Screenwriting Programs

Hello, all!
If this topic has been previously posted, I appologize. I performed a search and found nothing relating to my question.
My question to you is: What are some good software options available for beginning screenwriters?
What would be important to me is the price.... the more affordable, the better. And of course, the ease and functionability of the program should work at a basic yet effective level.
I would appreciate any advice. Thanks much in advance.
Pantherine

I use Microsoft Word's macro feature. I wrote down the proper measurements to use from screenplay formatting books and then went into "record a macro". Then opened the "format" menu at the top of MS Word and selected "paragraph" from the pull-down menu. Then I entered the left and right measurements and use "center" for character and "left justify" for everything else.

The quick way to enter the macro is to place your cursor anywhere in the text (you don't need to highlight the entire section). Then click "tools" with your mouse and then on your keyboard, click "m" twice. This opens up the menu to the macros you recorded. Simply click on the macro you wish to use and presto, the entire paragraph reformats.

Best feature, is that it's free and you can make the adjustments. At the same time, you get all the power of MS Word when editing.

(BTW, I don't work for MS)

Hi FJ and G
Thanks for the quick and informative reply. I did read about the MS macro feature during my recent internet travels. I will look into it farther.
eace

All the major packages have downloadable trial versions. You might want to try these to get a feel for screenwriting format.

Movie Magic Screenwriter - www.screenplay.com
Final Draft - www.finaldraft.com
Sophocles - www.sophocles.net

The trial version of mm2000 allows you to work with up to 40 pages but has some annoying restrictions. Sophocles has no restrictions on saving but the trial expires after 90 days.

If you have MS Word there are screenwriting templates available -- www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/ to name but one site.

Rough Draft is a shareware word processor with "screenwriting" mode, it's pretty basic but it does the job: www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd_download.htm

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.

Hey Derek,
Yes, I checked out Sophocles, which has some impressive reviews. However, I knew once I invested my time into it, the only way to finish my project would be to invest something like $190.00 (I believe that was the cost) for the full version. Perhaps it would be a worthwhile investment, however, before I made that decision I wanted to explore as many other options as possible, which is why I started this thread. I appreciate all your other suggestions and am looking into all of them.
Thanks again! I am learning a lot here. :heart

Re: Screenwriting programs - an open source solution

Hi Pantherine,

As a Linux user, I use <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/" target="_new">OpenOffice</a> which is included with just about every Linux distro. There's also a <a href="http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.3/index.html" target="_new">free version</a> that will work with the Windows operating system. If you want to check it out, download <a href="http://www.geocities.com/n2geoff/OO/oo.html?" target="_new">this</a> screen writing macro, and you'll be in business.

As with most things open source, the macro is highly configurable. I've set its margins, tabs, spacing, etc. to conform with the way Final Draft is configured. Oh, and did I mention it's free?
<img border=0 src="http://www.absolutewrite.com/images/Emotesnoopy.gif" />

Here's another free script writing package to add to your list of programs:

www.mindstarprods.com/cin...ditor.html

(......produced by Mindstar Productions)

-NS

That's a nice piece of software, the editor is simple and intuitive, and import recognizes a useful number of filetypes including Movie Magic Screenwriter native format and Final Draft RTF. Selecting Print gives an automatic print preview and Save from within print preview offers export to PDF.

For a moment I thought the scene headers were permanently underlined (default setting) but this can be turned off via File / Project Setup / Cinergy tab -- likewise the MOREs and CONTINUEDs. Minor quibble, there doesn't seem to be any control over script elements e.g. I can't insert any blank spaces before scene headers.

But for a freebie this looks damn good, thanks for posting the link.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies.

I've done my screenwriting on Sophocles. However, the industry standard is Final Draft. When you get to the point where you sell your screenplays, you are going to have to email electronic copies in Final Draft to the studios and producers. If you're hired to write screenplays, you will need Final Draft in order to be able to email the other screenwriters the files.

For beginning writers, you can even download templates or ad ones that work with Microsoft Word, if you don't yet have the money for Final Draft.

Open Office, or really any word processing program will do in the beginning, so long as you are able to properly set the margins or come across good templates.

But remember, when it is time to make deals get Final Draft.

I don't know about the others, but documents created with OpenOffice can be saved as rich text format files. The demo version of Final Draft will read .rtf, but won't read .docs.

I've experimented with importing .rtf scripts created with OpenOffice into Final Draft and it renders them perfectly. The only difference I could detect is Final Draft makes its own determinations about page breaks.

:lol at JIV b/c i remember what he was touting just a few months ago

anyhoo, back on topic:

Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are both the best in the industry. If you're serious about being successful then the $200 cost will seem like nothing once you get started. Also, David Trottier who's the well respected author of The Screenwriter's Bible has recently created his own software. It's about $100 and even thou i haven't used it I recommend it just b/c of the source. check it out!

For MAC-heads, I think MM Screenwriter is the way to go.

I tried the demo of Final Draft, and it kept freezing on me.

MMS2000 has never given me any problems ...

... Now, if it only had a feature to convert my insipid "on the nose" dialogue.