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In media, "preproduction" generally means drawing stuff: sketching out ideas on storyboards, whiteboards, legal pads, and even cocktail napkins. Greyfirst's Celtx is a free tool that finally brings preproduction into the same century as the media it creates, with some old-school touches, too. It includes Project Templates for planning and creating Film, Audio-Visual, Theatre, Audio Play, Storyboard, Comic Book, and Novel projects. Sample projects help get you started. Celtx integrates with free online and cloud-based resources and syncs with your mobile devices, so your creative projects are always available and safely stored online in the cloud, as well as on your home PC and smartphone or other mobile device. You have to sign up for Celtx online, but it's free, too.
Celtx opens with a start screen listing its template types, as well as sample templates and news about the software and the large and active Celtx community. We clicked the first template, Film, which opened an Untitled project template with a layout and look recalling classic Office, with Project Library and Scenes in the left sidebar; Notes, Media, Breakdown, and more on the right; and in between a main window with word processor-style controls above and tabs for Script, TypeSet/PDF, Scratchpad, Index Cards, Title Page, and Reports along the bottom edge. The program's Tools include a spell checker and inline spell checker, but there's a Toolbox feature for adding and managing optional Celtx tools.
We named and saved our project and moved on to Scene 1 in the Script tab. A drop-down menu let us choose Scene Heading, Action, Character, Dialogue, Shot, and more. The default typeface is classic movie script that looks like it was done on a manual typewriter. We could edit dialogue, move blocks of text, and even lock portions with a Text Lock feature. The Title Page template has precentered fields, and we just had to compose our titles, choose fonts and other factors, and type them in the appropriate fields. And that's just a sample. Its forums, user-created "Seeds," and much more set Celtx apart from any other tool of its type.
Publisher's Description
From Greyfirst:
Celtx is the world's first all-in-one media pre-production system. It replaces 'paper & binder' pre-production with a digital approach that's more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share. Celtx helps you create all types of media - film, video, documentary, theatre, machinima, comics, advertising, video games, music video, radio, podcasts, videocasts, and however else you choose to tell your story.
What's new in this version: Version 2.9.1 includes bug fixes and optimizations.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 19 votes
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Current version:
4.2 starsout of 5 votes
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My rating:
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Results 1-5 of 5
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"Free Workhorse!"
Version: Celtx 2.9.1
Pros
Free LE version, portable, reasonable script formatting!
Cons
No export to other formats (DOC/RTF/TXT)!
Summary
It is really a free horse with a built-in spellchecker, so we shouldn't look it in the mouth, but--honestly--the older versions had "export to" [other text formats], which was fantastic! You could export to MS Word and do final tweaks there (e.g., add bolds, change fonts, or at least select Courier, which is the only proper Hollywood-format font for movie scripts.) Yet as soon as Celtx became commercial, that goodie disappeared like a raindrop of hope in the desert! Now, to trick the system, one must install a 2nd party Print-to-PDF tool, and then save from Adobe PDF to TXT or DOC. That's just ... grrrr!
Other than that, the good old free horse is yours for the taking, and it can still plow well, if you don't need to export to DOC.
PS Hence, many screenwriters say that creating your own DOT template for MS Word or Open Office is a far better solution to all the 'professional' software problems in the field. I just did that and I feel free bird again. Godspeed! -
"The software is great and easy to use."
Version: Celtx 2.9.1
Pros
It gives me everything that I need to complete my project. I am very new at writing and possibly don't understand all that is needed,but so far this has been great.
Cons
No negatives at this point
Summary
Great product
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"Great starter's tool"
Version: Celtx 2.9.1
Pros
It's free! Yeah, there's a hook in the bait, but the free features are pretty awesome. For hobbyists such as myself, it beats the heck out of shelling out for Final Draft...
Cons
It might be the older version I'm running, but the formatting of the text on the 'scratchpad' area occasionally gets a mind of it's own, ditto the index card scene breakdown.
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"Seems pretty good, but not entirely free"
Version: Celtx 2.9.1
Pros
Good program for writers, and has access to other projects. It is s good way to archive.
Cons
When you download it, you realise that it's a hook, as to gain its full potential you must pay for other features.
Summary
Good program, but beware, as it isn't really free
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"Great tool for writers"
Version: Celtx 2.9.1
Pros
It's free and it does what most other screenplay software applications do
Cons
The only "con" with this software is the strange difference between the "non-formatted" editor (which you use to do all of your writing) and the "formatted" screen (which takes a few seconds each time you click on it, to formally format your writings)
Summary
I have not yet had any issues with Celtx -- seems pretty stable and reliable. Would recommend screenwriters try it before spending money on a similar tool
Results 1-5 of 5
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