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"This script uses the legacy format": Upgrade and create a copy

Last updated September 9, 2026 · 6 min read

In one line: this page is about the format prompt that appears when you open a very old screenplay, and what Upgrade & Create Copy actually does.

The Script Studio shelf — opening a screenplay created long ago from here is what triggers the legacy-format prompt
The prompt appears when the book opens. Nothing on the shelf tells you in advance which book will show it.

The confusing part first: this prompt has nothing to do with Script Studio no longer taking new work. It is left over from a much earlier change to the data format, and what the button produces is another Script Studio book. It will not carry you into the Writing Studio. The route into 4.0 is called Copy as new Writing Studio book and it lives in the card's ⋯ menu.

When it appears

Only for screenplays created in the early days. When a book opens, Slima looks at which generation of settings file is inside it. Find the older generation and it declares the legacy format, shows This script uses the legacy format, and puts a Read-only backup badge beside the title.

Not Now dismisses it, but it comes back the next time you open that book.

Most people will never see this screen at all.

Why the old format cannot run the newer features

Nothing is locked. There is simply nowhere to put the data. The old generation of the format predates seasons and episodes, so:

  • there is no field to hold the season and episode hierarchy
  • a character cannot record that they are different in one season than in another
  • a scene has no slot for a storyline tag
  • switching the scene board to Season has no episodes to lay out as columns

Upgrading swaps the book onto the file structure in use today, which gives those fields somewhere to live.

What the button does

  1. Open the old screenplay. The prompt appears on its own.
  2. Click Upgrade & Create Copy. There is no second confirmation.
  3. Slima copies the book, names it the old title plus -copy (that suffix is fixed English and does not follow your interface language), then migrates the content into the copy.
  4. The new book opens by itself and sits at the front of the shelf.

The original is never rewritten. The migration only runs on the copy. The original stays where it is, as your backup.

Check these before you delete the backup

Five minutes with the new book now beats reconstructing something later:

  • Character ages. An age typed as words rather than digits has no numeric field to land in and may come through blank.
  • Character relationships. Relationship kinds are collapsed into a single "other" category, and what used to be two separate description fields is merged into one.
  • Season and episode names. The upgrade creates a first season and a first episode for you, but leaves their names empty.
  • Storyline tags. The old format held no storyline data, so no scene arrives tagged.
  • Note placement. Every note lands at the episode level.
  • Images and character portraits. Click through a few and see that they still render.
  • Version history. The new book starts from a fresh initial version; the old book's history stays with the old book.

Do not delete the backup until you have satisfied yourself the new book is complete. If something did not make it across, that backup is the only place left to get it from.

If you want to move to 4.0, the order matters

A legacy-format book cannot go straight to Copy as new Writing Studio book. That feature reads the season-and-episode structure, and the old format has none.

Two steps, in this order

Legacy-format book Upgrade & Create Copy A working screenplay Copy as new Writing Studio book Writing Studio

After the middle step you still hold a Script Studio book. Only the last step crosses into 4.0.

If the upgrade fails

Uncommon, but it happens:

  1. Wait a few seconds, reload, try again. Some failures are just a connection timing out.
  2. A failed upgrade leaves the original untouched, so retrying costs you nothing.
  3. If it keeps failing, get in touch and tell us the title of the book.

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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