Windows tutorials › Story and Beat Board
Story and Beat BoardOpen and edit a scene card, a beat or a sequence
Write the scene heading, descriptions and notes of a card, colour a beat, and rename a sequence.
Before you start
- The Beat Board has a card, a beat and a sequence.
Steps
Right-click a scene card.
The menu has Open (Enter), Duplicate (Ctrl+D), Move…, Send to Parking Lot, Convert to Screenplay Scene, Copy as Beat and Delete (Del). Copy as Beat makes a beat from the card and leaves the card as it is.
Click a card to select it, or press Enter on it to open it.
The selected card has a blue outline. Click Open in the menu, or double-click, to read it in full.
Fill in the card in the drawer on the right.
The drawer is headed SCENE CARD with the card's title and where it sits, for example Act 1: The Return › Arrival in Rayapuram. Scene heading is optional now, but required before the card becomes a screenplay scene, for example EXT. RAYAPURAM BUS STAND - NIGHT. Short description is the line shown on the card. Long description holds scene-development material, up to 100,000 characters, and cards can show its first lines. Notes is freeform. Attach adds reference material, up to 50 per card. Attachments never become production assets on their own. The buttons are Duplicate, Send to Parking Lot, Convert to Screenplay Scene and Delete.
Right-click a beat.
A beat menu has Open (Enter), Convert to Scene, Duplicate (Ctrl+D), Move…, Send to Parking Lot and Delete (Del).
Open the beat. Edit Beat text and the optional Note, and pick a Colour.
The drawer is headed BEAT CARD. The colours are None, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, teal, green and gray. The colour shows as a stripe on the beat and as a dot in the Outline. Convert to Scene creates a new scene card from the beat text. The beat stays behind marked Converted, so no thought is lost. The other buttons are Duplicate, Park and Delete.
Right-click a sequence name.
The menu has Open (Enter), Rename, Move…, Add Scene, Add Beat and Delete.
Open the sequence and edit Sequence name and Note.
The drawer is headed SEQUENCE with the act it sits in. Scenes shows the cards inside it. Attachments work as on a card. Delete removes the sequence and offers choices, covered in Delete an act, a sequence or a card.
What you get
Your card, beat or sequence has the text you want.
Watch out for
- Convert to Screenplay Scene needs a valid scene heading, such as INT. POLICE STATION - NIGHT. The build step stops until you add one.
- Edits in a drawer save as you go. Duplicate makes a copy next to the original.