Exporting and importing a project pack

Loomworld exports two different things for two different readers: a delivery export, which is the script as a document for a collaborator to read, and a project backup, which is the whole project as data you can load again. One is a finished artefact; the other is a container.

Settings → Project data holds both: “delivery export” on top (choose format and scope, then export the script) and “project backup” below (Export project downloads the JSON pack). The lobby card menu has “Export project” too, so a work can be carried out without opening it.

• Will your note lines go along? That depends on the “include comment lines” switch—decide who is reading before you send.
• PDF rides the system print panel, saved from there as PDF, so paper and headers follow print settings.
• Images travel inside the pack. Import restores the assets that pass validation; anything damaged is named in the import summary rather than replaced with something else.

• Word (.docx): when actors, a director or an editor will read and annotate it in an office suite. Scene headings, speakers and dialogue levels stay recognisable in the layout.
• PDF: when the draft is going out and must not be edited on the way. It runs through the system print panel, so paper, margins and headers are yours to set first.
• Quilldown (.txt): when the script goes into version control, needs a diff between two drafts, or feeds another tool. Human-readable, structure recoverable, the least friction of the three.

Decide the scope deliberately: an outside reader usually needs the whole script; a chapter under review wants “Chapter N” only. And check the “include comment lines” switch—the memos you wrote to yourself generally do not belong in a delivery.

In the lobby, choose “Import project” and upload a .quill.json. Import always creates a new local copy rather than overwriting a same-named project, restoring draft, structure, records and validated assets. It opens locally without depending on cloud access. With active subscription or recorded legacy access, you can enable cloud sync for that selected project.

For finer recovery there are two project-internal tools: version snapshots (manual archive, restore to an earlier state) and the archive box (deleted scenes and scene settings wait there, and a restore appends them back to the end of their original chapter). Snapshots and the archive are safety nets inside a project; the pack is the cold copy across machines.

Quilldown is Loomworld’s own plain-text script format (.txt): fixed spellings for chapter, scene and scene setting headings and for the nine line types—for instance “# Chapter N Title” and “## ordinal · location · time · short title”. It is human-readable, diffs cleanly, belongs in version control, and keeps structure intact if you ever move tools.

Node types carry creative meaning, not layout. For a designed page, use Word or PDF.

• A pack is made for Loomworld to import again. Do not hand-edit its data structures; a hand-edited pack may refuse to load.
• The pack carries the project’s own sessions and history, so chat history travels with the work; credit balances and task records belong to the account and do not.
• A failed export reports its reason; follow the prompt, reopen the project and try once, rather than hammering the button.
• The backup advice is plain: export once per finished chapter. It costs one click.