Where are my scripts / documents (Mac): I just installed Screenwriter 6/6.5 for Macintosh and I can't find them

This article is for MAC users.  For the FAQ article for WINDOWS users, click here.

If you just installed Screenwriter 6 or 6.5 on a new (or different) Macintosh computer, you may be having problems locating your existing screenplay documents.  This FAQ explains where they might be.

We never delete your documents

Installing, uninstalling, and/or re-installing the Screenwriter 6  application will NEVER delete your script documents.  Your script documents are never stored in your Screenwriter application folder -- unless you deliberately and explicitly stored them there and that is rare and MacOS doesn't like that for security reasons.

There are no scripts listed at the bottom of my FILE  menu.  Where did they go?  

The bottom of the FILE menu lists the most recent documents you worked on.  After installing on a new computer, this list of recently opened documents will be empty.  The scripts have NOT been deleted -- that is simply a convenient list of the last documented opened on a specific machine.

Screenwriter doesn't copy your screenplay documents from one computer to another

If you have just installed on a NEW computer, you are responsible for transferring your screenplay documents from the old computer to the new computer.  You will find your scripts exactly in the folder you copied your scripts to.  If you haven't copied them to the new computer, you'll need to do that.

Screenwriter doesn't require your documents to be in a specific location

Screenwriter doesn't care where those documents are stored on your computer -- so long as you have read/write access into the folder where they are stored. 

There is a "default" location that can be set in Screenwriter's Preferences window, under the Files tab.  This is usually set to a folder in your Documents folder, called "Movie Magic Screenwriter".  This would be the SAME location as any previous version of Screenwriter 6 or 6.5.

I know my scripts are somewhere on my computer -- how do I find them?

When you use Screenwriter's FILE > Open menu command, you are presented with a dialog to open scripts that is initially set to the default location described above.  However, you can use that file open dialog to locate your scripts anywhere on your hard disk.

If you still can't locate your scripts, you can use the Mac's FINDER > Find command to look for documents ending in .mmsw.  Older script documents from Screenwriter 2000/4.x might have a file extension of .scw.

You can also use the Spotlight (magnifying glass menu) feature in the upper right corner of your menu bar to search for files with the extension of .mmsw or .scw.  You cannot presently search there CONTENTS of a .mmsw or .scw document using Spotlight.

A note of caution about editing documents in the cloud

We generally recommend against editing your scripts in a folder that is being synchronized or backed up to the cloud, for example via DropBox, or Apple's iCloud, or similar cloud-based sync programs.  It is generally better to EDIT those scripts in a non-cloud drive, then copy those files to the cloud after you have finished making changes.

You can also get into trouble using both DropBox and iCloud at the same time on the same folder. Please avoid doing that.

One thing you absolutely must not do is to try and have two copies of Screenwriter on two separate machines attempt to edit the same document located in the cloud at the same time.  This will result in conflicting edits that will result in losing data.  Screenwriter is not presently set up to have multiple authors editing the same file, except through its iPartner feature.