Screenwriting : Celtx Celtx Celtx by Holly Rivney

I would recommend checking with Celtx support or looking on YouTube.

I've got couple of Celtx manuals, drop me a line at anthony AT anthonycawood.co.uk and I'll email you them.

I still use the standalone desktop version for Windows, Celtx Version 2.9.1 I've never had an issue with it so far. You can still find it online to download. Anthony's offer to send the manual is pretty generous :)

Hi, Holly - Just checked your profile and noticed you don't tag yourself as a director, dp or producer, so... out of curiosity, why are you creating storyboards? This type of thing is best left to a director and dp who sign on to your project.

HI All, and thanks for the thoughts. I am on the supported version of Celtx, the pay per month version. I am screenwriting, but find it fun to storyboard my scenes when I'm stuck. I have not used a software program to do this before As for the ENTER key, it is shooting me about 30 pages behind from where I'm typing. I'm using the TAB key for Action, Character, Shot, Transition, etc. Someone was using my laptop and the mouse pad, but didn't turn it off. I inadvertently touched it, got sent to the middle of my screenplay, and now when I hit Enter it takes me back there. Thanks, Anthony, I'll send you an email! Holly

In FinalDraft I would have to go to FILE and click on NEW FROM STATIONERY. Maybe something similar exists in Celtx. I think you can go to their website and download manual for free.

Heard from Celtx - it's a bug. If I unzoom from 150% to 100%, the bug goes away. How about them apples?

Just happened to me, Holly, I hit enter and reverse about 30 pages instead of the next line, very frustrating and extremely time consuming, glad it's not just me, wondered what I stuffed up, lol.

Holly, you sweetheart, I went from 150% down to 100% and problem solved, thank you, thank you, I can write without hindrance, now, and most important, it's nice to know I didn't stuff something up.

HI Chanel, Glad it worked ! I was going nuts thinking it was my fault. Who would have thought that un-zooming would fix a freaky thing like that Enter Key was doing !?! ; )

Same here, going nuts thinking it was my fault, two frustrating days trying to write - only had 5 pages to go on my current script and they were possibly the longest 5 pages to write, so thank you again, cheers.

Celtx is rubbish, in my opinion. I'm all for 'competition' but if you're gonna write professionally suck it up and get Final Draft. You can't drive a Hyundai on a Formula One track. And if you're using Celtx you're saying "it's a hobby".

I use the Celtx script app and cards app which both sync seamlessly with the cloud app I also use. I like my workflow and I can't see why I would change. But if you want a storyboard environment go to Amazon studios. They have one, plus an cloud script app all integrated.

Before word processors scripts were written on typewriters. I'm no less of a writer because of the software I use than when I used a typewriter. If you can't be helpful, don't be here.

Hi Holly I was writing on typewriters before you were born, most likely. I'm trying to be helpful that if you're in the industry and suddenly you're exporting scripts to agents and producers (I am a writer and producer so while not the 'be all / end all' I'm trying to save people a hell of a lot of grief later on. I have nothing against Celtx or people who write on it. I'm just saying it's lacking when if you're writing for a living. And by a living, I mean professionally. So I was trying to be very helpful, not elitist. Nothing wrong with the horse and buggy you're driving either, if it works for you. :)

Celtx is awesome! Your cursor is going to the middle because it thinks you want to write character dialogue. In the upper left hand corner there is a small drop down box. Use this to pick what kind of formatting you want to do (slugline, character, dialogue, etc.) Also, there are lots of great tutorials on youtube for using Celtx. I have used them all and Celtx is excellent for a free program. We wrote our feature film project on Celtx and used all the backend production tools. Check it out here. http://www.cinecoup.com/theories/

I hope a riot doesn't break out. My cursor was going to the middle of my project, not the center of the page. It is a bug caused when Celtx went from desktop to online related to the zoom view. When I send files I send them as pdf, and so far no one has complained about my means to the end. If someone options conditional on Final Draft, I think I would be to convert it for them. In the meantime... Bug Squashed.

Holly, I used Celtx for years and loved it until I started having bugs as well. After too many re-writes it started losing its formatting, especially when converting to PDF (extra blank lines out of nowhere, etc.) I finally bought Final Draft and have had one script request where they asked for Final Draft format instead of PDF. So for me, it was a good move.

I have noticed the additional line issue as well. But that seems to have gone with the online version. I write first drafts on my iPad. Seems dumb, but it is like writing it with paper and pen, slower and makes me think.

I don't like it when different systems are criticised, let people choose the software they are comfortable with, it's a tool and why shouldn't it be a personal choice - Final Draft may be the industry standard, the choice of professionals, so what, not everyone is a professional? Many people swear by Celtx and Movie Magic, not to mention a multitude of others - most people are aware of the options available, what they can and can't do, which are deemed the industry standard, at least respect the fact that most people will make an informed choice to suit THEIR needs, be it taste or their financial circumstances - please STOP criticising that choice, it becomes tiresome.

Part of me thinks I wasted my time starting this discussion of this arena, Chanel, but I'll continue because the only things I ever post are for the benefit of the industry and the benefit and greater good of people working in the industry. Let me put it this way: If you were going to travel overseas and someone told you "your SIM card in your phone may not work in certain areas or at all" , and so if it's a really important thing for you to be able to communicate when you're overseas at a very important meeting---would you want to know that so forewarned and forearmed you would get another phone or SIM or whatever it took to maximize that event? If so, now you're forewarned and forearmed that when you're working with professions and the film industry is all about PERCEPTION---if you are using Celtx the perception--right or wrong--is that you are not professional. But if you are happy with it, and it serves your needs, then by all means be happy. But if just a couple people think "gee I wish someone had told me that when I was busting my ass to be as professional and versatile as possible when I started writing" then my mission is accomplished. Writing is hard enough. The good thing is anybody with a keyboard can tell a story. The bad thing is anyone with a keyboard and a story think they're a writer. Sometimes people are looking out for you and giving advice and if you don't want it or need it that's fine---but if you can't look at criticism of software program, God help you when someone critiques your writing....

Thank you for the response, Bobby, and you make some good points - forewarned and forearmed is advantageous, nobody will argue with that, but did we really need your personal prejudice? - "Celtx is rubbish, in my opinion…" - spruik Final Draft to your heart's content, advocate all the advantages, perceived or otherwise, no one will argue with the merits you point out, but don't put down the "competition" in such a manner, not all of us have achieved your lofty ambitions - while your perspective is appreciated, I DID say most people would make an INFORMED choice that would suit THEIR needs - this issue has been raised so many times re Final Draft and its worthiness compared to the rest, it becomes tedious - re CRITICISM and God's help, you appear to react more than anyone else, I only reacted to your term "Celtx is rubbish".

Fair enough... I suppose it's no different then when my iPHONE occasionally jams or one of my Macs freezes and I wish death on Steve Jobs and forget it's already too late... and then thank him for the technology anyway. :) I just have so many clients (writing/coaching/mentoring) that have had major probs with Celtx that I have a strong feeling about it that isn't neutral. Not that I think Final Draft is the Second Coming .... but 'nuff said.

https://www.youtube.com/user/celtx

What's Final Draft? What's wrong with knowing the accepted format and conventions?

In the strictest sense, the final draft of a screenplay is the one filled with words printed on various colored paper.

On a post-Easter chocolate and single malt scotch binge, reading your note Dan about 'hating it' that if you don't use FD you're an amateur, I find it hard to let this one go. I am not a FD aficionado, it's just simply the best thing out there. Full stop. If Islamic Fundamentalist ISIS screenwriters and programmers created a program and Michelle Obama sold it through a network marketing scheme tied to a healthcare program and it was better than Final Draft I'd buy it. (that would require a lot of malleability on my part you must understand :) The way I read it, STAGE 32 isn't a 'club', it's a forum with the following mission statement: "Some take pride in bucking the relentless frustrations and challenges, many more succumb to them. Almost all wonder: "How can I make my dream a reality? How can I increase my odds and give myself the greatest chance to succeed?" Welcome to Stage 32 – a community for you, built by you. The Stage 32 community is strictly for people working in or with a desire to work in film or theater..." So when I signed up for the site after thinking "is this Facebook for the entertainment industry" and then reading and re-reading the tenets (above) I thought "this guy is on the case and dedicated to everyone getting as far as they can and being as successful in the industry as possible " and that ....IS TOTALLY based on two things: 1. Credits 2. Income It's not always about inner fulfilment. It's not about writing the best script in the world that "nobody saw or didn't get made" because mate, if a tree falls in the woods and nobody was there it didn't make any fucking sound...none at all.. Because if your script doesn't get read and made and enough eyeballs don't see it, it doesn't matter to the material Universe. It might make you happy to have written it. Writing a screenplay and just having the orgasmic thrill of putting 'THE END' on it and giving it to a director, who is your brother-in-law for his birthday so he can make it with a bunch of college students for $1 + sandwiches + beer + bath salts or whatever the budget is and seeing it win "Best Screenplay" at the Akron, Ohio School for the Profoundly Deaf & Dumb LGBT Native American Special Olympics Short Film Festival could be the pinnacle of your dreams. And just having that award on your desk shimmering under that bare unfrosted 40 watt non-energy saving light bulb swinging away through the cobwebs over your Commodore 64 which somehow manages to work seamlessly with Celtx could be all that you ever want in your screenwriting life. But if, like the Mission Statement of this digital organization shares---you're wanting tips and tidbits from people who really really want total strangers to succeed because the more GREAT scripts out there the more GREAT movies are out there and the more SUCCESSFUL the movies are per capita the more PRIVATE INVESTMENT will drive this industry and turn it into a gigantic eco system that is still struggling outside the studio system. And the studio system itself is driven by private investment. If someone in this forum (or anywhere) doesn't want you to succeed, they themselves are not successful because you get ahead by sharing and helping in this biz, not by 'clawing your way to the top'. That's only in the movies :) So the bottom line is, since no movies happen without money, and no money flow happens without a constant supply of QUALITY and SUCCESSFUL entertainment, and the only way a lot of successful films and TV shows get made is because there are industry 'standards' and 'preferences' and 'prejudices' which are all based on PERCEPTIONS....why wouldn't someone just 'look into it' instead of 'hating it' when someone suggests they might...MIGHT... have problems down the road... It's no different than someone saying 'they hate it' when I recommend that if they really want some fantastic 'information and technique and knowledge' that they should take John Truby's screenwriting courses or at the very worst read his book ANATOMY OF STORY. I get that a lot. I get replies like "I read the Syd Field book...it's enough". Well, I played baseball at University of Colorado for one semester and you won't remember me from the World Series in any year because 'it just wasn't enough..." I'm not sure if my baseball career stalled because I didn't do enough sit ups and run enough laps, or because I discovered cocaine and girls, (individually and collectively) but I do know it's because I wasn't good enough because I wasn't professional enough. And so it is like writing. You can have a modicum of knowledge, a modicum of skill, and write something like '50 Shades of Grey' but because you are so unshakeably obsessed and driven and focussed that your greatest skill and attribute is your laser-like mantra for completion and success and you subsequently magnetize yourself to draw a zillion readers and manifest it into one of the most successful publishing and film making efforts of this decade thus far, and we're at the midway mark there and still have 2 films to go. She could have written those books with crayons on parchment (as some surmise) but there was no way in hell she was not going to succeed on some level because she had the temperament and plan to get there. But, for the average person, who does NOT have her skills and talents, but might be the most amaze-balls story teller on the planet, all I ever originally suggested (although I have since apologized for calling Celtx 'rubbish' which was only an opinion based on experience) was that if you want to have the VERY BEST SHOT AT SUCCESS which again, is all about CREDITS + FINANCIAL SUCCESS, then why not use the 'industry standard' and never have to have a silly conversation about the fact that you want a Ferrari but don't want to pay for the gas/petrol costs that are associated with it. I hate it when people say that to me :)

Whoa a novel!

Cherie: It's, "Whoa, a novel!" I know, getting the grammar right; what a novel idea. (Just kidding. Couldn't pass up the chance to make a really bad pun.)

As a long time writer, I'll be the first to admit that my grammar is often flawed and my spelling even worser, but, and this is important: One way you can spot a serious and often professional writer is that words are spelled correctly, the grammar is correct, they eschew egregious pontification, and, their work is short and to the point. Okay, I'm off the soap box.

Gee, they fixed the damn bug already. Celtx customer support is top notch. And I'd rather have a Tesla - no gas/petrol costs at all.

@Bobby - what size soapbox are you using? Is it industry standard? Do you have shares in FD? As amusing as your post is, this particular discussion has been had on here and every Forum for screenwriters that I'm aware of - multiple times. FD is a screenwriting program that outputs to PDF, as is CeltX, Writers Duet, Fade In, Move Magic etc and everyone of these has their proponents, because... everyone has an opinion. Case in point, John August and Craig Mazin took the owner of FD to task for creating software that's a bit rubbish on their excellent Scriptnotes podcast - http://johnaugust.com/2014/the-one-with-the-guys-from-final-draft John and Craig are working, very sucessful, screenwriters, and neither of them use FD, neither of them think it's industry standard, neither of them have an issue working without it. For the sake of full disclosure... I use FD on my desktop and the app version on my iPad, I quite like it, but I've used a couple of the others too and the scripts, when put into PDF, and when printed from PDF, look the same.

I'm beginning to guess that FD is some sort of software package designed to separate nascent screenwriters from the cash burning a hole their pocket. Format in a script as in literature or nonfiction is that last thing a writer should worry about. Story, character, continuity, and, yes, spelling and grammar are far more important. When I worked as a magazine editor, a submission poorly written went into the round file before I finished reading more than the lead. Given the hundreds of submissions and query letters that make up the typical slush pile, you end up looking for excuses to not have to slog through them. Again, professional writers write professionally, and format is of little concern, a minor issue to be addressed later. Worrying about format while writing is bupkis, a form of mental masturbation.

@anthony. It's a modest soapbox, I have size 13 shoes (46 European) , and the heels and toes creep over when I stand on it. I would like a bigger soapbox, but QANTAS has rigid baggage limits. No shares in FD. Like I said, it's simply about perception. And perception is everything and all 'facts' are simply perceptions of truth at the time they are written. And in Hollywood, at this writing, that is the perception. I'm for anything that helps people be successful, which is my core argument.... I don't hate or dislike anything for the sake of hating or disliking it, because there is always someone out there---perhaps even a giant audience-- who, invariably, will love it. Take GIRLS for instance... :)

@Jim (sigh) Format is a MAJOR concern. Doesn't matter whether you're using a Smith Corona or Celtx or FD. If it's not properly formatted you have a 1:100 chance of an agent or any professional reading it. People will look at it and go WTF and drop it. This isn't novelization. This is screenwriting.... Big difference.

You misunderstand what I wrote. Please re-read my comments.

And there is no difference between screenwriting and novelization. Story comes first. Format can be fixed once the story is right.

jim don't confuse your writing background with how screenwriting is treated. Format is everything. When you say people are looking for excuses to not read your work, well yeah, if it's not formatted right in the bin it goes and stays there. There's no checking it later if they have time to twiddle their thumbs. But i'm not going to argue with you on this point. It is what it is and good luck to you if you submit screenplays that aren't formatted correctly.

@Jim, Cherie's correct here. You can't send manuscripts and stories to agents, studios, producers. You send perfectly formatted scripts. This thread was about formatting; not about content. End of story. @Dan I'm not looking to be impressed I was offering suggestions. I respectfully say this is my first and probably last thread on Stage 32. This crowd falls into the 'too hard' file. Good luck to all, and I genuinely mean that--it's not just a salutation.

Bobby, don't be like that. I find it too easy here, lol. Just enjoy what you can dismiss the rest if you must. It's not worth getting to wound up about. Anyway if people don't do what's best for them that's less competition. i'm happy with that.

Whoa! Guys, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And, frankly, all anyone really knows is what works best for them. There is no "right" or "wrong" here. Thank you all for sharing your personal experiences. Please don't let a debate cause you to leave the site. No need for that. Really. Isn't discussion the very thing that challenges us to think differently? Raise our game? :)

Everyone makes their own choices. :)

Dan, your professionalism is not doubted. You've been a member here longer than I have, and your opinions are highly valued by many -- I know I've learned a lot from you! :) Again, civil debate is encouraged on the site. I merely stepped in to calm the situation. If I have upset you, I apologize. I will keep an eye out on this situation should it happen again. If there's anything else I can do, let me know. You can always send me a personal message. :)

@Dan you had me at 'mental problem'. Good morning from Oz. Nice to wake up and see nothing's changed, like politics. My whole and only point was sharing 40 years of experiences and the perceptions people have in this day and age. It's what I do and what I'm paid to do between my own productions at workshops and seminars in the US, UK and here in OZ. They aren't hard and fast rules, and we're only talking software, but they can (and often do) make a difference. If they didn't this thread wouldn't have started. Like I said, you can hand write on paper and if you have the map and the drive and the right connections get to your goal line. If you're a writer/producer and raising your own money and controlling your own destiny from start to finish it's not much of an issue. BUT, if you are relying on a lot of other people who are stuck in their ways or subscribe to certain thinking and you aren't malleable (and with great respect the only opinion I've formed on you from brief moments in cyberspace is that malleable isn't your forte and that is fine). Everyone in this industry has a mental problem or we'd all be working at McDonald's. That's what drives creativity. The only BAD mental problem is when you keep on doing the same thing over and over again for years and not looking at your road map of life and thinking "hmmm, let's maybe try something different". I've had the same crashes and disasters and knock backs and knock downs and 1000000's of rejections more than you can imagine. I'm no better than anybody else here. I simply know what doesn't work very well, as well as what often does. And that was my truly, madly, deeply one point. It doesn't matter whether you want a Ferrari or a Tesla (@Holly-- I like Tesla's, more power to you :) When they drop below $120k here in Australia we'll have a look :) I've always said "it's whatever works for YOU but 'you' are not alone in this industry. Film making is the most collaborative science and art form on the planet and many times it's not about what works for you but what works for and is preferred by someone else... A director, a producer, a script editor, an agent... etc etc. So I'll leave this discussion with one conundrum: If you've written your program with Celtx, and your agent, or script editor, or a director, or another writer who was brought in to write over your project all have Final Draft, and there are changes, revisions, and rewrites and for some reason YOUR script isn't importing or relatively seamlessly floating across to everyone and software issues....stupid ridiculous software issues....are driving people mental.... Then it's not just about you any more, is it? And @Dan, you're right.. an argument about software is ridiculous, by and large. I only entered in because I saw @Holly's post and thought I would be helpful in the big picture. It was a discussion about software, nothing more. My only mistake--which I've apologized for about a million words ago---was calling Celtx rubbish. I should have called it 'insufficient' for any avenues. Everything else was valid. Well it's 5:45am now and that was my exercise for the day... on to more important things like Facebook and Snapchat, porn and cats. Enjoy....

Bobby, no need for this. You made your point.

Bobby, I see you've made an impression, lol - for me, you have succeeded in making an interesting thread even more interesting, nothing like a little bit of excitement- Dan is a good bloke, been around for awhile and generally knows his stuff, don't take it personal, Dan, you are not perceived as an amateur - must be something in the water around Melbourne, there's Cherie, Pierre and now yourself, love a few characters - and Beth is pretty good, she is the "voice of reason" on this site - so, Bobby, no need to go, you're a character and there are many, many good people on here - I may have had an odd skirmish or two myself, but all's good and for the greater good - this thread has been educational to say the least, lol - cheers.

Ditto! :) I was writing you as you wrote this, serendipity. Which program connected us that we can thank :)

See, as we all knew, Dan and Bobby are good blokes - I'm never concerned when there is a little "excitement" via a thread, a little "rush of blood", I've found in most instances there is a good outcome - AND, we all know a little bit more about Final Draft, Movie magic and Celtx, lol - Bobby is now well acquainted with some of our S32 members, and that's a good thing.