Problems importing scripts
Posted: Nov 27, 2010 3:04 am
I am considering purchase of Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 but am having troubles with the trial version I downloaded to my Intel Mac running Snow Leopard. You may have seen the crash reports that just went to Apple.
I have been editing my scripts in OpenOffice.org, but would like to take advantage of the features of MMS6, particularly the ability to have it read the parts in different voices and to automatically break dialog in appropriate places and add continueds automatically. Features that distinguish MMS6 from Final Draft and make it my preferred choice are that I can undo a Replace All with a single undo, that I can highlight a single character (although I would rather be able to do it with yellow highlighting instead of red text and underline), and that I can edit text that is in dual columns without having to de-dual it.
But I am running into some problems that prevent me from confidently whipping out my credit card.
In OpenOffice, I converted the styles to use the same names that MMS6 uses for elements (Action, etc.), then saved the file as .rtf. But during import, when I check Use Stylesheets and Action is in Parentheticals and uncheck Use Most Agressive, much of the content loses the styles I set. Notes become Action or Dialog. Some Action becomes Character Name. Some Character Name becomes part of the following line Dialog, losing the paragraph break. Some Parenthetical becomes Dialog, etc.
Worse, all paragraphs get prefixed by \s0 or \S0. Also, some Actions wind up with a (( and )) instead of ( and ). When so paired, the outer () is not editable and the inner () are. But if I try to do a series of replace all, \s0 with a null string, \S0 with a null string, ( with a null string followed by ) with a null string, that last operation leads to the application not responding. I wind up having to force quit.
If I instead chose Use Most Aggressive instead of Use Stylesheets, all the Action becomes Parenthetical.
Can you shed some light on the import process and what might be causing this problem?
Note: This is a stage play and I am using approximately the Dramatists Guild traditional stage play format as my default format, and also tried the modern format to no avail.
I have verified that OpenOffice.org Writer is exporting Rich Text Format with the stylesheet, including the appropriate style names, for example:
{\*\hyphen2\hyphlead2\hyphtrail2\hyphmax0}\aspalpha\ql\rtlch\af13\afs24\lang1033\ltrch\dbch\af9\langfe1033\hich\f3\fs24\lang2057\loch\f3\fs24\lang2057\sbasedon24\snext16 Action;}
or
{\s31{\*\hyphen2\hyphlead2\hyphtrail2\hyphmax0}\aspalpha\ql\rtlch\af12\afs24\lang1033\ltrch\dbch\af12\langfe1033\hich\f3\fs24\lang2057\loch\f3\fs24\lang2057\snext31 Note;}
I have been editing my scripts in OpenOffice.org, but would like to take advantage of the features of MMS6, particularly the ability to have it read the parts in different voices and to automatically break dialog in appropriate places and add continueds automatically. Features that distinguish MMS6 from Final Draft and make it my preferred choice are that I can undo a Replace All with a single undo, that I can highlight a single character (although I would rather be able to do it with yellow highlighting instead of red text and underline), and that I can edit text that is in dual columns without having to de-dual it.
But I am running into some problems that prevent me from confidently whipping out my credit card.
In OpenOffice, I converted the styles to use the same names that MMS6 uses for elements (Action, etc.), then saved the file as .rtf. But during import, when I check Use Stylesheets and Action is in Parentheticals and uncheck Use Most Agressive, much of the content loses the styles I set. Notes become Action or Dialog. Some Action becomes Character Name. Some Character Name becomes part of the following line Dialog, losing the paragraph break. Some Parenthetical becomes Dialog, etc.
Worse, all paragraphs get prefixed by \s0 or \S0. Also, some Actions wind up with a (( and )) instead of ( and ). When so paired, the outer () is not editable and the inner () are. But if I try to do a series of replace all, \s0 with a null string, \S0 with a null string, ( with a null string followed by ) with a null string, that last operation leads to the application not responding. I wind up having to force quit.
If I instead chose Use Most Aggressive instead of Use Stylesheets, all the Action becomes Parenthetical.
Can you shed some light on the import process and what might be causing this problem?
Note: This is a stage play and I am using approximately the Dramatists Guild traditional stage play format as my default format, and also tried the modern format to no avail.
I have verified that OpenOffice.org Writer is exporting Rich Text Format with the stylesheet, including the appropriate style names, for example:
{\*\hyphen2\hyphlead2\hyphtrail2\hyphmax0}\aspalpha\ql\rtlch\af13\afs24\lang1033\ltrch\dbch\af9\langfe1033\hich\f3\fs24\lang2057\loch\f3\fs24\lang2057\sbasedon24\snext16 Action;}
or
{\s31{\*\hyphen2\hyphlead2\hyphtrail2\hyphmax0}\aspalpha\ql\rtlch\af12\afs24\lang1033\ltrch\dbch\af12\langfe1033\hich\f3\fs24\lang2057\loch\f3\fs24\lang2057\snext31 Note;}