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Countdown to DramaQueen 3.0!

von am 21. December 2019 in Blog @en, Milestones, Milestones
Christmas is getting closer and closer and at the end of the year we are busy planning for the future…
What we would like to present to you at Christmas time?

 

Still this year: DramaQueen 3.0 BETA
including Serial Mode!

In a few days, just in time before the turn of the year, DramaQueen PRO 3 will be available as a free BETA test download! We had and have lots of fun developing all the new tools that will make the hearts – especially of all series writers – beat faster. :) Get ready for a bunch of new features that will make plotting fun and enjoyable.

While we’re still working on the final beta version, you can have your very first look at DramaQueen 3: look forward to the long-awaited cards view, which will be called ‘Board’ in DramaQueen and which will expand to a great season & episode board in Series Mode. Create your series format right on the new start panel, print your season outline in the storyline colors, build the most daring season arcs, share your episodes with your co-writers, import their episodes & much more!


Start panel with format template / Season board in storyline colors


Printed season outline (10×4 pages) / Season arcs

We’ll let you know as soon as BETA 3 goes live, so you can start developing your new series right away, or simply discover and try out all the new tools for plotting and writing – completely free of charge during the beta phase… :)


And one more info for all playwrights: We haven’t forgotten you!


Soon there will be specific layout templates for audio and stage. These will be deactivated in BETA 3, but as promised they will also be free for owners of a version 2 license. And of course the series extension will also be available for audio and stage plays!

 

To download: The DramaQueen plotting template!

Immediately at your creative disposal is the brand new DramaQueen plotting template, which we developed ourselves.

The structure template consists of 3 acts and 10 phases and is perfectly coordinated with the DQ Storytelling Guidance!

First develop your plot from the 10 phases and then work out each phase into scenes. :)

Here you can download our plotting template for DramaQueen PRO.
 

We wish you all the best for the last days of Advent, Merry Christmas & happy holidays. We will be back soon with DramaQueen 3 BETA!

 

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Inserting Images in DramaQueen 2.7

von am 11. April 2019 in Blog @en, Milestones, Milestones

 

Decorate your script with a title photo, your synopsis with mood pictures, your character descriptions with cast photos, your director’s script with storyboards, your settings with location photos, your autobiographical novel with photos of your life stations…!

 

Images can be inserted in JPG, PNG or GIF format. The image size can be changed simply by dragging the mouse or using the ‘Edit Image’ option in the context menu. There you can also set the border margin to the text. The inserted images are saved directly in the dq document (unlike images that are added as references).

 

In the new release there are some more Easter eggs to discover:

The font size can now also be changed in the side panels, the references offer new options and much more. All new features and improvements in DramaQueen 2.7 can be found in our update notes.

 

We wish you a splendid spring and inspiring Easter!

 

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On time for Christmas: DramaQueen 2.6 – References & Research

von am 25. December 2018 in Blog @en, Milestones

We tinkered and baked DramaQueen 2.6 until just before Christmas Eve and then sent the new update to the heavenly spheres of the internet for everyone to download, unpack and enjoy. :)


New in DramaQueen 2.6 (PLUS & PRO): References & Research



For every annotation, idea, character, location, and storyline there is a new area References & research which can be found in the lower part of the corresponding panels.

References can be created to:

  • Files (text, image, sound, video…) or even entire folders, which are located on the same computer
  • Web addresses
  • Scenes / chapters, steps, ideas, characters, locations and storylines – within the same document as well as in other dq-documents



What can you do with the new feature?

Collect
– research material from the web
– mood images for every location
– type pictures or actor demo-reels for every character
– storyboards for each scene in the Annotations panel
– videos from locations
– playlists for the individual storylines
– trailer for reference movies
…and much more

Link to
– external notes
– alternate versions of particular scenes
– characters that relate to each other
– locations that belong together
– characters and locations of a particular storyline
…and much more

Advantage: The dq-file stays lean and compact, because only references are stored.

How do the references work?

The object that a reference is pointing to can be opened by double-clicking or pressing the space bar.

Multiple selected references can be opened at once.

References can be renamed by double-clicking on the name of the reference file or link. (If the name of the reference is already selected, please click on it only once).

The collected references can be displayed as list or grid view (with thumbnail previews or icons), and the size of the thumbnails can be adjusted:

The references can be sorted manually (by Drag & Drop), alphabetically or by date:

There is a separate search field in the toolbar of the references area, which filters the search hits dynamically:

Drag & drop:

  • You can also drag files and folders into the reference area to create references.
  • In addition to that, references can be dragged between two reference areas, either within the same document or across different documents.

References are embedded in PDFs and printed in the various reports.

References in the form of linked files can be found again on another computer as long as they have the same relative path to the DramaQueen document, for example if they are located together with the document in a project folder.



As always, the details to all other improvements contained in the new update are in our update notes.


Have fun with DramaQueen 2.6 and an inspiring, creative and healthy 2019!

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DramaQueen 2.5: Plotting & Structuring

von am 24. October 2018 in Blog @en, Milestones

2.5 is live!

With the new features, we’re building on DramaQueen’s strengths so you can plan, develop and tell your stories even better.

We have also improved the DramaQueen interface, optimized the terms of several panels and made lots of small enhancements.

What are the new features?

  • Structuring without limits
  • Use established structure templates
  • Create your own structure templates yourself
  • New way of visualizing storylines in the navigator
  • Colored highlighting of the lines in the navigator
  • Two new turning-points: Pinch-point 1 & 2



Create custom structure templates for PRO

If you want to structure your story precisely with specific structure templates such as the Heroes Journey, “Save the Cat” or John Truby, you can now create these templates in DramaQueen PRO, modify them according to your own needs and save them:

There is a new option for freely configuring the structure:

  • free description of the structure unit
  • any number of structure elements that can be flexibly added or deleted
  • individual name for each structure element
  • optional numbering
  • import structure templates from other dq documents

This means that the structure can be adapted individually for every story!


New visualization of storylines in the navigator for PLUS & PRO

In the navigator, the storylines are now displayed as color bars (instead of colored circles):

Thus the storylines are generally more noticeable. In particular, it is easier to recognize when a storyline is interrupted.


Colored highlighting of the lines in the navigator for PLUS & PRO

The lines of the navigator can be emphasized by color via the sub-menu Colorize which is located in the Edit menu as well as in the context menu of every element. Both the text and the background can be colorized:

This allows the navigator to be structured by color. While the color bars serve to display the storylines, you can use the colored lines completely freely, for example to highlight different narrative perspectives, locations, motifs, revised scenes or structure elements.


New terms
  • The Outline panel became the Overview panel.
  • The panel Dramatic Chart has been renamed to Story Arcs.
  • The first text level is now called Plot (instead of Synopsis). And the second text level is called Outline (instead of Treatment). That makes their purpose as working texts more clear.

The Plot can now – depending on the usage – be divided into steps, parts, sequences, beats or stations:

As a writer, you can decide whether you understand the terms ‘step‘, ‘beat‘ or ‘sequence‘ as action elements or as structure elements. For example you can use ‘step’ either as ‘action step’ or as ‘story step’.


Two new turning-points for PLUS & PRO
  • The first pinch-point divides the first half of act 2 and is situated at about 3/8ths of the story.
  • The second pinch-point divides the second half of act 2 and is situated at about 5/8ths of the story.


Overview summaries including turning-points and structure for PLUS & PRO

Generating the Overview summaries (via the menu ‘Extras’) will now also include any structure elements and turning-points.


New options in the Overview panel

  • The new setting ‘Row spacing’ allows to set the compactness of the rows to ‘Tight’, ‘Normal’, ‘Wide’ or ‘Extra wide’ (FREE, PLUS & PRO).
  • Almost every configuration-option is also directly available in the drop-down of the respective toolbar-icon of the Overview panel. Furthermore there is a separate configuration for which types of elements (Steps/Parts respectively Scenes/Chapters) each property is displayed or deleted (PLUS & PRO):



All improvements can be found as always in our update report.


Enjoy trying out 2.5, we look forward to receiving your feedback!

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DramaQueen 2.4.5: Import templates

von am 3. March 2018 in Blog @en, Milestones, Milestones

The current update DramaQueen 2.4.5 introduces a number of improvements for working with serial formats. Often it is the case that one wants to use elements such as characters and locations in more than one episode. This is made possible by the new import of elements from other documents into the current one. From the main menu File → Import → From another document one can directly select ideas, storylines, characters and locations:

Either individually or in the case of characters and locations also by certain criteria such as the appearance in certain storylines or text levels. When elements with the same names already exist in the current document, there won’t be additional copies, but instead the elements will be synchronized with each other.

The import from another document is also available for the layout settings. In the Template selection there is a new entry User (import from file):

When the selected file is a DramaQueen movie or novel document, the effective layout settings of the same text level will be transferred, the general layout settings otherwise. The other document may also be in one of the supported import file formats, when the filetype filter has been extended accordingly in the open file panel. At the moment DramaQueen imports layout settings from Final Draft files. In the future support is planned to be extended for other import formats.

The new features may of course be used specifically to create an extra document as template for other documents. When developing a series one could for example store a master document that already includes all characters and locations of the season, the layout template as well as the structure template.

Drag&Drop of elements between open documents, i.e. of a character from the character list of one document into the character list of another, is of course still available and may be more practical depending on the situation, especially when transferring single elements.

The improvements and new features don’t stop there, however. Often we received the request to make All caps available via keyboard shortcut or its own icon in the formatting toolbar. This is now implemented. We also reworked the import and export filters in this regard, so they support the new text style attribute in the expected manner.

Script authors will be happy to learn that the keyboard shortcuts for the text elements (action, parenthetical, dialogue …) now match the industry standard behavior. Strictly speaking, they don’t perform the same function as the icons in the formatting toolbar, which set the style of the current paragraph. Instead the shortcuts insert a new paragraph inbetween the existing one and set this new one to the respective style. Of course this also works when the caret is positioned at the end of a paragraph, which may sometimes be more direct than using the TAB key or the formatting popup after pressing ENTER. Speaking of which – the popup can now be disabled in the gear-menu of the Texts panel. Even when autoformatting is not to be used. This option is remembered for the script separately from the other text levels.

Another improvement for script authors is the new separation of the text elements “Action” and “General”:

This makes DramaQueen more compatible to the industry standard when importing and exporting, and it gives more flexibility regarding the spacing between paragraphs. The default setting is to have one line of spacing before “Action” paragraphs, while there is no spacing before “General” paragraphs. The pre-text is now also formatted to “General” by default. The layout settings allow to configure each of the two text elements separately.

As usual, the new update is rounded off by bux fixes and performance improvements. We wish you great fun when working with the new version!

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