Why did my Final Draft file open in a new project?

A screenplay can only live in a screenplay or series project, because the two kinds of project store different documents. If you import an .fdx or .fountain file into a novel, stage play, audio drama or video script project, Storskarvia creates a new screenplay project named after the script, with (Screenplay) on the end, and puts it there with its formatting intact. A banner at the top of the editor says so. The same happens in reverse when a Word manuscript is imported into a script project.

What doesn't come across when I import a Word document?

Headings, lists, block quotes, and bold, italic, underline and strikethrough applied to text all arrive. Images, tables, footnotes, comments, headers and footers do not, and neither do tracked changes as revision marks. Accept or reject tracked changes in Word before you export the file.

Can I import a PDF of my screenplay?

Yes, if the PDF has selectable text and you import it into a screenplay or series project. Storskarvia rebuilds scene headings, character cues, parentheticals, dialogue and transitions from the shape of the lines. A scanned, image-only PDF cannot be read at all. If you still have the script in Final Draft or Fountain, import that instead: it carries the element types exactly and needs no guessing.

Chapter 48 · Getting Work In and Out

Importing Final Draft, Fountain, and Text

Importing turns a file from another program into a new Storskarvia document. This chapter lists what each format brings with it, what it leaves behind, and why an import sometimes opens in a project you did not know you had.

Where the Import button lives

Open the project from your Studio. In the Draft step, beside the list of documents, is ⬆ Import. Click it, pick one file, and the import starts as soon as you choose: there is no confirm button. When it finishes, the new document opens in the editor.

Three things hold for every format:

An import always makes a new document. It never replaces or merges into one you already have, so importing the same file twice gives you two copies.
The document is named from the file. If the file has a title page (or, for Word, a title in its document properties), that title is used. Otherwise it is the filename without its extension. Rename it in the editor's title field.
One document holds up to 400,000 characters, roughly 66,000 words. A whole novel in one file usually needs splitting into chapters first, or bringing in as a project you compile later.

Final Draft (.fdx)

FDX is the most faithful way into a screenplay project. Every element type Final Draft writes has a home here: Scene Heading, Action, Character, Parenthetical, Dialogue, Transition, Shot, General, Cast List, New Act, End Of Act, Sequence, Summary, the three Outline levels, and Note. An element type Storskarvia does not recognise arrives as Action.

Bold, italic and underline survive.
Scene numbers, revision marks, page locks and omitted-scene flags are kept with the script, so they go back out when you export to FDX again.
From the title page, the first line becomes the Title, and the line after "Written by" becomes Written by. Draft date and contact are not read from an FDX; fill them in from the title page dialog.
Empty Action paragraphs are dropped, and script notes attached to a paragraph in Final Draft do not come across.

Fountain

Files ending .fountain or .spmd are read as Fountain. The extension is what counts: a Fountain script saved as .txt is read as plain text, so rename it before importing.

In the file	What it becomes
Title page keys: Title, Author, Contact, Draft date	All four title page fields
`[[ a note ]]`	A Note element, in the place you wrote it
`/* boneyard */`	Removed, as Fountain intends
`#`, `##`, `###` sections	Outline levels 1 to 3
`= synopsis`	A Summary element
`.` `!` `@` `~` forced elements	A scene heading, action, or a character cue; a `~` lyric becomes dialogue under a cue
`> ACT ONE <`	An act break; `> END OF ACT ONE <` an end of act
`===` page break	Dropped

Two things to check afterwards. Fountain's *italic* and **bold** markers stay in the text as asterisks, so search for * with find and replace and apply the emphasis by hand. A caret marking dual dialogue is not turned into side-by-side speech, so look over any cue that had one.

Word, OpenDocument, Markdown, HTML

These four arrive as novel documents, with structure:

Word (.docx): headings (including the Title and Subtitle styles), bulleted and numbered lists, quotes, and bold, italic, underline and strikethrough applied to the text. Images, tables, footnotes, comments, headers and footers stay behind. Accept or reject tracked changes before exporting from Word, because revision marks do not come across.
OpenDocument (.odt): headings and paragraphs only. Emphasis and list formatting are flattened, so saving as .docx from LibreOffice brings more with it.
Markdown (.md, .markdown): headings, bold, italic, lists, quotes and horizontal rules. Links stay as typed, brackets and address included.
HTML (.html, .htm): headings, paragraphs, quotes, lists, rules, and bold, italic, underline and strikethrough. Tables and images do not come across.

Word's old .doc format and Apple Pages files cannot be read. Open them in their own app, save as .docx, and import that.

Plain text, RTF, PDF, and Movie Magic

A .txt, .rtf or .pdf file carries words and no element types. Storskarvia rebuilds the layout from the shape of the text, using rules that depend on the project you import into. A blank line separates one paragraph from the next, so a file that ends each paragraph with a single return can arrive as a few very long ones.

Project type	What the rules look for
Novel	Short lines starting Chapter, Part or Act become headings
Film / Screenplay, Series	INT. and EXT. lines, CUT TO: transitions, short capitalised cues, (parentheticals) and the dialogue under them
Stage play	ACT and SCENE lines, capitalised cues, parentheticals and dialogue; everything else is stage direction
Audio drama	SCENE, EPISODE, ACT or PART lines, lines starting SFX: or MUSIC:, and cues
Video script	Lines starting VISUAL: or B-ROLL: go to the visual lane; the rest is voiceover

A PDF must have selectable text. If you cannot highlight a word in it in your PDF reader, Storskarvia cannot read it either. Expect to tidy stray page numbers and headers after a PDF import.

Movie Magic Screenwriter (.mmsw) is a closed format. Storskarvia pulls out the readable text and rebuilds the screenplay from it, which is a best effort. Movie Magic can export FDX, and that route keeps every element exactly.

When the file and the project disagree

A screenplay and a novel are stored differently, and a project's type is fixed. When an import does not fit the project, Storskarvia makes a project that does, rather than flattening your formatting:

An .fdx, .fountain or .mmsw file imported into anything other than a screenplay or series project goes into a new project called your title (Screenplay).
A Word, OpenDocument, Markdown or HTML file imported into a script project goes into a new project called your title (Novel).

The editor opens with a banner beginning "This file is a screenplay, so we created the project" (or "novel"), naming it. Got it closes the banner. The new project is on your Studio page with the others.

One exception: a screenplay that went through Word on its way to you. Import a Word, OpenDocument, Markdown or HTML file into a screenplay or series project and, if Storskarvia finds at least three scene headings or character cues in it, it rebuilds the text as a screenplay and keeps it in that project. Plain text, RTF and PDF never create a new project; they always land where you imported them.

When it goes wrong

A failed import shows a plain page with one line of text giving the reason. Press your browser's Back button to return to the project. Nothing was created.

The message says	What to do
File too large (4 MB max)	Split the file, or for a Word file with pictures, remove the images and export again.
That file is very large	The text passed 400,000 characters. Split it into chapters and import each one.
no selectable text found	The PDF is a scan. Import the original document instead.
Not a Final Draft file	The .fdx has no script body. Open it in Final Draft and save it again.
That file doesn't look like readable text	A Word or PDF file was renamed to .txt. Import it under its real extension.
can't read .doc files directly	Save as .docx, .rtf or plain text and import that.
Too many attempts	Twenty imports an hour is the ceiling from one connection. The count clears within the hour.

Bringing a whole project across from Scrivener, Fade In or Celtx works differently, with its own size limit, and gets the next chapter to itself. Getting work back out again, to PDF, Word, Final Draft and Fountain, follows after that in this Part.

Updated 2026-09-24 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?

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