Free Script Coverage Template (Google Docs + Word)
You don’t need a paid template. Coverage has a fixed shape, and the shape has been stable long enough that any decent word processor can hold it. What most people actually need is the field list and the rules governing each field — the formatting is trivial once you know what goes where.
So here’s a complete script coverage template, free, in a form you can copy straight into Google Docs or Word. Below it: the setup steps for each platform, the rules for filling each section, and the mistakes that make a technically correct template produce useless reports.
Key Takeaways
- Copy the plain-text block below into Google Docs or Word — that’s the entire template.
- Nine header fields, four body sections, one grid. Nothing else belongs in the document.
- In Google Docs, save it as a template via File → Make a copy; in Word, save as .dotx.
- The template isn’t the hard part. The comments section is, and no template can write it for you.
What Fields Does a Script Coverage Template Need?
Nine header fields and four body sections. That’s the whole document. Anything past that is a company-specific addition — production value scores, comparable titles, budget tier — and none of it is standard enough to build into a general template.
The header fields exist for filing and searching. The body sections exist for reading. Keeping those two purposes separate is most of what good template design amounts to.
The Free Coverage Template (Copy This)
Select everything in the block below and paste it into a blank document. It’s deliberately plain — no tables, no styling — because plain text survives the paste into any editor without importing formatting garbage you’ll spend ten minutes stripping out.
SCRIPT COVERAGE TITLE: WRITER: FORM: Feature / Pilot / Short PAGES: GENRE: DRAFT: SETTING: READER: DATE: ------------------------------------------------------- LOGLINE [One sentence. Protagonist, engine, opposition, stakes. No adjectives. No tone words. Roughly 30 words.] ------------------------------------------------------- SYNOPSIS [Present tense, third person. CHARACTER NAMES in caps on first appearance. One to two pages. Cover the spine and the ending — coverage synopses do not withhold spoilers. One sentence per subplot, or cut the subplot.] ------------------------------------------------------- COMMENTS [One to two pages. State the verdict in the first paragraph. Argue it with page-specific evidence. Separate what is fixable from what is structural. Do not summarize the plot again.] ------------------------------------------------------- EVALUATION Premise: Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor Structure: Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor Characterization: Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor Dialogue: Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor Commercial Potential: Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor OVERALL: PASS / CONSIDER / RECOMMEND WRITER: PASS / CONSIDER / RECOMMEND
That last row surprises people. Many houses rate the script and the writer separately, because they’re separate questions. A script can be unsellable while the person who wrote it is obviously worth meeting. If you’re building a template for your own use and you never make hiring recommendations, drop the row.
How Do You Set This Up in Google Docs?
Four steps, and the only one that matters is the last one — because a template you have to rebuild each time isn’t a template.
- Open a blank doc. Paste the block above.
- Set the body font to something neutral at 11pt — Arial or Times New Roman. Coverage isn’t design work, and a reader who notices your font choice is a reader you’ve distracted.
- Bold the section headers (LOGLINE, SYNOPSIS, COMMENTS, EVALUATION). Leave everything else plain.
- Rename it Coverage Template — MASTER. From now on, open it and immediately hit File → Make a copy. Never type into the master.
If you’re on a Google Workspace account, you can push it into the shared template gallery instead, which is worth doing the moment more than one person is writing coverage for you. Consistent templates across readers is how you compare two reports without doing translation work in your head.
One Docs-specific warning: don’t build the evaluation grid as an actual table. Tables paste badly into email, and coverage gets pasted into email constantly. Plain aligned text survives everywhere.
How Do You Set This Up in Word?
Same paste, different save. Word has a real template format and you should use it: File → Save As, then choose Word Template (.dotx). Double-clicking a .dotx opens a fresh unsaved copy, which makes overwriting the master structurally impossible rather than merely discouraged.
Two Word-specific settings worth changing before you save:
- Turn off autocorrect for straight quotes and dashes if you paste coverage into web forms. Smart quotes turn into mojibake in a lot of submission portals.
- Set Style: Normal to 11pt with single spacing and 6pt after. Then never touch styling again. Every minute spent formatting coverage is a minute not spent on the comments.
If you’re working across both platforms — Docs at home, Word for a client — keep the master in Docs and export to .docx on demand. Going the other direction imports Word’s style baggage into Docs and you’ll fight it every time.
The Rules That Make the Template Work
A template is a container. Fill it badly and it produces bad coverage faster. Four rules do most of the work.
The synopsis tells the ending. This is the single most common error from people new to coverage. It isn’t marketing copy. Nobody is being enticed. An executive needs to know how the script resolves, because a great second act attached to a collapsed ending is the most expensive purchase in development.
The comments don’t recap. If your comments section is describing what happens, you’ve written a second synopsis. The comments are an argument about quality, and every sentence should be doing evaluative work.
The grid must agree with the prose. A grid full of “Good” attached to comments describing a broken third act tells the reader you’re hedging. Make the grid the compressed form of the argument you already made.
Page numbers or it didn’t happen. “The pacing lags” is unfalsifiable. “pp. 71–80 introduce a supervisor the premise doesn’t need” is a note someone can act on. Specificity is the only credential coverage has.
| Section | Target length | Failure mode |
|---|---|---|
| Logline | ~30 words | Adjectives replacing structure |
| Synopsis | 1–2 pages | Withholding the ending |
| Comments | 1–2 pages | Recapping instead of judging |
| Grid | 6–7 rows | Contradicting the comments |
When You Shouldn’t Use a Template at All
If you’re writing coverage for a specific company, use theirs. Every production house has a house format, and handing back the standard template when they’ve sent you a .dotx reads as carelessness before anyone has read a sentence.
The free template above is for three situations: you’re covering scripts for yourself, you’re building an internal read process from nothing, or you’re a writer trying to cover your own draft to see what a reader would see. That third use is underrated. Filling this template out on your own script — honestly, with page numbers — is one of the more useful and less comfortable exercises available.
Don’t want to fill it in yourself?
ScriptCoveragePro returns a completed professional report on your script — logline, synopsis, comments, and grid.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an official industry-standard coverage template?
No single official one. But the sections are near-universal — title block, logline, synopsis, comments, grid — because they’ve been in use since studio story departments formalized the read process. Any competent report will be legible to any company, even if the grid categories differ slightly.
Should a coverage template include a numerical score?
Only if your organization actually uses the numbers for something. Most don’t. Numbers create false precision — the difference between a 6.5 and a 7 is noise, while the difference between Pass and Consider is a decision. Words force commitment; numbers let you hide.
Can I use this template for TV pilots?
Yes, with two changes. Add a field for series potential, and expect the comments to address whether the pilot generates a repeatable engine rather than just a good ninety minutes. A pilot that works as a standalone film and can’t sustain a season is a specific failure worth naming.
How long should filling out this template take?
Two to four hours for a feature, most of it reading. The header takes a minute, the logline maybe ten, the synopsis under an hour once you’ve read carefully. The comments take as long as they take, because that’s where the actual thinking happens.
Should I include my name on coverage I write for myself?
Yes. Fill in the reader field even when the reader is you, because coverage accumulates. Six months from now, comparing your notes on three drafts of the same script is far more useful than any single report — and that only works if the documents are dated and attributed.
Take the Template, Skip the Ceremony
Copy the block, paste it, save it as a master, and stop thinking about the template. It’s a container. Nine fields and four sections, and the format has been settled for decades precisely so nobody has to keep re-deciding it.
Where the effort belongs is the comments — the one section no template, no checklist, and no formatting choice can help you with. Everything above it is admin. That page and a half is the job.