OTHER: Best SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE?

I use Final Draft...never had a problem. Very intuitive. Took me all of 3 minutes to figure out and I'm not very computer savvy. I still prefer V6.

My brother lost his copy when his Hard Drive sizzled. Codes were lost as well. Went to the Writer's Store to pick up a new copy at full price. Long story short, a phone call was made and they gave him his codes and the new version for free. Works like a champ and it cost nada. Final Draft don't play games. Heard good things about MM and Celtx too, but I like what I like. At the end of the day, they're tools meant to help you write. If a typewriter suits someone better, who am I to argue?

Try em out and see which one works best for you. Good luck
 
I've used FD since 3.0. It still has the best "feel" of all of 'em. However, they've angered me more and more through every version, simply because of how buggy the software is. Someone said "celtx is still in beta, as it always has been" - I had to laugh at that. What in the world does that mean?! It's just a name. If the company were honest, they'd call it beta. But do you think all of 'em are honest? You know, FD simply pushes out some POS bugfest out, and calls it a day - and actually I'd call it an alpha. The celtx beta is more stable than the shipping FD. Totally meaningless. Google is famous for keeping stuff in beta forever - years. Google News has been beta for years, and it's the best news aggregator out there. GMail is still beta after all these years - it doesn't have any "bugs" and is still my email of choice.

Anyhow, sorry for the derail. Of budget software - celtx is the best (free). FD is still industry standard, expensive, and has "good feel" - but I suspect this won't be for long, the new generations of writers are moving away from FD. Can't go wrong with either at this point.
 
Writing is one area where tools don't matter very much.

I personally prefer Final Draft. I haven't had bugs with it and I couldn't think of any improvements that it could use.

If you have a tight budget, Celtx sounds like it's the best decision for you.
 
On the subject of bug with FD, I'm using version 6 and I cannot figure out how to get it to save the title page. It keeps trying to do it as a separate file. Saving the project doesn't save the title page at all. Anyone ran into this problem and know how to address this?
 
I mainly use Final Draft but I've also used Movie Magic Screenwriter. Both have planty of problems, but they're both at least a thousand times better than Word for writing screenplays. I haven't used Celtx yet, but I hear it shows promise. Hopefully some real competition between the products will make them all better.
 
OldCorpse said:
Someone said "celtx is still in beta, as it always has been" - I had to laugh at that. What in the world does that mean?! It's just a name.
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I'm the someone.

And am someone who writes software for a living.

It's not just a name. It means "this software may not work as well as we'd like, or as it should. Find the problems in it or us and maybe we'll figure out how to fix them for the next (beta) release. If we can. As time permits. No hurry...it's only a beta release, after all."

Same goes for "Release Candidates", although they at least pretend to be finished, and may just need some final polishing.

I use MM. Big deal. Never had a problem with it.

Used to use WordPerfect...made some macros to do the formatting. Staying with that would have been fine, too.

Two screenplays ago, I used legal pads and a ballpoint pen because I didn't feel like lugging a laptop with me on vacation. :)
 
I have both Final Draft and Movie Magic. My biggest concern is ease of use. When I'm working on a screenplay, I want to concentrate on what I'm writing, not how to format it, and both packages take care of all the formatting details automatically and transparently. They're both good; I prefer Movie Magic personally, although I think it really doesn't matter a whole lot. Both are easy to use and make it simple to just write write write. It's rare when I need to deal with any of the advanced features. With either package you're writing screenplays in minutes without reading hundreds of pages of the manual.

One thing I can say is that the Final Draft AV software for making dual-column audio-visual scripts (a separate software package) has proven to be pretty buggy and crash-prone, at least on my system. It's also not nearly as intuitive as the plain screenwriting software. I don't like it but there's not much of an alternative that I know of if you're producing AV type scripts.

As far as Celtx, I have no experience, but the writers I know are using Final Draft or Movie Magic. If you're planning on writing scripts I would suggest you make the investment and pick up one of the two. The ease of use make them worth the price.
 
Reviving an old thread instead of starting a new one. I have used celtx a lot and really liked it. But I am working on two feature scripts and really running into some limitations. Primarily what I am looking for is ease of manipulating scenes in something resembling index cards. Also ways of visualizing various storylines in parallel. I had breakfast with jack this weeked and he showed me one, but I did not go deep into it.

Any votes based on the things I mention? Downloading some trials now.
 
I always liked Sophocles, but it appears their website is dead, and maybe the software is too.

I'm still a fan of Final Draft, and it's my primary tool when and if I do any writing. Pretty sure it's got all the features you're looking for.
 
Mark Harris said:
Primarily what I am looking for is ease of manipulating scenes in something resembling index cards.
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Both Final Draft and Movie Magic do this well.

Also ways of visualizing various storylines in parallel. I had breakfast with jack this weeked and he showed me one, but I did not go deep into it.
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Final draft has a quick and easy option to split-screen the document so you can see two different parts of the same script at once. Is that what you mean?


_
 
Well, I think what I want more is a spreadsheet, where I can have many storylines and see them in parrallel. So say I can mark something as an A story, then something else as a B story and so on, and have some organized way to view them all together. Basically a spreadsheet. Which is what Jack had recommended this weekend and what I may just do.

As for the index cards, I was pretty disappointed with the MM ones. They were really no better than celtx.
 
yeah, I have seen dramatica. that might do it. I was hoping for something that would integrate with MM, for example. maybe excel is the answer. But I have played with dramatica a little and will try the demo.

thanks everyone!

This all came up out of a TV writing book I got.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-TV-Dr...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208996228&sr=8-1

The author has a bunch of simple grids for mapping out story archs over the course of the acts. So I have been on the hunt for something digital, preferrably that would integrate directly with my script. Know what I mean?
 
Power Structure and screenwriting software

Power Structure and screenwriting software

Mark Harris said:
yeah, I have seen dramatica. that might do it. I was hoping for something that would integrate with MM, for example. maybe excel is the answer. But I have played with dramatica a little and will try the demo.

thanks everyone!

This all came up out of a TV writing book I got.

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-TV-Dr...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208996228&sr=8-1

The author has a bunch of simple grids for mapping out story archs over the course of the acts. So I have been on the hunt for something digital, preferrably that would integrate directly with my script. Know what I mean?
Click to expand...

Little late to this, but check out Power Structure. It's a darned helpful little program for both PC and Mac that's been around for several years. I've been out of writing mode for a while (too long), but it can definitely show you scene development over time in a colored index card format, by character, and you can move the cards around and it will adjust your timeline accordingly. I used it mostly for outlining, which it can do from act down to scene level, and somewhat for brainstorming. It does a pretty good job of forcing you to think about the script-engine-type questions. It exports to both MM and FD, and I know it can import from MM, because I've done it more than once. It's also about half the cost of the main screenwriting programs.

Speaking of which, I've used some incarnation of MM Screenwriter since 199...6 (upgraded to 2000 in 2002, I think), and I'm happy as a clam with it. At the time it was routinely cheaper than FD and was more customizable than FD. FD has now seen fit to add much of that same customization, and the prices are about the same, the last time I looked. So I really don't think there's much difference between the two as far as feature sets. I've never used FD so I can't compare interface prettiness or usability. MM's not much to look at it, but I don't need it to look pretty, just work well.

The key difference between the two for me is that the customer service for MM is outstanding, and FREE. Supposedly you're only allowed three installs, but I've installed it on my Dad's computer and taken it off, my brother's computer and taken it off, lost it on a crashed HD, and installed it on two secondary machines as I've upgraded, and they've never so much as questioned me about getting a new license. In fact, this last time, the customer service gent just reset my credits back to one. I don't recall 2000 ever crashing on me in the six years I've been using it, which is quite remarkable for a piece of PC software, but the one time I called with a technical issue, the nature of which I now don't recall it was so long ago, I was told how to fix it, it did fix it, and I've never had to call them again.

But I trust when I do I'll get the help I need, the help will work, and I won't get charged for it. The last time I checked, FD still charges. This is why John August (the screenwriter of Go, Big Fish, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among others) switched from FD to MM last year, according to his blog. Of course both can reel off their famous adherents; Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot (POTCs, Mask of Zorro, Shrek) use MM, as does Paul Haggis, while FD...I can't remember. Famous folk.

Either one is a worthwhile purchase. I remember looking at CeltX a couple of years ago and, based on my experience with MM, finding it wanting. I'd just gotten used to the usability and nifty extras of MM. Again, it won't win any beauty contests, but all I need it to do is make the writing easy, and it does that with ease.
 
brianluce said:
celtx is awesome.

Whatever you do stay away from final draft and movie magic. they're awful. you're better off using word than either of those two.
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Wow. Gotta love the bold statement with no proof, evidence or explaination.
I've been using final draft for years and I'm wrapping up my second feature length screenplay with it. It's been awesome.

Why do you hate final draft?
 
texvanwinkle said:
Little late to this, but check out Power Structure. It's a darned helpful little program for both PC and Mac that's been around for several years. I've been out of writing mode for a while (too long), but it can definitely show you scene development over time in a colored index card format, by character, and you can move the cards around and it will adjust your timeline accordingly. I used it mostly for outlining, which it can do from act down to scene level, and somewhat for brainstorming. It does a pretty good job of forcing you to think about the script-engine-type questions. It exports to both MM and FD, and I know it can import from MM, because I've done it more than once. It's also about half the cost of the main screenwriting programs.
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thanks, checking out power structure now.
 
As much as I appreciate the initiative behind Celtx, there is no question in my mind that Final Draft (I haven't used Movie Magic), is vastly superior. Sure Celtx has a few nifty features for breakdowns, storyboarding and so forth, but the planning part of it, is just not nearly good enough, for a big project, and you would have to use something like Movie Magic Scheduling anyway. Meanwhile the actual scriptwriting part of the program lacks all sorts of features, like script locking, and versioning (absolutely essential when production time approaches), Where is the index cards, or the scene navigator (I know there is one, but with 100+ scenes those 75px might get a little crowded)? They do have a long way to go, but that being said I definately love the idea of combining breakdown and scheduling with actual screenwriting in a redundant process. We're just not quite there yet.
 
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