I don’t know if any of you out there use Celtx for your script-writing/preproduction/planning needs, but I have a little tip for you if you do.

Celtx 1.0 just came out, by the way. From what I gather, unless you use it to write comic book scripts or use the Outliner, you won’t notice much difference. The biggest change I’ve noticed is that the right-click menu no longer allows you to create a folder or a writing template, which seems like a step backwards in usability to me, but it’s not really a big deal.

One thing I was hoping they’d do is let us turn off the annoying auto-complete feature for names/scene headings. You still can’t. Here’s the deal–when you type dialog, you type the name, then on the next line you type the dialog. Celtx tries to help you by bringing up a little box with all the names you’ve used that begin with the same letters you’re typing. Great if you’re a slow typist or have a character named Constantinople, but if you’re a fast typist it just slows things down.

How? Well, sometimes you can type the name and hit “enter” before the suggestion box comes up. Great. That’s how I like it. Other times, you don’t quite beat the little box and you have to hit return twice–first to close the box (selecting the name it suggested, if you’ve typed it before in this script) and second for a line break. Just hit return once, and everything else you type goes on the same line, after the name. If you’re a touch typist and typing up a hard copy, you have to keep looking over to the the computer screen to see whether or not you need one return or two, which slows you down a lot. Even if you’re typing from memory and looking at the screen it’s an annoyance, and you kind of have to race the program. If you don’t beat the program you have to stop, move the text to the right line, etc.

“No shit,” says the guy who just stopped in from Google, hoping to find a workaround. “So how do I disable the autocomplete?” Simple. Celtx is open source, so all you have to do is alter the code and re-compile it for your system. Once you figure it out, tell me how.

Okay now, for real, I don’t know how to disable it, but I do know how to trick it. The first thing you do is type a period (it can be any character, as far as I know). Move the blinking cursor one space to the left, meaning move it so it’s directly IN FRONT of the period. Start typing. Push that period all over the place. Assuming that none of your names have a period in them, the little auto-complete feature won’t have any names to suggest, therefore no well-intentioned hindrances. TADA! You’ve just upped your productivity by 10,000% and I get a nice commission.

You’re welcome.