Great

Slugline introduced me to the world of Fountain, which was sort of like taking the Red Pill (a la Matrix). And before I was about to drop $30 on an app AND a new way of life, I definitely did a fair share of research, and urge you to do the same. After a few days, I’m happy I took the plunge. Slugline piqued my interest because I really do agree with their philosphy of simplifying the whole screenwriting experience, and they do deliver on that front.

GOOD
- The “just write” philosophy works, and should not be understated.
- The ability to outline your script is pretty much THE feature that sold me on Slugline. Final Draft’s “Scene Navigator” divides your scenes by heading, regardless of the context, which can be a mess for phone conversations, scenes that take place in different parts of the same room, etc.
- The omitting feature is great for cutting down on "different versions” (and more files) of your script.
- Notetaking is so much simpler than in Final Draft. No need to click the note, have it come up in an annoying little box, then close out of it just to see what it says.

BAD
- It’s a little buggy, which definitely takes away from the clean/minimal experience that they’re advertising. For example, when typing dialogue, the font will often change from Courier to Helvetica-ish, then back to Courier after it’s formatted. It’s like you’re seeing behind-the-scenes innerworkings that you shouldn’t be.
- No support for Dual Dialogue, though their customer support said it’s “first on the list” in the coming update.
- Slugline can only deal with .Fountain files. It’s great that you took the plunge and freed yourself from the shackles of Final Draft, but if you want to collaborate with the 99% of your friends and colleagues who still use it, you’re going to need to convert between Fountain, Final Draft and PDF. Slugline’s sister-app Highland does this, but it’s $40 and really doesn’t do much else. There are cheaper alternatives on the Fountain website, but Highland looked to be the most trustworthy, and is the only one I’ve found that can turn a PDF into an editable Fountain document.

Lupe F about Slugline