Re: [tdf-discuss] Suggestion to expand user base: enable screenplay formatting with LibreOffice

Alan C. Baird wrote:
> Proposal for significantly enlarging LibreOffice's user base with Screenwright(R)
>
> 14 November 2010 by Alan C. Baird, prizewinning writer and creator of the
> Screenwright(R) screenplay formatter [winner of the Sun/OOo CIP award]
>
> http://w.9TimeZones.com/avails.htm
> http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/scr2
> http://development.openoffice.org/awardees-2008.html
>
> Executive Summary: enable screenplay formatting in LibreOffice to distinguish it from OpenOffice.
>
> Pitch: Every aspiring screenwriter has a movie in his/her head that needs to get down on paper. 
> However, some film production companies won't accept a script submission if the formatting is even 
> ONE POSITION off! So ensuring that screenplays are formatted correctly is an obsession of 
> screenwriters everywhere. But formatting a script can be an expensive proposition; 78 commercial 
> formatters are listed at The Writers Store. A screenwriter could easily spend $200 or more on 
> software, just to get a screenplay into acceptable shape.
>
> UNLESS s/he uses LibreOffice in conjunction with the Screenwright(R) screenplay formatting template.
>
> We all want our scripts to be eligible for the next multimillion-dollar spec auction, so some of us even carry our latest 
> screenplays in our glove compartments, on the off-chance that we might meet someone who can help. In the movie "Monster In A 
> Box," Spalding Gray talks about one of his trips to Los Angeles: «I had no idea how difficult it would be to find people not 
> involved in the film industry until I got out there and saw a special on television - in which they were interviewing people in 
> the parking lot of a Shop Rite supermarket. As people came out with their groceries, the interviewer would go up to them and say, 
> "Hi there, good morning! Tell us, how's your film script going?" And everyone said, "What?! How did you 
> know?" Right up to the cashier.»
>
> If the Screenwright(R) screenplay formatting template can be included as an integral part of the 
> upcoming LibreOffice release, it will send a clear signal--to filmmakers in particular and to the 
> Entertainment sector in general--that LibreOffice is ready to address the industry's unique 
> text-processing and -formatting needs. News travels fast among members of the Entertainment 
> industry, and they tend to be the gatekeepers and style leaders for the culture at large.
>
> Historical context: OOo Writer is the first (and for now, the only) full-featured word processor 
> that will easily format a screenplay at no cost whatsoever. But it requires a template download and 
> installation. If LibreOffice wants to capitalize on this unique opportunity, the template could be 
> integrated in the upcoming LibreOffice release.
>
> Alan C. Baird
> Mesa, Arizona USA
> acbaird@yahoo.com
I remember mentioning in a recent email that I thought that with its 
corporate leaning OOo might end up tailored for lawyers and accountants 
and LO would end up being oriented to screenwriters, novelists, 
musicians/composers.  In other words LO would become the darling of the 
artistic community.  Unless I am mistaken, and in this case I don't 
think I am, most of the people in the artistic community don't have a 
lot of money to throw at obtaining tools for their craft.  I myself am 
writing two novels and a daily journal at this time using this full size 
laptop and a copy of OOo.  If LO were to become the tool of choice for 
the artistic community, this would likely greatly increase its 
visibility to the general public, (most people I mention OpenOffice to 
have never heard of it) do to frequent mention in the media which tends 
to pay a great deal of attention to the artistic community.  I could be 
wrong in this, as I am not an expert in such things, but I suspect that 
a template/and/or extension for Draw might make it able to do musical 
notation very conveniently.  If this were the case, I can imagine it 
getting a huge amount of press coverage!



I will upgrade to LO as soon as a version not designated as beta becomes 
available.  And someone can promise me that my spell check dictionary to 
which I have added well over a thousand compound words can be 
transferred to it.                                       


The OOo spell check dictionary has far too few compound words in it.   
For an example, it will have rain, and barrel, but not rainbarrel.   
Literally thousands of compound words need to be added to the spell 
check dictionary.


I have heard many people complain about the word completion feature, and 
ask how to turn it off, however for the writing of most prose it is a 
very useful tool, but with a couple of small changes it could be MUCH 
better.  For instance, have an option where it will not gather any 
string containing anything but the 26 lower case letters and ' the 
apostrophe.  (English)  Chapter headings are often in all upper case, 
and this becomes a nuisance when it offers words in all upper case.  Or 
the option to lock in a "Permanent" auto completion dictionary and turn 
off the word gathering without loosing the auto-complete function 
completely, which is what generally happens now.   Someone told me that 
the auto-completion dictionary resides in RAM and if this is the case, 
the option to have it stored on the hard drive would be very useful. 

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