The Script Editor lets you create and manage production scripts using a two-column layout. The left column is for visual descriptions and the right column is for audio and dialogue. Scripts are organized into scenes that can be reordered, cloned, and collapsed.
There are two types of script: Filming scripts for planning shoots, and Edit scripts for post-production editing. Edit scripts have additional features for associating project media, recording voice overs, and generating timeline exports.
Filming — Used during pre-production and production. Contains scene descriptions and dialogue. Does not support media associations or voice over recording. Can only export to Word.
Edit — Used during post-production. Includes all filming script features plus the ability to associate project media with scenes, record voice overs, view transcripts, set in/out points, export to timeline formats (EDL, OTIO), and share media with recipients.
You can convert a filming script to an edit script at any time. This creates a copy of the script with all content preserved.
Navigate to a project and select the Scripts tab.
Click the New Script button.
Fill in the details:
Script Name — A unique name for the script within the project.
Type — Choose Filming or Edit.
Description — An optional description of the script. Line breaks in the description are preserved on screen and in the Word export.
Click Create Script. The script editor will open automatically.
The script editor displays scenes in a vertical list. Each scene has a two-column layout:
Visual — The left column for describing what appears on screen. Use this for shot descriptions, camera directions, and reference images.
Audio / Dialogue — The right column for dialogue, voiceover, sound effects, and music cues.
Both columns use a rich text editor with formatting tools that appear when you select text.
Scripts are made up of individual scenes, each numbered automatically. You can manage scenes using the toolbar and hover controls.
Add Scene — Click Add Scene in the toolbar or the dashed button at the bottom of the script to add a new empty scene.
Paste Scenes — Click Paste Scenes in the toolbar to bulk-import scenes from a Word table or Excel spreadsheet. Paste a two-column table (Visual | Audio) into the dialog, preview the parsed scenes, and click Insert Scenes to add them all at once. Header rows are automatically skipped.
Delete Scene — Hover over a scene and click the trash icon in the scene number column. You can also select multiple scenes using the drag handle and delete them in bulk using the toolbar.
Duplicate Scene — Hover over a scene and click the copy icon to create a duplicate immediately below. All content, images, and media associations are copied.
Reorder Scenes — Drag a scene by its grip handle to move it to a new position.
Collapse and Expand — Click the chevron icon on the right side of a scene to collapse or expand it. Use Collapse All and Expand All in the toolbar to toggle all scenes at once.
The visual column is for describing what the viewer will see on screen. You can type descriptions, paste or upload images, and use text formatting. Images can be floated left or right to wrap text around them.
The audio column is for dialogue, voiceover scripts, and audio notes. The word count and running time displayed beside each scene number are calculated from the text in this column. When media is associated with a scene (edit scripts only), transcripts appear below the text editor.
Select text in either column to reveal the formatting toolbar. The toolbar appears above the selected text and includes:
B — Bold
I — Italic
U — Underline
"" — Wrap selected text in quotation marks. Useful for marking dialogue when using the quoted-only word count mode.
Link — Add or edit a hyperlink on the selected text.
Color — Click the palette icon to open a color picker and apply a text color.
Remove formatting — Strip all formatting from the selected text.
Image — Upload an image from your device.
Move to new scene — Move the selected text into a new scene immediately below the current one. The text is removed from the current scene and placed in the corresponding column of the new scene.
To add a link, select text and click Link in the toolbar. A URL input bar will appear where you can type or paste a web address. Press Enter or click the check icon to apply. If you omit https://, it will be added automatically.
To edit an existing link, select the linked text and click Link again. To remove a link, click the unlink icon in the link bar.
In edit mode, links open with Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Windows). The cursor changes to a hand icon when the modifier key is held. In read-only mode, links open with a single click.
You can add images to either column in three ways:
Paste — Copy an image and paste it directly into the editor.
Drag and drop — Drag an image file from your desktop into the editor.
Upload — Select text to show the toolbar, then click the image icon to choose a file.
Images are automatically resized to a maximum of 512 pixels on the longest side to keep the script lightweight.
Click on an image to select it. An image toolbar will appear with alignment options:
Float left — The image moves to the left and text wraps around the right side.
No wrap — The image sits on its own line with text above and below.
Float right — The image moves to the right and text wraps around the left side.
Delete — Remove the image from the editor.
Edit scripts can associate project media (video, audio, and images) with individual scenes. When a video or audio file is associated, its transcript is automatically extracted and displayed alongside the scene. This is useful for building an edit script from existing footage.
Hover over a scene and click + Media in the visual column.
A media picker dialog will open showing all project media as a grid of thumbnails. Use the search field to filter by filename.
Click a media item:
Video or audio — An in/out point selector opens with the media player, a trim slider, and a transcript panel. Set the in and out points using the slider, the Set In and Set Out buttons, or by clicking In and Out on individual transcript entries. Click Set In/Out to confirm, or Resetto select the full clip.
Image — The image is associated immediately with no in/out selection.
Each scene can have multiple media associations. The transcript is filtered to show only the content within the selected in/out range. Hover over a media thumbnail to see a link icon that opens the media detail page.
Use the up and down arrows on a media row to move it within a scene or between scenes:
Within a scene — Moving up or down reorders the media item relative to other items in the same scene.
First item, move up — Moves the media to the bottom of the scene above. If there is no scene above, a new empty scene is created.
Last item, move down — Moves the media to the top of the scene below. If there is no scene below, a new empty scene is created.
Each media association appears as a row below the scene, with the thumbnail aligned under the visual column and the transcript under the audio column. Hover over a media row to see the available actions:
Reorder — Use the up and down arrows to change the order of media within a scene or move between scenes.
Duplicate — Click the copy icon to create a duplicate of the media association including its notes.
Delete — Click the trash icon to remove the media association from the scene.
Edit in/out — Click the thumbnail of a video or audio media item to re-open the in/out selector and adjust the range.
Open media detail — Hover over the thumbnail and click the external link icon to navigate to the media detail page.
Each media row supports visual notes (in the visual column, beside the thumbnail) and audio notes (in the audio column, above the transcript). Notes are hidden by default to save space.
Hover over a media row and click + Notes to enable the note editors.
Type in either the visual notes or audio notes field.
If both fields are emptied and you click away, the note editors will hide automatically.
Notes are included when exporting to Word and are preserved when duplicating media rows. The audio notes editor includes the Move to new scene toolbar button for splitting content.
Edit scripts can record voice over audio directly from the browser. The recording is saved as a media file in the project, processed by Azure for transcription, and automatically associated with the scene.
Hover over a scene and click + V/O in the audio column (or below the last media item).
Click the microphone button to start recording. Your browser will request microphone permission if not already granted.
Click the stop button when finished. A playback preview will appear.
Optionally change the filename. The default is VoiceOver_Placeholder_01, incrementing automatically.
Click Re-record to discard the recording and try again, or click Upload to save.
After uploading, a processing indicator will appear in the transcript area. Once Azure finishes processing the audio (typically a few minutes), the transcript will replace the indicator automatically. The recording is also saved to the project media library with a Voiceover tag.
The script editor calculates a running time estimate based on the word count in the audio column and the duration of associated media. Each scene shows its word count and running time beside the scene number. The toolbar shows the total for the entire script.
Click the WPM selector in the toolbar to adjust the reading speed used for the calculation:
Slow — 100 words per minute
Normal — 130 words per minute (default)
Fast — 160 words per minute
Custom — Enter a value between 50 and 300
Off — Hides the word count and running time display
The WPM picker also includes a Count only quoted text toggle. When enabled, only words inside quotation marks are counted toward the running time. This is useful for scripts that include speaker names, stage directions, and other non-spoken text alongside dialogue.
Use the "" button in the text formatting toolbar to quickly wrap selected text in quotation marks.
Click Export in the toolbar to open the export dialog.
Filming scripts export to Word document only. Edit scripts can choose a format from the dropdown: Word Document, EDL, or OTIO.
Exports the script as a .docx file with a three-column table: scene number, visual, and audio. Media thumbnails, transcripts, notes, and inline images are included in their respective columns. The script name appears as the document heading and the description appears below it.
Include images — Toggle to include or exclude images from the export. When disabled, inline images in the text editors and media thumbnails are omitted.
Text formatting (bold, italic, underline, colors) and image alignment (float left, float right, no wrap) are preserved in the Word document. Links are exported as clickable hyperlinks.
Exports an EDL file (CMX 3600 format) containing all media associations as sequential clips on a timeline. EDL is the most widely supported timeline interchange format and can be imported into DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Final Cut Pro. Still images are included with a default 5-second duration.
Framerate — Select the project framerate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, or 30 fps. This determines how timecodes are calculated. 29.97 fps uses drop-frame notation.
Use proxy filenames — When enabled, adds a _proxy suffix to video and audio filenames in the EDL. Useful when your NLE project uses proxy media.
After importing the EDL into your NLE, use the Relink Media function to point to the folder containing your source files. The NLE will match clips by filename.
Exports an OTIO file containing the timeline as a JSON structure. OTIO is supported by DaVinci Resolve and other modern pipeline tools. The same framerate and proxy filename options apply as with EDL export.
Edit scripts with media associations can share the timeline and media files with external recipients. Click Share in the toolbar to open the share dialog.
Select the timeline format (EDL or OTIO).
Choose the framerate.
Enter the recipient's email address.
Set an expiry date for the media download links.
Click Share.
The recipient will receive an email with two timeline file attachments (one with original filenames and one with proxy filenames) plus a link to download all the media files referenced in the script. Media download links expire on the date you set.
You can convert a filming script to an edit script to gain access to media association, voice over recording, timeline export, and sharing features. Converting creates a copy of the script with all scenes and content preserved. The original filming script is not modified.
There are two ways to convert:
From the script editor — Click Convert to Edit Script in the toolbar (visible only for filming scripts). A confirmation dialog will appear with options to open the new edit script or stay on the current script.
From the script list — Click the action menu on a filming script and select Convert to Edit Script. The list will refresh to show the new script.
The converted script is named after the original with (Edit) appended. If a script with that name already exists, a number is added (for example, My Script (Edit 2)).
What you can do with scripts depends on your project role:
Owner, Admin, Manager, Editor — Full access to create, edit, and delete scripts. Can add and manage scenes, associate media, record voice overs, export to all formats, share media, and convert filming scripts to edit scripts.
Commenter, Reader — No access.
