Splitting, merging, inserting and reordering scenes

In one line: cut one scene into two, fold two back into one, drop a new scene anywhere, and drag the running order into shape.

Right-click a line — the whole menu, top to bottom

• Copy · Cut · Paste · Select All
• Split Scene · Insert Scene Above · Insert Scene Below · Merge with Previous · Delete this scene
• AI Actions 6 (folded; opens to Polish / Expand / Rewrite / Condense / Comment / Inspire)
• Add to Chat
• Team — Add Comment · Suggest Edit
• Add note 4 (folded; opens to Add Note / Add Todo / Add Setup (Foreshadow) / Add Payoff (Resolve))

The scene block is the second one. The two group rows carry a count and stay folded until you open them, which is what keeps the menu from running two screens long. Split Scene is absent on the first line of a scene and Merge with Previous on the first scene of the file; on a read-only share link only Copy, Select All and the two Team entries survive.

Every scene action lives in one right-click menu

In edit view, right-click any line — dialogue, action, a character cue, it does not matter. The second block of the menu is scene structure:

1. Split Scene — cut the scene open at this line
2. Insert Scene Above
3. Insert Scene Below
4. Merge with Previous
5. Delete this scene (in red)

Above it sit copy, cut, paste and select all — where "select all" means this line, not the document. Below it come the AI quick actions, comments, and notes.

On a phone, long-press a line and the menu rises from the bottom.

Splitting

When to split

• The scene moves from indoors to outdoors halfway through. That is two scenes.
• Time jumps — a few hours, a day.
• The scene has simply run too long, and its card on the board looks wrong however you squint at it.

How to split

Right-click the line you want to become the first line of the new scene, and choose Split Scene.

The cut goes in above the line you clicked. That line and everything under it move into the new scene. Everything above stays where it was.

The first line of a scene has no Split Scene option, because splitting there would leave the original scene empty. The last line does have one — starting a new scene from the last line is perfectly legitimate.

After a split

• Scene numbers renumber across the whole file. Scene 7 becomes 7 and 8, and everything after shifts down.
• The new scene's heading is blank. You fill in INT/EXT and the location yourself. Slima does not guess.
• Cast and running time are recalculated from whatever moved.

Merging

How to merge

Right-click any line in the scene you want to absorb — the lower of the two — and choose Merge with Previous.

The first scene in a file has no option, since there is nothing above it.

After a merge

• The two scenes' contents run together in order.
• The upper scene's heading survives: its INT/EXT, location and time of day.
• The absorbed scene disappears along with its heading.
• Cast and running time are recalculated.

The delete dialog offers it too

The ✕ at the right of a scene heading row, and Delete this scene in the menu, both open a confirmation first.

When the scene has content in it, the dialog says "This scene has content. Choose how to handle it:" and gives you two ways out:

So if what you actually meant was "there should not be a break here", the delete route steers you into a merge rather than letting you take the dialogue down with it.

Inserting a scene

Insert Scene Above and Insert Scene Below work relative to the scene containing the line you right-clicked. The new scene comes in empty: heading and content are both yours to fill.

To add one at the very end, use the dashed Add Scene button at the foot of the page, or type / and pick New Scene from the palette.

Reordering

Dragging happens in Board view. Press Board on the toolbar and the page becomes a column of scene cards.

• Grab the grip on the left edge. Only the grip drags. The card itself does not, because it is covered in editable fields and a permanently draggable card makes it impossible to even select text.
• The ▲▼ buttons do the same job. They are not redundant: native drag-and-drop is unusable with a keyboard and on touch screens.

Drop it and the scene numbers renumber themselves. Not a word of content moves; only the order changes.

All of it is undoable

Split, merge, delete, insert, drag-reorder — every one of them is within reach of Ctrl/⌘ + Z. The history stack is fifty steps deep. Redo is Mod+Shift+Z or Mod+Y.

One layer above that sits version history: Slima takes an automatic version before big changes, so a session that went wrong can be rolled back whole. See auto-version rules.

Related

• Docs: Opening a screenplay file
• Docs: Scene headings: INT and EXT
• Docs: The outline panel
• Docs: Notes pinned to a scene
• Docs: Shortcut cheat sheet
• Docs: Auto-version rules