ScriptMaker Release notes

ScriptMaker 2.02 features/changes

• Bug fix: The RED CODE that appears on the registration window should be exactly four digits. Owing to the fact that ScriptMaker was rebuilt when I moved it all to a new PC, I accidentally rebuilt it with an older version of the Delphi component that does the registration window etc. This meant that that an old bug got re-introduced (see release notes for Storyboard Tools v1.7) whereby very rarely, some people had a red code that was not exactly four digits long, causing problems with the serial code not working. This has now been fixed.
• Warning messages are now generated when a chunk starts getting too long. If you get one of these, I seriously suggest you follow the advice given, i.e. split your chunk up or create a new one.
• When generating the RTF text, extraneous white-space is now deleted.
• When printing the title page of the script, extraneous spaces are deleted from the various text-items.
• When exporting the script to RTF, a greater attempt is made to use the same font as specified in your Script Settings.

ScriptMaker 2.01 features/changes

• Added new function to Tools menu to allow user to change Spellchecker setup. This enables you to configure the spell-check to use different dictionaries.
• Tidied up Spellchecking Whole Document, so that last line examined is not displayed if the spellcheck is completed. Also, the contents of the LabelCaptions are set to empty strings prior to doing the main checking procedure. When spell-checking the title, it now displays "Spellchecking Title". Basically put, it just looks a bit tidier.
• Fixed several small bugs relating to the treeview containing "invisible" objects! The bugs seemed to be specific to XP, but all fixed now! (hope!)
• Fixed small bug - When changing the chunk synopsis from with a dialog-editing form, the chunk info in the status bar wasn't being updated. Fixed it, now.
• New example script Axe.OOS, replaces Ons.OOS.

ScriptMaker 2.0 features/changes

• The "Thankyou" webpage has been removed ("hurray!")
• A new "Tips of the Day" feature. When you run the program a form will appear showing a random piece of advice. You can toggle this feature on or off either from the form or from the Help Menu.
• At last! A Spell-checker! You can now spell-check your script AND synopsis data in one go, or call the spell-checker when doing editing from within individual forms.
• At last! A Thesaurus! When editing a form, just highlight a word and click on the Thesaurus button to look for synonyms etc.
• ScriptMaker is now TRIALWARE, i.e. you can use it FREE OF CHARGE for 30 days only. If you wish to use it for longer than that you must register and pay the fee, which is really very small. The last free version will also be distributed from the website so long as my bandwidth doesn't get stretched again!

ScriptMaker 1.18 features/changes

• Due to a recent query I have now changed the XML import routine so that it is legitimate for the numerical values within a storyboard reference to be all zeros, even though strictly speaking these values are invalid. It seems that if you create a storyboard reference and press Cancel, the reference is created, but the numbers are all zeros. If you then export the script to XML and then re-import it again ScriptMaker was complaining, i.e. it was discovering these zero values in the storyboard references and raising an error, which was preventing the file from being imported. This has now been changed so that zero values are allowed when importing the XML. Similarly, the code for pasting a storyboard reference as XML has also been modified so that zero values are allowed. I realise this is only a very minor change, but it could make the difference between being able to import the XML file or being prevented from doing so due to ScriptMaker being over-zealous in its error-checking.

ScriptMaker 1.17 features/changes

• An extra check has been provided to examine the margin-settings which are stored along with script data. In older versions it was possible for invalid margin values to become stored in the OOS file so that even if the margin settings in the INI file worked OK, the values taken from the OOS file might still be corrupt and cause the program to hang. Now there are checks carried out on the values from the INI file, as well as on the margins dialog form and now the OOS-file margins as well. Hence there is now no place for any illicit margin values to hide. If you load a script (created on an older version of ScriptMaker) which stores illegal margins, you will be forced to correct these to the default values for either A4 or U.S. letter paper before you can continue.
• Changed Amazon link on Thankyou page.

ScriptMaker 1.16 features/changes

• The changes made for version 1.15 resulted in the introduction (or-re-introduction) of a bug in which an error message such as "1.5 is not a valid floating point value" was seen when reading the INI file. Hopefully this bug has now been dealt with once and for all! This bug only occurred on computers which don't use a "." as the decimal point in the Regional Settings. See also the FAQs for more information on this bug.

ScriptMaker 1.15 features/changes

• Removed online forum link under Help menu (it no longer exists)
• Tighter checks on margin settings in INI files. If any invalid values are found, user has the option of resetting all of the margins to either A4 or US letter defaults.
• User is prevented from entering left margins that are less than 0.5 inches.
• User is prevented from entering right-margin values that are too small in relation to the left margins.
• "Thankyou" html page tells user more information and allows him/her to go shopping.
• License and readme files placed in the installation directory.

ScriptMaker 1.14 features/changes

• Fixed rare printing bug, to do with hyphens in long words.
• Fixed bug on margins form, "Use default settings" reads defaults directly from INI file.
• Fixed the INI file decimal-point bug. Margin settings are now saved using the decimal separator given by the Regional Settings.
• Extended help-menu to include links to website and online forum. Also includes an "e-mail the author" feature.

ScriptMaker 1.13 features/changes

• When saving, the previous .OOS file is renamed as filename.OOS.BAK
• In the margins form there are now buttons to make it simpler to set the margins for A4 or US letter.
• In the margins form it is now possible to save the margin-settings to the INI file directly without closing the form.
• More meaningful error messages telling you if you haven't got a default printer driver attached.
• Saves the INI file in the same directory as the ScriptMaker executable, rather than the Windows directory. If you've been using an earlier version you may want to move your existing ScriptMaker.INI file over to the directory in which ScriptMaker was installed. This modification was made to (hopefully) overcome problems running ScriptMaker under Windows XP. Let me know if it works or not!

ScriptMaker 1.12 features/changes

• New feature - keyboard shortcuts are available for most of the main tasks. These are listed in the new "Script functions" menu. CTRL-\ closes most of the forms.

ScriptMaker 1.10 features/changes

• Fixed bug - Previously when renaming a character with a new name which started with the old name, (e.g. when replacing "Indiana" with "Indiana Jones") the program would go into a recursive loop if the old name occurred within a direction, causing the program to hang. This problem has now been solved.
• It is now possible to export an individual scene to RTF.

ScriptMaker 1.9 features/changes

• The Export script to RTF routine has been improved.
• The Export detailed synopsis to RTF routine has been improved.
• Status bar information is provided at the upper level. The information displayed is text from the first direction or dialog in the currently selected scene/chunk.
• The treeview on the left is now generated faster.
• Asks for confirmation when splitting directions.
• New feature - when editing a dialog, there is now a button which enables you to split the dialog text into two. The point of the split is the flashing cursor. This creates a new dialog immediately after the current one, and transfers the text after the cursor to it.

ScriptMaker 1.8 features/changes

• When you edit a direction, there is now a button which enables you to split the direction text into two directions. The point of the split is the flashing cursor. The change takes place immediately and creates a new direction item IMMEDIATELY after the current one, to which it transfers the text after the cursor. When splitting a direction up into several parts, you will need to work your way BACKWARDS through the direction text, to create the new directions in the correct order.
• Also when editing a direction, you can merge the current direction with the next one. The change takes place IMMEDIATELY, and requires that the next item in the list is also a direction.

ScriptMaker 1.7 features/changes

• When printing, ScriptMaker no longer splits up long words at the end of a line. Instead it always puts the word completely onto the next line. The only exception to this is if the whole word is so long that it won't fit onto a line by itself. Under these circumstances ScriptMaker will try to see if there is a hyphen in the word and break it there, otherwise it will try to put as much of the word onto a line as possibly and add a hyphen. Such a case would be extremely rare.
• When printing, ScriptMaker now requires a minimum of 4 spare lines at the bottom of the page for printing dialog/directions on the current page. If there is less room than this, it will start printing the dialog/direction on the next page.
• Printing options now allow you to specify which page numbers you want to print. Note that this feature is not perfect, but should work fine so long as you use sensible values for page numbers.

ScriptMaker 1.6 features/changes

• The main form now has a menu bar.
• The tool-bar on the main form has been simplified, many of the less commonly-used functions such as Export/Import are now on the menu-bar only.
• The menu bar now has a new feature which controls how Auto-update works. When you select "Always" then Auto-update happens automatically, without the program asking you to confirm. Set to "Never", the program will assume that you don't want to use auto-update at all. Set to "Confirm", the program will ask for confirmation each time you need to update the scene-synopsis.
• Setting Auto-update to "Always" prevents you from editing the scene synopsis accidentally.
• ScriptMaker now creates an INI file in the Windows directory for storing default values such as margins and the default directory.
• You can now flip from viewing scene-index-cards to chunk-index-cards and back, by DOUBLE-CLICKING on a card.
• Fixed minor bug - after changing the Printer setup, the chunk-viewer now gets redisplayed.
• ScriptMaker can now run with the name of an OOS file as a run-time parameter. Say, for example, you have a shortcut to ScriptMaker on your Desktop. Dragging an OOS file ontop of it will run ScriptMaker and open the file. If you register the OOS file-type using Windows Explorer, double-clicking on an OOS file will open it with ScriptMaker.
• When you add new dialog the program tries to guess the name of the character automatically - it puts in the name of the last-but-one character.
• On the dialog form, the name of the last character used is moved to the top of the drop-down list.
• "View detailed synopsis" has been removed. Now you just export directly to RTF.
• New printing options. These allow you to control the vertical and horizontal spacing used when you print (sometimes called "cheating" <g>) without needing to change the font size.
• You can now view the storyboard image associated with a storyboard reference. You can also use this feature to select a new image and update the reference.
• There is now a print-option which allows you to print storyboard images instead of references. You can also omit both from the print.
• Fixed bug - Printing a scene now works at the lower level (I'm surprised no-one reported this!)
• You now have control over whether or not to print scene-numbers. Previously, scene-numbers only appeared when you printed using shooting-script mode. This has been implemented as a print-option.
• Using the printing-options you can now decide whether or not to print transitions. One school of thought says that transitions & scene-numbers should only appear in the shooting-script. Now, YOU can decide.
• View chunks as index-cards - the slugline at the top of the form is in Upper-Case. same also for the scene slugline appearing in the status-bar on the main form.
• Editing a chunk-synopsis the auto-update checkbox is diabled unless the auto-update mode is set to "Confirm".
• You can now edit the chunk synopsis from the dialog form. Handy if you want to copy-and-paste bits of dialog.
• You can also edit the chunk synopsis from the Direction form. Again, useful for copying and pasting.
• Most of the forms now have Help buttons.

ScriptMaker 1.5 features/changes

• The index card system has been much improved. You can now jump between viewing scene-cards and viewing chunk-cards without having to close the form. When you return from chunk to scene-mode, the scene-card you had previously selected is highlighted.
• The detailed synopsis may now be saved as a properly formatted RTF file. This replaces the "copy" button that was there before.
• The scene synopsis can be maintained automatically using the auto-update feature. This means that you only need to enter the synopsis information at the chunk level. The text from the chunk synopses will then be used for the scene synopsis.
• Fixed minor bug introduced in 1.4 - the Cut feature now deletes scenes/chunks.
• The Script synopsis (i.e. your "one-pager" as opposed to the detailed synopsis) can now also be saved as a properly formatted RTF file.
• Fixed minor bug in the index card system. Under certain circumstances it would redisplay from the first scene-card and select the last card visible on the form, instead of the card you just created. This has now been fixed.
• A small change - there are now more entries in the TIME drop-down list for slug-lines and scene headings.
• The "Rename character" feature on the character-list form is now much more powerful. It now searches dialog lines, directions and synopses. The search is case-insensitive. The replacement name appears in upper-case within directions.
• Fixed a minor anomaly with viewing/printing. Very occasionally extra blank lines would appear between blocks of text. This has now been fixed.
• The scene-heading shown at the top of a scene index card is now displayed in upper case.
• Scene-headings and slug-lines will not get printed so close to the bottom of the page. Instead a gap will be left and they will appear on the top of the next page.

ScriptMaker 1.4 features/changes

• The synopsis forms are now resizeable, all have scroll-bars, and use a smaller font.
• Some forms have been made smaller so the program now works on a 640x480 resolution screen.
• The appearance of the script has been improved. The hyphenation is now much more sensible, and trailing spaces at the end of text input lines don't get displayed.
• The XML output is much easier to read. The reasons for this should become clear below.
• You can now copy and paste sections of the script as XML text. This means (e.g.) that you can copy XML to plain-text e-mail messages for the purposes of collaboration. The Paste feature will recognise if the clipboard contains text, and translate it from XML to ScriptMaker's own internal format. A little experimentation will show best how to use this feature. Here is an example of what a dialog block looks like as XML text. Try copying and pasting it into ScriptMaker!

• It is now possible to copy and paste entire scenes and chunks. This is always done using the XML text method.
• The XML Import feature and the XML Paste feature both update the list of characters if any new character names are found. Because of this, the names are no longer translated to upper-case by the export feature.

ScriptMaker 1.3 features/changes

• Fixed minor bug with loading scenes. The program loads the scene, then checks to see if the scene contains any new characters. This might happen if, for example, you accidentally load a scene from a different script. If it finds any new characters it asks for confirmation before putting the loaded scene in place. If you confirm that you want to load it, any new characters are now added to the character list.
• It is now much easier to get to the lower level. See the tutorial.
• The index card form now has a new button, "Display this". This takes you out of the index card form and puts you at the lower level, so you can edit the chunk/scene associated with the index card that you selected.
• When you go from the lower level to the upper level, the chunk you were just editing is highlighted in grey. Makes life much easier!
• At the lower level there are two new buttons, for Joining and splitting chunks. Clicking on Join causes the following chunk to be merged into the current one. If you select an item in the list and then click on Split, this causes the items from the selected one onwards to be moved to a new chunk following the current one.
• An aesthetic change - The script-editing buttons are now in a toolbar across the top, instead of being bunched together on the left.

ScriptMaker 1.2 features/changes

• You can now export the script to an RTF format for editing with a conventional word-processor, such as Microsoft Word 97.
• Fixed a minor bug. "CONT'D" no longer gets passed on from one scene to the next.

ScriptMaker Version 1.1 features/changes

• You can do much more manipulation of chunks and scenes at the lower level, so you don't need to go back to the upper level so often.
• Scenes can be saved/loaded individually as files. Should be good for collaborative work.
• You can bring up a form which lets you view a "detailed synopsis", created from all the chunk synopses lumped together as a single piece of text, which you can paste into your favourite word-processor.