Sections and synopses

Sections and synopses are scaffolding: they are for you, not for the reader of the screenplay. A section names a part of the script (an act, a sequence, a day of the story), and a synopsis says in a line what a scene or a section is about. Neither prints in a screenplay.

# ACT ONE

= Maya learns who has been sending the letters.

## The pier

EXT. PIER - DAWN

Gulls. Maya reads the last letter again.

Sections

A line that starts with # is a section. The number of # is its level: # for the largest part, ## for a part inside it, and so on, up to six. The space after the # is optional.

To change a section’s level, add or delete a #. To make the line ordinary text again, delete them all.

Synopses

A line that starts with a single = is a synopsis. Put it under the section or the scene heading it summarises.

Only one =: a line that starts with == is not a synopsis, because it is on its way to being a page break (===).

Writing them in Calmly Script

Type the # or the = at the start of the line: the line changes as soon as you type it. The # and = stay in the line, dimmed, and the whole line is drawn in a colour of its own, because it will not be on the page. Enter↩ after a section or a synopsis starts a line of action.

You can also choose Format › More elements › Section or Format › More elements › Synopsis: the app writes the # or the = in front of the line for you.

In the Outline

Sections are the top of the Outline (View › Table of contents): each one is listed with the scenes under it, and a ## section is listed inside the # section above it. Click an entry to go to it. A script with no sections is simply a list of its scenes.

Synopses are not listed in the Outline.

How they print

In a screenplay, neither sections nor synopses print. The example at the top of this page prints only the scene.

Synopses never print, whatever the document type. Sections do print in the other document types (Format › Document type…), because there they are the structure of the page:

• In a stage play and a multi-camera sitcom, sections are the acts and the scenes: they print as headings: a first-level section, the act, starts a new page, and the level under it prints at the margin.
• In a manuscript, a first-level section is a chapter heading and starts a new page; a deeper one is a title under it.

In Final Draft

Final Draft has an outline of its own, and the two go back and forth: a section becomes an Outline 1, 2 or 3 element and a synopsis a Summary, and the other way round (see Importing and Exporting and printing). A section called Beat Board is Final Draft’s Beat Board, with a card for each section under it.