Write novels and films with Celtx

Good planning is essential for preparing videos and longer works such as novels. Celtx is a free program that combines all of the tools you are likely to need for this kind of work.

It is free to download and use under the Mozilla licence and is simple to install.

There are templates for several different projects: Film, Audio-Visual, Theatre, Audio Play, Storyboard, Comic Book and Text. Celtx also comes with several example projects that give a good idea of what Celtx can do.

The Master Catalogue is a place to store all the information about the project including characters, actors, equipment and music, even animals.

You can add notes to the Script. Simply click on the script and start typing in the Notes panel. The note is automatically set to that postition.

The Script can be displayed in different ways so there is no need to reformat the text for different people.

There is a Celtx app for the iPhone and iPad, but where it gets very impressive is the way it can share information with other people working on the same project. The Studio service is not free but is not expensive.

Celtx 2.9 introduced several new features including coloured notes for scripts and novels, and dialog numbering along with improvements to the sketch tool

There are also add-ons that can be bought to add extra tools to Celtx. The program is also available as a download for Mac computers.