Articles on: Transferring Notes

How do I use Master Edit Mode?

Master Edit Mode lets you change which pages Scriptation treats as Native script pages and which it treats as Inserted — used for reordering, deleting, or re-marking pages when the standard Page Manager locks won't let you.


📝 NOTE: This video shows a slightly older user interface, but the instructions are still accurate.


Native vs Inserted pages


Scriptation tracks two kinds of pages in every document:


  • Native — Official script pages in their imported order. Scriptation locks these by default so that Note Transfer and other advanced tools work reliably.
  • Inserted / User-Added — Pages added inside Scriptation. This includes Facing Pages, Sides, and copy-pasted pages.


When to use Master Edit Mode


Reach for Master Edit Mode when you need to:


  • Reorder Native pages — for example, when scenes or acts have been moved.
  • Delete Native pages — for example, when a script imported with blank or duplicate pages.
  • Fix mis-marked pages — Native pages occasionally get tagged as Inserted (or vice versa) during import. This is the most common cause of Note Transfer crashes and No Native Pages Detected errors.


✋ Caution: Reordering or deleting Native script pages through Master Edit Mode can break Note Transfer and other advanced features. Use it intentionally.


✅ TIP: If you're getting a revised draft (blue pages, pink pages, etc.) you usually want Collate Pages instead — it brings in the revisions, transfers your annotations, and removes the old pages in a single step.


Enable Master Edit Mode


  1. Open Settings and go to the General tab.
  2. Under Content Settings, tap the Author Name field.
  3. Change the name to DEBUG (case-sensitive) and tap Save.


  1. Confirm Yes to unlock Master Edit Mode.



  1. Open the Page Manager (four squares) from the Top Toolbar.
  2. Inside the Page Manager, tap Master at the top of the panel.



  1. Read the on-screen instructions, then tap OK to begin working with your pages.



Mark pages as Native or Inserted


In Master Edit Mode, every page in your document shows a checkbox:


  • Inserted / User-Added pages should have a checkmark.
  • Native script pages should not have a checkmark.


If pages are mis-marked, tap to add or remove checkmarks until the correct pages are tagged, then tap Save.


✅ TIP: This is the fix for most Note Transfer crashes and No Native Pages Detected errors — a small batch of script pages was tagged Inserted during import. Uncheck them, save, and run Transfer again.


💻 On Mac: a regular click will check a page but won't uncheck it. To uncheck a page, hold ⌘ (Command) and click. Right-clicking does not work for this.


You can verify your changes worked by tapping Edit in the Facing Pages/Page Manager view afterward — Native pages won't be selectable or movable.


Reorder pages


  1. Tap Edit.
  2. Touch and hold a page for one or two seconds, then drag it to its new position.



  1. Tap Save when you're done.
  2. Open Master again and verify the moved pages are still marked correctly (unchecked = Native). Fixing this now protects future Note Transfers.


Delete pages


  1. Tap Edit.
  2. Select the pages you want to delete.
  3. Tap Remove, then tap Save.



Disable Master Edit Mode


When your edits are complete, we recommend disabling Master Edit Mode to prevent unintentional page moves moving forward.


  1. Open Settings → General.
  2. Scroll to the Master Edit Mode section.
  3. Tap Disable.


✋ Note: Simply changing the Author Name field back to something other than DEBUG does not disable Master Edit Mode — this can leave you unable to re-enter Master Edit Mode by retyping DEBUG later, and the "master" option may still appear next to "edit" without pages being editable. You must use the Disable button under Master Edit Mode in Settings. If that button isn't visible, make sure you're on the latest version of Scriptation from the App Store — older builds didn't show this option.


Common workflow: fixing out-of-order pages before a final export


If a transfer or collate process mis-marks Native pages as Inserted and moves them out of order, you can fix this without starting over:


  1. Enter Master Edit Mode and check the out-of-place pages so they're marked as Inserted/Added.
  2. Exit Master Edit Mode and use the Page Manager to rearrange those pages into their correct positions.
  3. Go back into Master Edit Mode and uncheck all pages that should be Native — including the ones you just moved — so they're locked correctly again.
  4. Double check no Inserted/Added pages were accidentally left marked as Native.
  5. Proceed with your export (for example, an Editor Export of a lined script).


Common workflow: fixing a Transfer crash caused by a mis-marked first page


If Note Transfer crashes because the first page (or an early page, such as a title/score page) of your original script is being read as Inserted instead of Native, you can work around it:


  1. Enter Master Edit Mode on the original script and mark the mis-tagged page(s) as Native (uncheck them).
  2. On the destination script, add a blank page at the very beginning and mark that blank page as Native as well (using Master Edit Mode).
  3. Run Transfer — your notes should now come through successfully.
  4. After the transfer, copy the first page from the original script into the destination file, then remove the blank placeholder page.


This is especially common when a script's opening pages were manually combined or assembled in an external PDF splitter/merger before being imported into Scriptation.


Note on Facing Pages after a transfer


Facing Pages and other Inserted pages aren't locked to the script the way Native pages are — the transfer/collate algorithm anchors to the underlying Native script text, not to the Facing Pages themselves. When a revision shifts scenes, omits pages, or reflows content significantly, Facing Pages can lose their anchor and either land in the wrong spot or drop out entirely. If this happens, you don't need Master Edit Mode for these — instead, use Page Maker/Facing Pages tool to copy the Facing Pages from your old draft directly into the new revision, then drag them into position.


What's Next


No Native Pages Detected message? Here's what to do next.
Transfer is crashing? How to fix non-native page issues
How do I transfer my notes?
Transferring Notes to a New Set of Pages: the Collated Pages Process

Updated on: 04/08/2026

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