Getting started

The window

Cold Open starts on a new script, with the caret on an empty scene heading. Everything you type is saved to a crash journal as you type it, so an untitled script is safe even before you save it.

A first scene

Type this, pressing the keys shown in brackets:

1. int. lighthouse - night [Enter]. Scene headings come out in capitals. As you type, Cold Open offers INT., places you’ve used and times of day: Tab or Enter takes a suggestion.
2. The lamp turns. Waves break below. [Enter] [Tab]. Enter after action gives more action; Tab turns it into a character.
3. nora [Enter]. Character names come out in capitals, and Enter goes to dialogue.
4. Still turning. Still here. [Enter]. Enter after dialogue goes to the next character.
5. eli [Enter] [Tab] from below [Enter]. Tab in dialogue makes a parenthetical, with its brackets added for you. Enter goes back to dialogue.
6. Come down, Nora. [Enter] [Enter]. Enter on an empty character goes to action.

You’ve written a scene. Press Mod+S to save it: an untitled script asks where, and the name’s extension picks the format (.fountain unless you choose another).

The element flow

Enter and Tab always do what the hint bar says. Here is the whole table:

A few things happen by themselves, and one undo (Mod+Z) takes each back:

• Typing INT., EXT., I/E and the like at the start of an empty action makes it a scene heading.
• Typing ( in an empty dialogue makes it a parenthetical.
• An action in capitals that ends in TO: becomes a transition when you press Enter.

Mod+1 to Mod+8 set the element directly: 1 scene heading, 2 action, 3 character, 4 parenthetical, 5 dialogue, 6 transition, 7 shot, 8 general.

Shift+Enter starts a new line inside action or dialogue, without starting a new element.

Autocomplete

While you type, a short list offers what fits:

• character names you’ve used, the ones in the current scene first;
• extensions after a ( in a character: V.O., O.S., O.C., CONT'D and any you’ve used;
• scene prefixes (INT., EXT., INT./EXT., EST., I/E.), places you’ve used, and times of day after -;
• transitions: CUT TO:, DISSOLVE TO: and the ones you’ve used.

Up and Down choose, Tab or Enter takes it, and Esc closes the list.

Moving around

Shift with any of these selects. A double click selects a word, a triple click an element.

The navigator lists every scene with its number, page and length in eighths of a page. Click a scene to go to it. Drag a scene to move it, or select it and press Alt+Up or Alt+Down. Mod+\ shows or hides the navigator, and F6 moves the keyboard between the navigator, the page and any open panel.

Find and replace: Mod+F finds, and Mod+H (Mac: Cmd+Option+F) finds and replaces. Enter, F3 or Mod+G goes to the next match. “This scene only” limits it to one scene. Replace all is one undo step.

The palette, and everything else

Mod+K opens the command palette. It lists every action, with its keys, and your recent files. Type a few letters of what you want: “pdf”, “reports”, “dark”. The keyboard reference lists everything it holds.

Views

• Page view shows the pages as they print. Draft view (Mod+Shift+D) is one long column with no page breaks, which also shows sections and synopses as grey lines.
• Zoom: Mod+= and Mod+- (Mod+0 for 100%). A page always fits the window’s width.
• Interface size: if the text in dialogs and panels is too small, “Make the interface larger” in the palette makes the whole window bigger, up to 200%. “Make the interface smaller” and “Interface at normal size” take it back.
• Focus mode (Mod+Shift+F) hides everything but the page.
• Themes: light, dark and high contrast, in the palette. The default follows your system.
• The renderer: Cold Open draws with the CPU on Windows and Linux, and with the GPU on macOS. The GPU is smoother on 4K and Retina screens; the CPU uses less memory. “Draw with the GPU” and “Draw with the CPU” in the palette switch, from the next start.

Your own keys

keymap.json in the settings folder (see Install) changes any shortcut. It holds only your changes, and Cold Open never rewrites it, so an upgrade never undoes them:

{"v": 1, "bindings": [
  {"keys": "Mod+Shift+K", "action": "app.palette"},
  {"keys": "Mod+1", "action": null}
]}

null removes a shortcut. The action names are in the keyboard reference. Keys are written with Mod, Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Super (Cmd on a Mac), then a letter, digit, F1–F24, a named key such as Enter or PageUp, or one punctuation character. A mistake in the file is listed in a notice when Cold Open starts, and never stops it starting.

flow.json changes the element flow the same way:

{"v": 1, "kinds": {"dialogue": {"enter": "action"}, "action": {"tab": "transition"}}}

The fields are enter, empty_enter, tab and shift_tab.

Saving

• Mod+S saves in the background, so typing never waits for it.
• Save as (Mod+Shift+S) saves under another name, and converts when the extension is another format.
• A script saves back to the format it came in. If you used something that format can’t hold (tracked changes in a Fountain file, say), Cold Open asks before saving, and offers a Cold Open project, which keeps everything. See Files.
• Closing with unsaved changes asks first.