The Old Favorites (Remastered)
As with MM 2000, this version has the much-loved voice reader program which will read back your entire script. This is an invaluable feature, as it's one thing to read a script on a screen, but another thing entirely to hear it read aloud. This version of the voice reader program has a lot more variety of voice sounds, but the user does have to go through the process of assigning voices to all the characters first.
The name bank feature is also back. One still can't add their own choices, but the bank has a really huge selection of male, female, and last names. You can save your favorites to pick from later, or import a choice directly into the screenplay. Of course, if your taste in names runs toward the more, uh, eclectic, you might be a bit disappointed.
As before, one can also publish a finished screenplay to the internet, register it with the writer's guild, and print out production notes. There's also a feature that counts characters, action elements, speeches, etc, and even breaks them down by character. The program has a thesaurus and a homonym finder, which is very helpful. There are also a whole lot more templates than in the previous version, which could be very helpful for a first-timer.
Perhaps the coolest function is the iPartner - you type in the IP address of a friend, and the two of you can work on the screenplay together. Pretty cool! And very advantageous if one has a writing partner. Of course an internet connection is required, and both parties will need to have the software, but it could be an invaluable resource for script writing duos.
Now, there was one confusing feature in the program due to its controls: a calendar. It's located in the Tools menu, and once opened up it's impossible to close through normal windows functionality. There is no "x" in the corner to close it, and trying to click anywhere else in the program just makes it beep. (And to make matters worse, as you attempt to close the calendar, the quote: "These are the Times that Try Men's Souls" is emblazoned at the top of the popout screen, as though the calendar is a patience teaching exercise ala "Kung Fu.".) After pressing every button on the keyboard, I finally found that the "Esc" button will close the calendar. While there is some old school, DOS-based logic to using the "Esc" button, the reality is that they need to just put a Windows-friendly "X" that mouse users can click!
