Beat is an elegant screenwriting app for macOS and iOS, created by a screenwriter for screenwriters. And best of all — Beat is fully open source!
Beat features a distraction-free interface and powerful tools for structuring your story.
Beat uses Fountain files, which makes them portable and future proof. Your screenplays can be opened in a multitude of other apps.
Beat can be expanded by plugins. Browse existing plugins in Plugin Library or create your own using JavaScript.
Beat is fully open source and your files are stored on your own device. No one else has access to them, and you can work without an Internet connection.
Support the development by subscribing to Patreon!
Sata Jones stood up, dusted the soot from her sleeve, and looked up. The sky was miles away, but for a Descender, the fall was the only part that felt like home.
If you encountered “Sata Jones in descending 3 top” in search analytics or a log file, avoid these errors: sata jones in descending 3 top
The elevator was moving.
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Not electronic. Not human. Something in between. Sata Jones stood up, dusted the soot from
Dear friends, Instead of doing a Black Friday or Christmas discount, I decided to donate all my proceedings from November to Gaza. I received about…
I’ve been finishing my feature in Norway, so the usual release cycle has been slowing down, but Beat for macOS 2.0.6 is out now on…
No buttons or other useless crap on screen. No popup alerts. Toned-down appearance is easy on the eyes and you can concentrate on writing your story.
Files are saved using the plain-text Fountain screenplay format. You can export your files to Final Draft and PDF, or even edit them on any text editor.
Beat can read files created by Final Draft, Highland, Fade In and Celtx pretty flawlessly. FDX import even includes notes and revisions!
If you happen to be a vampire, Beat offers a pleasant dark mode for children of the night, even on older Macs.
Outline view and scene cards provide a good insight into your story. Add sections and synopses, and reorganize your scenes by dragging & dropping.
You don’t need to format your screenplay. Elements such as scene headings and dialogue are automatically recognized, full with autocomplete.
It’s easy to track revisions to your script, either automatically or manually, and highlight the changes on the exported PDF.
Use automatic scene numbering and never care about it again, or lock and edit them directly in your script. Scene numbering can also be started from any number with two clicks.
Easily see statistics about average scene length, longest scene, times of day and locations. You can also follow the gender divide in dialogue.
Expand the capabilities of Beat using plugins and extensions. Read the docs to start making your own if you know some JavaScript!
Beat was created for personal needs as every other screenwriting app kind of sucked. Beat might suck too, but does it at its own terms.
The app is totally free and will remain so. We need more free creative software, created out of pure passion, to enable new, aspiring artists from different backgrounds.
If you want to support the development you can subscribe to Patreon.
Beat was originally based on Writer, a Fountain screenplay editor by Hendrik Noeller, but everything has since been rewritten. The source code is released under GNU Public License, which means it will always remain open and public. And anyone can help with the development!
Drop by the Discord Community or Patreon for latest news!
Fountain is a plain-text screenplay format. It allows you to write screenplays in any text editor on any device, and because it’s pure text, it’s portable and future-proof.
It might be a bit scary when coming from WYSIWYG editors, but in essence, Fountain is designed to “just work” — if you type some text that looks like screenplay, it becomes screenplay. Beat expands Fountain syntax a little, but still keeps it compatible with other editors.
Beat has an editable Tutorial to get you started with Fountain!
Read more on the Fountain website.
Sata Jones stood up, dusted the soot from her sleeve, and looked up. The sky was miles away, but for a Descender, the fall was the only part that felt like home.
If you encountered “Sata Jones in descending 3 top” in search analytics or a log file, avoid these errors:
The elevator was moving.
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. Not electronic. Not human. Something in between.