Paul Harrill at the excellent Self-Reliant filmmaking blog has written down some problems he has had with two screenwriting softwares, Final Draft and Celtx. His main problem with Final Draft is that it only allows two computers to be used with each purchased version. Sometimes, it even has problems recognizing those two. It also has horrible customer service. And there is, of course, the bugs. It has been a while since I used Final Draft, I have played with the recent demo's, so these issues are beyond me.

I have written about Celtx in length. And it is always interesting to read someone else's take on a product that you have been singing its praises. Here are some of Paul's points:

• Mistaken tags - This happens from time to time. And it is frustrating.
• Odd cursor behavior (a blinking cursor refuses to leave) - This is less of a Celtx problem than a Firefox problem which the Celtx framework is based upon. I encountered this problem often in previous versions of Firefox. I am guessing Celtx is using older Firefox code.
• Underline problem - Works in regular text and not in script mode for me. Did not realize this till now. This has to be fixed.
• Obligatory introductory menu - Paul hates it. I have grown to like it. I think this should be one of those things that should be left up to users.
• File saving is confusing - I disagree and agree at the same time. If you want to carry the project anywhere. Just drag the folder. I would prefer to see the raw html maintained instead of it being compressed or zipped in some proprietary format. But there needs to be a single file that opens up the project/app.

But most of these are basically bugs that need to be ironed out. I still feel more comfortable using Celtx than Final Draft. However, I do have other issues with Celtx, here are some:

• The lack of a better search tool. You can only search with the document you are currently writing on. Meaning, even within a project file, you can only search one text document at a time. A temporary fix would be to use Spotlight (on Mac) and Google Desktop Search (on PC) to search the project folder. Because the raw data files are basically HTML which Spotlight and GDS can index. But there needs to be a better tool within Celtx.
• Better editing tools. There is a general lack of text editing options. Like Paul says, there needs to be a highlighting tool. Font and color editing tools should not be difficult to implement.
  
• Allow users to use Firefox extensions. A lot of these needed feature can be suppressed temporarily if the user can find it somewhere else. Like the need for an highlight tool can be solved if someone could install the Scrapbook extension. I don't see this happening before th 1.0 release, sadly.
• Import OPML files as a screenplay structure. I don't thiink other screenwriting softwares offer this but it should become standard. Outlining software export to OMPL, Screenwriting software should import them.
• You should be able to drag tabs. Why not?!!