Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

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  • #61
    Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

    Originally posted by Centos View Post
    Well, I've got the three I'm going to vote for ... but I keep flipping their order around, so this could take a while. First time for that.

    Meanwhile ... while we "breathlessly await" the outcome of the voting, I'm curious what software each of us uses for writing these things. But maybe this is too far off topic?
    Normally... I start with a mechanical pencil and write at least a few paragraphs and lots of dialogue. Then when I figure where I'm going with the script, I type it into an Alphasmart Neo. For the last few I dumped that into WritersDuet.com, fixed it and saved as PDF.

    No such luck with my newest crapmobile script. Started out the same, mechanical pencil. But had trouble with a different Alphasmart Neo than I normally use (I think it was set for MAC and not PC). So it wouldn't dump without adding all kinds of crap. I ended up trying to retype it into WritersDuet.com. But that didn't take some reason -- it looks like they added a lot of stuff -- so not working for me, and since I "allotted" myself two hours to write my crapsterpiece I didn't have time to figure it out.

    I ended up retyping it into... wait for it... MMS2000. That went fine. But when I tried to print it as PDF my Adobe crap, barfed on me. Found CutePDF, downloaded and it worked perfect, as usual. I had a chance to read it once, made two corrections and got it in two minutes before midnight.

    So yeah, thanks bunches for bringing up painful memories.
    "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

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    • #62
      Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

      Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
      No such luck with my newest crapmobile script. Started out the same, mechanical pencil. But had trouble with a different Alphasmart Neo than I normally use (I think it was set for MAC and not PC). So it wouldn't dump without adding all kinds of crap. I ended up trying to retype it into WritersDuet.com. But that didn't take some reason -- it looks like they added a lot of stuff -- so not working for me, and since I "allotted" myself two hours to write my crapsterpiece I didn't have time to figure it out.

      I ended up retyping it into... wait for it... MMS2000. That went fine. But when I tried to print it as PDF my Adobe crap, barfed on me. Found CutePDF, downloaded and it worked perfect, as usual. I had a chance to read it once, made two corrections and got it in two minutes before midnight.

      So yeah, thanks bunches for bringing up painful memories.
      So, so far, three out of four of us normally start with plain text. Are any of you using the Fountain format? Final Draft and MMS don't seem to directly import this format, but just about everything else does - including Fade In Pro, KIT Scenarist, Trelby and most online sites (plus others I don't know about because they don't work with Linux).

      I've tried WritersDuet a couple times, but something very similar (but without requiring a login) is YouMeScript.com. This will import Final draft (.fdx and .fdr), plain text (.txt), Celtx (.celtx), PDF (don't know how well that works), Fountain (.fountain) and ".yms" (whatever that is). It can export to Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain (.fountain), PDF and Plain (formatted) text. (So it could actually be used for posting scripts and snippets on DoneDeal.)

      I'm not surprised Adobe barfed. Glad CutePDF came to the rescue. When I was in the Windows world I think I used to use that (also CuteFTP, I think). It's been awhile.

      And I'm sorry about your Alaphasmart issues. I've never had that kind of problem with mine.
      STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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      • #63
        Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

        My votes are finally in.
        STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

        Comment


        • #64
          Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

          Originally posted by Centos View Post
          And I'm sorry about your Alaphasmart issues. I've never had that kind of problem with mine.
          I haven't either. I'm pretty sure a reset will take care of the problem. My guess is the last owner cobbled it up. I need to find the one I'm used to using. I've customized that one -- I even have a light rigmarole set up for it, to work at night.
          "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

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          • #65
            Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

            There was an entry that needed some extra tinkering with the extracted text, I had to retype most of it. Didn't bother me, I was reading it anyway.

            I can't remember MM2000's menu options but with Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 you don't Print to PDF you Export to PDF, that's another main menu option separate from print. I have PrimoPDF installed so if Export failed for some reason I have that backup.

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            • #66
              Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

              Originally posted by dpaterso View Post
              There was an entry that needed some extra tinkering with the extracted text, I had to retype most of it. Didn't bother me, I was reading it anyway.
              I hope it wasn't mine. In Linux (also available in Windows, don't know about Mac) you can use pdftotext -layout -nopgbrk nameoffile.pdf nameoffile.txt and get a formatted text file that exactly matches the PDF document. pdftotext is part of the Poppler utilities package. But you have to find the newest version compiled for Windows to get it to give you clean formatted text. I think I found it somewhere in Australia for Windows. I've got the link somewhere, if you're interested (and you're probably not). (Just occurred to me, you may be using a Mac.)

              Originally posted by dpaterso View Post
              I can't remember MM2000's menu options but with Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 you don't Print to PDF you Export to PDF, that's another main menu option separate from print. I have PrimoPDF installed so if Export failed for some reason I have that backup.
              I never had the newer versions of MMS when I used it. I think I remember reading that 6 doesn't handle Fountain format (probably came out before Fountain format was invented -- looks like 2007 or 2008, so that was before Fountain, I think).

              (I'm rambling. Sorry.)

              It looks like it's available for Mac as well.

              https://github.com/zetahernandez/pdf-to-text
              STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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              • #67
                Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

                All the contestants' votes are in, the results will be posted tomorrow, no spoilers but tragically I didn't win. Someone did, though!

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                • #68
                  Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

                  Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...


                  Maybe the wedding coordinator...

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                  • #69
                    Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

                    Originally posted by dpaterso View Post
                    All the contestants' votes are in, the results will be posted tomorrow, no spoilers but tragically I didn't win. Someone did, though!
                    If you voted (which I'm sure you did) I hope you gave yourself 3 points (like you do the rest of us) - but I'm sure you didn't.
                    STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      Re: Contest: Turning someone's world upside down

                      Originally posted by DangoForth View Post
                      Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...


                      Maybe the wedding coordinator...
                      He always handicaps himself.
                      STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

                      Comment

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