How Collaboration Works

Multiple writers can work on the same screenplay at the same time. Changes sync instantly between all connected editors, and each collaborator gets a colored cursor so you can see who is writing where.

Inviting Collaborators

Open the script and click Share at the top of the right sidebar. Type the email address of the person you want to invite, choose whether they can edit, comment or view, and click Send invite.

EnsembleWriter sends an invitation email with a link to the screenplay, valid for seven days. When the recipient clicks the link, they join with the access you chose.

An invitation belongs to the address it was sent to. Whoever opens it has to be signed in with that address, in any capitalization, so a forwarded link does not let anyone else in. If your collaborator uses a different address for EnsembleWriter, invite that one instead.

If the invited person does not have an EnsembleWriter account, the link walks them through registration first. Once signed up, they land directly in the shared screenplay.

You can invite multiple people to the same screenplay. Each collaborator will receive their own invitation email and their own colored cursor in the editor.

Editors, Commenters and Viewers

Everyone on a script has one of four roles:

• Owner. The person who created the script. Everything an editor can do, plus inviting and removing people, changing their roles and deleting the script.
• Editor. Writes in the script and changes everything stored with it: the title page, characters, Visual Arc, Shot List and Beat Board. Editors can restore revisions and create share links.
• Commenter. Reads the script and leaves comments on it, without changing it.
• Viewer. Reads the script and its comments.

Commenters and viewers open the script in a read-only editor. They can scroll, select, copy, search, export and use Table Read, and a note at the top of the editor says who to ask for more access.

Roles are free on every plan. Collaborators always write under the owner's page limit, whatever their role.

The Writing Room

When two or more people have the same screenplay open, you are in a writing room. Each person's cursor appears in a distinct color with their name above it.

Changes appear in real time. When your collaborator types a new line of dialogue, it shows up on your screen within milliseconds. EnsembleWriter uses operational transformation to merge concurrent edits, so two people can type in the same paragraph without losing anyone's work.

There is no "lock" on any section of the script. Every editor can write anywhere in the document at any time. You can write in the same scene or work on different parts of the screenplay at once.

Color Text by Writer

Everyone on a script has their own color: it fills their face in the row at the top of the right sidebar, where a green dot means they are in the script right now. It marks their cursor, and it stays the same every time they open the script.

Turn on Color text by writer at the bottom of the Share dialog (People, for a commenter or viewer) to draw the script in those colors, so you can see who wrote what. It only changes your own screen: exports, share links and everyone else's view stay as they were.

A writer's color goes on text they type, paste or move while the script is open with others, so cutting a scene and pasting it elsewhere makes it yours. Text from before this feature, imported scripts and edits made offline keep the normal text color.

Comments

Select a passage in the script and choose Comment from the right-click menu, or press ⌘⌥M (Ctrl+Alt+M on Windows). You can also select the passage and click New on the Comments tab at the top of the right sidebar, which counts the open threads. Your comment appears there, and the passage is highlighted in your color for everyone on the script. Click a highlight to open its thread.

Anyone who can comment can reply. Type @ to mention someone on the script: they get an email with your comment and a link straight to it. The email never includes the script itself.

When a note is dealt with, click Resolve. The person who started the thread, editors and the owner can resolve a thread or reopen it, and resolved threads stay under the Resolved tab. You can edit or delete your own comments, and the owner can delete any. Resolving or deleting shows an Undo at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds, in case it was the wrong thread.

A comment stays with its passage as the script changes. If the passage is deleted, the thread stays in the list as detached, with the text it was left on. Comments are for the script's members only: they never appear on share links, in exports or in revisions.

Managing Collaborators

The script owner manages collaborators from the Share dialog, which lists everyone on the script and any pending invitations. Anyone else on the script can open the same list from People (or Share, for an editor) to see who has access.

To change what someone can do, pick a new role next to their name. It takes effect at once, even if they have the script open: an editor made a viewer stops being able to type within a second, and anything they had already written stays.

To remove a collaborator, pick Remove access from the menu next to their name. They immediately lose access. If they have the script open, their session ends.

Pending invitations can also be revoked. If you invited the wrong person or the invitation expired, you can cancel it and send a new one if needed.

Best Practices

A few habits that make collaboration go more smoothly:

• Communicate before you edit. If you are about to rewrite a scene your partner worked on, give them a heads-up - a quick text, a message, or a call.
• Divide the script into zones. When both writers are online at the same time, agree on who is working on which part. This minimizes conflicts and lets each person focus on their section.
• Try big rewrites in a private draft. A private draft is a copy of the script only you can see. Rewrite there, compare it with the shared script, and bring back the scenes that work.
• Use Export for checkpoints. Before a major rewrite, export a JSON backup. This gives you a snapshot you can return to if the rewrite does not work out.
• Keep sessions focused. Real-time editing is best for active writing sessions. For feedback, invite readers as commenters and keep the notes in comments, or share a read-only link, and discuss changes before editing.

For more detailed guidance on co-writing dynamics, see the Collaboration Etiquette guide.