Movie Magic Screenwriter Version 6

List Price: $249.95 Discount Price: $159.00

Features:

• Full-featured word processor designed specifically for script writing
• Collaborate with a writing partner over the internet using i-Partner or send PDF files to agents, editors, or producers
• Have your computer read your story aloud to get a sense of how it sounds
• Import your script or novel from MS Word and other programs
• A Preferred File Format of the Writer's Guild of America West

Customer Reviews:

I'm a fan [Posted on 2008-03-06]
I like this software. As a beginning screenwriter it is nice to have the software tack care of the technical while you write the story. There are upgrades every once and a while but they are free and load quickly. My favorite part is when the software reads to you.

I am going with Final Draft. [Posted on 2008-03-10]
I thought the product was hard to use and I returned it for this reason. I am going to use Final Draft in its place.

Set it and forget it... [Posted on 2008-04-07]
Although I've only used this software for screenplays, it works like a charm. If you've ever struggled to format a screenplay through a non-dedicated word processor (like Word for example), then this will seem like mana from the writing gods.

Open a new document and hit Return, it will ask you whether you'd like it to insert "FADE IN:". Hit Return again and it will assist you with formatting your shot settings, then another Return will put you where you need to be to type your action. A simple touch of the Tab key will set the cursor at the proper spot to type a character name, and returning after that will set you up in dialogue. That's about it, see how difficult that was (not)? Adding parentheticals, and things such as customized transitions are also just as easy to incorporate.

And that's just for typing scripts. As mentioned in other reviews, there's much more under the hood than just word processing. The Index Card feature is a handy tool for some writers. Others will enjoy setting up some voices and then kicking back to listen as their computer reads their script back. Once you're finished with it all, create a PDF copy of your script or register it over the Internet with the Writers Guild.

I've never used Final Draft, but with the ease of use and reliability of this software I haven't had a reason to either.

A Must-Own for Aspiring Scriptwriters! [Posted on 2008-04-25]
So easy to follow, easy to use tutorial gets you all set to create that first draft.

Am I Missing Something Here? [Posted on 2008-05-01]
Maybe I'm missing some patches or something. I don't know. I've been evaluating Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 (on XP SP2) using the download from Screenplay.com and this is a pretty buggy piece of software. The screen display is erratic, for one thing. Blocks of text will suddenly be duplicated for no apparent reason. I was inserting and deleting script notes when the program suddenly crashed and locked up in an endless loop. Had to use Task Manager to kill the app in order to get out of it. It's hard to believe that MM6 is this erratic since it's supposedly an industry standard, so I must be missing some patches. My impression at this point is that the program is extremely unstable. The documentation is out of date as well. For example, the help for the novel template says you're supposed to use SHIFT-ENTER for a forced page break, but this didn't work and after some trial and error I found out the correct combination is CTL-ENTER. A small detail, granted, but it looks like the documentation hasn't been updated for the new version. At any rate, that's my impression. Your mileage may vary.

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