I’ve written about screenplay formatting and some of the bits of free software available to take the hassle out of writing screenplays before, but recently I stumbled across a new package that is worth a look. As I think I mentioned, I’ve shied away from paying for some of the packages out there, this has been due to a) the fact that they charge an extortionate amount for what it, basically, a text editor or a wordprocessor and b) because none of the packages available is flawless. Besides, if free software work just as well, why bother paying for some?
Anyway, I have recently bought an Apple Mac, so I was looking to see if someone had some screenplay formatting software available for it. I found that the OpenOffice templates work with NeoOffice/J and that there’s a template available for Pages (part of the iWork package), but I also found Celtx. To quote their website:
Celtx is a comprehensive software package designed for people who work in the Film, TV, Theatre and New Media industries. It combines full-feature scriptwriting with media rich pre-production support and enables online collaboration.
It’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac and, from the little I’ve used it, it seems to have all the features you need and looks good to boot (ever noticed how nice-looking tools always seem to make the task less daunting). I’ve not figured out how to import some of my current or previous screenplays, but as they’re in a majority of formats, I’m not too surprised.
Celtx also seems to be under active development, support a good user community (always a good thing) and is open source too, all pluses in my experience. So, if you’re looking for something to write screenplays in, or are unhappy with what you currently use, give it a try.
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Appreciate the chance to use your software. FD let me down when I changed hard drives. Also, it was indenting one space for dialogue and description! They didn’t try to fix it.
I must be doing something wrong. I can’t get the page numbers to print!
Was this program left out by the programmers?
Best wishes from an unsold writer!
Grover