Fountain cheat sheet

Everything in this part on one page. In Calmly Script the characters of Fountain’s syntax in the tables below stay in the line, dimmed, where you can see them and edit them; on the page you only see what they do.

The elements

A forcing character, typed at the start of a line, makes the line that element whatever else it says. Calmly Script writes it for you when you choose an element that the words alone would not say (see Enter and Tab).

Element	What you type	Forcing character	In Calmly Script
Scene heading	INT. or EXT. at the start, in capitals	.	Ctrl+1⌘1
Action	anything that is not something else	!	Ctrl+2⌘2
Character	a name in capitals, above the speech	@	Ctrl+3⌘3
Parenthetical	(in brackets), in a speech	none	Ctrl+4⌘4
Dialogue	the lines under a character	none	Ctrl+5⌘5
Transition	capitals ending in TO:, or FADE OUT.	>	Ctrl+6⌘6
Dual dialogue	^ after the second character’s name
Centered	> text <		Format › More elements › Centered
Lyrics	~ at the start		Format › More elements › Lyrics
Section	#, ## … at the start		Format › More elements › Section
Synopsis	one = at the start		Format › More elements › Synopsis
Page break	=== on a line of its own		Format › More elements › Page break
Title page	Title:, Author: … at the top

Lyrics, centered text, sections and synopses are made by their character, so there is no forcing to do: the character is the element.

Inside a line

What	You type	In Calmly Script
Italic	*italic*	Ctrl+I⌘I
Bold	**bold**	Ctrl+B⌘B
Bold italic	***bold italic***
Underline	_underline_	Ctrl+U⌘U
A literal * or _	\*, \_
Scene number	#12# at the end of a scene heading
Note	[[a note]]	type [[, or Edit › Insert Note
Tagged note	[[Todo: a note]]
Boneyard	/* switched off */, over any number of lines

Lines and spacing

What	In Calmly Script
The next element	Enter↩
Back to action	Enter↩ on an empty line
A blank line more	Enter↩ on an empty line of action
A new line in the same element	Shift+Enter⇧↩
Indent a line of action or of the title page	Ctrl+Tab⌥Tab
Remove an indent	Ctrl+Shift+Tab⌥⇧Tab
Change the element	TabTab, Shift+Tab⇧Tab

What does not print

Notes, the boneyard, synopses, and every character in the tables above that marks something (., !, @, >, <, ~, #, =, ^, *, _, \, ===, Title:) stay off the page. Sections do not print in a screenplay, but do in the other document types. Scene numbers print in the margins, and the brackets of a parenthetical print, because they are part of it.

Every example in this manual shows, beside the Fountain, the page it prints on.