Mac Screenwriter 6.7.0.72 "Alpha 36" - Read Me and Download Link

Updated: April 22, 2024

Alpha 36 is now available. 

Alpha 36 Overview:  When in the course of software development it becomes necessary to release an update that mostly corrects newly introduced bugs -- you should immediately download and install it!  Seriously: when we do as big a release as the previous Alpha 35, there's bound to be issues that need adjustment.

 

NEW:  Some important production-related features for locked script headers have been implemented.

 

HOWEVER, this is mostly a bug fix / performance enhancement release: We fixed a serious cosmetic problem with typing and the blinking insertion caret.  There was an issue where the blinking insertion caret would sometimes get stuck at the end of the line when moving backwards using the left arrow.  Fixed a number of bugs with the Change Character Name feature, but these mostly affected foreign language writers that used accented vowels.  There was also a problem with the Danish use of the ø letter which is now correct.  Also, when you long press on a vowel key to bring up the "point and click character picker" then choose an accented letter, you no longer get both the unaccented and the accented letter inserted.

 

ON DECK: Outline Reports, Document Passwords and more.

Download Link:  Download the install .dmg (disk image) from this link

NOTE: Do not forget to install the software once it has been downloaded -- instructions below.

 

FIRST TIME USERS:  PLEASE READ #1 through #5, below, before downloading.

The Alpha is a well-developed version of the 64-bit, full-Retina, all-Cocoa version.  We are calling it an "Alpha" because we want users to be aware there are still some less-than-critical features than still need to be connected.

IS IT OK TO WORK WITH THE ALPHA RELEASES?

ABSOLUTELY!  Any registered user of Screenwriter 6.5 may download and install Screenwriter 6.7 Alpha, the Sequoia / Sonoma / Ventura / Monterey / Big Sur / Catalina compatible version.  We've put out thirty-five Alpha versions, increasing functionality and reliability. See the list in this FAQ for the remaining features to be added in the next few alphas.

Should you work with the Alpha release?

At this point there is every reason to use the Alpha, unless you have need for a specific feature that isn't yet available in 6.7. We do ask that you please give us feedback and, if asked, please send automated error reports.

Please be tolerant of our few remaining issues and any less-than-critical missing features.  The Alpha is very stable and has most of the features critical for writing. Thousands of Screenwriter users are presently working with Screenwriter on Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma.

Your feedback helps Screenwriter be the best damn program it can be (and besides, you loath that "other" script processor...)  It's perfectly safe to jump on in!

 

RELEASE NOTES FOR MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER 6.7.0.72 "Alpha 36"

1. PLEASE READ THESE IMPORTANT CAVEATS
2. Installing the Alpha Release
3. List of features yet to be connected
4. Known Bugs / Defects
5. How to Report Errors, Defects, or Ask Questions
6. Changes in 6.7.0.72 Alpha 36

 

1.  PLEASE READ THESE IMPORTANT CAVEATS:

Screenwriter 6.7 Alpha 36 is a well-developed version of the 64-bit, full-Retina, all-Cocoa versions of Screenwriter compatible with MacOS Sonoma (14.x), Ventura (13.x), Monterey (12.x), Big Sur (11.0), Catalina (10.15), and Mojave (10.14).  Alpha software is extensively tested, but some features are not implemented, which means:

1. There are still a few features yet to implement (but we're making progress!)
2. Save Frequently (CMD+S).  Timed Backups are turned on and are newly enhanced, but Saving (as always) is still required!
3. Menu commands that are colored dark red mean those commands haven't been connected.  We continue to connect those features to their new user interface on a regular basis.
4. Remember you can enlarge your screen text in FOUR different ways: 1) using pinch-zoom on your laptop's trackpad or MagicMouse, or 2) with the VIEW > Zoom Screen Text (control-Z) command, or 3) using the new zoom slider at the bottom of the edit window.  You can also 4) resize the window if you are in fit-to-width mode.  And it's all beautiful, RETINA text resolution!
5. Now that most of our features are working, we will produce a new Alpha / Beta release once every 4-6 weeks.  Really big features need more time.  Automatic check-for-update will check once per day for updates each time you launch Screenwriter 6.7.
6. Your script data is safe, especially with the new, improved Timed Backups, but for your data's safety, please make backups, preferably using Apple's Time Machine (automatic backup) software.

 

2.  INSTALLING SCREENWRITER ALPHA:

Requirements:  You do NOT need to have Screenwriter 6.5 installed to install and use the Screenwriter 6.7 Alpha. However, you MUST have a Screenwriter 6.5 serial number (which begins with "MMSW"). 

Compatible with MacOS 14 (Sonoma), MacOS 13 (Ventura), MacOS 12 (Monterey), MacOS 11 (Big Sur), MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).  For MacOS 10.14 (Mojave), please continue to use Screenwriter 6.5.

Download Link:  Download the install .dmg (disk image) from this link

If you have never installed Screenwriter 6.5 or a 6.7 Alpha version and you need detailed instructions, please click on the following link for step-by-step download, installation, and activation help:

LINK:  Installing the Screenwriter 6.7 ALPHA Release

Otherwise, please use the following instructions:

 

Installing:  Like all programs, download the install .dmg (disk image), double-click the .dmg, then double-click the installer .pkg.  You may get an alert like the following:

If you do, please press OK.  You should do the same if the Finder asks to you for permission to access files while installing Screenwriter.

First Time Launching:  Screenwriter will install into your Applications folder, into a new "Screenwriter 6.7" folder.  Open that folder, and double-click on the Screenwriter app.  If this is the same computer that once ran Screenwriter 6.5, you might not even be asked to enter your serial number.

If you are asked to enter your serial number, please do so, and also the email address you used for registration, and your registration password.

If this is the first time you have activated Screenwriter 6.5 or 6.7 (Alpha version), here is a more extensive set of instructions for first timers:

LINK:  Activating Mac Screenwriter 6.7 (Alpha version) for the first time

 

Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, & Catalina Security: Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, and Catalina introduced a lot of new security measures, and you MAY see an alert like the following:

 Make sure Screenwriter is checked beneath Screenwriter. 

If you have a "Files and Folders" section, add Screenwriter to the list as well.

 

 

3.  LIST OF FEATURES YET TO BE CONNECTED:

There remain some features that are not yet connected — "not yet connected" doesn't mean "not yet written" — these are features that were written as part of the Screenwriter 6.5 you know and love, but now need to be connected to their new gorgeous 64-bit retina user interface.  What are some of the features not yet available in the present Alpha version?

Expected in the Next Alpha 37:

• Outline Report
• Remainder of Production Features
• Speak Selection / Assign Voices
• Document Passwords

Expected in the Next Alpha 38-39:

•  Notes Report
• TV Breakdowns / Rundown Sheets
• Scene Character Lists
• Animation Locking
• Optimization for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3)

Expected in Alpha 40-41:

• Thesaurus
• Document Ruler
• NaviDoc Bookmarks
• Copy to File/Scrap
• Load User Lists from external file
• Watermark Printing
• Fully Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts

Expected in Final Alpha / First Beta:

• Streamline
• iPartner
• Index Card Mode

Are we missing a feature you're curious about?  Ask and we'll add it to this list!

 

4.  KNOWN BUGS AND DEFECTS (partial list -- know it, live it):

• Plain old Courier might wrap too wide on the page;  For now, please use Courier MM Screenwriter, which will look better printed and also wrap correctly, giving you correct page counts. NOTE: MacOS Ventura has remove the plain "Courier" font from the system.
• You can copy FROM other applications TO Screenwriter.  Copying and pasting text TO other other applications works, but you might not get the formatting you expect.  (copying and pasting WITHIN Screenwriter and BETWEEN scripts works perfectly!)
• If you use a "hard space" (invisible, non-breaking space) between words, selection of text to the right of a hard space may not look correct.
• Pressing right cursor arrow at the end of a wrapped line takes TWO presses to move to the next line
• The Save As File type popup menu doesn't yet work — it never did in Screenwriter 6.5 — but you can easily EXPORT to most formats like .mmsw, .mmx, .rtf, fdx, and .pdf.
• Strikethrough attribute only displays and prints on Monterey and above (i.e., Monterey, Ventura, and Sonoma).  
• When exporting to Final Draft, if a scene heading has an "A" scene number, Final Draft sees this as a line of action when it should be a scene heading style.

 

5.  HOW TO REPORT ERRORS, DEFECTS, OR ASK QUESTIONS:

If the program generates a Critical Error ("Assert"), then you will be guided to submit an automatic report.  First, you'll see an alert that asks you for your name, email address, and a brief description of what you were doing when the Critical Error popped up.

After you press the submit button, you'll see a second alert that gives you three options:

Force Quit, Try Quitting Gracefully, and Try Continuing

If there's an issue you need to tell us about, then submit an Alpha tech ticket to report a problem.  To do that, go to techsupport.screenplay.com and click on the Contact Technical Support (the same process as asking any other support question). Please do the following:

• Fill in all of the required fields, plus your serial number
• In the Subject line, please include these three pieces of information:

1. Alpha Version
2. Type of Issue
3. Short Description
4. For example, "ALPHA 36 – CRASH – Inserting Act Break crashes," or, "ALPHA 36 – BUG – Missing Help file", etc.

• Provide a full description of the issue with as much detail as possible. 
• If needed, please provide a copy of a document associated with the crash .
• If you report a crash, please provide steps to reproduce the crash (if possible) and the Mac crash log:
• LINK:  How to send us a crash log on macOS Sierra, High Sierra, or Mojave

 

6. CHANGES IN 6.7.0.72 Alpha 36

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Implemented PRODUCTION > Override Page’s Header or Color.
• Added an important production-related dialog when changing headers or footers in a locked production script, which asks which headers should be changed: All Pages, Revised Page Only, or All Pages of a specific draft Color.

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Corrected an annoying cosmetic problem with the blinking insertion caret that cause it to fade out AFTER the typing position advanced. This fix should also speed up typing.
  
• Corrected an issue that prevented the caret from moving to the left when at the very end of a line and the user pressed left arrow.
  
• Corrected a problem that prevented the new blinking drag insertion point from being displayed in certain paragraphs.
  
• Corrected a crash with clicking on the red close window dot in the Change Character Name window.
  
• Fixed a bug where Change Character Name crashed if there were Unicode-like accents (like the ñ in Spanish scripts).
  
• Fixed a bug where Change Character Name failed to locate a character name with foreign accents.
  
• Fixed a bug in Change Character Name where replacement text containing foreign accented characters were improperly replaced.
  
• Fixed a bug (in 6.7.0.57 and earlier) where the Outline application preference “Same Color as Note in Document” wasn't being remembered.
  
• Fixed a problem where holding down keys (typically vowels) to bring up the “point and click character picker” to select accented letters first inserted the unaccented letter, THEN whatever accented version you selected. Now the accented choice replaces whatever was first inserted.
  
• Fixed issue with word boundaries calculation for foreign accented letters. This caused issues where entering the Danish ø followed by "L" might trigger the automatic recognition of auto-recognition text, such as "Linda" for a character name, leading to "øLinda" instead of "øl".
  
• Corrected a bug with EDIT > Session History which caused a crash.

CORRECTED RARE OR UNLIKELY BUGS:

• Prevented a rare problem where the Element Styles window and the Title Page Publisher would show up as a blank, empty window for users that accidentally had multiple active fonts of the same exact name.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.64 Alpha 35

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Implemented the super-powerful and versatile Production Breakdown Report! There's also a new feature to allow you to set the Production Breakdown Report font. (the only feature not yet implemented is print breakdown sheets).
• Implemented EDIT > Change Character Name command.
• Dragging Text selection now shows a blinking drag caret so you know where you are dropping!
• Implemented TAGGING mode. The Tagging Mode cursor appears while in Tag Mode.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Tag item globally.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Remove All Breakdown Tags.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Edit Breakdown Tagging Categories.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Remove > Strikethrough Style or Text…
• NEW: Tagging status icon in the bottom status line lets you turn on/off tagging and shows tagging status.
• The standard MacOS application Hide Screenwriter and Hide Others now works.
• Standard I-beam insertion point cursor is now shown while cursor is positioned over editable text. (previously it was only the selection arrow). Note that the selection arrow still appears over white space outside the paragraph.
• Implemented standard Mac feature of turning off the mouse cursor while the user is typing. Moving the mouse turns it back on. (this prevents the mouse cursor from covering up text while typing)

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Corrected Delete Forward key not working, which broke on MacOS Sonoma.
• Corrected a major bug with DOUBLE-CLICK multiple word selection: When double-clicking and dragging to select by word, the selection would get confused if you dragged to the right of the initially selected word, then back up again.
• Corrected bug with NaviDoc Notes panel not displaying top portion correctly.
• Fixed Send As Email Attachment: Corrected initialization, setting, and remembering of default email attachment type, and corrected erroneous default setting. Also fixed CANCEL from crashing/asserting.
• Corrected an annoying problem where the blinking insertion caret would appear in the wrong place after opening / closing script notes or outline styles.
• User can no longer crash when attempting to SAVE AS to an ejectable volume (like a USB drive or thumbdrive) they've ejected.
• Similarly, if the user ejects the volume where their document resides, auto-save will no longer crash and the user will be told exactly what the problem is.
• If the user moves or renames the folder containing the document, an intelligent error message is generated. (Folks, you SHOULD NOT be renaming or moving the active script document!)
• If the user tries to SAVE to a read-only or restricted filesystem location, you’ll get an intelligent error message instead of a crash.
• Corrected: Exporting RTF with A-Page breaks were creating a truncated RTF file.

CORRECTED RARE OR UNLIKELY BUGS:

• Corrected an infrequent crash that might happen when you QUIT out of Screenwriter.
• Corrected an Assert / crash that happened if you tried to change more than a page's worth of elements to Action using FORMAT > Change Element Type > Action (CMD+2).
• Corrected a bug / crash if start of scene numbering was set to > 100, and there was a Scene Label element.
• Changed the time stamp in the Timed Backup (.tmb) filename to (for example) My Script.mmsw [2023-06-21 Wed 13h 45m 40s].tmb, because our previous use of colons in the time stamp might have caused a rare issue with saving the .tmb.
• Fixed a crash when opening older (Screenwriter 4.x) .scw files with incorrect file sizes in their headers.
• Corrected: a potential crash when FORMAT > Text Color's hierarchical menu was clicked on.
• Bumped up the maximum number of unique words to spell check per element. Exactly ONE user was having crashing issues, due to his massive vocabulary!
• Corrected a rare crash that might have happened if the Outline window was visible.
• Corrected a rare crash where EDIT > FIND might report an error/assert.
• Corrected a rare crash that might have happened during a long importing process.
• Error reporting now knows about MacOS 14.x Sonoma.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.57 Alpha 34

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• SmartCheck™ returns!  You can invoke SmartCheck via TOOLS > Run SmartCheck™, or by checking the SmartCheck checkbox in the Print dialog.  Shift+Control+S is the keyboard shortcut for running SmartCheck.
• PRINT Dialog Report implemented, which offers sophisticated options to print the dialog of specific characters;
• FILE > Send as Email Attachment works again! (subject to limitations imposed by the default email client).  If you are using the Apple Mail app, then it should work.  Other clients will depend on how well they support the MacOS attachment standard;
• Implemented FORMAT > Load Styles From > Template and Screenplay.
• Implemented flashing navigation arrow when clicking on a row in the NaviDoc.  To set the options for the speed of the flashing arrow, look at the NaviDoc Preferences panel.

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• The FIND/REPLACE window now remembers its user-assigned position on-screen.
• Exporting to PDF no longer includes the ".mmsw "or ."mmx" extension as part of the proposed PDF file name.
• Screenwriter no longer crashes if a document is no longer where it expected it to be (such as if it was on an ejected drive).

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.55 Alpha 33

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Corrected a very annoying long-standing display selection bug where any selected text in a scene heading would be drawn on-screen as blank if that scene had a right scene number displayed.
• Corrected bug where Bottom Continued wasn't PRINTED!
• Corrected issue where Page OMITTED wasn’t being drawn.
• Corrected issue where bottom continued isn’t showing up right above footer when Fixed Distance preference was selected.
• Corrected bug where a defective or duplicate font was causing Title Page Publisher and FORMAT > Element Styles to hang with a blank window.
• Fixed a bug where the scene heading in the override scene numbers dialog could be improperly clipped -- or even crash -- if the scene heading was too long.
• Corrected a crash with Compare Two Documents, related to opening the NaviDoc in the comparison output file.
• Corrected a bug with PRODUCTION > Unlock the Script: if the user only unlocked the page numbers (and not also scene numbers), then the alert failed to give them an option to revert to a white draft.
• Enabled expansion tooltips so user could see entire scene heading if it were truncated.
• Added extensive diagnostics when getting or creating the Previous Versions folder and the Auto Save folder, which have been generating crash errors for some unknown reason.
• Removed a bogus diagnostic that was causing a crash related to selection.
• Fixed numerous issues with drag-reorder in NaviDoc Outline mode.
• If an Outline drag attempts to move an element into its own outline hierarchy, then a message is put up: “You can't drag to that position, because you would be moving a parent element into itself. Instead, select the text you want to move and use EDIT > Cut & Edit > Paste.”
• Fixed a crash when moving scene items to the END of the NaviDoc Outline hierarchy, which is synonymous with moving those items to the end of the document.
• Corrected a crash that might happen when opening another document with the Title Page Publisher open.
• Corrected a rare bug which would create an additional incorrect character name (e.g. “STEVE (o.s.)”) in auto-recognition lists if the user had multiple custom text extensions for a character name, such as STEVE (o.s.) (futzed)
• Corrected a very rare crash if the user had a custom text extension on a character name that used a smart quote and tried to print a Character Name report.
• Corrected an unusual timing-related crash that might happen if the user quit with multiple documents open.

6.  CHANGES IN 6.7.0.54 Alpha 32

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Implemented TOOLS > Compare Two Documents;
• Added Avid Export; 
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Override > Scene Numbers;
• Implemented the specialized dialog that allows the user to select the correct scene numbering scheme;
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Override Act Number dialog;
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Override > Page Break Type...
• Enabled double-clicking on either scene number to bring up Scene Number Override dialog;
• Enabled PRODUCTION > Override > Element Number menu;
• an element-specific "override Number" button to Cheat Element dialog.  Presently works for All Scene Headings, Shots, and Act breaks.

Major corrections to the FORMAT > User Lists window:

• Corrects Saving and loading alias and text;
• Connected entire Act/Scene panel;
• Fixed issues with substitution text;
• Connected popup menus in substitution text panel;
• Added "End of SHOW" item back to the End of Act panel where it belonged;
• Supported UNDO after making changes to User Lists; 
• Removed '"+" and "-" icons, which never worked and weren't really part of the user interface;
• Added help text for Act/Scenes text panel. 
• Hid the Copy from Script button (for now);
• Added validation and error messages for empty text fields and empty aliases (where required).
  

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Fixed a serious bug (for header line 1 AND 2) where the extended header line text (used if the header is longer than 80 characters) became SHORTER than 80 characters and that extended header line text wasn't erase, resulting in duplication on the right side of the header line. 
• Also corrected a problem for header line 1 AND 2 where if the extended header line text was used, it would be missing two characters!
• Corrected a problem where changing the font size of the header/footer but not tabbing out of that font size field would fail to actually change the font size of the header/footer.  For example, changing from font size 12 to 9 and then pressing OK. (selecting the font size from the popup font size menu worked, however).
• Fixed a bug with the Starting Number field in the Scene Labels panel of FORMAT > Element Styles.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.53 Alpha 31

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Implemented Strikeout/Strikethrough on Monterey (only), plus strikeout line and text color preferences in MISC preferences. NOTE that your Strikethrough color preference might be presently set to "blue", so you'll need to change that preference if you want it to do a red strikethrough.
• TOOLS>Count Words has been implemented.
• EXPORT CHANGES:
  
  • Export to Final Draft .FDX format now works.
  • Export to Rich Text Format (.rtf) now works.
  • Connected FILE > Export to PDF to go through standard Print dialog. This allows you to have options to control over what pages to export to PDF.
• PRINTING CHANGES:
  
  • Printing Selected Page Numbers works again!
  • Printing Selected Scene Numbers works again!
  • Printing specific colored revisions works again!
  • Enabled Print in Reverse checkbox
• TITLE PAGE PUBLISHER CHANGES:
  
  • Added Underline attribute to Title Page Publisher. NOTE: underline attribute temporarily disappears while editing, due to Apple text limitations.
  • Show Grid Lines checkbox now visible. Gridlines are drawn every 1/10 of the page. A more prominent vertical and horizontal center line is also drawn.
  • The printable area of the paper is now drawn with a green frame.
  • Fixed unprintable area on right edge of Title Page editor. It's better, but not perfect.
  • Title Page Publisher window and page scales when resizing.
  • Pinch / Zoom gesture enabled for Title Page Publisher.
  • Scrolling works when zoomed in on the Title Page Publisher.
  • Expanded the instructions for the Title Page Publisher.

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Fixed issue where an old, unused value for title page binding margin was making the title page centering push text too far to the right.
• Changed minimum starting page numbers to allow -20, and maximum to 999.
• Removed (possibly) spurious assert that says "NOT A CRITICAL ERROR".
• Removed "Double" and "Color" from Underline popup menu, since Screenwriter doesn't support those yet.
• Removed flyover help from body of Title Page Publisher view, since it was popping up and blocking the user's view of the title.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.50 Alpha 30

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Drag & Drop in Outline mode now works; Holding down OPTION key will copy the outline element.  Drag sounds not yet connected. NOTE that we are not going to implement horizontal drag in the outline for promoting / demoting, since there is already and icon, menu, and command key to do that.  We also feel the original horizontal drag feature in outline could easily result in accidental promote/demote.

   

• Font button and font preview text now works properly in the Header / Footer dialog.

   

• FORMAT > Cheat > Element dialog now works (except for cheating the scene number).

   

• FORMAT > Cheat > Page now works.

   

• FORMAT > Cheat > Document works.

   

• All FORMAT > Reset Cheated commands (Element, Page, Document) no work.

• The "Use font for Header & Footer" checkbox now works in the "Use this font for all elements" dialog. 

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Screenwriter is smarter about making sure you have the proper file access enabled: Apple Typing performance improved for large files; 

   

• Copy & Paste now use a different pasteboard than Drag & Drop, so if you have something on the clipboard it won't get wiped out by dragging in the Outline;  

   

• Corrected a potential crash with normal text (non-outline) drag & drop;

   

• Fixed issue where Outline Styles weren't included in global font change.

   

• Corrected an issue where custom header/footer fonts were NOT respected during drawing.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.49 Alpha 29

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• NaviDoc Outline mode! The long-awaited Outline mode is back on-line!
  
  • SOME EXCEPTIONS:
    • 1) We have not yet enabled "drag-and-drop" in the Outline – we wanted to make sure all other Outline features are solid. You can, of course, edit / cut & paste in the Edit view, and the Outline WILL reflect those changes. Drag-and-Drop will appear in the next Alpha (30).
    • 2) The red "sync frame" that outlines rows mirroring document selection is not yet implemented.
    • 3) The flashing arrow that points to the outline item just clicked on has not yet been implemented.
• Outline Style pane in Format > Element Styles is working again!

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Corrected issue where uppercase word (or uppercase & bold word) wouldn't be redisplayed after uppercase was applied;
• Corrected issue (in Notes NaviDoc) where a deselected row color would become white if the table was scaled while the row was selected.
• Maximum wrapped lines per single element were upped from 100 to 110.
• Corrected a problem where Outline Style names might show up with garbage text at the end of their names (specifically, in the two popup windows that displays outline styles)
• Fixed issue of disclosure triangles not setting their UI state (open/closed) when an item in the NaviDoc (like a note) was clicked on.
• All NaviDoc text height sliders now respect full open (all the way down) as showing entire scene / note / outline element.
• Navidoc now remembers last tab you selected.

 

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.48 Alpha 28

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Restored SHIFT-TAB, the "Insert Previously Used Character Name" command. This toggles between speaking characters.

• Fixed Insert Element keyboard shortcut (CMD+Return) so it works again.

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Fixed a bug where a smart quote (instead of an apostrophe) would crash the Scene Headings Report.

• Prevented a rare PASTE crash if there were no elements to insert, it wouldn't crash.

• Fixed crash when exporting accented characters from FILE > EXPORT > Movie Magic Scheduling (.sex).

• Corrected issue with freezing on LOCK the SCRIPT when the Lock Header Line text in preferences contained a smart quote. (thanks, Jordan Hall)

• Changed the casing on the .sex export to .SEX, because it appears Movie Magic Scheduling requires it to be all uppercase.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.46 Alpha 27

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• Implemented PRODUCTION > Set Revision Draft Colors.

• PRINTED REPORT: Scene heading list report implemented and connected!

• PRINTED REPORT: Print Character List report implemented and connected!

• SCHEDULING EXPORT: Export to Movie Magic Scheduling (.sex) and Gorilla Scheduling (.sex) now works.

• TIMED BACKUPS have been overhauled to provide a new high level of reliability. Timed Backups now function very much like an Auto-Save. Although we still recommend intermittent saving AND you still must save changes when closing your document, the 8 most recent Timed Backups for each document are kept UNTIL you save.

  The net effect is IF you experience any kind of crash, the most you will ever lose will be since your previous Timed Backup. We suggest setting the Timed Backup frequency to somewhere between 5 and 1 minute). Please note the following changes:

  • Timed Backup (.tmb) files for your script are now placed in the Previous Versions folder. This makes it easier to locate.

  • Each .tmb file now has a unique filename that incorporates a date and time stamp, such as: My Script.mmsw [2021-05-24 Mon 18꞉48꞉01].tmb

  • After a crash, Timed Backups are no longer overwritten or deleted automatically. .tmb files are, by design, deleted after you do SAVE and SAVE AS, or when you close the document and either save or abandon your edits. Timed Backups are NOT deleted when you do SAVE A COPY or EXPORT.

  • We have disabled ability of user to select where to place the Previous Versions folder. User is now informed that the previous Version folder will always be located with the script document. This new approach is more compatible with Big Sur's massive increase in filesystem security.

  • If the program crashes, you will now be given the option to locate and open any Timed Backup (.tmb) files. You are presented with some very helpful alerts, and even if you choose NOT to immediately recover your Timed Backups – you can always recover from your .tmb files at any time – they will NOT be deleted.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• TOOLBAR ICONS: Completed functionality for attributes on the Toolbar (Bold, Italics, Underline, and Normal (no style). This means these toolbar buttons properly reflect (with blue highlighting) when your insertion point or selection has an attribute turned on. (Strikethrough is still not drawing yet)

• KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS: Added shortcuts for FORMAT > Font Color:

  • Ctrl+Option+B – Blue

  • Ctrl+Option+R – Red

  • Ctrl+Option+G – Green

  • Ctrl+Option+N – Black (normal)

• KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS: Added keyboard shortcuts to create new elements (same as the 6.5 defaults):

  • ctrl-S – Scene Heading

  • ctrl-I – Scene Heading with INT

  • ctrl-E – Scene Heading with EXT

  • ctrl-A – Action

  • ctrl-C – Character Name

  • ctrl-P – Parenthetical

  • ctrl-D – Dialog

  • ctrl-O – Shot

  • ctrl-T – Transition

    Note that you cannot invoke New Parenthetical outside of character name or dialog element types (not that you would).

• KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS: Added keyboard shortcuts for the Change element type commands. Those menu items and shortcuts show up in the FORMAT > Change Element Type submenu:

  • Cmd+1 – Scene Heading

  • Cmd+2 – Action

  • Cmd+3 – Dialogue

  • Cmd+4 – Parenthetical Action

  • Cmd+5 – Character Name

  • Cmd+6 – Shot

  • Cmd+7 – Transition

  • Cmd+8 – [not presently used]

  • Cmd+9 – Script Note

• KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS: Added shortcut for pop-up character list, which is now SHIFT+ctrl-C. Both ctrl-C AND shift+ctrl-C will pop-up the character name list from the Character Name element.

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Removed a spurious assert when unlocking a document where the headers were already unlocked.

• Print preview names have time & date stamp to insure they are absolutely unique and can't possibly overwrite any of the user's other documents.

• Added instructions when getting an update from Check for Updates window so people know they will only need to download ONE update, and what to do with the downloaded installer.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.42 / 43 / 44 Alpha 26

NEW / RECONNECTED FEATURES:

• All TOOLS > Spelling commands have now been implemented! You can now do bulk spell checking of word, selection, element, page, forwards and entire document!
• Implemented TOOLS > Correct Current Word (alternative to right-clicking on red underlined words).
• Connected TOOLS > Pause Auto Correction.
• Connected TOOLS > Clear Ignored Spellings for this Document.
• Implemented GOTO > Page dialog; Changed the stepper (up and down arrows) to use a pre-loaded popup menu of ONLY valid page numbers.
• Clicking on the Page Number in the status bar now once again brings up the GOTO > Page dialog.
• Added the HELP > Convert to Gibberish command. This allows you to send us a confidential script where your actual text has been obfuscated.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Added Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and Norwegian number word strings. This is so that for text like ACT FOUR, the FOUR will display as FIRE, FYRA, VIER, and FIRE. Corrects a crash in documents of those languages when opening documents that were set to use number words (IE "VIER" instead of "4").
• Fixed issue with difficult / sluggish trackpad scrolling (accidentally scrolling BOTH horizontal and vertical) in main edit view.
• FINALLY implemented proper keys for Page UP / Page Down (on MacBook keyboards, fn+Up Arrow, fn+Down Arrow. Option+fn+Up Arrow/Down Arrow will ALSO work). Also implemented Go to Previous Page (CMD+fn+Up Arrow)/Go to Next Page (CMD+fn+Down Arrow). Neither of these commands appear in menus.
• Connected cmd_HideScriptNotesElement properly;

CORRECTED / BUG FIXES:

• Fixed bug where last set Note color in NaviDoc got set to black if the System Color Picker
• panel was open and you selected FORMAT > Element Styles.
• Fixed bug with copying and pasting left/right columns between different documents not copying proper left/right formatting.
• Fixed crashes with dragging text or copy/paste if user has a document with absolutely no Outline Styles. Also, dragging elements with notes seemed suspect and was fixed.
• Fixed bug where GOTO > Top / Bottom / Last Position didn't update the page number in the status bar.
• Suppressed a seemingly unnecessary assert in ThDocument::UpdatePageCaption();
• Suppressed an assert in ThElement::SetHideBoxOrigin();
• Fixed a memory leak in ElementStylesController doOK;
• Corrected a major bug with TOOLS > Spell Check, where closing the spelling panel by clicking in the red close button halted the recording of UNDO operations;
• Squashed a crash related to doing an Export to .scw format while Session History window was open;
• Corrected a crash that occurred when people paste in text when they have more than 5 extensions defined;
• Corrected a spurious Critical Error related to hidden note disclosure triangles.

 

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.40 Alpha 25

• NEW: FILE > PRINT PREVIEW, Print Preview toolbar Icon (if you put it on your toolbar), and PREVIEW button in first Print dialog.
• NEW: Added an Export to PDF... button in the Print Dialog;
• NEW: NaviDoc Scenes Sort By menu now implemented;
• NEW: NaviDoc Scenes view fields (scene number, int/ext, day/night) popup menu implemented;
• NEW: NaviDoc Scenes text spacing icon implemented;
• NEW: Implemented ENTIRE Auto-Revision > Auto-Revision Colors submenu (Red, Green,
• Blue, User Defined, Turn Revision Color Off).
• NEW: Implemented all PRODUCTION > Fix/Flex submenu items (Fix/Flex All A-Pages, Fix/ Flex All Headers, Unlock Headers)
• NEW: PRODUCTION > Remove > Text Color > Red / Blue / Green /User Defined Color Highlights.
• NEW: GOTO > Next Scene Heading.
• NEW: GOTO > Next A Page and GOTO > Next Forced Page Break
• NEW: GOTO > Next Current Revision Mark
• NEW: FORMAT > Reset Cheated > Element.
• NEW: FORMAT > Cheat > Keep Element Together, Keep Group Together, Keep With Following
• NEW: NAVIDOC > Top and NAVIDOC > Bottom menu commands;
• NEW: NAVIDOC > Previous Row and NAVIDOC > Next Row.
• NEW: NAVIDOC > Increase/Decrease NaviDoc Font Size
• NEW: NAVIDOC > Page Up / Page Down.
• NEW: NAVIDOC > Create / Edit Outline Elements menu item.
• CHANGED: Re-worked the selection color of notes rows in the NaviDoc, eliminating the note
• BG color on selected rows so it looks less confusing.
• CHANGED: Preview filenames, as well as temp printing filenames, and export filenames, are now specific to the document being printed, previewed, or exported.
• CHANGED: FORMAT > Element Styles remembers last tab you navigated to.
• CHANGED: Added a better error if the file could not be created during a timed backup.
• CHANGED: Added a note to Outline Styles element pane to indicate it wasn't connected yet. Also, disabled buttons under the Outline Styles table.
• CORRECTED: Fixed a stubborn but ultimately irrelevant Critical Error that would sometimes be displayed.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.39 Alpha 24

• IMPORTANT BUG FIX: We have finally located and FIXED the exact cause of a bug that caused undoable operations to stop being recorded! The problem was using either the FORMAT > Document Layout dialog, OR the VIEW > Zoom Screen Text dialog (although pinch-zoom and/or the zoom slider at the bottom of the window did NOT cause a problem). Please update immediately to prevent the issue where undo would roll back all your changes and not permit REDO.
• CORRECTED: Text color of notes in the NaviDoc Notes panel were not being drawn, which caused readability problems in Dark Mode.
• CORRECTED: Foreign accented characters used in note category names could cause crash upon opening a script, and also those foreign accented characters didn't display properly in the NaviNote panel menus.
• CORRECTED: Missing initialization caused incorrect lines per page estimate in FORMAT > Document Layout dialog. However, this was purely informational and didn't affect the pagination of the script. For example, once you changed any of the parameters (like margins), it might show "4" Approximate # of Lines per Page instead of "55".
• CORRECTED: Fixed a potential crash where menu validation could get confused if nothing was on the clipboard. (thanks, Fredrik Olsson)

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.38 Alpha 23

• NEW: NaviDoc NOTES! This is pretty much the full implementation of our brilliant note navigation feature. If you are wondering why the Alpha process is taking so long, just look at the sophistication of the NaviDoc Notes view.
• ENHANCEMENT: You can now press RETURN in text fields in the Title Page Publisher, in order to insert blank lines.
• ENHANCEMENT: Moving by arrow keys no longer can cause the insertion caret to disappear while the insertion point is rapidly moving. (thanks, Ulrich).
• ENABLED NAVIDOC > Notes command;
• ENABLED NAVIDOC > NaviDoc Preferences command;
• ENHANCEMENT: Two new undo warnings: one for holding down auto-repeat keys for undo/redo, and the other for giving you a heads up in case you unintentionally undo all the way back to the beginning of the edit session. There's also a little red warning icon that will appear in the status bar if ever there's an issue (unlikely) with undo.
• CORRECTED: Fixed an issue where switching documents didn't update the Languages menu.
• CORRECTED: Spell Checking now properly sets the LANGUAGE of the document!
• CORRECTED: Fixed problem with right-clicking on misspelled Danish words not putting up any suggestions;
• CORRECTED: Selecting spelling suggestions with special accented letters are now properly inserted.
• CORRECTED: Instead of crashing, we now put up an alert if Screenwriter encounters a single paragraph longer than 100 lines (which might extend over 2 pages).
• CORRECTED: Better warning if the program thinks you've tried to open more than one script using the file open panel. While you can have up to 9 scripts open at a time, you need to open each document individually.
• CORRECTED: Fixed a very rare potential crash for a boundary/edge case when page breaking dialog (thanks, Rick Nicolet)

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.36 Alpha 22

• NEW: INFINITE UNDO -- Screenwriter has a new, super-reliable Undo/Redo that is different than typical Mac programs. While your document remains open, we never throw away any of your edit history. You can undo backwards to ANY edit point and make changes without losing any forward redo history. This expansive edit history is maintained until you close your document.

• NEW: SESSION HISTORY WINDOW: Located in the Edit menu under Redo, this new window shows you where you are in the undo/redo process. It lists all your edits and the time the edit was made. Check it out!

• NEW: Connected all user interface in the Element Styles' Locked Scripts panel.

• NEW: Use Alternate Scene Numbering button/dialog now works. Also, added the pointing

  indicator that sits to the left of that button.

• NEW: Locked Letter Skip List button/dialog now works.

• NEW: Re-enabled PRODUCTION > Multi-Lock command.

• IMPROVED: There is no longer any limit to the number of undoable changes that can be made (used to be only the most recent 500 changes that were tracked for undo).

• IMPROVED: UNDO/REDO now scroll the active caret/selection for the UNDO/REDO into the view. Also, we avoid scrolling it to the top line – the caret is positioned to avoid the top and bottom 10%.

• CORRECTED: Fixed a crash when saving to a new file while in full screen mode, or when quitting while in full screen mode with pending changes to save.

• CORRECTED: Copying of Unicode characters (letters), for example, certain Danish letters could cause copying to fail when pasting into another app. Example: you copy text containing Danish letters (or any special accented characters), then try to paste it into Google Translate – you would get nothing pasted. Now it works!

• CORRECTED: problems with submenu items giving an error when selected.

• CORRECTED: numerous cases in the VIEW menu where selecting submenu items caused

  the inappropriate display of the toolbar customization panel.

• CHANGED: Several menus with submenus to NOT display in red, even if they have some submenus that are still red.

• CORRECTED: Fixed a bug where scene numbering might accidentally display garbage at end of a number that used Alternate Scene Numbering.

• CORRECTED: Fixed a Critical Error Alert that happened when unlocking scenes or pages in the Locked Scripts panel.

• CORRECTED: fixed Erroneous Critical Error when selecting some menus with submenu items.

• CORRECTED: Multi-Lock > Scenes and Pages now sets the document dirty (to be saved) – was incorrect even in 6.5.;

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.35 Alpha 21

• PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT:  Major speed-up to typing while Spell Checking is turned on;

• NEW:  Added Open Recent menu.  Up to 30 documents that were recently opened or saved/Saved As are listed!  (note that only .mmsw and/or .mmx files are listed)

• NEW:  Added the two missing (and useful) FILE prefs: "Reopen last open documents" (formerly "restore last workspace" and "reopen last edited document" (formerly "open previous document").

• CHANGED:  Alpha version forces daily check-for-update.  It's for your own good!  (we will restore your own choice of Weekly or Monthly on final release).

• CHANGED: removed the old "Clear File History", since there is now a "Clear" at the bottom of the Open Recent menu.

• CHANGED: added back the shortcut key missing from EDIT > Select Special > Scene (SHIFT+CONTROL+A)

• CORRECTED: Fixed a problem where clicking in a selection and NOT dragging wouldn't place the insertion caret in the correct location.  

• CORRECTED: fixed a crash when using EDIT > Select Special > Scene, if there was a page break of any kind after the scene, or you were in the last scene of the document.

• CORRECTED:  You can no longer accidentally open the same document twice.  Any attempt to do that will simply bring the already-open document forward to the front.

• CORRECTED:  Fixed a serious problem where character names were being converted from their normal Latin-1 (Windows encoding) to MacRoman, but the results of that conversion WAS NOT BEING SAVED during the opening of the document!

• CORRECTED:  Prevented a spurious UNDO Assert_ if you clicked too fast on the undo icon in the toolbar.

• CORRECTED:  Reduced critical errors and improved detection of unconvertible symbols, especially accented foreign characters.

• CORRECTED:  Fixed a crash in Title Page Publisher when clicking on align Left-To-Right or Align Top-to-Bottom with more than two fields selected (it REQUIRES EXACTLY TWO selected fields).

• CORRECTED:  Eliminated a spurious critical error notification related to determining caret location.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.34 Alpha 20

• NEW:  You can now copy and paste RTF from Microsoft Word, or other apps that support RTF!

• NEW:  You can copy and paste plain text/Unicode text from other apps.

• NEW:  You can Import .rtf files.

• NEW:  The EDIT > Paste into Current Element (Option+CMD+V) is working again!  This makes it easy to moved text between different types, like pasting text from action into dialog.

• CORRECTED: an issue where the MISC and FILES tabs in Screenwriter's Preferences would get clipped off on Big Sur.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.33 Alpha 19

• CORRECTED: Fixed a critical crash when printing a title page that has foreign language accents.
  
• NEW: Title Page Publisher icon in lower left of window now works.
  
• NEW: VIEW > Right Element Buttons menu item now works: for those of you who find the Right Element buttons distracting, you can now turn them off.
  

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.32 Alpha 18

• NEW:  Title Page Publisher is back in!  It's a little nicer than the previous Title Page Publisher.  You can edit the text right on the page.  There are still a few features to add back in, but it's very good!  NOTE: Use the VIEW > Title Page Publisher menu command or COMMAND+T to open the Title Page Publisher -- the icon in the lower left corner of the document window not yet connected.
• CHANGED default to Check for Update DAILY;
• CORRECTED:  Fixed a crash that could happen when a document window was closed.
• CORRECTED:   an issue where clicking on a selection and starting  drag could possibly crash; 
• CORRECTED:  Fixed issue where critical error reports might not be automatically sent to Write Brothers;

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.31 Alpha 17

• NEW: Automatic Check for Updates has been implemented.

• CORRECTED: Commented out an inappropriate assert that was happening when pressing return at the end of a Centered Title;

   

• NEW: HELP > Check for Updates is enabled.

   

• NEW: Added HELP > Activations & Registration menu command;

   

• NEW: Added Right Element Buttons icons (Outline popup menu omitted for now -- use the Add Element icon in the toolbar for now);

   

• NEW: PageView now centers in Fit-to-Width mode, with a small margin around the page;

   

• NEW: In PageView with NON Fit-to-Width, zooming keeps page with margins centered;

  Minimum Zoom is now 25% and maximum is now 400%;

   

• NEW: PageView has been improved, there's four view modes:

  ⁃  NORMAL -- fit-to-width OFF = edit view is flush left in view; user can zoom as desired

  ⁃  NORMAL -- fit-to-width ON = edit view fits exactly in width of window; If user zooms,

  fit-to-width turns off;

  ⁃  FULL PAGE -- fit-to-width OFF = page centered in view, user can independently zoom;

  ⁃  FULL PAGE -- fit-to-width ON = page centered in view, scaled to width of view plus margins around the left & right side of page. If user zooms, fit-to-width turns off

   

• NEW: Implemented Fit Width menu item.

   

• NEW: Automatically turn off Auto-Zoom-to-Fit if user tries to scale (with zoom gesture, or

  grabbing the zoom slider).

   

• NEW: Added control-N for NAVIDOC > New Note, which was missing.

   

• IMPROVED: Jerky scrolling improved in PageView mode

   

• CORRECTED: Fixed crash when user closes window with FILE > Close, or CMD+W;

   

• CORRECTED: Fixed a long-standing bug where a user-specified scene number in NaviDoc Scenes didn't match the scene number in the main edit window.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.28 Alpha 16

• NEW:  Full Page View is now turned on! 

   

• NEW:  Background color of production pages now displayed.  NOTE that in a locked script, a "white" page will always display as white, even with Dark Mode selected.

   

• NEW:  Off-paper color is now displayed (that's the area AROUND the page in Full Page view).

   

• NEW:  Added NaviDoc preferences icon

   

• NEW:  Implemented Insert Page Break dialog.

   

• NEW:  Switching between Full Page View and Normal View using menus and icons at bottom left of Status Bar now works!

   

• NEW:  Fit-to-view now works!  NOTE: presently the fit-to-view of Full Page mode isn't "centered" in a really wide window, but you can still see the page margins.  NOTE 2:  Similar to Screenwriter 6.5, you are permitted to operate the zoom slider / pinch-zoom gesture, even while in fit-to-view mode.  However, any operation that resizes the edit view (including hiding/showing the NaviDoc) will revert back to fit-to-view mode.

   

• NEW:  Added a fit-to-width icon to the left of the zoom slider – more convenient than bringing up the Zoom Screen Text dialog

   

• NEW:  Implemented NaviDoc view toggle icon in status bar (far left). 

   

• IMPROVED: smarter about saving the resized navidoc width. 

   

• IMPROVED:  Major performance improvement for typing speed in long documents when NaviDoc Scenes is open.

   

• IMPROVED:  Added status line messages for Saving, so use would know if saving was successful -- or if the program somehow hung during saving.

   

• CORRECTED:  Fixed a crash that could happen after re-opening the NaviDoc Scenes panel if edits happened while it was closed.

   

• CORRECTED:  Fixed a crash that occurred when printing if the Justify checkbox had been turned on (full justification not yet supported)

   

• CORRECTED: Fixed garbage scene number text with alternate scene numbering.

   

• CORRECTED:  problem with NaviDoc Scenes font size slider, which caused saved 6.7 documents to show a really large NaviDoc Scenes font size when opened in the older Screenwriter 6.5 or 6.0.
  
  

• COSMETIC:  Widened text field for maximum zoom value (in Zoom Screen Text).  We recommend 350 as the maximum percentage.
  

   

• Enabled playing of sounds for Timed Backup and Pagination, and while selecting those sounds in Screenwriter Preferences does work, the popup menu is not re-initialized with the correct current selection when returning to the Preferences window.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.25 Alpha 15v2

• Fixed a problem where the NaviDoc Scenes wouldn't display scene text with foreign characters.
• Changed the Maximum number of UNDOs from 500 to 5000. This should protect users until we rework our new undo/redo system.

Changes in 6.7.0.24 Alpha 15

• Implemented NaviDoc SCENES! Both sliders work, but the option icons (rarely used) are not yet enabled. Documents are temporarily set to always open with the NaviDoc for THIS Alpha version.
• Corrected a Critical Error when saving if you had selected the Radio button preference in the Preferences FILES tab for custom Previous Versions folder.
• Implemented Auto Revision Marks and Remove Current Revision.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Auto-Revision > Marks and PRODUCTION > Remove > Auto-Revision Marks
• VIEW > NaviDoc will now hide / show the NaviDoc.
• Fixed bug: Changed pagination and auto-save timer to use new, safer method the won't create rare destabilizations.
• Fixed bug related to delete key not scrolling the insertion point into the view.
• Fixed bug: if user selected a custom folder for Previous Versions.
• Disabled UI for choosing custom Previous Versions folder, which was failing.
• Removed an assert if deleting a stale .tmb failed;
• Removed cleaning of old stale autosaved .tmb files (for now);
• Prevented auto-save and pagination while program is quitting, which could crash.
• Muted a critical error assert that was firing for some users:( startElementIndex <= endElementIndex );

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.21 Alpha 14

• A NEW ALERT asks you to do a ONE-TIME confirmation of the location of your Movie Magic Screenwriter Documents folder; This should solve the issue of needing to set Full Disk Access.
• NEW: Made all text fields in all dialogs support CUT, COPY, PASTE, SELECT ALL (and possibly DELETE);
• FIXED an occasional random crash when dragging selected text;
• NEW: Screenwriter 6.7 can now open Screenwriter 2000/4.x .scw files (previously, they couldn't be selected in the open dialog).
• NEW: Screenwriter 6.7 can now EXPORT .scw file format;
• FIXED: When EXPORTING, the EXISTING extension is now stripped off. For example, previously, exporting a document foo.mmsw too .mmx would create a document foo.mmsw.mmx. Now it creates foo.mmx.
• NEW: Changed EDIT > Clear to EDIT > Delete, because that seems to be the MacOS UI name.
• Improvements to error detection of missing or improperly located Templates or Default.Def file;
• Corrected issue where pressing the "Use this Font for All Elements" button wouldn't update an uninitialized (unvisited) style tab. (thanks, Michael Sloane!)
• Corrected a crash/assert in Final Draft import where an errant unicode character could not be translated, where it should have allow the continuation of the import;
• Corrected a bug where importing a Final Draft script didn't start the blinking insertion point.
• Final Draft import now keeps track of the number of characters (letters/symbols) it could not import due to unconvertible encoding (like unusual foreign characters). Lost letters/symbols are substituted with a caret (^) and the user is alerted as to the count of those substitutions.
• Better stability;
• Work-in-progress on NaviDoc Scenes text wrapping (feature is not yet functional).
• Corrected some installer issues for MacOS 11.0 Big Sur.
• Corrected an issue where improperly inserted Unicode characters could crash opening .mmsw documents
• Fixed an issue where opening / creating documents wouldn't allow you to type in the editor until you first clicked in the edit window.
• Corrected a crash if you tried to back out of selecting the Movie Magic Screenwriter Documents folder

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.20 Alpha 13

• All Replace commands implemented.
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Lock Script
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Unlock commands
• Implemented PRODUCTION > Start Next Revision...
• Enabled PRODUCTION > Apply Revision Mark and PRODUCTION > Remove Revision Mark.
• Corrected issue where no return email was included when automatic reporting critical errors via ZenDesk
• Corrected bug where the trailing display of the Scene heading was clipped short by one letter.
• Fixed a bug where several menu items that SHOULD have been disabled were instead ALWAYS ENABLED.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.19 Alpha 12

• Corrected saving of data in Header / Footer dialog.  All buttons (except Set Font & Preview) now work.
• The Find (Search) window will now properly come to the front if it is behind another window and you press CMD-F. 
• Removed close (and minimize / maximize) buttons on Find (Search) window, since it wasn't working properly. 
• Adjusted the cosmetics of the Find window to make it smaller and tighter. 
• Fixed numerous memory leaks, some numerous and large.  Program performance should be a lot better, especially on slower machines or on machines with very little free hard disk space.  (thanks, Till Noever!)
• Corrected issues with use of Danish / Scandinavian letters in Header & Footer, and Format > Header and Footer dialog. 
• Header & Footer dialog now smart about marking the document dirty when changes were made (it wasn't before); 
• Prevented pagination or timed backups from getting interrupted by pagination or timed backups (improves reliability)
• Changed splash screen to a point AFTER the app is initialized;  Should help prevent spurious error messages. 
• The Header & Footer dialog now allows setting of font, however, it is disabled temporarily because drawing headers & footers with custom fonts isn't enabled.
• Corrected crash related to high-value MacRoman (accented) letters in popup lists (thanks, Till Noever!)
• Improvements to Assert error reporting: previously, if you included a single straight quote (apostrophe) in the body of your error description, the error report ticket would NOT be created; 
• Eliminated an Assert/Crash that could happen if startup was too slow.
• Corrected a bug that prevented user from entering a starting scene number > 100.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.16 Alpha 11

• Spell checking highlighting is now functioning again!  You can also RIGHT-CLICK/CONTROL-CLICK (or two-finger click on a trackpad) to bring up a context menu to correct the spelling, or add the word to the system dictionary, OR ignore the word for the document.  Documents saved in Screenwriter XML format (ie ".mmx") REMEMBER their list of ignored words for specific documents.
• Corrected absent stack symbolication in Assert ZenDesk ticket creation – this helps us big time when there's a critical error;
• Added MacOS operating system to critical error report;

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.14 Alpha 10

• Removed error/crash associated with the dialog numbering feature;
• Prevented crashing if a critical problem happens while text is being drawn;
• Error reports now have much more useful error tracing information;
• We now preventing automatic pagination and auto-save from being called during while user is typing, or the mouse is down -- this should dramatically increase reliability;
• No longer crashes if user tries to paste text copied from another app (still can't paste text copied from OUTSIDE Screenwriter, but now doesn't crash);
• Removed an irrelevant Critical Error that sometimes occurred during a drag or drag copy (thanks, Metin Huseyin);
• Fixed a bug where printing could crash (thanks, Sille Sterll);

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.11 Alpha 9

• "empty" (unmodified) document windows are now closed when the user opens or imports a document.  
• When double-clicking on a document (or dragging onto the app icon), we no longer open a new, empty document.
• Enabled FILE > EXPORT > Screenwriter XML (.mmx)
• Enabled FILE > EXPORT > Screenwriter 6 (.mmsw)
• Enabled FILE > Save a Copy As...
• Turned back on FILE > IMPORT, but right now it only imports .mmx & .mmsw files, because (presently) other filenames are filtered out.
• Enabled FILE > IMPORT from Screenwriter .mmx and .mmsw (although those are the same as FILE > Open)
• Enabled FILE > IMPORT from FinalDraft .fdx
• Major reworking of Critical Error ("Assert") alert: you can now simply enter your name, email address, and a description of what you were doing when the error popped up, and a support ticket at techsupport.screenplay.com is automatically created!  No confidential script information is transmitted. You are then given the option to Try Continuing, Try Quitting Gracefully, or Force Quit.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.10 Alpha 8

• MAJOR improvements to multi-document stability, especially when CLOSING document windows;
• Corrected issues of crashing when doing FILE > NEW and FILE > OPEN (or FILE > CLOSE) when in full screen mode.
• Corrected positioning of document windows; Windows are opened near top of screen, staggered. Width & height is preserved, but not position on screen; 
• Page Setup now correctly applies changes and updates pagination; 
• When closing a modified document window, you can now properly CANCEL from the SAVE FILE dialog -- doing so when quitting the app will properly halt quitting the app; 
• In Format > Element Styles Scene Headings tab, Left Margin of Bottom Continued field is widened; 

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.9 Alpha 7:

• Corrected issue where page number didn’t advance when the user scrolled the document. 
• Fixed issue of page number being “? of ?” on page #1 of a new document.
• Connected Find (CMD+F), Find Again (CMD+G,) and Find Again Backwards (SHIFT+CMD+G), plus all find options connected;  (NOTE: Replace not yet connected)
• .tmb timed backups are now properly deleted when saved documents are closed. 
• Stale .tmb files (older than a week) are now automatically deleted. 
• New documents are now named "Untitled <n>" as they used to be in Screenwriter 6.5;
• Corrected a problem where the blinking insertion caret may have accidentally remained the same color as the page's background paper, making it impossible to see where the insertion caret was located!
• Reduced time Splash screen is displayed;
• Fixed a potential crash when cancelling printing;
• Fixed numerous crashes/asserts associated with Full Screen Mode, such as selecting FILE > Print;
• May have corrected an instability issue with multiple documents being open at the same time;
• Corrected bug where modified document wouldn’t be saved if another document was in full screen mode, and the user QUIT the application; 
• Corrected a bug where changes to one document’s paper color wasn’t reflected in other documents if the document being changed was in Full Screen mode;
• Minor cosmetic change: increased width of set field for timed Backup interval in the FILES tab of Preferences; 
• Also, made control size of radio buttons controlling what element types to search for in the Find & Replace dialog;
• Eliminated potential crash on quitting;

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.8 Alpha 6:

• Status bar area added; Page number, Line Number, Status Text; View Icons area (some icons, like their commands, are not yet connected);
• NEW Zoom Slider in Status Bar;  New Zoom Slider stays in sync with pinch-zoom and slider in Zoom Screen text dialog; Grab it and ZOOM!
• Custom background color now works!  Note that this is the "paper color" – not the same as the on-screen production draft color, which isn't yet connected.
• NEW "Paper Color" popup menu (in status bar at bottom), and VIEW > Paper Color menu:  This gives you four options, designed to let you control the text and background color of the editing view.  It's especially useful in combination with Dark Mode: a number of clients told us that while they use Dark mode, they expected that the editing area of the text would remain black text on white background.  These new menus let you flip that around, customize it any way you wish:
  
  • Auto – respects the text/background color of MacOS System Light Mode / Dark Mode Preferences;
  • Light Paper – dark text on light background – even in System Dark Mode!
  • Dark Paper – light text on dark background – even in System Light Mode!
  • Custom Colors – Uses the text and page colors defined in Screenwriter's Misc Preference tab.  Use this by defining your OWN color combination (for example, dark gray text on a canary yellow background!)
• There are tooltips on those menus to help explain them, but the easiest thing is just to give it a try!  NOTE: Paper Color is an APPLICATION preference, not a document preference: when you change the color combination, the colors change in all open documents.  By design, this color combination does NOT become part of the document when you save.
• App launch now respects the option to either create a NEW document on launch, or presents the OPEN document dialog.  (the other two options, Open Last Document and Restore Previous Workspace, are dimmed out until they are implemented.)  NOTE: the feature where opening an existing document closes a clean untitled document window hasn’t been implemented yet.
• Corrected crash when selecting the "Make Default for All New Documents" checkbox in Format > Document Layout..
• Corrected bug where, when opening an existing document where the last element you worked on was dialog, the blinking caret appears on the first line of dialog at approximately the same position as the character name for that dialog.  It now appears at the beginning of the line -- exactly as it did with Screenwriter 6.5.
• Corrected:  If you select either "Make this a Shot" or "Make this a Transition," using the up/down arrow keys from the start-of-scene PopUpList, it causes the app to freeze.
• Corrected a crash that could happen when quitting the application;
• Corrected a bug where the blinking caret MIGHT disappear during zooming operations;
• Main Edit Window data initialization more reliable;
• Connected Zoom Screen Text dialog icon button (in status bar).
• Changed default Custom Color scheme to something different than dark mode, to avoid duplication (delete your ~/Library/Application Support/writebros.Screenwriter67/Screenwriter67 prefs file to see new defaults);
• Multiple windows now change their appearance.

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.7 Alpha 5:

• Timed Backups are now being made again;
• Instead of crashing/Assert when trying to paste text from another app, we now put up a nice alert message.
• Eliminated assert errors for some menus
• Improved potential over-release of disclosure triangles (which caused crash)
• Fixed major and common crash due to using UNDO/REDO when popup lists were used
• Partially corrected issue where shortcuts in User List items (e.g. O.S. & V.O. extensions) were not being properly initialized for PopUpLists
• Prevented crashes with PopUpLists
• Fixed clipped text in “Place Previous Version Files In:” radio buttons, in Preferences FILES tab;
• Color preferences in the MISC and NAVIDOC Preferences tab now use CFBridgingRelease, to prevent memory leak;
• Fixed release by Apple's memory manager (ARC) that led to zombie pointers that crash
• Commented out some erroneous NSLog messages related to typing;
• Eliminated a potential assert when saving in .mmx format (including doing Timed Backups);
• Corrected issue where popup list was left stranded when closing document

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.6 ALPHA 4:

• While Dark Mode works automatically, you cannot yet choose a custom background color
• If you use a "hard space" (invisible, no-breaking space) between words, selection of text to the right of a hard space may not look correct.
• Copying and pasting text from other applications doesn't work (but copying and pasting WITHIN Screenwriter and BETWEEN scripts works!)
• When doing drag-and-drop within Screenwriter, there is presently no insertion caret (line) to show you where you are dropping.
• If you launch the Screenwriter 6.7 application icon, the program ALWAYS starts with no windows opened (ie it will not automatically open your previous document, nor will it present an empty, new document).  To open an existing document, either double-click on the document's icon, or use the FILE > Open menu command.
• Reassigning fonts for all styles leaves opens collapsed outline elements
• UNDO/REDO MIGHT not restore the state of the open/close disclosure triangles correctly.
• Customize toolbar NOT exiting out of "wiggling" customize mode if all toolbar icons in use
• You can't copy and paste (or drag) text between other apps yet.
• If right scene number is ON, selecting the scene heading text makes it disappear on-screen
• The blinking caret can sometime become misplaced when changing one style to another
• Pressing right cursor arrow at the end of a wrapped line takes TWO presses to move to the next line
• The Save As File type popup menu doesn't yet work
• Strikethrough attribute is not yet drawing
• Toolbar Icons that indicate state (like Bold, Underline, Italics) not yet working
• Outline Styles pane in Element Styles not yet working
• You can intentionally open the same document in more than one window at the same time -- DON'T!
• Keyboard Shortcuts pane in Preferences not yet working

CHANGES IN 6.7.0a3 ALPHA 3:

• New: If Screenwriter cannot access the user’s filesystem due to lack of security permissions, then an error alert is displayed, and the Privacy panel is opened so the user can check the box to allow Screenwriter Full Disk Access.
• Corrected: Fade in: wasn't being auto-capitalized. (thanks, Daniel Sussman)
• Corrected: Scrolling position would sometimes jump AFTER cutting/deleting lines of text if your zoom scale was above 165%. (thanks, Michael Cravotta)
• Ctrl-Spacebar is now assigned to insert Hard Space.
• Corrected: We weren’t drawing the dang hard space at all, so two words with a hard space between them was getting scrunched together!
• Corrected: Hard returns were drawing with the section (§) symbol.
• Corrected: Removed two unnecessary asserts related to outline style counts not equaling the styleCountRead. (thanks, Jim Purdy)
• About Box & Splash screen updated to include alpha number.
• Corrected a rare timing bug where accidentally double-clicking on the OK button in Preferences would crash.
• Corrected an inconsistent crash related to inserting a character name from a popup list; 
• “Put in FADE IN:” alert now has a “No” button; 
• Better positioning of Initial Scene Heading Text popup list.
• Corrected the command keys for:
  • Beginning of Line (Home)
  • End of Line (End)
  • Extend Selection to Beginning of Line (Shift+Home)
  • Extend Selection to End of Line (Shift+End)
  • Top of Script (Command+Home)
  • Bottom of Script (Command+End)
  • Extend Selection to Beginning of Script (Shift+Command+Home)
  • Extend Selection to End of Script (Shift+Command+End)
  • Goto Previous Element (Command+Up Arrow)
  • Goto Next Element (Command+Down Arrow)
  • Extend Selection to Previous Element (Command+Shift+Up Arrow)
• Extend Selection to Next Element (Command+Shift+Down Arrow)
• Delete Word Right (Command+Forward-Delete) (thanks, John Geronilla)
• Corrected an inconsistent crash related to inserting a character name from a popup list
• “Put in FADE IN:” alert now has a “No” button
• Better positioning of Initial Scene Heading Text popup list

CHANGES IN 6.7.0.3 ALPHA 2:

• Initial implementation of Dark Mode text!  No more dark unreadable text on a dark background in Dark Mode!  NOTE: when switching in and out of Dark Mode while Screenwriter is running, you MIGHT need to click in your editing window for the colors to change.
• About Box and Splash screen should now be properly centered on any size screen.
• Fixed crashes when user accessed the system search HELP menu (top of Screenwriter's Help menu).
• Corrected bug: "fade out: is not capitalized and pushed flush right.  int. is not capitalized. Program thinks it's the start of an "action" line, not a scene heading. Same thing for ext."  (thanks, Daniel Sussman)
• Corrected issues with triple-click not selecting and entire element.  Also, made it a requirement that a drag-and-drop of a selected area can only be initiated on a single click, so users would be less likely to be going for a triple-click and accidentally begin a drag.  If a 4th (like an accidental quadruple-click) is received, then that 4th click can be the start of the drag operation.  NOTE: CMD+CLICK still (correctly) selects a sentence. 
• Preferences are now immediately written out when pressing OK in the Preferences dialog. 
• The color of the blinking insertion caret mirrors the color of text in dark / light mode.  Note that sometimes the insertion caret MIGHT not switch colors when going switching in and out of Dark Mode while the program is running (might be a Mojave-only bug).
• Changed blinking caret from red to black/white, however we implemented new MISC preference to optionally control the color of blinking caret. 

• Change layout of custom color options in the MISC tab of Preferences.  Using checkboxes instead of radio buttons reduces clutter.

•  Text Color (but not yet Page Color or Background) can now be customized, regardless of Dark or Light Mode.  I like Aluminum or Magnesium as a slightly darker text color in Dark Mode:

•  Captions now erase the area behind their text so they don’t overprint the page break line:

•  The page break line is drawn in gray, which looks better:

Splash screen and about box now show serial number and program version number.

 

CRASHES FIXED IN 6.7.0.3 ALPHA 2:

• Dragging selected text from inside a NOTE can cause a crash (sometimes accidentally a triple click)
• Fixed bugs with the Previous Versions folder (and .bk backups) not being created, and also a crash when removing stale .bk files. 
• Corrected major mistake when importing text for User Lists from .mmx files:  This corrects a crash when opening .mmx files which contained Unicode Swedish user list items (thanks, Fredrik Olsson).
• Fixed crash in production scripts where A-breaks (fixed breaks, the ones that draw with a single straight line) would assert & crash -- they now draw properly. 
• Asserts errors, which would previously crash the program, now display the error in an alert window, where the error can be selected and copied.  You now have three options: “Try Continuing”, “Try Quitting Gracefully” (which allows you to possibly save), and “Force Quit”.
• Opening scripts with fonts you do not have installed no longer crashes the program.  The missing font is automatically substituted for Courier.  The user is given the option of "OK", "Silence this Warning", or "Quit Program".  Silencing warnings works individually for each document when it is opened or created. 
• Crashes that occurred when clicking on menus have been squashed.