Online Screenplay Editor: Write, Format and Review in Mooiev

Begin with the scene, not a formatting workaround

A screenplay separates what the audience sees from who speaks and what they say. In Mooiev, use Scene for a heading, Action for visible events, Character for the speaker and Dialogue for the line. Parenthetical adds a short performance cue; Transition identifies an editorial transition when the draft needs one. This structure also gives the production team recognizable scenes and characters to plan from.

For example, write EXT. WHITBY HARBOUR – LATE AFTERNOON as a scene heading. Add Mara arriving with a recorder as action. Put MARA in a character element and her spoken line in dialogue. The result should read as a screenplay before you create a single storyboard frame.

Use visible controls and keyboard shortcuts

The element controls remain available while you write. Tab cycles element types and the slash menu provides another way to choose a format. Character and location suggestions help reuse names already present in the script. Check that a suggestion refers to the intended person or place instead of introducing a near-duplicate.

Bold, italic and underline support emphasis. Left and centre alignment controls serve text layout; they do not replace character and dialogue formatting. Use undo and redo to review changes, and adjust text size for comfortable editing without treating the zoom level as a change to the exported page size.

Import an existing draft and check the result

The import picker accepts Fountain, plain text, Markdown, Final Draft XML and PDF. Use a copy of the source document and inspect the result. A PDF carries a printed layout, so extraction can need more correction than a structured screenplay source.

Review the first and last scenes, scene headings, character names, dialogue and title-page material after import. If you are replacing existing text, read the replacement confirmation. Keep the source file until you have compared the complete exported screenplay with the intended draft.

Navigate scenes and discuss the actual writing

The scene navigator lets you jump through the script. Use a specific scene or line as the context for a note: “Mara must find the demolition notice before Isaac speaks” is more useful than “fix pacing”. Scene-linked comments and collaboration keep that discussion close to the material it concerns.

After a rewrite, review how the scene affects the shot plan, references and production requirements. Reusing a project makes the materials easier to find together; it does not mean every creative consequence of a rewrite has been approved automatically.

Turn the approved scene into coverage ↗

Keep notes and tasks in context ↗

Save versions and preview before restoring

Use version history to save a version at a meaningful milestone, such as a director’s review or the draft issued for preparation. Open a saved version and inspect it before restoring. The restore workflow saves a safety version of the current writing first.

A practical routine is to record the decision in a scene comment, complete the rewrite, save a version and then review the export. This keeps “what changed” separate from “which draft are we using”. Ask collaborators to refer to the agreed version when discussing a shoot.

Export the document the reader actually needs

The export menu provides the complete screenplay PDF, character sides and a scene breakdown. Check the title page, scene boundaries and dialogue blocks in the complete preview. Character sides are useful for focused performer preparation; a breakdown is a production reference rather than a replacement for reading the scene.

For a final check, open the exported PDF on a second screen and inspect a scene with action, two speakers and a page break. The best screenplay workflow is the one that keeps your writing readable through that handoff, not simply the one with the most toolbar buttons.

Watch the original screenplay editor ↗

Read the complete sample screenplay ↗