Final Draft 8 Unveiled May 9, 2009
Posted by James D Hartland in Final Draft, Final Draft 8, Software.4 comments
Version 7 of Final Draft has been serving the screenwriters of the world seemingly since before films developed sound, but now using crusty, ancient software will be a thing of the past. Version 8 is finally here. Check out what is New in Final Draft 8.
Since I’m uber busy at the moment you will have to download the demo and let me know what you think of it.
I wonder how many days before a bootlegged version turns up on the pirate sites. If you are reading this and thinking of pirating FD, you might wanna consider Celtx, it’s not quite as good, but it gets the job done for free.
Final Draft 8 coming in May!! February 28, 2009
Posted by James D Hartland in Computer, Final Draft, Software.add a comment
Yet more software news…
I happened to be on the Final Draft website today and I saw that anyone who buys FD after Feburary 1st gets a free upgrade to Final Draft 8 when it comes out in May. Holy mother of god. In a few weeks time we ain’t going to be forced to use a crusty old version Final Draft that’s from the stone ages.
I’d say that it will be interesting to see what new features it brings out, but in reality it’s probably pretty obvious what a new version would bring. Mostly I’m just excited about the possibility of using a version that isn’t super old and buggy.
Really though, what I need is a new computer. My current one is practically steam powered what with it having state of the art components circa 2002. If anyone wants to send me donations via Paypal for my new computer please contact me 
Celtx 1.0 is released! June 5, 2008
Posted by James D Hartland in Celtx, Final Draft, Pre-production, Software.2 comments
Celtx (pronounced “Celtics” with a hard C), everyone’s favourite, free script writing and pre production application for Windows, Mac and Linux has finally been updated to version 1.0, which means it’s now feature complete. (Until they start adding new feature towards the next mile stone release at least!)
Based purely on the release notes and a quick 5 minute play it seems there are two new features specifically for screenwriters with this update, an improved index card/scene navigation and a rather swanky new Notes side bar which looks like a much improved way to write and review notes on your script. All the other features are more to do with the pre-production side of things. (Release notes here)
Although I never talk about the pre-production side of Celtx because as screenwriters it doesn’t really matter to us, really the impetus for creating Celtx was to make an application that integrated all the various parts of pre-production into one application built around the screenplay. Because of this there are all kinds of tools in it for syncing storyboards to the script and creating shooting schedules and stuff like that which make Celtx far more than just a straight up screenwriting app. So like I say, a lot of the new features are to do with that rather than the screenwriting element of the software.
Thankfully the developers of Celtx have done a great job at making it in such a way that you can use it simply as a robust screenwriting application and never even know there are all these other powerful script report generating tools and what not. I have no doubts that even as it becomes a more powerful pre-production app it will always remain first and foremost a really great screenwriting application.
Everyday I get at least one person finding their way to this blog after googling the topic of downloading a bootleg, pirate version of Final Draft. All those people should just download Celtx. It is mature enough now it has reached 1.0 that it will meet the needs of all but the most demanding professional writers.
Annotate and comment on PDF files for free on Windows March 7, 2008
Posted by James D Hartland in Computer, Feedback, PDF, Software.7 comments
Someone asked me today about a solution for annotating PDF files, that way people could annotate her scripts with feedback. I did a quick google of the subject and came across what seems to her the perfect solution for her.
PDF Xchange will allow you to put comments on a PDF and have them be visible when viewing the PDF with any other application.
Since this is a great thing to be able to do when sending PDFs of scripts I thought I would blog it here so other people can use it as well.
This is a windows app but there are also similar apps for Mac and Linux, just google the subject and I’m sure you will find something. Point being, it is possible to annotate PDF files if you have the right software installed.
Of course, since Celtx is free to download and allows for online script collaboration as well as a built in note making tool, that might be another option to consider.
PS. If anyone actually uses the bloated and slow Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDFs you are doing yourself a disservice. Foxit reader is the PDF app of choice for those in the know. So now you know. (Although PDF Xchange will also act as a default PDF viewing app if you want it to, although I’d be surprised if its as good as Foxit for viewing large PDFs.)
Movie Magic has been updated? WTF? November 22, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Celtx, Final Draft, Movie Magic, Software.7 comments
I just finished writing a blog post about the latest version of Celtx, in which I mentioned that the only other real competitor to FinalDraft besides Celtx was Movie Magic which wasn’t really very good competition at all (in terms of generating any innovation) since it hasn’t been updated in years and years and years.
Well it turns out that Movie Magic has been updated after all! Version 6 came out recently!
I don’t know what the story was with Movie Magic but the fact it hadn’t been updated in years always seemed really strange to me. I had jokingly assumed the guys who made Movie Magic were dead or something because the software was hardly new when I first started taking an interest in writing many years ago and it was still the same version of the software last time I checked them out a few months back.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Screenwriting software doesnt need to be updated all the time, its just formatting text after all and that never really changes. But a new version every 3 or 4 years doesn’t seem unreasonable. In a similar time frame between the versions of Movie Magic Adobe managed to put out 5 new versions of Photoshop!
Hence my surprise today to go look up the Movie Magic website and find that a new version has in fact come out!
So what exactly have they added in all these years?
Well you can see a detailed list here but the only thing that jumps out at me as something I’ve not seen in any other product is real-time online collaboration where one person can see all the changes being made in real-time. But isn’t there’s loads of 3rd party solutions out there that let people collaborate and share one desktop via the internet? So really you could do this today with Celtx or Final Draft or anything else fairly easily.
The other feature that jumped out to me was the new bookmarking system, which has the potential to be pretty useful since I find the lack of any easy way to navigate your screenplay with all the current apps to be a huge oversight. In fact that sorta problem needing to be solved is exactly what I mean when I say there’s a lack of innovation in this field.
Not wanting to base my views on scan reading the new feature list I think I’ll download the demo of the newest version when I get a chance and see how it compares to the current Final Draft 7. To be honest I’m not that big of a fan of Final Draft, I think it’s really clunky, but it happens to be the best of a bad lot, which I guess is why I champion Celtx so much. I want to see Celtx add some innovation to the industry and make Final Draft buck their ideas up.
So I guess I’ll say watch this space and I’ll maybe have a review of it in the future.
Celtx v.0.966 November 22, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Bootleg, Celtx, Final Draft, Movie Magic, Software.3 comments
Just thought I’d write a quick blog to say that a new version of Celtx came out last week. No new features were introduced to write home about, really it was just a bug fix but it’s worth pointing out non the less.
I still don’t think Celtx is ready to replace Final Draft anytime soon (for professionals anyhow), but it’s getting there, slowly but surely, and if nothing else it will give Final Draft some competition. I mean how old is the current version of Movie Magic 2000? The clue is in the name! There’s zero innovation in the screenwriting software industry because Final Draft have it all to themselves, some competition will do the industry the world of good. And one day Celtx might actually end up a better product than Final Draft, without even taking into account the price difference (Celtx is totally free).
Speaking of which…
Everyday I see people finding their way to this blog after googling about illegal downloads of Final Draft. All these people should just go download Celtx. It’s totally free and unless you are a professional writer you wont miss any features.
Celtx 0.95 finally here! – Updated September 14, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Celtx, Index Cards, Software.add a comment
The newest version of everyone’s favourite free Screenwriting package is finally released. The most prominent new features are index cards and dual dialogue, as well as a bunch of other screenwriting templates like TV and Radio.
If anyone doesn’t have a copy of Final Draft I urge you to try Celtx as it is fast becoming a great alternative.
Updated: I just downloaded the latest version and saw something I missed on the press release earlier. The way Celtx handles PDF output, and a preview of the printed results (Under the “typset” tab) is much improved over older versions of Celtx. In fact the press release says it might be the biggest new addition. It still kinda sucks compared to how Final Draft handles PDF output as a matter of fact, but its getting there, slowly but surely.
