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Delivery: exporting an episode as PDF, Word or Fountain

Last updated September 9, 2026 · 8 min read

In one line: how to hand a screenplay over — one episode as PDF / Word / Fountain / ePub, a folder of episodes merged into a single PDF, and the three ranges you get when exporting a whole book.

The Export File dialog, top to bottom

Export File
  Episode 01 - The Copyist Girl
Export Format
  Taiwan Format (A4, Heiti 14pt)
  Word (.docx)
  Fountain (.fountain)
  ePub (.epub)
  Markdown (.md)
Merge Export (This Folder)
  Watermark (optional)   [ e.g. CONFIDENTIAL / DRAFT v2 ]
  Page numbers   ( Continuous | Per-episode )
  Export Merged PDF (12 episodes)
  Cancel      Export

The second line names the file you are exporting. The first format row carries this file's own setting — it reads Hollywood Format (US Letter, Courier 12pt) on a Hollywood file, and you are never asked which you want. The Merge Export block appears only while another .script sits in the same folder; with a single episode the dialog ends at Markdown.

The Deliver tab is gone; export lives on the file

The old Script Studio had a Deliver view: pick one of five templates (bible / screenplay / character bible / episode outline / custom), set a range and a format, export. That whole page is gone.

It's worth saying why the templates went. What they really did was assemble scattered fields into a document. 4.0 doesn't have those fields — a bible, a character sheet, an episode outline are .md files you wrote yourself, sitting in a planning folder, and you hand them over the way you hand over any file. With nothing in the middle to assemble, there is nothing for a template to do.

What survived is the part that was actually a deliverable: the screenplay's own typeset export. It now lives on the file.

Exporting one episode

Right-click the .script → Export or open it and press Export Screenplay on the toolbar Pick a format → Export

Both entry points open the same dialog and run the same engine.

What one .script can become

Format For
PDF Print, contests, giving someone something to read. The label reads Taiwan Format (A4, Heiti 14pt) or Hollywood Format (US Letter, Courier 12pt) — taken from this file's own format setting. You are not asked.
Word (.docx) A story editor or production office who will keep editing
Fountain (.fountain) Plain-text screenplay format, for moving into other screenwriting software
ePub (.epub) Reading on an e-reader
Markdown (.md) The prose flattening (headings + dialogue + action), not screenplay layout

The first four go through the real screenplay engine: Courier and Hollywood indents, the Taiwanese scene presentation, all of it. Markdown is the screenplay turned into text — good for pasting somewhere, not for handing in.

A lock and a plan name next to a format means that format needs an upgrade before you can pick it. The dialog says so on the spot, so you never have to go looking.

The first PDF you export downloads the font your content's language needs, so it takes a moment longer; after that it's quick. A line in the dialog says so.

What happened to "scope"

The old article's range was episode / season / series, with a note that season and series only worked for PDF. Those three options rested on the old four-level hierarchy (series → season → episode → scene), and in 4.0 one episode is one file — there is no season level to pick. So that dropdown doesn't exist.

Handing over several episodes at once still does. It became three actions inside the export dialog, and a fourth route that starts from the folder itself.

1. Merge Export (This Folder)

Open any episode, open the export dialog, scroll down. When the same folder holds other .script files, a Merge Export (This Folder) section appears: the N screenplay files in that folder become one PDF, with a divider page between episodes.

Two options worth setting:

  • Watermark (optional): type CONFIDENTIAL or DRAFT v2 and it sits on every page.
  • Page numbers: Continuous (1 to the end of the whole document) or Per-episode (each episode restarts at 1). A production read usually wants per-episode; an archive copy or a contest submission wants continuous.

With only one episode the section doesn't appear — nothing to merge with. The merged output is PDF only, in the format of the episode you currently have open.

Which makes "one folder per season" more than tidiness — the folder is the merge range. Twelve files under Screenplay/Season 1/ means one command for a whole season.

There is a second door to the same merge: right-click the folder rather than an episode and you get Export Folder, which offers Export Merged (one PDF, or one ePub with a chapter per episode) and Export Separately (one file per episode, zipped). It is laid out in handing the screenplay over.

2. Three ranges when you export the whole book

The top of the left panel in the editor has a download button (so does the ⋯ menu on each book on the shelf), and it opens Export Work. Near the top is a What to export control:

Range Contains
Manuscript Manuscript files only. A .script counts as manuscript, so in a pure screenplay book this is all twelve episodes
Everything (manuscript + reference) Plus the character sheets, planning files and notes
Custom Tick what you want in the file list

Pick PDF when every source file is a screenplay and you get one PDF: a cover plus a divider page per episode. ePub is also one file, one chapter per episode. Word and Fountain come back as a zip, one file per episode — merging those two makes them harder to use, not easier.

Backup formats (Slima backup, ZIP) always include every file, and the range control locks. That's a backup, not a delivery.

3. Tick the episodes you're sending

To hand over episodes 3 to 5, you don't need three exports. Multi-select those files in the file tree, right-click and choose Export selected (3) — it opens the same Export Work dialog with the range already on Custom and those three already ticked.

After the export

The file downloads to your computer. Slima does not keep exported files — an export is a one-off, and the copy is yours to look after. When you want to give someone something to read online instead of a file, use share links.

Related

Try it in Slima

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

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