Import & Export
Work with Final Draft, Fountain, Fade In, PDF, and plain text formats.
Importing Scripts
OpenDraft can import screenplays from other software. Go to File > Import and select a file.
Final Draft (.fdx)
Import scripts from Final Draft, the industry-standard screenwriting software. OpenDraft preserves:
- All screenplay elements and formatting
- Character profiles
- Character highlighting colors
- Page layout settings
Fountain (.fountain)
Import scripts written in Fountain format. Fountain is an open, plain-text markup language for screenwriting. Many free tools can create Fountain files. Emphasis markup (*italic*, **bold**, _underline_), forced elements (!, ~, ., >, @), centred text (>text<) and page breaks (===) are all recognised.
Fountain’s outlining markup comes through as well, and stays off the printed page:
- Sections (
#,##,###…) become Section elements, nested to the depth their hashes describe, and appear in the Scene Navigator’s Structure tab. They are kept separate from New Act and End of Act, which are act markers that do print. - Synopses (
= …) are filed on the scene heading or Section they sit under. - Notes (
[[ … ]]) become Note elements, whether they stand alone or sit inside a line. - The boneyard (
/* … */) is commented-out text, and is dropped.
Fade In (.fadein) and Open Screenplay Format (.osf)
Open scripts saved by Fade In directly — there is no need to export to another format first. A .fadein file is a compressed Open Screenplay Format document, and OpenDraft reads both it and plain .osf files. Imported:
- All screenplay elements — scene headings, action, character, parenthetical, dialogue, transition and shot
- Custom element styles, mapped to whichever built-in element they are based on
- Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlighting, fonts and sizes
- Title page, scene numbers, dual dialogue, centring and page breaks
- Scene synopses and paragraph notes
Plain Text (.txt)
Import plain text files. OpenDraft will attempt to detect screenplay element types based on formatting conventions (indentation, capitalization, etc.).
Tip: For best results when importing plain text, make sure your text follows standard screenplay formatting conventions (scene headings in all caps starting with INT./EXT., character names in all caps and centered, etc.).
Paste as Fountain
To bring in part of a script rather than a whole file, copy the Fountain text and use Edit > Paste as Fountain (or Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+V, also on the right-click menu). The pasted text is run through the Fountain parser and inserted at the cursor as real screenplay elements, instead of landing as one block of whatever element you were already in.
Tip: This is the quickest way to move a scene from a forum post, an email, a notes app or another screenwriting tool into your script.
Open A File Where It Lives
Importing brings a copy of a screenplay into your library. Opening in place does something different: it edits the file itself, wherever it is, and Save writes back to it.
- Go to File > Open File from Disk on the desktop, or File > Open from Files on iPad, iPhone and Android.
- Pick a
.odraft,.fdx,.fountain,.fadein,.osfor.txtfile. - Write. ⌘S saves straight back to the original file — including files in iCloud Drive, Google Drive or Dropbox.
On the desktop, a screenplay you open by double-clicking it in Finder or Explorer stays attached to itself the same way, so Save updates that file rather than filing a copy in your library.
Opening another application’s format? OpenDraft says what saving back to it can and cannot carry before you start. Notes, tags, beats and character profiles have nowhere to live in a .fdx or .fountain file, so use File > Save to Library As to keep a lossless .odraft copy alongside it.
Exporting Scripts
Everything below is under File > Export. On phones and tablets, exporting opens the system share sheet so you can put the file in Files, Drive, Dropbox, or send it straight to someone.
Final Draft (.fdx)
Go to File > Export > Final Draft (.fdx). This creates a .fdx file that can be opened in Final Draft or any software that supports the format. Preserved data includes:
- All screenplay elements and formatting
- Character names and descriptions (rich text descriptions are converted to plain text, since FDX only supports plain text in character bios)
- Character highlighting colors
- Tag categories and entities
Note on character profiles: OpenDraft's extended character fields — Role, Backstory, and character images — are preserved in OpenDraft's native save format but are not included in FDX exports. The FDX format (used by Final Draft) only supports character name, plain text description, and highlight color.
Fountain (.fountain)
Go to File > Export > Fountain (.fountain). This creates a plain-text Fountain file that can be opened in any Fountain-compatible editor or version control system.
Fountain cannot carry every element. It has no General element, so OpenDraft
writes General as forced Action (!). Import that file again and the text comes
back as Action, not General. The same applies to Shot, New Act, End of Act,
Show/Episode and Cast List. Use .fdx, .docx or .odraft
if you need those preserved — see
Format Compatibility for the full mapping.
Fade In (.fadein)
Go to File > Export > Fade In (.fadein). This writes a Fade In document — an Open Screenplay Format archive that Fade In 3 and 4 both open. It carries a great deal more than Fountain does:
- All screenplay elements, and custom element styles
- Bold, italic, underline and strikethrough, colour and highlighting
- Per-selection font and size, and hard line breaks
- Forced page breaks, scene numbers, synopses and dual dialogue
- The title page
Notes, tags, beats and character profiles have no home in the format, so they are left out rather than written as something Fade In would misread. Keep a .odraft copy if you need them.
Microsoft Word (.docx)
Go to File > Export > Microsoft Word (.docx) for a formatted document to share with people who do not use screenwriting software.
The title page is included unless you have turned it off in Format > Title Page — see Leaving the Title Page Out.
OpenDraft (.odraft)
Go to File > Export > OpenDraft (.odraft). This is the lossless one: the script plus its notes, tags, beats, character profiles and images, in a single file. Use it to move a screenplay between machines, or to keep a complete copy of your own. It is the same format backups are written in.
Go to File > Export > PDF. The PDF is formatted to industry-standard screenplay specifications.
Before exporting to PDF, you may want to:
- Turn off note highlights (View > Note Highlights)
- Turn off tag highlights (View > Tag Highlights)
- Check your Page Setup settings
- Decide whether to include the title page — the checkbox at the bottom of Format > Title Page. See Leaving the Title Page Out.
Printing
Go to File > Print or press ⌘P to print your screenplay directly.
On phones and tablets, Print hands the script to the system instead of opening its own dialog: on iPhone and iPad it appears in the share sheet, where Print sits alongside Save to Files and AirDrop; on Android it opens the standard Android print dialog, which also offers Save as PDF. Either way the pages are the same ones File > Export > PDF produces, so what you print matches what you would have exported.
Format Comparison
For what happens to each individual screenplay element in each format — and which ones change if you import the file again — see Format Compatibility.
| Feature | .odraft | .fdx | .fadein | .fountain | .txt | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screenplay elements | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Visual only | Basic |
| Text formatting (bold/italic) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Visual only | No |
| Colour, highlighting, fonts | Yes | Partly | Yes | No | Visual only | No |
| Character profiles (name, description) | Yes | Yes (plain text) | No | No | No | No |
| Extended profiles (role, backstory, images) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Notes, tags and beats | Yes | Tags only | No | No | No | No |
| Editable in other software | OpenDraft | Final Draft | Fade In | Many editors | No | Any editor |
| Best for | Complete copies, backups, moving between machines | Collaboration with FD users | Collaboration with Fade In users | Open format, version control | Reading, printing, submission | Simple import |