What are the three standard ways to format text messages in a screenplay?

The three standard methods are intercut dialogue, which treats each text as a spoken line under a character name; on-screen inserts or SUPERs, which slug the text and place it on the screen in CAPS; and action-line transcription, which describes the exchange in prose. Each method signals whether the audience hears, sees, or simply knows about the messages.

Should a text message be written as dialogue or as a SUPER?

Use dialogue when the audience hears the messages spoken aloud by the actor. Use a SUPER when the messages appear visually on a phone or screen in the shot. Mixing the two inside one exchange usually reads as a formatting mistake and gets flagged in coverage.

How do you show a group chat in a screenplay?

Group chats are usually written as a single block of action that lists the participants and the messages, or as a sequence of SUPER inserts that scroll like a chat thread. Group chat formatting is one of the few cases where a non-standard layout is widely accepted, because no standard dialogue format can hold five voices at once.

Do text messages need a (TEXT) parenthetical under the character name?

Most professional scripts include a (TEXT) parenthetical on the first text line of an intercut exchange to clarify the medium, then leave subsequent lines without it because the alternation already establishes the pattern. Some writers skip the parenthetical altogether; either approach is accepted as long as it is consistent across the scene.

Does punctuation width and spacing matter in a screenplay text message?

Production expects the punctuation exactly as written, including the placement of commas, periods, and emoji. For CJK screenplays, full-width punctuation after CJK characters and a space between CJK and Latin words or digits follow the published W3C Chinese layout requirements, and producers notice when those rules are ignored.

Format Text Messages in a Screenplay the Right Way

Text messages in a screenplay are formatted as intercut dialogue, on-screen inserts, or action-line transcriptions, depending on whether the audience hears the messages aloud, sees them on a phone screen, or only reads them in the script. The three methods are not interchangeable: each one signals a different visual and aural contract with the viewer, and switching mid-scene reads as a mistake. Intercut dialogue treats each text as a spoken line, written under the sender's character name and separated from surrounding action with a beat. On-screen inserts place the text in CAPS or quoted fragments inside a slugged SUPER, which production lays over the image of a phone or screen. Action-line transcription describes the exchange in prose and lets the dialogue around it carry the emotional weight. Most professional scripts commit to one of these three for the entire scene; mixing them within the same exchange is the formatting error most often flagged in screenwriting coverage.

how to format text messages in a screenplay — Format Text Messages in a Screenplay the Right Way

The Three Standard Ways Scripts Show Text Messages

A screenplay handles a text message the way the audience is meant to encounter it. If the message is heard, it is written as dialogue. If the message is read on screen, it is written as a SUPER or INSERT. If the message is internal or implied, it is described in an action line. Each method imposes different conventions on the writer, which is why feature scripts almost never blend them inside a single exchange.

Method	When to Use	Visual Cue on the Page
Intercut dialogue	Audience hears the messages spoken aloud by the actor	Character name above each message, alternating between senders
On-screen insert / SUPER	Audience reads the message on a device that is visible in the shot	Slug line (SUPER) followed by the message in CAPS, with a timestamp
Action-line transcription	Messages are referenced but not heard or visibly shown	Prose paragraph that describes the exchange in past or present tense

The choice is locked in early. If a scene opens as an intercut and switches to a SUPER for the third message, the reader assumes a stylistic shift that was not intended, and producers notice it in coverage. Once the convention is chosen for a scene, hold to it for the whole exchange; consistency is what reads as professional.

Anatomy of an Intercut Text Exchange

An intercut text exchange reads like a call-and-response between two speakers, even when the characters are not in the same room. Each message sits under the sender's character name, and a parenthetical is rarely used because the medium itself implies the voice. The conventional structure follows a steady rhythm that the screenplay parser reads through blank-line gaps:

An action line establishes one character alone with their phone.
A cut-to or INSERT introduces the second character briefly.
Each text is written as dialogue, with character names alternating.
A final action line or parenthetical returns the reader to the room.

Writers who over-format parentheticals inside an intercut break the rhythm and lose the snap of the exchange. The (TEXT) tag is usually placed once on the first message of the sequence to clarify the medium, and subsequent lines are written without it because the alternation already establishes the pattern. The empty lines between elements are what screenwriting software reads as the structural separator, which is why every line ending in the draft has to be correct before the text is imported into Final Draft, Highland, or Fountain.

Format a Clean Text Message Draft in 4 Steps

Before any text exchange reaches a screenplay parser, the draft has to look like real paragraphs. Pasting from a PDF, an email thread, or a chat window leaves every line hard-wrapped mid-sentence, punctuation widths get mixed, and blank lines multiply. The cleanest path is to run the draft through a one-click typesetter that handles paragraphs, indents, and punctuation width without rewriting a single word. Text Formatter is built exactly for this kind of pre-import cleanup, and the operation takes a single pass.

Paste the draft text. Drop the raw exchange straight from the PDF, email, or chat log into the input box. Line endings, broken punctuation, and inconsistent spacing are expected at this stage; the tool will normalize them in one click.
Choose the right preset. Pick "Format as article, English" if the script is in English or other Latin-script language. Pick "Format as article, CJK" if the screenplay is being written in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean prose. Pick "Plain cleanup" if the draft is structurally fine and only needs whitespace tidied.
Fine-tune a single rule if needed. Open the advanced section and toggle the specific rule that does not fit the scene, for example turning off the indent rule if the script style guide prefers flush-left paragraphs, or disabling the full-width punctuation conversion if the production is in mixed-script English.
Copy the result back into the script. Take the cleaned text into the screenplay software. The pipeline is deterministic and idempotent, so running the same draft through twice changes nothing; it is safe to use as a production step.

For CJK screenwriting, the CJK preset also converts half-width punctuation to its full-width form where it follows CJK characters and inserts the customary space between CJK characters and adjacent Latin words or digits. The punctuation converter is context-aware: a comma following Chinese text becomes a full-width comma, while the commas in 3,000 and in ordinary English sentences are left strictly alone, because a width converter that cannot tell those apart does more damage than good. Per the W3C Requirements for Chinese Text Layout, the half-width versus full-width decision is supposed to follow the script context, not a blanket rule, and the tool respects that convention. Full-width character mappings are verified against the Unicode Character Database rather than assumed.

When a Pasted Draft Arrives in a Mess

The hardest drafts to format are the ones that come from PDFs and chat windows. A script note exported from a coverage document has every line hard-wrapped at the column width of the original. A scene copied out of a shared Google Doc loses its indent. An email thread with a "-----Original Message-----" divider interrupts the paragraph flow. Any of these will confuse a screenplay parser if pasted straight into the software, because the parser reads blank lines as scene boundaries and indentation as character cues.

The cleanup is not a creative rewrite. The tool arranges text; it does not rewrite it. Run the same draft through twice and the second pass changes nothing, which is the property that makes it safe as a production step. Input is capped at one million characters and processes in a single pass in roughly a tenth of a second even at that size, so an entire feature-length draft is not a stretch for it. Everything runs in the browser, so nothing is uploaded, stored, or attached to an account, which matters when the script is unreleased and confidential.

If you are drafting in a language that mixes CJK and Latin script, common in contemporary East Asian cinema, the CJK preset handles both halves correctly. The spacing rule between CJK and Latin characters follows the published W3C clreq guideline, which is the reference for Chinese typography on screen, and the punctuation width follows the same script-context rule. The preset is a convenience, not a cage: every individual rule is also a switch in the advanced section, so the writer can keep the CJK spacing rule and turn off the full-width punctuation rule if the production style demands half-width punctuation throughout.

Three Real-Script Examples Across Genres

The same text-message exchange will read as different formats depending on what the scene is doing. A thriller uses on-screen inserts because the audience needs to see the threat land. A comedy uses intercut dialogue because the punchline is in the timing, not the words on screen. A drama uses action-line transcription because the emotional beat is internal and the text is a memory device. Compare the same plot point in all three styles: the exchange is "Where are you?" followed by "Running late. Ten minutes."

Intercut (comedy timing): Two character names alternate above the two messages, with an action line that lands a visual gag after the second reply. The first message gets a single (TEXT) parenthetical to clarify the medium, and the rest of the scene runs at the rhythm of the alternation.

On-screen insert (thriller reveal): A SUPER slug reads "TEXT - JESS - 11:47 PM" followed by the message in CAPS, and the camera pushes in on the phone as the second reply arrives. The phone screen stays visible for the duration of the read, and the audio is typically scored, not spoken.

Action-line transcription (drama memory): A single action paragraph describes the exchange in past tense, with the second message as the trigger for an emotional beat the character remembers. The dialogue around the paragraph carries the weight; the text itself is not quoted on screen.

Each version follows its own internal rules. Intercut requires character names on every line. On-screen inserts require a SUPER slug and a timestamp. Action-line transcription requires nothing but the paragraph itself, with no character names inside the quoted exchange. Knowing which scene you are writing tells you which version to use before you write the first word, which is the difference between a script that reads as professional and one that reads as drafted.

If you're weighing options, How to Sort iPhone Text Messages by Date covers this in detail.