iPad for Screenwriting?

azharrison

azharrison

Active member
Do any of you own/use and iPad? Do you use it for screenwriting? They are soooo damned portable and funtional in so many ways... I KNOW many of you have 'em... but do you use them for screenwriting? Any functional apps written yet?

I have a couple of Screenwriting apps on my iPhone but they are not worth using because its too limited on a tiny screen. It is easier to use the notepad feature and email it to my computer... How do you solve these problems of writing on the road? I'm a Flight Attendant and I live in hotel rooms half my life... I need a good portable platform... I now have a netbook, (light, portable, cheap, versitile). iPad users, please tell me if It is worth the upgrade...

THANX.
 
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azharrison said:
Do any of you own/use and iPad? Do you use it for screenwriting? They are soooo damned portable and funtional in so many ways... I KNOW many of you have 'em... but do you use them for screenwriting? Any functional apps written yet?

I have a couple of Screenwriting apps on my iPhone but they are not worth using because its too limited on a tiny screen. It is easier to use the notepad feature and email it to my computer... How do you solve these problems of writing on the road? I'm a Flight Attendant and I live in hotel rooms half my life... I need a good portable platform... I now have a netbook, (light, portable, cheap, versitile). iPad users, please tell me if It is worth the upgrade...

THANX.
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I bought the Celtx iPhone/iPad app. I've not used it. But I will probably use it as a adjunct to projects I have on my laptop. So, I can while away the time reviewing, making 'minor' adjustments. The keyboard requires a 'two finger' approach on either device... I do have a Bluetooth keyboard, but then when you start to add 'accessories' why do the iPad in the first place...
 
I filled out a lengthy interview form several months ago to become a beta tester for the allegedly upcoming Final Draft iPad app, but haven't heard anything from them since, nor have I received anything to beta test. They insist it's coming, but evidently they're taking their time about it. I'm very much looking forward to checking it out when it's ready.
 
I use it for reading and notes but haven't gotten a writing app yet. I will soon. Hoping final draft comes around before I spend money on something else.
 
I have not done any screenwriting, but I find it far easier to type on at lightning speed than I had dared hope (with some practice.)
 
I have one and I actually wrote my last short on it, currently continuing a feature i started writing years ago on my laptop. I use Scripts Pro, I think its pretty good, haven't tried the celtx app as its a little more expensive and SP can save a celtx file if i need it. Its great on the go, and you'd be surprised how easily you can type in landscape mode. Still very buggy though, and its not quite as organic of a process as a laptop or writing longhand (which I enjoy the most, but get very unorganized doing it).

I'd like to try an apple bluetooth keyboard with it sometime. I hear the other poster that it defeats the purpose, but an ipad and that thin keyboard is still smaller than a laptop.
 
I know a guy who has the app for the iPad that lets you control a windows PC from it, he runs the desktop Final Draft Pro software that way.

There are youtube videos of the iPad running windows computers, take a look.
 
I found a lesser known device for portable screenwriting out and about and on the airplane, the L-Pad, here is a picture of it shown with several of its stylus pens for writing:
3263745057_79214226e5.jpg
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I found a lesser known device for portable screenwriting out and about and on the airplane, the L-Pad, here is a picture of it shown with several of its stylus pens for writing:
Click to expand...


I watched an interview with Elmore Leonard one time. He was asked what he wrote with when he started out and what he used now with all the new technologies available.

His reply:

" When I wrote my first novel in 1950 I used a 5 cent Scripto pen and yellow legal pads. Now I use a $150 Mont Blanc and yellow legal pads."
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I found a lesser known device for portable screenwriting out and about and on the airplane, the L-Pad, here is a picture of it shown with several of its stylus pens for writing:
3263745057_79214226e5.jpg
Click to expand...

Funny. In all honesty though I've nearly lost the ability to write by hand. I can barely fill out a FEDEX slip without my hands aching by the time I'm done, my handwriting muscles having atrophied from years and years of chronic computer use.
 
Randall_Oelerich said:
I found a lesser known device for portable screenwriting out and about and on the airplane, the L-Pad, here is a picture of it shown with several of its stylus pens for writing:
3263745057_79214226e5.jpg
Click to expand...

OMG That's incredible! So you just use one of those pens and physically "write down" what you're thinking. Brilliant... Where does one find these devices? hehehe

I travel extensively and I already use a notebook computer for EVERYTHING. So I'm curious about the iPad. I like to use index cards to try and put scenes together but It SUCKS when you drop 'em.

Thanks all for the advice!
 
I get that it can seem ridiculous to spend nearly a thousand dollars on a device and then use it almost the same way as a pen and paper, but the truth is, I find myself carrying the iPad all the time for a number of reasons, and having it with me, I find myself writing more than I ever have in my life.

So for me, personally, there is an enormous benefit. I spend a significant amount of time traveling, and when I get places, I often like to hang out in coffee shops and bookstores. For some reason, no effort I ever made to carry a real notebook ever lasted more than a couple of days. But I've had an iPad tucked under my arm for months, now.

Sent from my iPad.
 
Mark Harris said:
Seems like the typing angle would make writing anything major on a tablet really painful. Is that not true?
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For me "writing anything major" and "iPad" pretty much never happen in the same sentence. I'm a crappy typist and the one-finger approach with the iPad (which is the typical way, the other hand being used to hold the thing up) pretty much makes me a sub-crappy typist. Then there's all the character-set page switching, the lack of arrow keys, the awkward select/copy/paste business. An external keyboard is simply necessary for serious work, and then you're really not much ahead of the game vs a laptop, if any...

So I don't anticipate using it much for actual screenplay creation. But having a finished or near-finished FD script on it for review, light revisions etc., could be very handy on set, in meetings, traveling etc. It's so much smaller, thinner and lighter than my MacBook Pro that I think it could turn out to be a valuable asset in the overall picture. But of course, it might not turn out that way.

I will say that since getting my iPad the day after they were released (the original non-3G models), my laptop has been getting very little use around the house...
 
For me, there would be no way to write something "serious" on the Ipad. From skimming some reviews, Ive takin away that it gets pretty hot after an hour or so of usage. Also, the unsure way to position it would get on my nerves, do i lay it on my lap and have my neck start to kill. Do i hold it with one hand and type with the other? IDK it just confuses me. ill stick with a notebook and paper till i get to "script" mode. but cheers to those who can! VERY portable!
 
DDiLeo720 said:
For me, there would be no way to write something "serious" on the Ipad. From skimming some reviews, Ive takin away that it gets pretty hot after an hour or so of usage. Also, the unsure way to position it would get on my nerves, do i lay it on my lap and have my neck start to kill. Do i hold it with one hand and type with the other? IDK it just confuses me. ill stick with a notebook and paper till i get to "script" mode. but cheers to those who can! VERY portable!
Click to expand...


Ditto. But I very much want a slate PC (for Windows 7) when ASUS releases theirs in the spring. Going to be nice for reading PDF screenplays, and I could using one to read my own screenplays and annotate them, edit/markup, but as you said not for any serious typing/writing.
 
If you buy the Apple case for it (the thin black one with the cover that tucks into a tab on the back), the heat and holding-up/weight issues become almost insignificant. With the case folded into a triangle shape I can balance it on my lap with almost no effort. Typing is still one-handed though, and all the annoying limitations I mentioned above apply, but it's plenty easy to use for web-surfing, and acceptable for light typing. I have used it occasionally to post here, and in cases like this one (brief) it's ok. For anything much longer though, fugetaboutit...
 
Ted Spencer said:
If you buy the Apple case for it (the thin black one with the cover that tucks into a tab on the back), the heat and holding-up/weight issues become almost insignificant. With the case folded into a triangle shape I can balance it on my lap with almost no effort. Typing is still one-handed though, and all the annoying limitations I mentioned above apply, but it's plenty easy to use for web-surfing, and acceptable for light typing. I have used it occasionally to post here, and in cases like this one (brief) it's ok. For anything much longer though, fugetaboutit...
Click to expand...


good call on the case
 
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