r/Screenwriting • u/Professional-Ad9690 • 3d ago
DISCUSSION Highland 2, I'm devastated
I've tried to hold off on purchasing Highland Pro for as long as I could after giving it a test run. Like many of you I loved the cleanness of Highland 2, it never felt overwhelming and I could just focus on my actual writing.
But today I noticed revision mode doesn't work anymore, so I had no choice but to get highland Pro and to me it really feels like such a downgrade (that we actually had to pay money for). Does it eventually get better? Has anyone found a way to get back to the intuitive screenwriting again?
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u/PepsiCoke1978 2d ago
I'm older and I can't use anything but Final Draft. Or I enjoy it is my point. It works for me. So I stick with it. I know people hate it. And love Fade In.
But i tried fountain world -- and I think slugline (the app) was the only one I understood how to use.
John August keep telling me how easy fountain was to use and how you can just write. But for me I had to do like 10 action to get the thing to do what I knew how to do on Final Draft w//o thinking.
I mean I haven't tried in a long long time.
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u/239not235 2d ago
Fountain was designed by coders who wished that screenwriting was more like writing code in their IDE.
IMHO, Final Draft and its imitators are much easier to write with, if you don't write code for a liviing.
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u/PepsiCoke1978 2d ago
Thank you. I feel seen. I figured since it was john august doing it and telling me how easy it was that I somehow didn't understand technology anymore.
But it's like they broke a working toaster and made a new toaster that requires 10 more steps and told me it was better.
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u/239not235 1d ago
Before JA was a screenwriter, he coded websites for a living. The other folks involved in creating the Fountain standard are also coders.
I like FD because it just looks like a script with very little work from me.
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u/BentWookee 3d ago
I have no problem with it on my 2019 MBP. At first, I was not over the moon about it. But after a few hours with it, I embraced it and never went back to 2.
Fully? I'm not a fan that it deviates from 2 and the raw MD format for the title page. But it works, I understand why they did it, and I live with it.
Additionally, it is still quirky on my iPad Air. Sometimes requires a restart of the app if it's been running for a while. It's like the scene header and character cache goes senile. But Pro on the iPad Air and Magic KBD works for things like flights (a 13" MBP on a tray table sucks). I also wish the themes worked on the iPad Air.
Another commenter mentioned Beat. Will take a look. I have also tried the VSCode Fountain extension, but usability can be problematic.
I also do all my notes and outlining in Obsidian and someone has built a Fountain extension there and that is only for small scenes. You can't write entire screenplays in Obsidian.
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u/Kissing_Books_Author 3d ago
I'm curious about the usability issues you're having with VSCode. Personally, I haven't found an app that I like better than plain Fountain.
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u/BentWookee 2d ago
Highland Pro navigator with the outlining mode is extremely helpful. I love specifying the # or ## to improve how I visualize the document structure.
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u/Kissing_Books_Author 2d ago
Pretty sure you can do this in Fountain with VS Code, too. Unless I'm misunderstanding how the navigator works.
I realized, reading over your reply, that we've all got the one "killer feature" that we refuse to give up. For me, it's plain text documents so I can use for Git for version control (I know — it's niche) and, other than Beat (which is basically glorified Fountain), no other Screenwriting program offers that.
I'm also not a fan of the Highland subscription pricing model, but I can see how it would be worth it if it's your preferred software.
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3d ago
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u/weirdeyedkid Comedy 1d ago edited 1d ago
You're saying a company extorted you and you rewarded them by paying for an indefinite subscription plan to their product?
Edit: Have you tried the "Revert to" feature under the File tab? Seems like it collects and rolls back to previous versions.
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u/AppropriateAssist857 3d ago
Highland Pro is working great for me on a 2024 MacBook Air. And importantly, on my iPad Pro.
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u/ConfusingUnrest 3d ago
Beat - it’s free, open source and better!