Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops (More info?)
I'm a wannabe screenwriter who sometimes uses a Palm with a portable
keyboard for writing scenes. I use WordSmith and import the scenes into
ScriptThing (Movie Magic Screenwriter). It works well but I'm lazy.
What would be nice is if there was a program for the Palm that emulates a
few of the automatic formatting features of the full-fledged screenplay
formatters. It would require a Windows/Mac conduit to be useful.
Here is an example of the format I'm talking about:
---
INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
JOHN DOE, 40s, bald, in grimy sweats, sits in front of the
TV watching infomercials.
He belches.
JOHN
An Elvis-like toupee AND a black
velvet Elvis painting. Daa-yum!
He grabs the phone, stabs the dial-pad, takes a swig of
beer and waits.
JOHN
C'mon. C'mon!
A car crashes through his front door, coming to a stop just
front of the TV.
---
There are four basic elements. Sluglines, Action Lines, Character Names
and Dialogue. The empty space is not necessary as the screenplay
formatters can correctly import and format scenes without it.
For example, I would write the following like this in WordSmith and
ScriptThing would format it as above.
---
INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
JOHN DOE, 40s, bald, in grimy sweats, sits in front of the TV watching
infomercials.
He belches.
JOHN
An Elvis-like toupee AND a black velvet Elvis painting. Daa-yum!
He grabs the phone, stabs the dial-pad, takes a swig of beer and waits.
JOHN
C'mon. C'mon!
A car crashes through his front door, coming to a stop just front of the
TV.
---
As it works now, I hit the CAPS LOCK and type the slugline,
INT. LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
Hit the CAPS LOCK to turn it off, then hit return twice and type the
action line.
Then hit CAPS, type the character name, then hit ENTER and type the
dialogue.
If I were doing this in ScriptThing, I would type "int." and ScriptThing
would automatically capitalize it (INT.) and then set the cursor one
space over with the CAPS lock on. ("ext." -- EXT. is the other main
choice here.) I would type the location, (LIVING ROOM) hit ENTER and
ScriptThing would print two dashes (--), and move the cursor one space
over and then open a pop-up with a few time of day choices -- DAY, NIGHT,
CONTINUOUS, LATER, etc. I hit the first letter of one of these choices
and ScriptThing enters the full word, then when I hit ENTER it moves me
two spaces down. I type my first ACTION line, then press ENTER and I'm
two spaces down again, ready for another Action line. If, instead, I want
to insert a Character's Name, I hit the TAB key. Now ScripThing moves the
cursor to the correct position (not necessary in the Palm program) and
turns the CAPS lock key on. At this point, in a new script, I just type
the character's name (JOHN) and ENTER and I'm in my dialogue position
with the CAPS lock off again. (Once a few characters have been named, a
pop-up appears with the all the character's names. As with the time of
day pop-up, entering the first letter of the name and hitting ENTER
places the full name on the screen. If two names start with the same
letter "JOHN" and "JANE" you can either scroll down to the correct name
and ENTER or hit the next letter(s) until you have a unique name. If I
typed "J" then "A" my only choice would be "JANE" and I would just hit
ENTER at that point.) Once you type your Dialogue line and ENTER you are
once again set up for an ACTION line.
And so forth. Once done with the scene(s), it's a matter of getting it to
the desktop computer in a "WordPad" where it can be copied and pasted
into the screenplay formatter.
I don't know how hard this would be to write, nor how much demand there
would be for such a program. I know of others who use their Palm in this
manner, but not many. It's possible that it could be tied into one of the
professional screen formatting programs and promoted that way -- but it
would probably also require a Windows CE version a if you went that
route.
I thought about trying to learn Palm programming so I could write this,
but it's hopeless for me. I wouldn't think this would be too hard for
those who have written "word processing" programs for the Palm, but I
speak from total ignorance. From my point of view, the ideal solution
would be a set of "macros" in WordSmith, but I don't think that's an
option.
At any rate, for those programmers who have said "they want to write
something, but don't know what people want" -- this is a program I would
very much like to see.
Thanks for putting up with this long, rambling message. Any questions or
requests for more information about how these programs work, please feel
free to write at ronb@bliz.com.
BTW, if there is already something like this for the Palm, I would love
to look into it.
