C is for Celtx

The Script Frenzy A-Z challenge so far…

Different people use different software for Script Frenzy, including MS Word and Final Draft, but no script writing program has quite become a part of Script Frenzy culture, in my opinion, like Celtx. It’s the only program that has a forum devoted to it on the Script Frenzy message board.

There are lots of good reasons that Celtx gets plenty of love with Frenziers. It’s dedicated to scripts and other media projects, yet versatile enough to do reasonably well at lots of different kind of scripts. It can be used collaboratively, in browsers, or with a single computer offline. And, possibly the biggest factor in its favor is that you can use Celtx for most things without having to pay for it. 🙂

I started using Celtx for Script Frenzy… let’s see, it was probably my third year, 2009. What motivated me was the fact that it could be run on my newest toy, the eeePC netbook. In fact, they had a special eeePC version as well as the vanilla linux version at that point. So ever since then, I’ve got a lot of mileage out of using Celtx both on the road and at home, copying my screnzy.celtx file to whichever computer I’m going to use next.

It makes a lot of the formatting of screenplays easy for you – it remembers your character names and prompts you for them with autocomplete, and it makes it easy to switch between scene headings, action, character names, parenthetical notes, dialog, and the other screenplay elements.

The one thing that I have to admit I’m less than wowed by about Celtx is the ‘Typeset’ feature. This is where you get your proper page count for your finished script, as well as generating actual PDF copies. Unfortunately, it requires you to be online so it can contact the Celtx central server, so I can’t get an accurate page count on the bus unless I futz with hotspotting my cell phone. But in some ways, that’s good, because it means that I concentrate on writing instead of always checking my progress.

In non-Script Frenzy news, C is also for Car! This is Ghost…

I just drove Ghost home from the used car lot this evening.