In my lament for a good Mac word processor a few months back, I mentioned how I was looking for something in the vein of screenplay program Final Draft, but for novels. In the comments to that post, a reader mentioned that if I was looking for good screenplay software, I should keep my eyes peeled for Mariner’s forthcoming Montage, the first Cocoa-developed screenwriting package.
Yesterday, Mariner announced the release of a public beta version of Montage, so I hit the download queue and gave it a run. The verdict? A lot of what I’d like to see in my theoretical novel-writing program is in Montage. If Mariner Write is half this slick, maybe it’s time for me to let go of AppleWorks. Heck, maybe I can use Montage for my novels.
More thoughts after the jump.
Simply calling Montage a screenwriting app doesn’t really do it justice. Not only does it let you write your script, but it also lets you track tasks, contacts, query letters, research and synopses—it’s your one-stop screenwriting shop.
Mariner boasts that Montage can import Final Draft screenplays; this worked flawlessly in my quick tests, putting all of the screenplay elements from my Final Draft script into their appropriate places. For anybody who’s used Final Draft, you’ll find Mariner pretty intuitive: like FD, Montage anticipates what you want to do, so, for example, hitting Tab will position you for typing a character’s name, and then pressing return will position the insertion point for dialogue. Also like FD, Montage supports auto completion of locations and character names, saving you time if you keep revisiting the same ones.
But the advantage of Montage over Final Draft is that it’s actually Mac-like. The layout of the program is reminiscent of Apple apps like Mail or iTunes, with a sidebar on the left and a search box in the top corner. And Montage lets you create “Smart Views” (akin to Smart Mailboxes or Smart Playlists) that let you build lists of items based on criteria you define.
In addition, Montage boasts a number of features that I quickly found myself enamored with: a fullscreen mode that lets you concentrate on just writing, a faded window mode that lets you refer to other apps behind your script, an annotations system that I would kill for in my word processor, and integration with Apple’s Address Book.
On the other hand, the beta is still definitely a beta. For example, the search box didn’t work for me at all, though using the Find commands in the Edit menu was fine. Still, Montage has a lot of promise, and if you pre-order it now, you can get away with paying just $99 (final pricing hasn’t yet been released).
Final Draft went south after 5.0. I don't know what happened and I don't want to think about how many upgrades I purchased from them.
Hopefully Montage will find a home with the pros who touted Final Draft back in the golden days of that app.
It sounds to me like Ulysses may well be the product you are looking for.