7 Reasons Trelby Is Still the Best Free Screenwriting Software

Exporting and Formatting Scripts in Trelby — Step-by-Step Tutorial

1) Prepare your script

1. Open your script in Trelby.
2. Use Script → Find next error (Ctrl+E) and fix any formatting errors.

2) Configure script formatting

1. Go to Script → Settings → Formatting.
2. Set element indents, widths, and styles (Scene, Action, Character, Dialogue, Parenthetical).
3. In Script → Settings → Paper, choose paper size and margins.
4. Optional: Script → Settings → PDF to adjust PDF-specific options (embed font, show margins, table of contents).

3) Set title page and headers

1. Script → Title pages to edit title page strings and alignment.
2. Script → Headers to configure running headers (date, scene, page).

4) Export to PDF (recommended)

1. File → Print (via PDF) — this opens generated PDF in your system viewer.
2. Or File → Export → PDF (if available) to save directly.
3. To embed a font: Script → Settings → PDF → PDF/Fonts — choose and enable embedding (Courier recommended).

5) Export to Final Draft (.fdx) or Fountain

1. File → Export → Final Draft XML (.fdx) to save for Final Draft compatibility.
2. File → Export → Fountain (.fountain) for compatible plain-text screenplay format.

Notes: Final Draft import/export preserves element text but not Trelby-specific formatting settings. Fountain exports retain structure for other editors.

6) Export to RTF, HTML, or plain text

1. File → Export → choose RTF, HTML, or Formatted Text to create files for word processors or web.
2. Use Formatted Text for plain text with layout spacing; use RTF for retaining paragraph indents.

7) Advanced: watermarked PDFs & compare

• Tools → Generate watermarked PDFs to add identifying watermarks.
• Tools → Compare scripts to produce a PDF showing changes between two scripts.

Quick checklist before sharing

• Run Script → Paginate to check page breaks.
• Verify title page and headers.
• Embed font if recipients need exact pagination.
• Export .fdx if the recipient uses Final Draft.

If you want, I can produce a short checklist tailored to your target format (PDF, Final Draft, Fountain, or Word).