A tour of your workspace#
A walk through your project once it's open — the menu down the left side, the chat panel, and the little strip at the bottom that tells you everything is saved.
When you open a project, you land on the Script editor with a slim menu running down the left edge. If the project's wizard is still in progress, the Script page shows how far along it is and a button to continue instead. Nisaba, your AI writing partner, sits in a panel you can open on the right. A status strip keeps you posted on saving and background tasks.
The left menu (your navigation rail)#
The narrow strip of icons down the left side is your navigation rail. By default it shows just icons; hover over it and it slides open to reveal the name beside each icon. Whichever view you're on is highlighted.
At the top is the NABU mark. Click it to go back to your dashboard — the home screen that lists all your screenplays.
At the bottom, pinned in place, is the Project Settings gear, which opens this project's settings — not your account settings.
Note: If your project still needs setting up, a shortcut to the guided start-a-script flow — the wizard — appears in the rail. Once your story has a shape, that shortcut goes away.
Here's every destination in the rail, top to bottom.
Script#
The main writing surface — where you type and edit your screenplay in proper industry format. A scene list on the left lets you jump around. See The script editor.
Title Page#
The cover of your screenplay — title, your name, and contact details. See The title page.
Story#
What your story is about and what it still needs: your scenes and beats across the top, then the Story Core (your question and logline), Nisaba's questions one at a time, and one list — your threads and what Nabu understands — with the detail of whatever you click beside it. See The Story page.
Treatment#
Your story told as a prose document — the narrative version of your screenplay you can read and edit. See The treatment.
Board#
Your screenplay as a wall of index cards — one card per scene. Drag cards to reorder them, add or remove scenes, recolor a card, or click a card to edit its summary. The Board (also called the corkboard) has two layouts: Story Zones, which groups cards by the stage of the story, and Freeform, where you pin cards wherever you like. See The corkboard.
Temporal#
A sticky Spine Strip ribbon runs across the top showing your sequences and scene-page distribution. The page has three sections:
- Outline — your scenes as a drag-to-reorder list grouped by acts and zones.
- Visualizations — holds Dynamics, Character Presence, and Location Use. The Dynamics charts are part of the Pro plan; below Pro this section shows "See the shape of your story" with an Explore Pro link.
- Threads — a string-board of the themes and threads that recur through your story. An UPDATE THREADS button refreshes the analysis when your story has changed.
See The Temporal page.
Characters#
Your character bible — the cast of your screenplay, with the details Nabu and Nisaba track for each one. See Characters.
Locations#
Your location directory — every place your story happens. See Locations.
Influences#
Marked Coming soon and can't be opened.
Doctor#
The Script Doctor — Nabu's feedback feature. It opens on Notes, showing "Notes on this draft, scene by scene" — the story notes Nabu has found. Opening Notes uses none of your plan. A second room, Coverage, lets you request a development-executive read of your script when you click Run Coverage; you'll get a verdict — Recommend, Consider, or Pass — along with notes. See Coverage and the Script Doctor.
Uses your plan: Running coverage draws on your plan. The exact share depends on the length of your script.
History#
Every meaningful change is saved automatically. This page lets you create named save points, see an older-to-newer comparison of changes, and roll back to an earlier version of your project, a single document, or one scene. See Save points and history.
Export#
Where you take your finished work out of Nabu — as a PDF, a Fountain file, a Final Draft file, or a complete Nabu backup bundle. See Exporting your screenplay.
Note: A Journal entry near the bottom of the rail is marked Coming soon and can't be opened.
Project Settings (pinned at the bottom)#
Settings for this project — its details and preferences. For your account, sign-in, and notifications, use the settings from your dashboard. See Account and settings.
Nisaba — your chat partner#
Nisaba is your AI writing partner. On a computer she opens as a chat panel beside your script; you can talk through your story, ask questions, or have her draft or revise scenes. On a phone she rides along as a floating chat button.
Nisaba can drop inline suggestions right into your script — small proposed edits you accept or dismiss. When you ask her to rewrite a scene, change a character, or reorder or remove scenes, she does it straight away; you can undo it or restore it from History. See Inline AI suggestions and Working with Nisaba.
Uses your plan: Chatting with Nisaba and asking her to write or revise draws on your plan.
The status strip (saving and progress)#
Two signals keep you informed:
- At the bottom of the left menu, a small save indicator reads Saving… while your newest words await a snapshot and All changes saved once Nabu has your words. Hover the menu to also see your draft number and page count (like Draft 1 · 84p).
- A status bar surfaces anything Nabu is doing in the background — for example, when Nisaba is analyzing your script. If your story has drifted out of sync, a small count appears on the AI button.
- Open the jobs drawer from the status bar to see the work on this screenplay. Jobs lists what is running or waiting, with Stop where you can stop it. Below that are the latest finished jobs, each marked Done, Stopped (you stopped it), Cancelled (Nabu stopped it) or Didn’t finish, with when it ended. Activity lists what you were told.
A usage meter in the status bar shows how much of your plan you've used as a filling bar plus a percent. It warms in colour as you approach your limit; hover over it to see when your usage resets.
Note: Nabu keeps a private backup of your unsaved edits in your browser, so if your computer crashes or you close the tab by accident, your latest typing comes back when you return. If a backup differs from the saved script, Nabu may ask you to restore or discard the recovered draft.
On a phone#
On a small screen the left menu tucks away. Tap the hamburger menu (the three-line icon at the top-left) to slide open the same list of destinations, plus Project Settings and a Report a bug button. The first entry, All Projects, takes you back to your dashboard.
When you're in the script editor on a phone, a Scenes button appears at the top-right to open your scene list.
Good to know#
- The Outline and Timeline you may remember from elsewhere both live inside Temporal now — there's no separate page for either.
- The screenplay formatting controls (choosing a line type, keyboard shortcuts) live inside the editor itself — see The script editor.
- The left menu and its save footer disappear while you're in the wizard, which has its own saving indicator.
Related#
- Your first project — the three ways to begin a screenplay
- The script editor — where you write
- Save points and history — your safety net
- Glossary — plain-language definitions of Nabu terms