Screenplays - Template Issues & Feature Parity with Final Draft

[MattKing]

Hey there,

 

As a long time user (sufferer?) of Final Draft, I found Storyist to be a breath of fresh air. This is a truly wonderful piece of software compared to the dated bloatware of Final Draft. However, when I began to dig into it more thoroughly, I did find some issues and missing features that prevent it from becoming my much desired replacement for Final Draft.

 

I have taken the liberty of noting what I feel are the problems / missing features and have detailed them below (please ask if you require further information) and would love to see them implemented. Believe me, if they were there, I'd happily make the transition immediately and literally say "TAKE MY MONEY!"

 

Features

1. A rebuild option for completions that would scan the script and update the list of completions automatically.
2. A simple “Save as PDF” option that exports both the title page and the script as a single file.
3. Upon tabbing to a parenthetical, a pair of brackets should automatically be inserted with the insertion point placed in the middle.
4. Page numbers should be automatically included in the header. On the first page it should be absent.
5. Header should be preset to a font style of Courier 12.

Issues

1. Final Draft import fails to recognize and apply capitalization to "author-capitalized" words in “Action” elements.
2. Final Draft import fails to correctly recognize page numbers as right-aligned elements in the header and instead imports each page number as a separate item of text inserted into each page’s header. However, if the whole page numbering system in the headers is overhauled, this issue should be resolved.
3. Spacing and characters per line do not match Final Draft, meaning that importing a Final Draft script will result in a different page count and elements no longer being present on the same page. A close up examination of the text appears to suggest that the problem occurs not with text characters but rather the spaces between words being larger than a single 12pt space. In addition, line spacing, even when set to “exactly 12pt” appears to still exceed the correct number of lines per page. Testing needs to be done to ensure margins and spacing match those of Final Draft (given that it is the industry standard, whether we like it or not).

My last request is more than a single feature, but rather a major addition. The one big thing Storyist lacks over Final Draft is a Production Mode feature set. This includes, but is not limited to... locked pages, revision mode / revision sets, scene numbers, omit scene, mark / clear revised text, revision set title in the header on revised pages etc.

 

I won't go into detail as to how all these things work, it is simpler to just examine Final Draft for this purpose and review their tutorial videos for the features.

 

I sincerely hope that this has been helpful and that these features make it to the software. It is a great package and in a great many ways far superior to Final Draft (versions and iCloud support to name but a couple), let's get it the rest of the way and allow screenwriters everywhere to say goodbye to the past!

 

Many Thanks!

Matt

 

[Gusmcgee]

I agree. Storyist is a breath of fresh air.

 

I'd like to also add three more requests in addition to the above.

 

1) TAB after DIALOGUE doesn't take me to PARENTHETICAL (even though it says it will). I wish it did. It works fine after CHARACTER NAME though.

2. MORE's and CONT'Ds in dialogue that crosses page breaks.

3. Bigger font zooming option on iPhone (that's what I assumed Draft Mode was for).

[MattKing]

Those additions are also definitely needed. Hopefully we can get an admin to look at this