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Rapid City goes PDF

This is big, but I can’t quite explain how.

I have been using Celtx to write my scripts. It is a really great program and makes the whole writing process much easier…..after small learning curve. The rigid format has forced me to tighten up my scripting style a lot. There is no doubt that I have benefited from it.

Celtx also provides a service through which they auto-publish your work to their Project Central web site. This is a really easy way to publish, but it is also very limiting. I don’t know tech stuff about coding and all of that, which is why it took me so long to figure this out. So, I can’t explain exactly why, but it is similar to the way that itunes turns all of your media files into itunes files. I could publish my scripts through Celtx Project Central, but it was almost impossible to do anything else with them.

Now, with a series of simple installs, I can turn my scripts straight into PDF files which I can then do whatever I want with. Print, email, sell…whatever. Plus, all of the scripts are now “in house”. Meaning that when you go to read a script, you are no longer being sent to another web site. This also solves the formatting problem that I was having with Internet Explorer.

The Celtx program is a very powerful way to create scripts….now I feel like that power has been liberated.

Posted in Commentary, Publishing, Technical, Updates, Writing.

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2 comments

By joshdahl – December 30, 2009

  • http://www.webcomicsnation.com/jaehling Max Vaehling

    I've never used Project Central myself, so the peek you provided was more than interesting. The catalog and index card functions look intriguing. It could be a great tool. Of course, you don't need all that to present the scripts. And PDF has two major advantages for me as a reader: I can download and print the scripts.

    What do you mean by “series of simple installs”? Doesn't Celtx offer PDF export anyway?

    • Josh

      On the one hand, I do like having all the “guts” out there on display…. But on the other hand, I prefer the more streamlined appearance of the PDF scripts.

      Celtx does offer a PDF export, but for the comics format it is just awful. For some reason it changes into a thing that looks more like an Excel spreadsheet than a script. It could be functionally used, as all of the information is actually there, but it is far uglier than I would ever show off in public.

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