I'm working on my first screenplay and I'm using the Trelby screenplay editor. I was wondering what other beginning screenwriters use.

Trelby is great, and it's free. I wish the scenes were collapsible, though, to make the document more manageable. And it would be nice to have a document map where you could just click on a scene header to go to that part of the script.

Hi Dave,

Celtx is very popular, especially as it's free. I use Final Draft. It's decent for the righting side of things like formatting, but no idea if there's an option to make scenes collapsable etc. The notes, scenes and beats features seem a bit clunky to use too so I don't bother with that.

I think if Trelby is working for you, then just stick with it.

And good luck with the screenplay!

Cheers

Max

Everyone has their fave software... I use Fade In, not free but about 1/3 of price of Final Draft...

I reviewed a few for SS but the article is a little old now - https://www.simplyscripts.com/2015/10/08/youve-finished-the-damned-script-now-what-anthony-cawood-primers-for-a-networked-world-part-8/

I've not used Fade In, but as long as it does the trick I'd go with that (or something like that) if I was to start from scratch again.

Final Draft works fine, but it's a rip off.

I like FD

Quoted from eldave1 I like FD

x2

I use to use fade in - now use final draft. Like final draft but fade in is just as good and a lot less expensive.

I used to use Final Draft religiously, but FD8 glitches like crazy on Windows 10 and I'm far too cheap to cough up the cheddar for an upgrade.  So I gave Trelby a try a few years back, and now I use it exclusively.  It's short a few perks you see in most premium programs, but nothing you couldn't do without anyway.  I doubt you'll find a better free program out there, even though they no longer offer new builds.  I've also tried CeltX, but find Trelby's interface more to my liking.

I've since switched to Celtx desktop application.

Trelby was fast, but it lacks some essential features, like the ability to move scenes around easily or even copy and paste from other sources into Trelby; you need to do a system copy or paste. And it doesn't even have spell check while you type.

For now, Celtx does everything I need. Plus, it's free.  :)

Dave - Celtx dropped support for the desktop version years ago... not sure if they've brought it back now?

If they've not reintroduced it and you've found a copy somewhere online then be very careful with saving your scripts... I lost 3 months worth of updates once and of course Celtx support couldn't/wouldn't help as they don't support the product anymore.

That's when I stopped using it ;-(

Hey Dave,

Final Draft offer up a trial version of their software for 30 days if you wanted to try before buying. Plus if you give the trial a go, they start offering it for cheaper if you don't buy it.

Personally I would have said if you're just starting out then it's probably better to try something like Celtx, but what Anthony said is a massive put off... so maybe something like Trelby would do the job.