OTHER: Best SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE?
- Thread starter SCRIPTER
- Start date
Luis Caffesse
Admin
SCRIPTER
New member
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First I'm hearing of Celtx. I'll look into it.
(I'll scratch Final Draft and Movie Magic from the list of possibilities. Thanks!)
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GaryinCalifornia
Veteran
Movie magic I never liked... only used it for breakdowns... but Final Draft.... in my humble .02 opinion is the best out there... and most bigger production companies want to see it in Final Draft...
I'm playing round with Celtx now for a breakdown... having troubles with the pc my movie magic is on. but so far not bad for a free program...
Robbie Comeau
Como's back. back again
I use celtx, just got it. Its awesome!
EJ Pennypacker
Well-known member
FD is probably the more widely used program in the industry IMO.
Most, if not all software companies in the writing field, offer free two week demos. I would download them/research them and find what best suits you.
EJ
Most, if not all software companies in the writing field, offer free two week demos. I would download them/research them and find what best suits you.
EJ
GenJerDan
Veteran
Nonsense.
Go to any screenwriting forum/site and poll the thousands of writers camped out there.
Most will be using one or the other.
Does Celtx still require you to install Netscape/Mozilla? Or did they see the light?
Oh. And it's still a Beta release...like it has been since the beginning.
Luis Caffesse
Admin
I'm a big fan of Final Draft - I've used it for years.
But if someone asks for a 'budget' piece of screenwriting software, I definitely think Celtx is worth recommending. You can't get much more 'budget' than free! Yes, it might have its quirks - but again....its free, and it does get the job done.
:thumbsup:
But I wouldn't tell anyone to stay away from Final Draft.
But if someone asks for a 'budget' piece of screenwriting software, I definitely think Celtx is worth recommending. You can't get much more 'budget' than free! Yes, it might have its quirks - but again....its free, and it does get the job done.
:thumbsup:
But I wouldn't tell anyone to stay away from Final Draft.
GenJerDan
Veteran
Well, yes, free is nice. And it looks like they've done a lot of work on Celtx.
Did FD get away from the paid support thing? (I've always used MM...got it cheap initially, and have only paid about $99 every few years for upgrades, so...) (But I am STILL waiting for them to add the push-this-button-to-turn-this-piece-of-crap-screenplay-into-something-worthwhile feature.)
Did FD get away from the paid support thing? (I've always used MM...got it cheap initially, and have only paid about $99 every few years for upgrades, so...) (But I am STILL waiting for them to add the push-this-button-to-turn-this-piece-of-crap-screenplay-into-something-worthwhile feature.)
That's because they're sheep.
Just wait til the next version of windows comes out and see if FD or MM support it. They won't. They want you to spend another 200 bucks for their 3 megabyte software.
Or wait until your version is a few years old, they won't support it. They won't even give you the activation codes if you've lost them, and all of us do.
I've owned both, and they try and play you.
It's a waste of money.
Tom Marshall
Actor!!!!!!
The fact that a piece of software may not work on a new version on an OS has nothing to do with the software and everything to do with the OS. The fact that it's a more sophisticated piece of software means that it may take advantage of certain aspects of the OS (libraries, etc.). There's nothing that they can do to predict how their software will run on an OS that hasn't even been released yet.
And if, by them charging you for having to re-engineer their particular piece of software, makes them "play you"... I've got news for you. They're a for-profit organization. If they have to spend hours on research and development to conform their software to a new programming structure, you'd better believe they you're going to have to pay for that. They have to pay people that develop and code the software... those people don't work for a pat on the back and the reassurance that they're doing a good job...
It's the only software I've ever owned that asked me to pay twice. If I buy a software and computer and should be able to use that as long as the hard drive spins. Final Draft and Movie Magic have de facto expiry dates on their software. Basic you're paying $200 for a 3 year trial. They're scammers, not even Bill Gates forces that game on you.
And it's hardly a model of sophistication in it's latest incarnation--we're not crunching HD codecs here. What you call "re-engineering" I call figuring out ways to game existing customers. But if you're happy throwing money at them every three years I say more power to you.
Oh another thing, Final Draft is 5.0-6 crashes alot. Their rocket scientist took a lot years developing a stable word processing program!
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
I have both. I don't use MM much because I don't care for the "feel." I really like FD and I've never had a problem such as the one you're suggesting. Generally, when software goes through a major (new number) upgrade there's a cost for the upgrade, but it's never been anything like $200. As an owner of their software, I've always gotten an upgrade price which is significantly lower than the full price.
I didn't want to upgrade, I wanted to use the same version with the same OS. The people at Final Draft find ways to make sure you can't do that after about three years. What if your computer fries? you buy a new computer with the same old XP OS. Final draft won't give you an activation code. Those are the kinds of games they use.
Blaine
Mr. Hollywood
I chose to upgrade to FD7 for Tagger which came with it. FD6 still works fine on my computer. I still have my original MM which I bought several years ago and have chosen not to upgrade. It works fine, too.