Docs
Getting Started
Creating Script Documents
Creating screenplays is as simple as clicking the New Screenplay button on the profile page.
This creates and selects an empty document initially titled Untitled.
Changing the Title and Author
On the profile page, select Edit Screenplay Info near the bottom of the side view. This allows you to edit the title, auther, and logline of the document.
Note that on locked revisions this option does not exist. Only the latest draft of each document can be edited.
Editing a Script Document
Select a draft and click the Edit button to open the Editor view. Then, just start typing! See the Writing section below for some tips on editing.
Creating New Script Revisions
With a document selected on the Profile page, select a draft, then click the New Draft button. This will create an identical copy of the selected draft and will also lock the latest draft, preventing further edits.
Note that you can create new drafts from earlier, locked revisions, not only the latest revision. However upon creating a new draft, the latest revision will be always locked from future edits. Only one revision of each document may be unlocked at a time.
Deleting Script Documents
With a document selected on the Profile page, select the Delete Screenplay button. This will delete the entire document and all revisions. You also have the option to only delete a single draft within a document with the Delete Draft button.
Organizing Documents with Folders
On the Profile page, folders can be created with the New Folder box to organize documents. To add document to a folder, click and drag the document onto the folder.To enter the folder to view its contents, simply click the folder. To back out to the higher level, click the Exit Folder box.
To edit a folder name, click the pen icon next to the name. To delete a folder, click the trash icon on the folder box. Note that deleting a folder will not delete the documents inside; any content will be moved the main page.
Writing Screenplays
Element Types
Boulevard supports seven standard element types -- Scenes, Actions, Characters, Dialogue, Parentheticals, Transitions, and Shots which automatically format the element contents based on industry standards. Additionally, Custom elements allow for individual styling with a range of options shown the Formatting widget.
Boulevard also supports dual dialogue and page breaks. See the Special Elements section below for more information on these extra types.
Toggling Between Elements
There are three methods to change the element type of a line. The first is by pressing the Tab key. The first 2-3 elements toggled to are predicted based the previous element, e.g. Dialogue is most likely to immediately a Character element. After that, the elements are continuously toggled sequantially in the order shown in the left menu.
That brings us to the second method -- the buttons in the left menu. Selecting an element button will change the currently selected line to that element. While this may or may not be preferred for standard element types, this is required to activate one of the three special element types (Custom, Dual Dialogue, Page Break).
Autocomplete
Components of Scene elements will provide a dialog menu to autopopulate text. The INT/EXT specifier, the scene setting (based on previously specified settings), and time of day, may be autocompleted when following proper format (e.g. INT. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION - NIGHT).
Character names in Character elements will also appear in a dialog menu for autoselection. To select an option from the list, either click it or toggle down/up using the arrow keys and hit the Enter key to select.
Customizing Layout
Title Page
Within the Editor view, open the Settings menu with the icon in the upper right. The first section contains the Title Page customizations. The inputs in this section are formatted according to industry standards. Currently, Boulevard is relatively limited in features for title pages in favor of keeping the focus on the content. For more creative title pages containing images, colors, different font families or sizes, users are encouraged to use other softwares to create them and merge into an exported PDF.
Changing Element Margins
Below the Title Page settings are the Document settings. Here, you can tweak the margins for each element type. Note that these are relative margins in addition to the page margins.
Changing Page Margins
Also within the Document settings are options to tweak the page margins, page size (US Letter or A4), as well as the page zoom for editing preference.
Scene Numbers
The last option within the Document settings is the option to enable Scene Numbers which display the scene number in the left and right margins
Special Elements
Custom Elements
Custom elements format lines that don't fit the seven standard types. Unlike standard elements, Custom is skipped when toggling with Tab -- it can only be activated by clicking the Custom button in the left menu.
Once a line is set to Custom, the Formatting widget expands to show extra controls: text alignment (left, center, right), a checkbox to add a blank line above the element, and left/right margins in inches. These styles are saved per element, so each Custom line can be formatted independently of the others.
Dual Dialogue
Dual Dialogue lays out two simultaneous dialogue exchanges side-by-side in two columns. To create one, select two consecutive Character/Dialogue (or Parenthetical) pairs -- e.g. by clicking and dragging across both -- then click the Dual Dialogue button in the left menu. The button lights up whenever the current selection is a valid pair.
To undo a Dual Dialogue block, select it and click the Dual Dialogue button again. This restores the original, separate elements.
Page Break
A Page Break forces everything after it onto a new page, regardless of how much room is left on the current page. Click the Page Break button in the left menu to insert one at your cursor's position.
A Page Break can be selected and deleted like any other element. To convert it back into text instead, select it and click any element button in the left menu -- this replaces the Page Break with an empty element of that type.
Widgets
Formatting
The Formatting widget applies character-level styling -- Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, and Highlight -- to the current text selection. Click the color swatch at the bottom of the widget to choose which color Highlight uses.
When the selected line is a Custom element, this widget also shows the alignment and margin controls described in the Custom Elements section above.
Notebook
The Notebook widget attaches freeform notes to the currently selected element (it isn't available for Dual Dialogue or Page Break). Type into the box at the bottom of the widget and click the plus icon to add a note.
Existing notes can be edited (pencil icon), deleted (trash icon, which asks for confirmation before removing), or swapped (the swap icon, which exchanges the note's text with the element's current text content -- handy for trying out alternate lines without losing the original). Notes are saved with the document but are not included in exported files.
Characters
The Characters widget lists every character in the document, built automatically from Character elements and sorted alphabetically. Click a name to scroll to that character's next line; click the arrow to expand their details.
From a character's expanded details you can rename them (this renames the character everywhere it appears in the script), write a bio, jump to their previous/next line, or highlight all of their dialogue and parentheticals in one of six colors. New characters can be added directly from the ADD NEW entry at the top of the list. This widget is read-only on locked revisions.
Scenes
The Scenes widget lists every Scene element in document order. Click an entry to scroll directly to that scene.
Drag and drop an entry to reorder it -- this moves the entire scene (the heading plus everything beneath it, up to the next scene heading) to its new position in the script. The list updates live as scenes are added, removed, or rewritten, and dragging is disabled on locked revisions.
Find & Replace
Find searches the text of every element in the document and is not case-sensitive. Type a term and press Enter, or click the search icon, to jump to the next match; the up-arrow button steps to the previous match. The counter above the search field shows your position out of the total number of matches.
On unlocked drafts, a Replace field also appears below Find. The first button replaces only the currently highlighted match and advances to the next one; the second replaces every match in the document at once. Replacement text is inserted exactly as typed, regardless of the case of the term it's replacing.
Import & Export
The Import & Export widget reads and writes screenplay files without leaving the editor.
Import: choose .FOUNTAIN/.TXT to bring in a Fountain-formatted script, or .BLVD to bring in a file previously exported from Boulevard. Imported content is inserted at your current cursor position, or appended to the end of the document if nothing is selected.
Export: .PDF generates an industry-formatted PDF using your current Title Page and Layout settings. .FOUNTAIN exports the script as plain-text Fountain markup. .BLVD exports Boulevard's own file format, which preserves the document's structure and formatting exactly -- useful for backups or moving a screenplay between accounts.
Daily Goals
The Daily Goals widget tracks daily writing targets for word count, page count, and time spent writing. Enter a target into any field and press Enter or click away to save it; leaving a field blank removes that goal. The eye icon next to a goal hides it from the widget without deleting the target.
Each goal tracks a daily streak: the flame icon shows your current consecutive-day streak, and the circle beside it fills in once that day's target is met. Changing a goal's target resets its streak to zero, so Boulevard will ask you to confirm before applying the change.