Celtx

This program I find is mostly free with a lot of freedom in that area to do a lot that one might feel that the add-ons or expansions feel more like donations than actually paying. This program is easy to get into and start using right away.

Ah Celtx, what can I say about Celtx?

Classic Bait and Switch that's what I'll say. They offered comprehensive Open Sourced software, seducing loads of people off of Final Draft and further seducing them to pay for their free software to get a few knobs on and then... remove all downloadable installable versions of the Software you were using just so that you could use their 'Free' cloud service. 'Free' as in, use the 'Free' version which doesn't even touch half the stuff you could do on the free installable version, or pay to get the features back that you could use for free with their installable version.

Classic Bait and Switch... Do not touch with a bargepole

I discovered Celtx back in 2011. I thought it was originally a Mac-only program, which I still have on my Mac (version 2.97, for the curious), but apparently there was also a (more recent) Windows version ... which, of course, prompted a search for a similar version for the Mac, which, unfortunately, is no longer free, despite its "discontinued" status.

Sadly, my screenwriting efforts were interrupted back in 2011, but I still have that 2.97 version waiting for the day I get the notion to write an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or something.

I also, however, have a couple of Word ".dot" files that should do the trick ... but we'll see.

Only three stars for this one, seeing as how it has been discontinued while the app versions are still out there. I don't do anything on my phone (tiny screen compared to my 24" iMac) so those apps are useless to me. Wish they had kept updating the program.

So I decided to pay $10 for the "full" version of Celtx with the novel capabilities. I was under the impression that by buying I would be getting rid of the ads. Nope. They need to make this more clear because I would never have bought a software where I'm constantly getting fed ads. I even tried editing the source code to eliminate the ads, to no avail. I think they hide it (quite reasonably). The devs say they "can't" remove the ads. Please. It would be easy for them.

Celtx could easily be a very popular software with just a few things:

Increase the novel functionality to be on par with that in Scrivener. Celtx's character templates are WAY better than Scrivener's and there are other things I liked more in Celtx (can't remember them now).

OFFER AN AD-FREE VERSION!

Charge $15 for this new version.

I guarantee they'd increase their base exponentially by doing these things.

So I decided to pay $10 for the "full" version of Celtx with the novel capabilities. I was under the impression that by buying I would be getting rid of the ads. Nope. They need to make this more clear because I would never have bought a software where I'm constantly getting fed ads. I even tried editing the source code to eliminate the ads, to no avail. I think they hide it (quite reasonably). The devs say they "can't" remove the ads. Please. It would be easy for them.

Celtx could easily be a very popular software with just a few things:

1. Increase the novel functionality to be on par with that in Scrivener. Celtx's character templates are WAY better than Scrivener's and there are other things I liked more in Celtx (can't remember them now).

2. OFFER AN AD-FREE VERSION!

3. Charge $15 for this new version.

I guarantee they'd increase their base exponentially by doing these things.

A friend and I are using this program for writing the script and stuff for the movie that we are making. I also know at least one other friend that has been using it for quite some time to make movie scripts. It works very well.