Celtx 2.0 was announced recently and is currently available for download. For those of you who don’t know, Celtx is a popular open source screenwriting, and pre-production application. The new version of Celtx is exciting on several fronts on of which is the new “Studio” system for more integrated collaboration on projects. Secondly the new toolbox feature enabling user built plugins to be built and installed enabling even more features for an already great software package. The software remains free although Celtx developers have added a $50/ annual fee to make use of the online services. All in all it looks like a well rounded upgrade that will allow for future expansion. I’m particularly interested in some users adding toolboxes for automatic page counts, and further expanding the pre-production toolset. Listed below is the full set of new features and changes:

NEW FEATURES

Celtx Studios

We are pleased to introduce Celtx Studios, a set of web services designed to work with the Celtx software. Your Celtx Studio provides:

Web Based Storage and Access to Your Media Projects
Media Projects created in Celtx can be saved straight to your Celtx Studio. You can also open your Media Project from your Celtx Studio, and work straight from your Studio, or save the project locally.

Collaboration
Sharing Projects with other users of the Celtx Studios is a click away.

Archives
Your Celtx Studio provides granular access to every script, and every file, and every form, in every version, of every project. You can do side-by-side comparisons of different versions, and open any version in your Celtx software to revert to any previous state.

Previews
Create a private, web view of your project for collaborators, producers, financers or anyone else with whom you want to share the project.

The Celtx Studios are FREE as we run a short commercial beta. After the beta period is over, the Celtx Studios will be offered at a $50 PER YEAR subscription.

Celtx Client Changes

Toolbox
Extensions/Add-Ons
We have enabled extensions in the Celtx software. A ‘Toolbox’ icon in the main toolbar accesses a new Toolbox page on our main web site, where Add-Ons can be downloaded to customize the Celtx software.

Non-English dictionaries are available for those writing and working in several languages.
We have also added a Developers page to the Toolbox site on Celtx.com. We welcome any developers who would like to add their own Add-Ons. At the moment, we can only accept Free Add-Ons, but we’ll soon be introducing a Pay service as well.

Notifier Ribbon
We have added a notifier ribbon to the bottom of the application window. This is to ensure that people opening Celtx directly from a Celtx file continue to receive the Splash Page Notices. No screen size is lost in the editor function when the Notifier Ribbon is closed, which it is by default. The Notifier Ribbon will display the latest Community News and Project of the Week. It will also provide Notice of any new Releases of the Celtx Software.

Interactive Notice Tool
We have also added a small interactive notice to the Celtx Toolbar. The individual notices are delivered by the Celtx Server, allowing us to tailor the Notice to specific issues as the need arises. The default Notice will provide a direct link to a dedicated Help page.

Direct Saves to Studio
A new option, added to ‘File’ in the main menu, enables a direct ‘Save to Studio’. This replaces the cumbersome ‘Upload’ process that was accessed from the Web Services. Selecting ‘Save to Studio’ will save the Project straight to your Celtx Studio.

Direct Open From Studio
An ‘Open from Studio’ option has been added to the ‘File’ menu. Selecting ‘Open from Studio’ will bring you to your Celtx Studio. After opening your Projects folder in your Celtx Studio, you can select ‘Edit’ from the Studio Project toolbar to open a Project directly in your Celtx Software. Subsequent Saves of the Project will get Saved straight to the Studio.

Save Status Bar
We added a new “Save Status” dialog. Located in the very bottom of the application window, this status bar will confirm saves, providing a date and time stamp as well as confirmation on whether the Save was made to your own computer (local) or to your Celtx Studio.

GENERAL
Celtx Client Upgrades

Moved to Firefox 3.*
We upgraded the underlying code of the Celtx Software to the newest version of Firefox (v. 3.*). A big thanks to the awesome community of Firefox developers and to the Mozilla organization for producing such a fantastic open source product.

Implemented TraceMonkey
Upgrading Celtx to the Firefox 3 code has enabled us to use the new TraceMonkey Javascript engine, resulting in much faster loads times, and better behaviour for all features.

Moved to new Sunbird 0.8 code
We have also upgraded the Celtx Calendar and Production Schedule modules to the new version of the open source Sunbird calendar application, resulting in an improved user interface for both, and greater stability. A big thanks too to the Sunbird developer team.

Improvements & Bug Fixes

1. Celtx files not opening – corrupted RDF files. This new version includes an automatic RDF fixer. Illegal characters in the project RDF file, which were usually added from cut and paste actions, and would sometimes prevent a project from opening properly, are now fixed automatically.

2. The ‘Adapt To’ feature now copies any Index Cards over to the new script.

3. The Add Item Dialog for Characters and Scene Details will no longer display a folder option for their placement in the project library.

4. The Add Item Dialog will no longer appear truncated when adding a file with a long name.

5. Tasks can now be selected and/or deleted directly from the task list.

6. The Calendar interface has been improved for easier use.

7. The “Invite Attendees” option has been removed from the Calendar toolbar, as it was not a supported feature in the application.

8. Double-clicking on a column heading no longer opens the currently selected Catalog item.

9. Sorting a Catalog list will now preserve the currently selected item.

10. You can now sort a Catalog by any field, not just the name field.

11. The Catalog filters (columns) are now re-sizeable.

12. In a Character Form, the ‘role selector’ now defaults to blank instead of ‘protagonist’.

13. Wardrobe Forms now correctly display ‘Scenes Used In’.

14. Media is now correctly removed from Catalog forms.

15. Minor formatting fix made so a new page begins with a Panel element. The Panel prefix does not appear at the end of the previous page. It now appears on the new page instead.

16. Improved adding of a character element to the Catalog via the script. Changing a non-character element to a character element will now add the new character to the Catalog.

17. Improved dragging of two or more paragraphs (e.g., character and following dialogue) around in a script. The dragged text will no longer disappear.

18. Changes to the zoom level are now saved. If you change the zoom level then save, close and re-open the script, the zoom level change made previously is preserved.

19. Changes to paper size are now saved and immediately affect the document when pagination is enabled.

20. Increased the number of scene words displayed on a card’s script side.

21. Improved ability of index cards to preserve scene information. Changing a scene heading to another format and back again resulted in the index card information being lost. We now preserve scene id info so that the index card information can be restored by undo.

22. Index Cards – Text pasted in to an Index Card is now saved.

23. Plot colour changes are now saved on closing the project.

24. You can now add items to a Manual Catalog (e.g. a prop icon) by dragging and dropping any shortcut from the Project Library to the Manual Catalog.

25. We have improved the behaviour when dragging and dropping library items from one Project to another.

26. Shot words added in preferences now appear in uppercase in the storyboard shot dropdown menu. Please note that you must close and re-open the storyboard after adding the shot words in order for them to appear in the dropdown.

27. On closing Print Preview, the script editor will restore the previous cursor position.

28. Reports – The Shooting schedule will now properly display scenes that are scheduled to start before midnight and finish after midnight.

29. The first click on a highlighted item in a new scene immediately selects the item in the sidebar.

30. The sidebar now remembers its closed/opened state.

31. Breakdown items in the Sidebar drop down are automatically sorted alphabetically.

32. You can now cursor up or down inside of a sidebar note.

33. After modifying a note in the script the user will be requested to save changes to script.

34. Deleted projects will no longer reappear in the Recent Projects List.

35. Double clicking a recent project (Windows) will no longer open the project twice.

36. The limit of 15 open tabs is no longer exceeded when creating new documents via Adapt To.

37. Changing the paper format in TypeSet (A4 versus American) now changes the paper format in the editor at the same time.

38. Vista – enabled support for Vista Aero theme Fixed.