Screenwriting software are word processors specialized to the task of writing screenplays.
Contents
Use
The need for such programs arises from the presence of certain peculiarities in standard screenplay format which are not handled well by generic word processors. A good example would be the formatting and revision-tracking requirements of shooting scripts. The page-break constraints imposed by standard screenplay format are also difficult to implement using standard word processors.
Most screenwriting programs are standalone desktop applications. These include Fade In Professional Screenwriting Software, Final Draft, Montage, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Movie Outline, Page 2 Stage, Practical Scriptwriter, Scrivener, Sophocles, and Storyist. Other solutions include web applications such as Celtx or FIRECAMP.
There is also a plain text screenwriting syntax called Fountain, co-developed by screenwriter John August, which enables writing screenplays in any basic text environment, be it dedicated writing software, email or theoretically even any text that can be identified and recovered through OCR.
Many other programs are available as add-ins for generic word processors such as Microsoft Word. An example is Script Wizard. There is also a package for LaTeX called screenplay, as well as a template for Pages.
Some screenwriting applications, such as Celtx and Sophocles, also incorporate production scheduling and budgeting capabilities.
History
The first screenwriting software was a standalone script formatter, Scriptor, from Screenplay Systems. It took a text file generated by a word processor and inserted the proper page break tags. When used in conjunction with a TSR program such as SmartKey or ProKey—keyboard utilities that assigned a sequence of commands to keystroke combinations—the "dot commands" that Scriptor required could be inserted semi-automatically. Additionally, keyboard macros could be programmed to properly indent and enter abbreviations—allowing a user to customize the working of the word processor.
SmartKey was popular with screenwriters from 1982–1987, after which word processing programs had their own macro features.
An update to Scriptor understood the style sheets used in Microsoft Word for DOS. And so the need for key macro programs was lessened. Scriptor's limitation was that once formatted it was difficult to re-import the resulting text back into a word processor for further editing.
The next generation of screenplay software hooked into Microsoft Word. Warren Script Application was initially released as a set of style sheets for Word for DOS. It was updated for Word for Windows circa 1988. gScript, a shareware script formatter/template, was released via CompuServe in 1989. It was included on the disk accompanying the book Take Word for Windows to the Edge, published by Ziff-Davis in 1993. It was subsequently updated and released commercially as ScriptWright.
This third generation of screenplay software consists of the standalone script writing programs such as Movie Magic Screenwriter, Final Draft, and Cinovation's Scriptware.
The latest generation adds online storage and collaboration.