Feels Easy and Fast

Over the years I’ve gone from ScriptThing to Final Draft to Screenwriter 2000 and back to Final Draft. I have dozens and dozens of old scripts stored in different formats alongside their PDF versions. When I have to dig up an old script for someone to read I must now update it from the old Screenwriter format to the most recent Screenwriter format, then transfer it to Final Draft where I then spend an hour finding all the subtle formatting mistakes (misplaced CONT’Ds, capitlized SUB-HEADS that became CHARACTERS…) It’s a pain.

So I spent a day using Highland to convert all the old PDF files to Fountain format and now I no longer have to worry about future-proofing my scripts. They’re in Text Format and readble via any Fountain-smart program such as Slugline.

The only think I miss is the ability to mark changed text. Slugline also can’t format for multi-camera sitcoms (dialog with double-spaced lines) but I’m not sure if that’s a shortcoming in the fountain format itself. Also, creating title pages is currently a pain.

I would like to see the abilty to change the names of the various outline levels. Currently it’s hard-coded as Sections, Synopses, Scene Headings and Notes. Id like to be able to change these to, perhaps: Beats, Scene Ideas and Notes. Or Emotional state of Hero, Truby Step number… whatever. Let me use the outline in whatever way suits my organizing style.

Slugline feels fast and once you get used to writing with Fountain’s rules (it doesn’t take long) getting stuff down becomes very fast. For the price, it can’t be beat.

User in la about Slugline