Screenwright(R) screenplay formatting template

Alternative download site: http://9TimeZones.com/scr2.htm
Summary: this free OOo Writer 3.x (+2.x) template will format your film script to industry standards.
19Sep2008: Screenwright(R) won a cash award [details] from Sun Microsystems.
16Nov2009 - 9 new templates: A4 screenplay, sitcom+A4, theater+A4, radio+A4, AV+A4.
12Feb2010: OpenOffice.org honored Screenwright(R) as Solution of the Month [N/D/F].

Hi. My name's Al. Nice to meet ya.
I'm a prizewinning writer. That, and five bucks, will get me a cuppa joe at the local Starbucks.
My debut student film was widely hailed as "the most uncommercial piece of ____ in Michigan State's history."
The film was purchased by ABC-TV's groundbreaking cyberpunk series, Max Headroom.
But do you remember Max? Nobody else does, either.
I also coauthored a book on screenwriting that was featured at the Whitney Biennial.
It tells the tale of how I met a Hungarian woman on the Internet and wrote a screenplay with her via eMail.
It also contains a bunch of the short stories that I eMailed, trying to impress her.
We eventually met face-to-face, got married, and lived happily ever after.
But the book was a dismal commercial failure and resounding critical flop.
From time to time, I advertise my services as a script doctor.
There are precious few takers.
I created my first screenplay processing system, a WordPerfect shareware extension, in 1995.
The software had tons of bells and whistles.
It was a four-star Editors' Pick at ZDNet (Ziff-Davis) and generated a five-figure offer from WordPerfect's parent company.
The offer evaporated when Corel took over.
As WordPerfect's version numbers got higher, my formatters became more and more complex.
While writing my own scripts, I enjoyed playing with all those bells and whistles.
But I eventually realized they were just distracting me from the task at hand.
I mean, most screenwriters (99.9%) don't need to keep track of scene numbers or A/B pages.
All we really need, to write a spec script, is a template to keep us from coloring outside the lines.
So I reluctantly decided it was time to abandon the bells and whistles. Besides, nobody uses WordPerfect anymore.
That's when I put together a free, no-nonsense screenwriting template for Word.
Then someone pointed out that Microsoft was starting to charge fees for "free" Word packages bundled with new computers.
And that by making Word more attractive to screenwriters, I was indirectly helping to enrich Bill Gates.
At that point, I created this basic, easy-to-use, free screenplay template for the OpenOffice.org Writer program (also free).
No frills, but complete. Elegant. Intuitive. Efficient. Conforms to Cole/Haag standards.
Did I mention that it's completely FREE OF CHARGE? You spend nada. Zilch. Bupkes.
I've always liked OOo's open-source philosophy.
I like the fact that OOo can run on just about any platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris.
I like the fact that OOo's suite of programs will handle all my spreadsheet, presentation, math, database, image processing, etc. needs.
I like the fact that OOo is familiar; it looks and feels like software from Microsoft or Apple.
I like the fact that OOo can seamlessly import/export files in a boatload of formats, including all the popular versions of Microsoft Word.
I like the fact that OOo 3 can even open that new .docx crap.
I like the fact that OOo was chosen to replace Microsoft Office on the 58 public computers at my local library.
I like the fact that OOo will automatically pop out a PDF whenever I want.
I like the fact that OOo Writer is now the only full-featured word processor that will easily format a screenplay at no cost whatsoever.
And I really like being a part of this effort to help aspiring screenwriters save their hard-earned dough.
I hope you'll enjoy using the template.

Here's a step-by-step primer for obtaining the template, which contains complete instructions, along with other goodies:
1) Download and install the latest free OpenOffice.org suite.
2) If you have a slow connection, make sure to use the "MD5 checksums" link on the right of that download page, in conjunction with a download manager program (I used freedownloadmanager.org and clicked Advanced, Integrity).
3) Then download the free scr2.ott template by clicking the "Get it!" button, below. (Trouble? Try downloading from Templates or using Chrome, Safari or Firefox.)
4) Save the template in OOo's Templates folder. I put mine here:
  C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\OpenOffice.org\3\user\template
or here:
  C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 2.4\share\template\en-US
(find your own path in OOo by clicking Tools, Options, OpenOffice.org, Paths, Templates).
5) Open OOo Writer (Text Document icon) and click File, New, Templates and Documents, Templates, My Templates (double-click), Scr2 (double-click).
6) Write your movie. And don't forget to invite me to the premiere.

Facebook page. OOo banners/buttons: A, B, C, D. Short URL for this page: http://is.gd/hqhE

Note (2Aug2010): All 10 Screenwright(R) templates are fully tested and supplied on an "as is" basis, free of charge. Over 100,000 copies have been successfully downloaded, installed and used. Due to limited resources, the designers are no longer able to provide technical support. [forum]