Free screenplay templates for Google Docs, Word, and Fountain

What's already set up

Each template follows the standard US spec screenplay format, so you can stop fiddling with rulers and start writing. (If you'd rather skip templates entirely, a Film Room formats your script as you type.)

These are conventions, not law. Software and studios vary slightly, but a script laid out like this reads as professional to anyone who opens it. The rule of thumb is about one page per minute of screen time.

How to use the Google Docs screenplay template

Google Docs doesn't let you name your own styles. The template puts each screenplay element on one of the built-in heading styles instead, so every element is one keyboard shortcut away.

The rhythm:

1. Type a scene heading and press Enter. Google Docs drops you into Normal text, which is Action.
2. When someone speaks, press Ctrl + Alt + 2 and type the character's name.
3. Press Enter, then Ctrl + Alt + 3 and type the dialogue.

After a page or two it becomes muscle memory.

Two tips:

• Leave Docs' outline closed. Because everything is a heading, the outline in the sidebar lists every line of dialogue.
• Type capitals yourself. Google Docs styles can't capitalize automatically, so type scene headings, character names and transitions in capitals. If you forget, select the text and use Format › Text › Capitalization › UPPERCASE.

When you're ready to share, use File › Download › PDF. The PDF is what readers and contests expect.

How to use the Word screenplay template

In Word it's simpler, because every element is a real named style.

1. Open the .docx and look at the Styles gallery on the Home tab. You'll find Scene Heading, Action, Character, Parenthetical, Dialogue, and Transition.
2. Click into a line and pick its style. Better still, just press Enter, because each style hands off to the next one:
   • Scene Heading → Action
   • Character → Dialogue
   • Parenthetical → Dialogue
   • Dialogue → Action
   • Transition → Scene Heading
3. Scene headings, character names, and transitions capitalize themselves. Type normally.

The title page is ready to fill in. There's also a sample scene to show the styles in action, and a last page of notes. Delete both when you start your own.

To send it out, use File › Save As › PDF.

The Fountain template: no styles at all

Fountain is a plain-text format for screenplays, a little like Markdown for scripts. You don't apply styles. You type the way a screenplay already looks, and a Fountain app lays out the page for you:

• a line starting with INT. or EXT. becomes a scene heading
• a name in capitals with a line underneath becomes a character and their dialogue

INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT

A laptop glows on a cluttered table. MAYA (30s), hoodie, cold coffee, stares at a blank page.

MAYA
(to the laptop)
Okay. Scene heading. Then what?

JONAH (V.O.)
Bring pages. Real ones. In Courier.

CUT TO:

The left side is the finished page. The right side is everything you actually typed. No shortcuts, no ruler, and the file opens in any text editor for as long as text editors exist.

This is how a Film Room works. You type plain text, and the script is formatted as you go. Paste in the Fountain template and it keeps its formatting.

Template or screenwriting software?

A template is a great way to start, especially for a short or a first draft. Its limits show up when the script gets longer:

• Page breaks. Real screenwriting software keeps a character name with its dialogue and adds (MORE) and (CONT'D) when a speech breaks across pages. Word and Google Docs don't, so you check by hand.
• Scene numbers and revisions. These are needed once a script goes into production. Templates don't manage them.
• Working together. Comments and simultaneous editing work in Google Docs. In Word they mostly don't.

If you outgrow a template, there are good options:

You don't have to pick one forever. Fountain files move between most of these tools. Final Draft's own help center says it can't open a .fountain file directly, but it will import the same script saved as plain text (.txt).