Final Draft FDX to Fountain Converter

What an FDX file actually is

An .fdx file is XML that stores Final Draft's own document model, not a universal screenplay standard. Every element sits inside a typed paragraph:

<FinalDraft DocumentType="Script" Template="No" Version="1">
  <Content>
    <Paragraph Type="Scene Heading">
      <Text>INT. DINER - NIGHT</Text>
    </Paragraph>
    <Paragraph Type="Character">
      <Text>MARGARET</Text>
    </Paragraph>
    <Paragraph Type="Dialogue">
      <Text>You ordered the pie. I watched you.</Text>
    </Paragraph>
  </Content>
</FinalDraft>

The same file also carries scene numbers, revision colors and dates, act structure, and per-paragraph production tags like ScriptNotes and SceneProperties. Most of that is invisible while you write, and all of it assumes the reading app is Final Draft or a clone of it.

Why a Fountain copy is worth keeping

Fountain is a plain-text screenplay format: UTF-8, no markup you cannot type, spec version 1.1. A scene heading is a line beginning INT. or EXT., a character cue is an uppercase line followed by dialogue, and a transition is a line ending in TO:. That is the whole grammar for the elements you use daily.

• It outlives apps. No vendor owns the format, so a Fountain file still opens after a screenwriting app is discontinued or a subscription lapses.
• It diffs and syncs cleanly. XML nests and reformats; text lines do not. Fountain survives Dropbox conflict copies, git, and email pasting intact.
• Everything can read it. Highland, Slugline, Fade In, Beat, WriterDuet, and Zen Writer all import Fountain, so the file is not a one-way door.
• It is small and readable. An FDX feature can be several megabytes of XML; the same script as Fountain is a few dozen kilobytes of text you can read in any editor.

How to convert FDX to Fountain

1. Choose the .fdx file exported by Final Draft, or paste the raw XML from the file into the box.
2. Read the recovered screenplay in the preview. Title-page fields appear first as Title:, Credit:, and Author: keys.
3. Fix anything the parser misread — usually a production tag or an unusual dual-dialogue block.
4. Select Download .fountain to save the plain-text script, or Copy Fountain to paste it into Notes, an email, or a git repo.
5. Use Download .fdx only when you want a fresh, clean Final Draft file built from the text you are looking at.

What survives the trip, and what does not

The mistakes to check in the result

Fountain decides what a line is partly by context, so ambiguous action can flip into the wrong element. The spec has escape hatches for exactly this, and it is worth knowing them before you send the file anywhere.

A line of action that opens like a slugline or a cue

Prefix it with !, as in !INT. VIEW is a terrible album title. Without the bang, the line becomes a scene heading and every later page break shifts.

A lowercase character cue

Prefix the name with @, as in @McClane, when the writer wants the cue cased deliberately. Otherwise Fountain uppercases the next cue it recognizes.

Scene headings that do not start with INT. or EXT.

Prefix with a single period, as in .HELICOPTER - CONTINUOUS. Zen Writer and other Fountain importers read the forced heading and keep it in the slugline position.

Round-tripping does not preserve scene numbers, revision colors, or production tags, because Fountain has nowhere to put them. If a draft is already in production and those marks matter, keep the original FDX and treat the Fountain file as your readable, portable copy.

Frequently asked questions