Re: Re: Screenplay formatter?

On Fri, Dec 26, 2008 at 2:41 AM, daleblizz <daleblizz-/[email protected]> wrote:
> --- In [email protected], dmccunney <dennis.mccunney@...> wrote:
>
>> How big is the average screenplay?
>
> Doing a quick check on 110 page screenplays in .txt -- they're about
> 175k.  But you wouldn't necessarily need the whole thing in your Palm
> or in one file.  32k is enough for around twenty pages, which is more
> than enough for one writing session.

Okay, I thought that might be the case, though you would still face
the issues o merging that session with the full screenplay on the
desktop/laptop.

>> I use and love WordSmith, and I'm tickled that screenwriters use it,
>> but I'm not sure I'd want to try crafting a screenplay on a Palm OS
>> PDA.
>
> I got one screenwriter hooked on it.  He works several jobs, set
> designer, cameraman and screenplay writer.  Sometimes he has idle time
> and wanted to know if there was something smaller than a laptop that
> he could write on when he had a few minutes.  I had an extra Palm III
> a Palm keyboard and Office Depot sold out some packs of Handmark
> Wordsmith cheap.  He keeps it in coat pocket and writes whenever he
> has time.

I got Wordsmith way back for my original Handspring Visor Deluxe, and
have continued to use it.  It hasn't been updated in years, but it's
still the best program I've on Palm OS for *creating* text that isn't
a Memopad document.  Extant "office" solutions like Documents to Go
implicitly assume you are creating the file on a desktop/laptop, and
will view and edit on the handheld.  With my PDA and a Palm folding
keyboard, I can often live without a laptop.  To make life more
convenient, I use a trick.  I put a copy of the DOS command line
converter for Wordsmith documents on the SD card in the WordSmith
directory.  When I have a file I'll want to work on on the PDA, I Save
As in RTF format to the card with a USB card reader, then run the
converter from the card to convert the file to the format WS uses.  I
reverse the process going the other way, so I don't need to have
WordSmith installed on the PC I'm using.

> He's written over ten screenplays on it and he's got other
> screenwriters in LA doing the same thing.

Cool.  I know a few novelists who use WordSmith for the same reasons.

> There's a company "ScriptRight" http://www.scriptright.com/ that sells
> a formatter for Pocket PCs and claims that they'll have a version for
> Palm soon.  (The problem is they've been saying that for around three
> years now.)

Unless they get inspired by Palm's new "Nova" OS, supposedly debuting
at CES, I wouldn't hold my breath.  Too many folks see the market
going elsewhere.  The new owner of Launcher X (the best alternative
launcher I have seen for Palm OS product) just popped up on a Launcher
X support board talking about a windows Mobile version and looking for
beta testers.  He just doesn't see the revenue in developing for Palm
OS these days.

> So there is a market -- probably not very big one, but screenplay
> formatters aren't a huge market even for desktops and laptops.

And are consequently fairly expensive.

>> What sort of problems are encountered dumping a WordSmith file into a
>> screenplay formatter?
>
> If you're careful you can avoid most problems.  For example if you
> capitalize in the all right places the the screenplay formatter will
> recognize most of what's supposed to be a scene heading or a character
> name or an action paragraph.
>
> The problem is sometimes you get in a hurry to get something down and
> you don't get all the picky stuff right.  Then you need to go back and
> correct it, before you paste it into the screenplay formatter or
> correct it after the formatter gets it.

I'd look at "post-processing" the the text to correct such things
before dumping it to the formatter.  Something like a Perl script
might do an effective job of fixing errors before formatting.

> It's doable.  It would just be nice to have a formatter that worked in
> the Palm.

Yes, it would.

> Thanks for your response.

You're welcome.
______
Dennis

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