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

On 11/14/2010 04:12 PM, Robert Derman wrote:
> 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.
I'm not sure how the translation tools work, perhaps its not possible to 
add compound words and automatically translate.

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