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Script & Screenwriting

Hollywood Screenwriter

Hollywood Screenwriter

List Price: $59.99
Your Price: $34.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very unhappy with this program
Review: I'm sitting here thirty-six hours away from sharing my script with my screenwriting group and I don't know if I'll have a script to show them. This program started out fine at first. I, too, didn't mind having to put the CD in each time; afterall, I have to put my disk in each time I work.

First time I noticed a problem was when I tried to email my script to a friend for comments - you can't. Unless the other person has Hollywood Screenwriter, they won't be able to open it. The program doesn't even allow you to cut your text into a Word document (or any other application for that matter.) Secondly, the top and bottom margins were set at 1.5 inches so for several weeks I thought my script was much longer than it actually was. The margins are easily corrected, but still, 1 inch is proper industry format - they should know that. Third, the spacing between scene headings is incorrect. Proper industry format says three spaces, this program gives you two. I had to go in and hit a hard return at the beginning of every scene heading in a hundred page script - very annoying. Fourth, you can not incorporate a (beat) into the dialogue. As soon as you type a parantheses, the program thinks its acting instructions and formats whatever is in the () accordingly. On the online FAQ they recognize this problem and say to use [] or {} for beats!!! That's great, try to break into the business by having your script look different than other professional scripts. I don't think so. I makes me wonder what other formatting stlyle is incorrect.

Finally, and this is a doozy, at any point you can go and try to open a script you've been working on forever and find that it isn't there. The program gives an Error 32, whatever that means, and opens up what it calls your script but is actually one blank page. The company's online help has an update you can download to fix this problem and after the download, you'll supposedly be able to recover your script. Didn't work for me. I opened an older version I had and then re-did my work to the best of my memory. Now, this morning, I popped the CD in and...nothing. The program won't open at all.

When I researched the different programs to buy I did see mention of some little quirks but I figured for the price it would be a good place to start. Wrong. Unless you have no intention of sharing your script with anyone via email, etc. or don't care about proper format, or don't mind just randomly losing your whole damn script for no apparent reason, spend the extra few buck for something that works. Speaking of which - does anyone have any recommendations? I'm now in the market.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very unhappy with this program
Review: I'm sitting here thirty-six hours away from sharing my script with my screenwriting group and I don't know if I'll have a script to show them. This program started out fine at first. I, too, didn't mind having to put the CD in each time; afterall, I have to put my disk in each time I work.

First time I noticed a problem was when I tried to email my script to a friend for comments - you can't. Unless the other person has Hollywood Screenwriter, they won't be able to open it. The program doesn't even allow you to cut your text into a Word document (or any other application for that matter.) Secondly, the top and bottom margins were set at 1.5 inches so for several weeks I thought my script was much longer than it actually was. The margins are easily corrected, but still, 1 inch is proper industry format - they should know that. Third, the spacing between scene headings is incorrect. Proper industry format says three spaces, this program gives you two. I had to go in and hit a hard return at the beginning of every scene heading in a hundred page script - very annoying. Fourth, you can not incorporate a (beat) into the dialogue. As soon as you type a parantheses, the program thinks its acting instructions and formats whatever is in the () accordingly. On the online FAQ they recognize this problem and say to use [] or {} for beats!!! That's great, try to break into the business by having your script look different than other professional scripts. I don't think so. I makes me wonder what other formatting stlyle is incorrect.

Finally, and this is a doozy, at any point you can go and try to open a script you've been working on forever and find that it isn't there. The program gives an Error 32, whatever that means, and opens up what it calls your script but is actually one blank page. The company's online help has an update you can download to fix this problem and after the download, you'll supposedly be able to recover your script. Didn't work for me. I opened an older version I had and then re-did my work to the best of my memory. Now, this morning, I popped the CD in and...nothing. The program won't open at all.

When I researched the different programs to buy I did see mention of some little quirks but I figured for the price it would be a good place to start. Wrong. Unless you have no intention of sharing your script with anyone via email, etc. or don't care about proper format, or don't mind just randomly losing your whole damn script for no apparent reason, spend the extra few buck for something that works. Speaking of which - does anyone have any recommendations? I'm now in the market.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A cheap program with some big gotcha's
Review: Sure, this program is [cheap] compared to [the expensive] Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 or Final Draft, but this program is so loaded with technical glitches and gotchas that I can't recommend it unless you're planning to write and print a single short screenplay for a school assignment or something like that. The documentation says you can export your text into other programs, but you can't! So whatever you write is locked into this limited-feature program forever, unless you want to retype it all. There are lots of other things promised by the manual or box cover but not delivered in the program. If you have any fantasies of actually writing and selling a screenplay, don't buy this product. Save your money and buy one of the industry standard programs instead.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I know why the other reviewers hated this product-I LOVE IT
Review: This software is great for writing scripts for movie you want to sell or make yourself! It is so easy to use just press TAB and ENTER to go to diffrent sections of the script. The reason why other reviewers disliked this product was because they didn't have the upgate. Just ... download a small upgrade so it will work on all the computers it says it will and will not give you an Error 32 message. This program is great for all users!


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