By now I'm sure you all know what Celtx is. It's free, cross-platform screenwriting and production software available in many languages. There's a new version out today. Here are the release notes. Go get it!

From Greg Miller over at The Other Network comes eight "free practical tips to punch up your writing". Here's the first one:

1 - Put at least one solid laugh on every page. Not witty banter or zany behavior. A laugh. Not just your opinion, but based on other people’s reads. You are having other people read it, right?

That was a delicious taster. Want more? Here's Greg's whole list.

So a new version of the Celtx screenwriting/pre-production software has been released. Version 2.5 offers several new features, including "Revision Mode" which locks page numbers while you make edits, Text Lock Mode, a Sketch tool to add images to the project, Studio Collaboration which is an integrated text messaging service for Studio users, and new options for PDF formatting. Celtx is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows in over 30 languages at no cost.

Update 11/15/09: 2.5.1 Released. Bugs addressed:

1. Windows crashes when canceling add image dialog. If you cancel the add image dialog when adding an image using the media sidebar or a catalog form Celtx crashes. (Windows only)

2. Using Print Preview disables all subtabs. Once you have select print preview the subtabs are no longer responsive. You have to close and re-open the application to fix this problem. (Windows and Linux)

3. Windows registry not updated correctly for NEW Celtx installations. The windows installer doesn't correctly register the celtxs protocol for new installs. This would prevent first time Celtx user from installing addons and open projects from the studio. (Windows only)

Both the screenwriting application Final Draft and the free office suite for Mac, NeoOffice had updates this week. The new Final Draft, version 8.01 is said to include "even more new and improved features". Meanwhile, after months of testing, NeoOffice 3.0.1's major features include 10.6 Snow Leopard support, a new feature for saving files online called "NeoOffice Mobile", and native file locking support for local and networked volumes. Download it here for free.

Final Draft 8.0 was released today. It is available for $249, or $79.00 for an upgrade from Final Draft 7. A limited demo is available. New features include a Scene Navigator, Page Count Management, Scene Properties Editor, Scene View, Remember Workspace, and my personal favorite, Export to XML. There are additional improvements to existing features, including an improved font. I see no indication whether or not the OS X version is a carbon or cocoa application. Reviews are welcome!

FYI- Celtx is now at version 2.0.1. As noted previously, Celtx is a free screenwriting and pre-production package available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. It is available in the languages of English, Brazilian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (TW & CN), Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Macedonian, Dutch, Norwegian (Bokmal and Nyorsk), Polish, Portugese (PT), Romanian, Russian, Srpski (Bosnian?), Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish, and Turkish.

I have no idea how this happened. It took several years to get to 1.0, but now out of nowhere it seems a version 2.0 of the open-source screenwriting program Celtx has been released. It's only been six months or so since the last version and here we are with 2.0. According to the release notes, this version includes "Celtx Studios", a server-side archiving, collaboration system, which is in free beta but will cost $50/year at some future point. Other features include extensions, a "notifier ribbon", faster underlying rendering and javascript engines, and 38 bug-fixes. Celtx runs on Mac, Linux, and Windows and is available in many languages. Enjoy!

After many years of development, the free, open-source, cross-platform screenwriting and pre-production application Celtx has finally been released in its 1.0 version. Available in numerous languages for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, the new release contains many improvements from earlier test versions. Congratulations to the Celtx team on reaching this important milestone!

Writers-- check out this short article by Mystery Man", which takes screenplay pages from four films and discusses how the writing style is cinematic. (Another great source for such practical screenwriting advice is John August's blog.)

Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to be ressurecting an old character... w/Brian Cox.