Keyboard Shortcuts

Most of these shortcuts work inside a story. On a Mac, use Cmd and Option; on Windows, use Ctrl and Alt. Each shortcut below gives the Mac keys first, then the Windows keys.

In Any View

  • Cmd + F (Ctrl + F on Windows): open Find in the header. See Find in Your Story.
  • Cmd + Shift + F (Ctrl + Shift + F): open the Find & Replace window. For the story's owner and editors.
  • Cmd + Z (Ctrl + Z): Undo. For the story's owner and editors.
  • Cmd + Shift + Z or Cmd + Y (Ctrl + Shift + Z or Ctrl + Y): Redo. For the story's owner and editors.
  • Cmd + P (Ctrl + P): print the story, or save it as a PDF from the print window. Prewrite lays the story out as pages first, so you get the script rather than a picture of the screen.
  • Esc: close the Edit Window, a menu or a window, or clear a selection.

Undo and redo work on the whole story, even while you're typing in a field: they step back and forward through your changes to the story, not only the text in front of you. While Advanced Settings is open, they undo typing in its fields instead.

In the Find Box

  • Enter: go to the next match.
  • Shift + Enter: go to the previous match.
  • Esc: close the Find box. The search and its highlights stay until you clear them.

While Writing

These work in the text editor: a scene's Body in the Edit Window (in some templates it's called Script or Content), and the Page view's Text Editor.

Bold, Italic and Underline

  • Cmd + B (Ctrl + B): bold.
  • Cmd + I (Ctrl + I): italic.
  • Cmd + U (Ctrl + U): underline.

Character lines (the names above dialogue) can't be styled, so these do nothing there.

Enter and Shift + Enter

Enter at the end of a line starts the next line in the format that usually follows it:

  • Scene Heading, Transition or Shot → Action
  • Character → Dialogue
  • Dialogue → Action
  • Parenthetical → Dialogue
  • any other format → another line of the same format

Elsewhere on a line:

  • Enter on an empty line opens the text format menu, so you can choose what the line will be.
  • Shift + Enter opens the same menu for the line you're on. If you've selected several lines, the format you choose applies to all of them.
  • Enter in the middle of a line splits it in two. On one-line formats (Scene Heading, Character, Parenthetical, Transition, Shot and Heading) it does nothing, so a name or a heading is never torn in half.
  • Enter at the start of a line adds an empty line above it.

In the Page view's Text Editor, Enter after a full scene heading on the last line of a scene starts a new scene. See When Typing a Scene Heading.

Backspace and Delete

Backspace at the start of a line joins it to the line above, and Delete at the end of a line joins the next line to it. The joined line keeps the format of the line you were on. Two lines join only when their formats can:

  • General, Action, Paragraph, Heading and the other prose formats join each other.
  • Dialogue joins only Dialogue, and Parenthetical only Parenthetical.
  • Scene Heading, Character, Transition and Shot never join another line.

The two lines must also be in the same scene: in the Page view's Text Editor, a line never joins one across a scene break. When the lines can't join, the key does nothing.

An empty line is removed instead, whatever its format: the one you're on, or an empty line above (Backspace) or below (Delete) in the same scene. A scene always keeps at least one line.

Change a Line's Format

There are two ways to change the format of the line you're on:

  • Hold Cmd + Option (Ctrl + Alt on Windows) and press the format's key.
  • Open the text format menu (Shift + Enter, or Enter on an empty line) and press the key on its own.
  • S: Scene Heading
  • G: General
  • A: Action
  • C: Character
  • D: Dialogue. On a Mac, use Ctrl + Option + D: macOS keeps Cmd + Option + D for showing and hiding the Dock.
  • 9: Parenthetical
  • T: Transition
  • 8: Shot
  • H: Heading
  • P: Paragraph
  • 1: Title Card
  • 2: Time
  • 3: Camera Direction
  • 4: Call to Action
  • 5: Sponsored Message

A key works only for the formats your story uses: the ones turned on in Advanced Settings, plus any already in the text. To turn more on, see Add Text Formats.

In the Page view's Text Editor, the menu also has Scene Break (B), which starts a new scene at the line. In the menu, the arrow keys and Enter work too, and any other key closes it and is typed as usual.

Suggestions

As you type a scene heading, a character's name or a transition, a list of suggestions opens.

  • Up and Down arrows: move through the list.
  • Enter or Tab: use the highlighted suggestion.
  • Esc: close the list and keep typing.

The list closes by itself once you've typed its last suggestion in full. After a character's name, press Space to get the list of extensions, such as (V.O.) and (O.S.). A character line that matches an existing character's name is linked to that character when you press Space after the name, press Enter, or move to another line. Pasted script works the same way: each character line is linked to the character it names, and a name no character has yet gets a new one. Undo takes the paste back, new characters included.

The list of extensions puts first the one you're most likely to want, from the lines above: (CONT'D) when the same character spoke last in the scene, and the voice they've been speaking in, such as (V.O.). When it's almost certain, it appears as faded text after the character's name, or after an extension you've finished. Press Tab to add it, or keep typing to ignore it.

The same goes for who speaks next. On a new, empty character line in a conversation between two characters, the other character's name appears as faded text; press Tab to add it. Start typing their name instead, and the list puts them first.

In the Edit Window

  • In a tags field, Enter or a comma adds what you typed as a tag. Backspace in the empty field removes the last tag.
  • In the Plot Threads search field, Enter creates the plot thread you typed. See Add a Plot Thread.

Selecting and Moving

You can select several scenes in the Timeline, Cards and Page views (in its Overview mode), several characters in the Characters view, and several stories and folders in My Stories. In a story, this is for its owner and editors.

  • Cmd + click (Ctrl + click on Windows): add an item to the selection, or take it out.
  • Shift + click: select every item between the last one you picked and this one.
  • Shift + drag: draw a box around items to add them to the selection. You can also draw a box without Shift by starting in the empty space between cards (in the Timeline, start on the row names at the left).
  • Enter or Space (in a story): open the first selected scene or character in the Edit Window. This also opens a card you've reached with Tab.
  • Esc, or a click on an empty spot: clear the selection.

Drag any selected item to move them all. In a story, hold Alt (Option on a Mac) as you let go to copy instead of moving. See Move a Scene.

Right-Click Menus

Scenes, characters, stashed items, and stories and folders in My Stories have a right-click menu (see Right-Click Menus).

  • Shift + F10, or the menu key: open the menu on the card you've reached with Tab, as if you'd right-clicked it. With several selected, it acts on all of them.
  • Esc: close the menu and go back to the card, keeping your selection.
  • Alt + right-click (Option + right-click on a Mac): your browser's own menu instead of Prewrite's.

In the Timeline and the Slideshow

  • Timeline: click an empty spot in the view, then press the Left or Right arrow to scroll back or forward a screen of scenes.
  • Slideshow: press the Left or Right arrow for the previous or next slide, and Esc to close it, unless the story is set to show only its slideshow. See Slideshow.