How can I import a script written in Movie Magic Screenwriter, Final Draft or some other script writing program.

Question: I have a script in Movie Magic® Screenwriter ™, Final Draft ® or some other program. How can I import it into FrameForge Studio?

Discussion: The exact process will differ depending on your script writing program, its version and what Operating System you are running it on, but basically you want to save or export it as formatted text with both line and page breaks so that the formatting comes into FrameForge Storyboard Studio fully intact.

NOTE: Not all Export Formats are equal. While FrameForge Studio will import RTF (Rich Text Format) this format does not include page break information, which means that the imported script will almost invariably have different page breaks than the source file. Whenever possible, export your script in a text format that exports both line and page breaks. This is often labeled as Avid Edit Format or some variation thereof.

How To Export a Script for import into FrameForge Studio

Within your script writing program, open the script as you would normally.
You should then typically click on the File Menu and then, depending on the program you are using, you should click Save As... to get to a File Save Dialog that has a drop-down list labeled File Type or Format or Save As Type or something similar. On this list should be a number of format options, if not then try canceling this save, going back to the File Menu and choosing Export or Export As.. or the equivalent menu option.

NOTE: If you cannot find the appropriate Save/Export Dialog which offers you the export format you need, then contact the Script Writing Program's Manufacturer as the FrameForge Storyboard Studio support team cannot support other programs, only FrameForge Storyboard Studio itself.

If there is a format labeled FrameForge Studio (as Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 has) then choose that format, otherwise choose Avid Script-Based Editing (*.txt), Avid Edit Format (*.txt) or any format that has the word Avid in it. Failing that you should use that says plain text or the equivalent... As a last resort, you can use RTF, though you should read the note at the top of this topic before doing so.
After you have selected the appropriate format, save the file, noting the new file name and where you saved it!
Exit the script writing program.
Open FrameForge Storyboard Studio.
In the File Menu, select Import then Script
Select the file that you just saved, and make sure you do NOT select the original script still in your script writing program's format.
The script will then be imported into FrameForge Storyboard Studio, after which you’ll be asked if you want the program to create a blank set for each unique location in the script.
If you choose Yes, then new, completely empty sets will be created, one for each unique location in the script. If you choose No, then you can still import the locations later.