Acts and scenes
Organize, navigate and rearrange the structure of your script.
A Scene heading starts a scene. An Act heading groups the scenes that follow it, up to the next act. You can work with scenes without adding acts.
For example, Robin and Alex leave the house in The departure, then come back in The return. Each act can contain several scenes, such as At the door, Outside and Back inside.
What would you like to do?
Section titled “What would you like to do?”| Task | Guide |
|---|---|
| Start another scene or divide the script into acts | Add acts and scenes |
| Find a scene or temporarily hide its content | Navigate and collapse scenes |
| Change scene order or move a scene into another act | Rearrange scenes |
| Change a scene’s heading or assign places | Manage scene details |
| Choose how automatic scene numbers appear | Customize scene numbering |
| Remove a boundary between scenes or change a heading into ordinary text | Change or remove a heading |
If you are building your script’s structure for the first time, start with Add acts and scenes. Each guide also works on its own.
A heading changes the structure
Section titled “A heading changes the structure”Scene and Act are block types, rather than text formatting. Moving a scene moves its content too. Removing a scene heading preserves the writing, but removes that scene’s own details.
For general block types, see Writing your script. For the appearance of headings and printed pages, see Pages and export.