Method Storyteller 0.6.0

Method Storyteller 0.6.0

Tools for the production draft: scene numbers that hold, revision sets with marks and coloured
pages, omitted scenes, and the pages you choose to issue.

Scene numbers that hold

• Production > Number Scenes… keeps the numbers a script already has and letters the new
  scenes between them (12A, 12B; A1 before the first). It can also number from any start, from
  the current scene on, and leave out I and O.
• Production > Edit Scene Number… sets one scene's number by hand.
• Left margin, right margin or both. Number Scenes… chooses where the numbers print, and
  the script keeps the choice.

Omitted scenes

• Production > Omit Scene replaces a scene with OMITTED and keeps its number, so the
  numbers after it stay where they are. Unomit Scene brings the scene back as it was.

Revisions

• Production > Revisions… lists the revision sets. Add the next one in the standard
  colours (White, Blue, Pink and on), rename it, change its mark, choose the active one, or
  delete one (its marks move to the set before it).
• Production > Revision Mode (⌘⇧R). What you change is marked in the active set, and text
  you take out leaves a mark where it was. Mark Revised (⌘]) and Clear Revised (⌘[)
  act on the selection or the paragraph.
• On screen and on the page. Revised text shows in its set's colour, the set's mark sits in
  the right margin of every changed line, and the set's name and date print under the page
  number. The View menu shows all sets, only the active one, or none, and can show revised
  pages in their set's colour.

Issue the pages you need

• File > Export PDF… issues all pages, revised pages only, a page range (12-18, 22A), or
  the pages a range of scenes prints on (12-15). It can print revised pages on their colour,
  or a clean copy with no marks.

Not there yet

• Revision mode does not yet mark a whole new paragraph, or two paragraphs joined, as
  changed.
• No locked pages (A-pages) or production reports yet.
• On Windows and Linux, download each new version from the website.

Who helped

• Method Production Suite Team and the Method Storyteller contributors.

Method Storyteller 0.5.0

Method Storyteller 0.5.0

Your script in one file of its own, scenes with titles and colours, a table of who speaks,
spelling in US or UK English, and nothing lost when the app closes unexpectedly. This release also brings a
security fix for update checks.

One file for your script

• New scripts save as a .mstory package: one file holding the script as Open Screenplay
  Format, with room beside it for production details. On a Mac it has its own icon in the
  Finder. Any unzip tool opens it.
• File > Save New Scripts as… still offers plain Open Screenplay Format and Fountain.

Find your way round

• Scene titles, summaries and colours. Right-click a scene in the navigator and choose
  Scene Properties…. The title shows in the navigator, the colour marks the row, and the summary
  appears when you point at the scene. They come in from .fdx files and go back out to them.
• File > Close (⌘W) closes the script and leaves an empty one. File > Open Recent lists
  the last ten scripts you had open.
• Production > Characters lists everyone who speaks, with their speeches, scenes, words and
  first scene. Click a name to go to their first line.

Spelling your way

• US or UK English in Edit > US English Spelling and UK English Spelling. The first time you
  open this version, it chooses from your region, including when you update.

Nothing lost

• Unsaved changes come back. If the app closes before you save, the next launch offers the
  changes: open the copy, throw it away, or decide later.

Fixed

• Update checks use up-to-date certificate checks, closing two security advisories in the
  library that verifies the update server.

Before you update

• Scripts saved as .mstory open only in this version and later.
• If you had set new scripts to save as Open Screenplay Format, they now save as .mstory
  packages. File > Save New Scripts as Open Screenplay Format sets it back.

Not there yet

• No revision mode, printing or side-by-side editing of dual dialogue yet.
• On Windows and Linux, download each new version from the website.

Who helped

• Method Production Suite Team and the Method Storyteller contributors.

Method Storyteller 0.4.0

Method Storyteller 0.4.0

Bold, italic and underline in the editor, and television scripts finished: multi-camera
sitcoms, and End of Act lines that look after themselves.

Style your words

• Bold, italic and underline. Format > Bold (⌘B), Italic (⌘I) and Underline (⌘U) style
  the words you select, or the word the caret is in. Press it again to take the style off.
• The editor shows the styles in the script's own typeface. The markers that save them
  in the file stay faint beside the words.

Write for television

• A multi-camera half-hour in File > New TV Script: Cold Open, Acts One and Two, and Tag.
  Scenes are lettered A, B, C, and a new scene takes its letter. Each scene starts on a new page
  with its speaking characters listed under the heading. Dialogue is double-spaced and action is
  in capitals.
• End of Act lines follow their acts. Rename ACT TWO and END OF ACT TWO changes with it.
  Name a new act and its End of Act line appears. A line of your own, such as END OF SHOW,
  stays as you wrote it.
• Scripts that set their own spacing, page breaks or capitals now look that way on the
  page and in the PDF, so a multi-camera .fdx opens as it was written.

Safer downloads

• The checksum list is signed (SHA256SUMS.minisig), so you can check that every
  download came from us.

Not there yet

• Typing into a part of the script set to capitals stores capitals, not your own casing.
• No revision mode, printing or side-by-side editing of dual dialogue yet.
• On Windows and Linux, download each new version from the website.

Who helped

• Method Production Suite Team and the Method Storyteller contributors.

Method Storyteller 0.3.0

Method Storyteller 0.3.0

Television scripts laid out in acts, and one Mac app that runs on both Apple silicon and Intel.

Write for television

• New Act and End of Act lines. TEASER, COLD OPEN, ACT ONE through ACT FIVE and TAG, in
  capitals and centred, each act starting on a new page. Pick them from the element picker
  (B for New Act, E for End of Act) or from the Format menu.
• File > New TV Script lays out a one-hour or half-hour script in acts, ready to write.
  It asks which, and remembers your choice.
• Acts in the scene navigator, each above its scenes. A click on an act goes into its
  first scene.
• Go To an act (⌘⌥G, then Act): by its number or its name, such as 2, TAG or ACT TWO.
• Act lines travel with the script in .fdx, Open Screenplay Format and Fountain.

On every Mac

• One download for every Mac. The app now runs natively on Intel Macs as well as Apple
  silicon, and updates itself on both.

Not there yet

• Scripts with act lines saved by this version show those lines as action in 0.2.0. Update
  before opening them there.
• An End of Act line doesn't yet change when you rename its act.
• No revision mode, printing or side-by-side editing of dual dialogue yet.
• On Windows and Linux, download each new version from the website.

Who helped

• Method Production Suite Team and the Method Storyteller contributors.

Method Storyteller 0.2.0

Method Storyteller 0.2.0

The first release: a screenwriting app that writes the way scripts are written, lays out pages
the way productions print them, and opens and saves the files a script travels in.

Write the way scripts are written

• Enter and Tab move between elements. Scene heading, action, character, parenthetical,
  dialogue and transition follow each other as you type; ⌘1 to ⌘7 pick one directly, and
  Enter on an empty line opens the element picker.
• Autocomplete for characters, locations and times of day, a guess at who speaks next,
  automatic (CONT'D), and smart quotes.
• Type INT. or EXT. and the line becomes a scene heading, even when you paste a whole
  heading into an empty line.
• Spell check as you type. Misspelled words get a thin red underline; Edit > Spelling…
  (⌘;) steps through them with suggestions, Change, Ignore and Learn. Character names and
  screenplay terms are never flagged.
• Cut, Copy and Paste in the Edit menu as well as on the usual keys, and Select All,
  which selects the paragraph you are in.
• Copy a whole scene with Edit > Copy Scene, or a right-click on the scene in the navigator.
  Paste it back and it is the same scene, element by element; paste it into an email or another
  app and it still reads as a screenplay.
• Paste screenplay text and it becomes a script, with its headings, action, characters and
  dialogue, rather than one long paragraph.

Find your way round a script

• The scene navigator lists every scene with its number, page and length in eighths. A
  click takes you straight into the scene's action, ready to type.
• Go To a scene or a page (⌘⌥G), find and replace with one Undo for Replace All, and
  rename a character everywhere at once.
• Page view and draft view, title page, scene numbers on both margins, and zoom.

Pages a production expects

• Pages break where a production expects them: Courier Prime 12 pt, standard margins,
  (MORE) and (CONT'D) at page breaks, and scene pages and lengths that match real production
  scripts.
• Export PDF with selectable text and a bookmark for each scene.

Open and save the files a script travels in

• Open Screenplay Format (.osf) is the standard for new scripts. Fountain stays fully
  supported: open, save, and File > Save New Scripts as Fountain.
• .fdx files open and save, keeping every part of the file the app does not use. Script
  notes, revisions, locked pages, element settings and page layout, and the words spell check
  ignores carry over between .fdx and Open Screenplay Format, both ways.
• Fountain's boneyard (/* … */) is kept, and saving to a format says what it will not
  keep.
• On a Mac, double-click a script in the Finder to open it here; .osf, .fountain and
  .fdx files show their own document icons.
• The first time you open the app, it shows the sample script, Field Station, as an
  unsaved copy to look round. Help > Open Sample Script brings it back.

Not there yet

• No revision mode, printing or side-by-side editing of dual dialogue yet.
• Automatic updates work on Apple silicon Macs; on Windows and Linux, download the next
  version from the website.
• The spelling dictionary is US English.

Who helped

• Method Production Suite Team and the Method Storyteller contributors.