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The editor#

Your writing canvas — where you type your screenplay and it formats itself as you go.

Open a project from your dashboard and this is what you land on: a clean, page-shaped canvas ready for your first line. You type, and Nabu turns what you write into proper screenplay format.

What you're looking at#

The editor shows your script the way it will print: black text on a white page, in Courier Prime — the fixed-width typewriter font the film industry uses.

Across the top sits the editor toolbar — Vomit (when available), undo and redo, voice controls, a row of buttons for the six screenplay element types, Dual (when your cursor is on a character cue), and Layers. Just below the toolbar on the right, on a see-through strip, you'll find a zoom control and a page count that updates as you write. Saved page counts used outside the editor are recalculated from the saved screenplay, including edits made while a calculation is already running. A save-triggered recalculation also uses the current act printing rules.

Down one side you'll find Nisaba, your AI writing partner.

The scene rail counts written scenes, not unwritten cards. Its headings and the beat labels on the page use your story's chosen shape: when several beats share a heading, +1 (or more) means you can hover for all their names. The counts and names agree with the Story page and map.

Just start typing#

Put your cursor on the page and write. As you type, Nabu watches the shape of each line and converts it to the right screenplay element:

  • Begin a line with INT. or EXT. and it becomes a scene heading.
  • Type a name in ALL CAPS and it becomes a character cue.
  • Press Enter after a character cue and the next line is set up for dialogue.
  • Start a line with ( under a character's line and it becomes a parenthetical.
  • Write a line like CUT TO: and it becomes a transition.

Everything else is action — the default.

The Start typing hint appears when you point at its blank action line or focus the page with the keyboard.

If you'd rather pick an element deliberately, press Enter on a blank line and a small element picker popup appears. Type the first letter of what you want — s for scene heading, a for action, c for character, p for parenthetical, d for dialogue, t for transition, or n for a note. The popup also shows the ⌘1–⌘6 shortcuts for the main elements.

Note: You can also use the toolbar buttons or the keyboard shortcuts covered in Keyboard shortcuts.

The building blocks of a script#

If you want to understand what each element is, when to use it, and how Nabu's auto-formatting decides what you're typing, see Screenplay formatting.

Your script as a continuous document#

The editor shows your entire screenplay in one continuous document — you're never locked into a single scene.

The scene list counts written scenes. Unwritten cards stay out of that count and show their headings in a quieter style. Screen readers also say unwritten after their names in the scene list. Choose Start writing on a card to begin its scene.

Nisaba is right there while you write#

Nisaba sits alongside the editor, ready to help shape a scene, answer a question about your story, or draft a passage when you're stuck. She can also drop edit suggestions directly into your script: they appear as gently underlined text right where the change would go.

Click one of her underlined suggestions to read why she suggests it, then Accept, Discuss, or Dismiss it. See Inline AI suggestions for how to read, accept, and dismiss her edits.

Uses your plan: Asking Nisaba to draft or revise draws on your plan usage. Just typing your own words costs nothing.

Plain misspellings can appear as wavy word underlines as you write. Hover to see the correction, click the word to review it, or right-click it for the top corrections. See Spelling corrections.

Following Workshop drafts#

When you use Workshop It, the progress line shows how many drafts are done and which slots are active, for example Writing drafts · 1 of 3 done · A, B active. Getting set up… ends when a draft starts. Comparing the takes is a separate step. If that step is interrupted, the line reads Please wait — Nabu is picking things back up. until it resumes; a failure replaces the progress message. Drafts arrive in a picker for you to compare before keeping one.

Layers#

Layers in the toolbar (on a phone: More options) lists what the page can draw over your words, one row each. A checked row is on the page now. Structure puts your story's parts on the page, each name at the first scene of that part; point at a name, or tap it on a phone, to see what that part asks for. It is on from the start when your project has a story structure, until you turn it off. Beat names labels each scene card with its beat; it shows with Structure, so while Structure is off the row says Shows with Structure. Scene cards shows or hides the cards for scenes you have not written yet. Your choices are kept in this browser.

Craft notes#

Beside your scene list, Craft shows notes on your structure for where your draft is. When it has none, it says Structure looks healthy — unless you have written past a beat of your story's shape that has no scene yet. While Nabu is still catching up with your latest changes, notes that depend on how far along the draft is wait, and Craft does not call your structure healthy.

When cards are still to write, Craft names the part of your story that comes next after the furthest scene you have written, and which scenes they are: Your Setup has 5 cards · Sc. 1 → 5 · Open one and write it. Click the scene numbers to open the next card. The note updates as you write: it counts the cards left, and moves on once that part is written. A scene counts as written once there is about a fifth of a page in it, whoever wrote it. You can write in any card, in any order: if you write ahead, Craft points at what comes after, and the cards you skipped stay cards. Ask Nisaba on a note starts a conversation about that part of your story; Nisaba suggests what she would do and asks before she writes anything.

On a project started from a blank page, three slots below Craft hold the first scenes you write. Only scenes you wrote fill them. At three, Nabu offers to read them together; if it is about to read your whole script, the slots step aside instead. The slots step aside once you've written more than three scenes, or once Nabu has read your whole script.

Your work saves itself#

There's no Save button. Nabu saves automatically as you write, a moment after you stop typing. If you close the tab, navigate away, or lose your connection mid-sentence, your latest words are still kept. See Saving and autosave.

Good to know#

  • The page reformats as you type. When Nabu recognizes a line as a new element, the indentation and caps shift to match.
  • Page 1 has no page number. That's a screenplay convention.
  • Page breaks are real, not guesses. Nabu paginates your script the same way it will when you export to PDF.
  • Your spot is remembered. When the editor refreshes — for instance, after you accept one of Nisaba's suggestions — it returns you to where you were reading, at the zoom you'd set.