode one inside the Writing Studio, and how to bring a screenplay you have already written into Slima.

Two routes, one kind of file

Add Content, under the tree

  • New Manuscript
  • New Reference
  • New Folder
  • New Relationship Map
  • New Script
  • New Map
  • New Timeline
  • New beat board

Right-click a folder

  • New Manuscript
  • New Script
  • New Reference
  • New Folder
  • More
    • New Relationship Map
    • New Map
    • New Timeline
    • New beat board
    • Upload File

Both lists come out of the same registry, so a screenplay is never more than one click away. The button under the tree is flat, shows all eight at once, and always drops the file at the top level. The right-click menu keeps four entries on the first level, folds the rest under More, and creates the file inside the folder you clicked. A phone has no right-click, so there it is the first route only.

Screenplays live somewhere else now

A screenplay used to be a kind of book. You created a screenplay project, then opened a season inside it, then an episode inside that. Not any more.

Script Studio (old)

  • A separate screenplay project
  • Work → season → episode → scene
  • Format and type picked in a wizard

4.0

  • An ordinary book in the Writing Studio
  • A .script file in the tree, one per episode
  • Format switched on the file's own toolbar

The point of the move is that the screenplay now sits in the same file tree as everything feeding it. Character files, the relationship map, the timeline, the beat board, all one drag away, and one AI chat panel that can read the lot.

The old Script Studio is not taking new works, but the projects you already have there still open. What to do with them, and whether to copy one across, is covered in the old Script Studio: what still works.

Make a new .script

  1. Open a book — the one you are already writing is fine. A screenplay does not need a book of its own.
  2. Press Add Content above the file tree and pick New Script.
  3. Name the episode, something like Episode 01 - The Copyist Girl.

Add Content drops the new file at the top level of the tree. It does not land in whatever folder you had open. To have it appear in the right place from the start, right-click that folder and choose New Script there instead. If it is already in the wrong place, drag it.

The name you type is both the file name and the screenplay's title. A public share page prints no file name of its own, so that title line is the only one a reader sees, which means renaming the file renames the screenplay.

One file per episode: how to lay it out

Twelve episodes means twelve files. Keep them in one folder and number the names, and the tree sorts itself:

Screenplay/
Episode 01 - The Copyist Girl.script
  Episode 02 - The Word Bureau.script
  Episode 03 - Her Father's Letter.script
Notes/
  Screenplay Outline.md
  Story Skeleton.beats

There is a practical reason to keep them together as well: export can merge a whole folder into one PDF, with divider pages between episodes. Files scattered around the tree do not get that.

A brand-new .script is empty apart from a line of help and an Add Scene button. Press it and start writing. There are no structure templates in 4.0 — nothing asks whether you want three acts — so if you want to lay out shape first, use a .beats beat board in the same tree.

Screenplays count as manuscript, so the words go into your daily count and your streak.

Bring in a screenplay you already wrote

Three routes, all ending in a .script file:

Three ways in

Drag the file onto the tree Import dialog → choose file Import dialog → paste the text

All three run the same parser, so the result is identical.

What the file is decides whether Slima can read it as a screenplay at all:

What you have What arrives How the format is decided
.fountain a .script file the extension already says
.fdx (Final Draft) a .script file same
.rtf a .script file read from the content: Taiwanese or Hollywood
pasted text a .script file same, detected automatically
.docx / .pdf / .txt a .md prose file, not a screenplay —

Read that last row twice. A Word or PDF screenplay arrives as flat prose — scene headings, character cues and dialogue all become ordinary paragraphs. To get a real screenplay file, with Tab moving between elements, save it out of your old tool as Fountain, FDX or RTF first. Final Draft, Trelby and Highland all do at least one of those.

Ten megabytes per file. If a name already exists you are asked whether to skip, rename or overwrite.

Read it through once after it lands. The parser works off layout, so cues that were never capitalised, headings that do not start the line, or a mix of two scripts can put a line in the wrong element. Fix them in the editor with Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5, which is faster than it sounds — see the shortcut cheat sheet.

Getting it back out

Export Screenplay is the first button on the file's toolbar. A single file goes out as PDF (the label tells you whether it is Taiwanese or Hollywood), Word, or Fountain. When there are other .script files in the same folder, the same dialog grows a Merge Export (This Folder) section: one PDF of every episode, with an optional watermark and a choice between continuous page numbers and restarting them each episode.

Exporting the whole book adds a What to export choice: Manuscript, Everything (manuscript + reference), or Custom. Backup formats always contain every file. Select several files in the tree and the right-click menu offers Export selected as well.

The "whole season" and "whole series" export scopes are gone; they belonged to the hierarchy. A folder is the closest thing left.

Related

Try it in Slima

Open the app and do this with your own book. Free to start, no credit card.

Open Slima
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