Mac Screenwriter 6.8.0.79 Release 38 - Read Me

RELEASE NOTES FOR MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER 6.8.0.79 Release 38:

August 12, 2026 

Download Link:  Download the install .dmg (disk image) from this link

NOTE: Do not forget to install the software once it has been downloaded -- instructions below.

OVERVIEW OF NEW RELEASE:

MAJOR UPDATE:  Screenwriter 6.8 is the release version of the 64-bit, Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel), full-Retina, all-Cocoa version of Screenwriter compatible with these versions of MacOS:  Golden Gate (27.x), Tahoe (26.x), Sequoia (15.x), Sonoma (14.x), Ventura (13.x), Monterey (12.x), Big Sur (11.x) and Catalina (10.15).

Below is a brief summary of changes.  See the full Release Notes (below), or select "What's new in screenwriter..." from the HELP menu to see more detail with images.

Screenwriter 6.8 is a "Universal" app, meaning it supports both native Apple Silicon (M1-M5) processors with incredible speed, and the older Intel hardware via Apple's Rosetta 2 interpreter.  This permanently eliminates the "Support Ending for Intel-based Apps" warning.

RESTORED / IMPROVED FEATURES:  This new release includes many restored features, such as the super-powerful Outline report, which can also print Script Notes; a new feature-laden Keyboard Shortcuts with all-new command / keystroke filtering; the Ruler, with new cosmetics; NaviDoc "red-frame" synchronization, which shows you were you're editing for the Scenes, Outline, and Notes panels; Script Passwords for .mmsw files; Exporting to plain text; Numerous special character shortcuts, such as forced left parenthesis and literal asterisk; Loading User Lists; Document Layout thumbnail; 

NEW AND ENHANCED FEATURES:  In addition to being a high speed Universal app, this new release includes 15 new features and 16 enhanced features, including: Locked Page Color Backgrounds in PDF, Scene-Per-Page Export for Avid; Abbreviation dictionaries for major languages which aid in proper sentence detection; Precision optional Wrap Compatibility for locked production scripts;  NaviDoc sorting of filtered results;  Optional Spell Check controls for hidden elements, like Script Notes; A new EDIT > Add Special Character submenu; Much smarter sentence selection, which knows about trailing whitespace, and sentences ending in .", !?, and ?!; New Find options to load the selection and find from selection; Better Find positioning, and alerts when no find text is found; Improved migration from earlier versions, especially for machines with multiple users; Improvements to Document Comparison; Links in Help to open a support case, and to show detailed "What's New in Screenwriter'; Improvements to typing speed;  About Box can now be closed in numerous, easy ways; and others.

COSMETIC IMPROVEMENTS:  Improvements in selection and insert caret positioning; More reliable scrolling with arrow keys, especially on fast machines; Better handling of different Couriers; Improved display and operation of Outline Styles tab; Fixed an ugly "seam" (white line) between text rows on colored outline and note elements; better frame drawing around hidden elements;  stop button added to spell checking window; elements with hard spaces now select correctly; and others.

BUG FIXES: Over 30 bug fixes, including: Duplicated extensions ".mmsw" during Save As; Inaccurate font wrapping of non-Courier MM Screenwriter fonts; a launch timing bug that could infrequently crash the program when starting, especially on fast machines; scrolling with down arrow key could result in jumping backwards on very fast machines; Missing NaviDoc Scenes alternative row coloring;  inability to select background color control in Outline Styles; missing font crash when opening some Windows .mmsw files; fixed ability to open .scw, .bk, .tmb from the Open & Import command; various crashes, including rarely when quitting; crash pressing delete button in NaviDoc; AVID export crash when long scene heading lines wrapped; wrapping of title page fields sometimes clipped; blinking insertion point might appear to be in the wrong place before typing; plus many others.

All remnants of the previous "Alpha" designation has been removed, and any unimplemented commands (previously designated with red menu items) have been either implemented, or removed.

There are still features we are migrating from 6.5 to 6.8, and these will appear in future free releases, however there will be a separate product upgrade track for writers who want new, additional features.

(see Detailed Changes in 6.8.0.78, below, for a listing of every change)

1. Installing this new Release

2. Detailed Changes in 6.8.0.78 Release 37

3. Known Bugs / Defects

4. How to Report Errors, Defects, or Ask Questions

5. List of 6.5 features yet to be added

1.  INSTALLING SCREENWRITER:

Requirements:  

Any version of MacOS from Catalina (10.15) to Golden Gate (27).

If you previously owned Screenwriter, you do NOT need to have Screenwriter 6.5 or 6.7 presently installed to install and use the new Screenwriter 6.8 Release.  However, you MUST have a Screenwriter 6.5 / 6.7 or 6.8 serial number (which begins with "MMSW")

Installing:  Like all programs, download the install .dmg (disk image), double-click the .dmg, then double-click the installer .pkg.  

Download Link:  Download the install .dmg (disk image) from this link

Screenwriter will install into your Applications folder, into a new "Screenwriter 6.8" folder.  Open that folder, and double-click on the Screenwriter app.  If this is the same computer that once ran Screenwriter 6.7, you might not even be asked to enter your serial number.

If you are asked to enter your serial number, please do so, and also the email address you used for registration, and your registration password.

Installing will never delete any of your previous screenplay documents.  Installing 6.8 will delete the old executable application for 6.5 or 6.7, if present.

First Time Launching and automatic migration from Screenwriter 6.7:  Our NEW migration takes place the first time you run Screenwriter 6.8:

RECENTLY OPENED SCRIPTS:  Screenwriter 6.8 attempts a first-time migration of your previous Screenwriter 6.7 "Recently Opened" documents,  While doing so, it may ask for permissions to access folder locations on your hard disk that MacOS considers protected, and which you previously gave permission to access.  when requested, make sure you are giving those permissions, or you will need to re-open those documents explicitly with the open command.

PREFERENCES / OPTIONS:  We attempt to copy your application-wide preferences from the older Screenwriter 6.7, so there is as little disruption as possible.

LOCATING SCREENWRITER'S DOCUMENT FOLDER:  You will also be asked to access the Movie Magic Screenwriter folder, located in your Documents folder.  You must grant access, otherwise Screenwriter will not run correctly.

Make sure to answer Allow to that alert, or you will not be able to open or create documents!  

ONE TIME QUESTION ABOUT TWO NEW FEATURES:  Because Screenwriter is a preferred screenwriting tool in professional production, you will be asked (once) if you are presently in-production and editing locked production scripts.  If you are, we will recommend turning off two new features which might cause in-production locked scripts to wrap differently when going between Windows and Mac: Abbreviation Detection and Wrap Compatibility.  Spec script writers, or professional writers not yet in production can ignore this one-time question.

Modern MacOS Security:  Recent versions of MacOS introduced a lot of new security measures, and you MAY see an alert like the following (different on different systems).  Please make sure to always ALLOW these requests:

Need to Reclaim An Activation?  

Use the Activate & Register Screenwriter application (located in the Screenwriter 6.8 folder) to deauthorize an old, unused activation location.

2.  CHANGES IN 6.8.0.79  RELEASE 38

• Corrected a crash when partially selecting text in a Script Note / Outline style if NaviDoc was displayed.
• Corrected bug: Centered text on the on-screen Title page was being displayed right-aligned (although it was printing correctly).
• Corrected a long-standing bug: When users stored their scripts on the Desktop, or in a folder on the Desktop, macOS would not allow us to delete that temporary, hidden .BK file, and would generate an error that the file “already exists and I can’t delete it. Operation not permitted.” This prevented the saving of a previous version backup. Although we’ve fixed this and you can now safely edit and save scripts placed on the Desktop, please be aware that Apple intentionally treats the security of the Desktop differently than other locations and they really want you to keep documents in the Documents folder.
• Fixed a bug where color background from on-screen color choices (like Dark Mode) would accidentally be used in printed PDF!
• Permanently fixed a critical error caused by the NaviDoc scene panel having an older, invalid stored value for scene sorting.
• Corrected a defect in NaviDoc Notes panel: If you activating another application, then returning to Screenwriter, then selecting a different note, it caused the previously-selected note to lose its on-screen background color.
• Corrected: the height of the NaviDoc Note color categories wasn’t being remembered across program launches.
• In Print and Exporting a PDF, we removed the older grayed-out Notes button and changed the label on the Outline Report to Outline / Notes Report, because that’s a feature-rich report generator that can be used to print an Outline or Script Notes, either separately or integrated with your script. You can also make Script Notes printable in FORMAT > Element Styles (Notes tab).
• We fixed a potential (but rare) crash on startup.
• We added numerous protections so that if the program had rare issues, it wouldn’t crash and exit the program. We also added a diagnostic log in case there were ever issues saving a document.
• Now missing serial numbers on the splash screen and in the About Box now show as “Activated” instead of the alarming “Serial Number not Available”. If you don’t see your serial number, we have a new method for you to add it in – contact support and we’ll send you the steps – it’s trivial. Note that even if your serial number is not displayed in your About Screenwriter window, you are fully activated – the serial number display is purely for your convenience.

DETAILED CHANGES IN 6.8.0.78  RELEASE 37:

(for more details / screenshots use the new HELP > What’s New in Screenwriter menu command) 

NEW / RESTORED / IMPROVED FEATURES:

• NEW FEATURE:  UNIVERSAL APP!  Apple Native Silicon (M1-M5) + Intel.  Very fast! (this also eliminates warnings about future app compatibility).
• RESTORED FEATURE: The super-powerful Print Outline Report is back!  The Outline Report can easily print a list of Script Notes, too.
• RESTORED / ENHANCED FEATURE: The return of Keyboard Shortcut Preferences!  You can customize shortcuts for almost any Screenwriter function. NEW search field lets you find by command name or keystroke. You can also save and load different shortcut sets.  
• NEW FEATURE: ALL NEW Locked page color background now prints into PDF.
• NEW printing preference: Include Colored Backgrounds for Revised Pages in Locked Scripts.
• NEW FEATURE: a new “Scene-Per-Page” export, which is useful for the Avid editing system.
• NEW FEATURE:  Abbreviation dictionaries (per language).  This fixes problems which affected double vs single periods, and the rare case where a page break was attempted after an abbreviation like “Dr.”
• RESTORED FEATURE: One Ruler to Rule Them All:  Return of Screenwriter’s ruler, now prettier than ever!
• NEW FEATURE:  Now if a misspelled word is found in a collapsed non-printing element, that element is expanded so you could see the misspelled word in context. (previously the spell checker would find the word, but you wouldn’t see it selected in a collapsed note).
• RESTORED FEATURE: NaviDoc synchronization now works again.  A red frame is drawn on NaviDoc rows showing the selected range of editor text.  AND – it is now scrolled into view so the area where you are typing is always clearly displayed.
• RESTORED FEATURE: Script Passwords now work again for .mmsw files.  Note passwords were never a feature of the .mmx (XML) file format, because .xml was intended as a clear text format.
• ENHANCEMENT: Sorting NaviDoc Scenes by INT/EXT, Location, and Time-of-Day now subsorts all rows so they stay in chronological order.
• RESTORED FEATURE: EXPORT TO > Plain Text (.txt) is now available.
• Major improvement to typing speed: the MacOS spell checker was running at a low priority, slowing down typing.  We've elevated its priority and now typing is a lot faster.
• COSMETIC ENHANCEMENT: Text in NaviDoc rows are now displayed properly vertically centered.
• RESTORED SHORTCUT: "Add Forced Left Paren" (SHIFT+CTRL+9) and new EDIT menu item, which works in Character name or Dialog (because typing a bare '(' signals to go into extension for character names and parenthetical for dialog).
• NEW FEATURE: Add Special Character submenu.  EDIT > Add Special Character >, which adds menu items for previously hidden Hard Space, Literal Asterisk, Forced Left Parenthesis, Soft Hyphen, and Hard Hyphen.  This makes it easy to quickly see their keyboard shortcuts.
• NEW FEATURE / ENHANCED:  Select Sentence (including CMD+click) improved to support selecting sentences ending with period-quote (."), exclamation-question cluster (!?) / (?!) and also followed by double-quote.  Whitespace is now also selected after the sentence and before the next sentence.  These behaviors now match Microsoft Word.
• NEW FEATURE:  Added a Spell Checker pref to include or exclude from TOOLS > Spell Check non-printing elements (like notes or outline styles).  The default is to include everything.
• NEW CHANGES TO FIND COMMAND: 

• REIMPLEMENTED FIND OPTION: the Find window can now optionally stay open or closed after a search, depending on your preference in the OPTIONS > Misc tab.
• NEW Find dialog layout is cleaner, and slightly more compact.
• NEW Find Previous now has a menu item (it was always SHIFT+CMD+G).
• NEW hidden (non-menu) FindFromSelection (SHIFT+CMD+F) – takes the selection and loads that text into the Find dialog. (just think of adding SHIFT onto the Find command).  
• NEW hidden (non-menu) UseSelectionForFind (CONTROL+F) – loads the selection to use if you want to do FIND NEXT or FIND PREVIOUS.  A common non-menu command in Mac applications, usually CMD+E, however we already use that key.
• Find has improved on-screen position (1/5th from top) for the found item, especially when using Find Previous.
• If Find Next has no further match: "You've reached the end of the document" is displayed.  Previously, you had no indication there were no further matches.
• If Find Previous has no further match: "You've reached the start of the document" Is displayed.
• If the entire document is searched, but nothing is found, “No match was found” is displayed.

• RESTORED FEATURE: FORMAT > Load User Lists From > Template or Screenwriter Document now available.
• RESTORED / ENHANCED: FORMAT > Document Layout now has its thumbnail image back, with a color legend that shows the areas the margins apply to.
• NEW 6.7 TO 6.8 MIGRATION:  During installation and first launch, your 6.7 “Open Recent” documents and your 6.7 preferences will now be preserved for all users of Screenwriter on your computer.  You will be asked to give permission to any secure folders that 6.7 also had access to.
• ENHANCEMENT: Document comparison: prompts now tell you to select the “older” or “newer” document, so comparison makes better sense.
• ENHANCEMENT: Document Comparison: uses proper Courier MM Screenwriter font in generated change file so comparisons fit properly on page.
• New Default Shortcuts for Correct Current Word > Learn/Unlearn Word (SHIFT+CMD+L) and Ignore/Unignore Spelling for this Document (SHIFT+CMD+I)
• NEW LINK TO HELP / SUPPORT: we now have a new menu item, HELP > Screenwriter Help/Technical Support, which navigates to our tech support site.
• NEW LINK HELP > What’s New in Screenwriter will take your browser to a dedicated web page to see what has changed in this released of Screenwriter.
• Improved layout: the presentation of the Save reminder / warning to make it more readable.
• NEW / ENHANCED: two new preferences for controlling Wrap Compatibility between Mac Screenwriter 6.8 / 6.7 / 6.5, and Windows 6.0.  Wrap Compatibility is only relevant to locked production scripts, and only for productions that go between the different versions of Screenwriter mentioned above. The first is Application Wide Wrap Compatibility, located in SETTINGS, on the Revisions tab. The second allows setting Wrap Compatibility for individual documents. Other users, such as spec script writers, can ignore these new features.
• DURING FIRST LAUNCH:  You’re given a choice on first launch, so that users with locked scripts currently in production can optionally disable abbreviation checking and new Wrap Compatibility features, which might accidentally change wrapping slightly and create changed pages (not a concern for spec script writers).

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES: 

• Corrected highly visible bug where on MacOS Sequoia and Tahoe added additional .mmsw (or other duplicate extensions) during SAVE AS and Save a Copy As.
• CORRECTED: Font wrapping for other fonts now accurate.  You can now use other versions of Courier, although they might not be properly set for standard 10-characters per inch / 6-lines per inch height like Courier MM Screenwriter.  We still recommend you stick with Courier MM Screenwriter for best adherence to industry page-a-minute standards.
• MAJOR BUG FIXED: Fixed the long-standing major launch timing bug.  Some machines were so fast they launched into the editor before Screenwriter had an opportunity to fully initialize!  This could cause crashes during the opening of a document, although re-launching often worked perfectly fine.  
• Corrected a major problem with using the arrow keys to scroll line-by-line on faster machines: the display would get confused and sometimes jump backwards a few pages.  Scrolling using arrow keys is now fast, reliable, and accurate.
• RESTORED the Scenes NaviDoc alternative row coloring.
• FIXED:  Save as Default for All New Documents now works again in the FORMAT > Element Styles dialog.
• MAJOR COSMETIC DRAWING FIX: Corrected a "seam" (thin line of pixels not being drawn) below the lines in Script Notes and Outline styles with a background color.  Also, corrected hairline seam in printing, plus cosmetic issues with drawing frames on-screen (missing bottoms when scrolling).
• COSMETIC FIX: Fixed Selection, which was too high by one pixel, and chopping off the descenders from the line above.
• COSMETIC FIX: Corrected the position and height of the blinking insertion point, which was too high and too far left by one pixel, and also didn't adjust to the height of the font of the line if it wasn't 12 point.
• COSMETIC FIX: Fixed problems with FORMAT > ELEMENT STYLES Outline Styles tab Element table columns.  The hierarchical listing of element styles now compresses itself to better fit in the narrow space.  Also, the background color column controls are easier to click on.
• ENHANCEMENT:  Upped the priority on toolbar items so the elements style popup and styles button would be always displayed, regardless of window size.
• ENHANCED: About Box can be closed by OK button, Escape, Return, or clicking outside window.
• CORRECTED A BUG WITH MISSING FONTS WHEN OPENING WINDOWS SCRIPTS:  The issue was, surprisingly: Some older Windows file used "Courier" -- not Courier New, or Courier MM Screenwriter -- just "Courier".  And Apple, in their wisdom, has ELIMINATED Courier from MacOS -- even though it was a standard default font for 40 years!  Our fix essentially corrects “Courier” to “Courier MM Screenwriter” automatically.
• Corrected a rare but annoying bug:  If a modal dialog was presently open (Screenwriter’s Options dialog, for example), and the user switched to a different app located in a DIFFERENT "space" (virtual desktop), when they switched back the Screenwriter menu displayed at the top of the screen but not the modal dialog -- because it was still open on another space/virtual desktop.  If you didn't switch to the correct space, you could get stuck, where you couldn't press OK or Cancel, nor could you quit the app! Now the entire Screenwriter app is always brought forward.
• Corrected a selection issue with hard spaces where selection didn’t look long enough if there were hard spaces in the line.
• Export to Movie Magic Scheduling / Gorilla now uses .sex, versus .SEX extension.
• Minor UI enhancement: Added a "Stop" button to the spell check window (previously the only way to stop it was to click on the red window close icon.
• Corrected a serious problem with running the Spell Check > Entire document command, where it could sometimes crash.
• Fixed unresponsiveness after closing SmartCheck via close window (red) dot.
• fixed a bug where the alignment icons on the title page publisher weren't working correctly on MacOS Tahoe.
• Corrected potential crash when QUITTING Screenwriter, related to the NaviDoc Outline view (it did NOT cause any loss of data).
• Corrected a potential crash when using the DELETE button in the NaviDoc Outline view...
• Corrected a bug where the “Make Default for All New Documents” checkbox in the Element Styles dialog did nothing.
• Corrected a bug where Screenwriter could not used FILE > Open to open a .scw (Screenwriter 4.x / 2000) document.
• Corrected a bug where Screenwriter could not use FILE > Open to directly open a .bk file.
• Corrected two bugs in the AVID export: there was a crash/critical error that might happen if a scene heading was so long it wrapped to the next line, and sometimes the blank lines after paragraphs MIGHT not be emitted into the AVID export.  That second issue was mostly a visual / cosmetic issue.
• Fixed a rare bug where a wrapped line of a text field on a title page might display on-screen but be invisible in the printout.
• Improved a critical algorithm used in the moving of the .bk file which could possibly fail. It didn’t cause an issue with saving changes, but sometimes caused an alert related to making previous version (.bk) backup.
• Corrected a rare crash involving clicking above a centered title on the first page.
• Corrected a bug that affected opening some Windows .mmsw files.
• Fixed a bug which prevented a .mmx file from being re-opened if you deleted all the outline styles!
• AUTO-SPACE option in the Spelling Options panel is now defaulted to “1” for new installations (me, I prefer two spaces between sentences, and with the new abbreviation dictionaries that works a lot better – but the kids nowadays prefer a single space, so whatever).
• Corrected a bug in Cheat > Element and Cheat > Page, where typing a value might not be registered and put into effect if you pressed the OK button with the mouse.
• COSMETIC FIX: Repositioning red blinking arrow (NaviDoc, SmartCheck) so it is centerline on the first line of an element -- regardless of the font height.
• COSMETIC: Hid presently-unavailable features, like Enable Voice Commands / Configure (on MISC tab).
• Corrected a rare but potential crash when overriding a locked page color (thanks, Taylor!)
• COSMETIC: Made it so unchecking the app preference Retain Previous Versions checkbox would dim / disable the controls that pertained to that feature.
• Corrected a crash that could happen if you pressed return in an empty note or outline element, which creates a new empty line of Action, then applied a new style to that element.
• Corrected an annoying (but harmless) bug where sometimes changing or inserting an outline element (like “Beat”) left the blinking insertion caret in the wrong place until the user started typing.
• Fixed a really rare timing issue where clicking while zooming might cause a critical error / assert.
• COSMETIC: Eliminated unused file type list at the bottom of Save As and Save A Copy As…
• FIXED:  Search for filenames and extensions (.mmsw, .scw, .bk. tmb) now work in various open file dialogs on recent MacOS systems.
• Brought Screenwriter 6.8 fully up-to-date with MacOS standards, so that there are no parts of the program that use outdated or deprecated system calls.

3.  KNOWN BUGS AND DEFECTS:

• Strikethrough attribute will only display or print on Monterey and above (ie not on Big Sur or Catalina).
• When exporting to Final Draft, if a scene heading has an "A" scene number, Final Draft sees this as a line of action, when it should be scene heading style.
• Small Toolbar Icons:  Not really a bug or a defect, but Apple has removed its support for small toolbar icons, and has made it extremely difficult to support that feature.  We spent well over a week trying to work around Apple's changes, with no success.  While many of us liked the option of slightly smaller toolbar icons, this move by Apple seems to be pushing for less window clutter and acknowledging that screens are now higher resolution and thus require the normal size.  If enough people still want this feature, we can try again to work with Apple on this in the future.

4.  HOW TO REPORT ERRORS, DEFECTS, OR ASK QUESTIONS:

If the program generates a Critical Error ("Assert"), then you will be guided to submit an automatic report.  First, you'll see an alert that asks you for your name, email address, and a brief description of what you were doing when the Critical Error popped up.

After you press the submit button, you'll see a second alert that gives you three options:

Force Quit, Try Quitting Gracefully, and Try Continuing.

If there's an issue you need to tell us about, then submit a tech ticket to report a problem.  

To submit a tech support request:

Screenwriter 6.8 has a new help menu item, "Screenwriter Help / Technical Support":

Select that, or go to techsupport.screenplay.com and click on the Contact Technical Support. Please do the following:

• Fill in all of the required fields, plus your serial number
• In the Subject line, please include these three pieces of information:

1. Version (IE Screenwriter 6.8)
2. Type of Issue
3. Short Description, for example, "CRASH – Inserting Act Break crashes," or, "BUG – Missing Help file", etc.

• Provide a full description of the issue with as much detail as possible. 
• If needed, please provide a copy of a document associated with the crash.
• If you report a crash, please provide steps to reproduce the crash (if possible) and the Mac crash log:
  • How to send us a crash log on macOS: 

How to send us a crash log on macOS

5.  LIST OF 6.5 FEATURES YET TO BE ADDED:

Despite Screenwriter 6.8 being a released program, there's still some features that are not yet rewritten.

Some of these features need to be completely redesigned:

Expected in the Next Free Release:

• Speak Selection / Assign Voices
• Notes Report (although new Outline Report also prints Script Notes)
• TV Breakdowns / Rundown Sheets
• Scene Character Lists
• Animation Locking
• Thesaurus
• NaviDoc Bookmarks
• Copy to File/Scrap; Paste from;
• Mark One Character's Dialog
• Watermark Printing
• Streamline
• iPartner
• Index Card Mode