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DramaQueen 3.1: Output and progress tracker

The world is in lockdown, everything “abandonable” is shut or closed down. Accept this invitation and make the lockdown your “writedown,” so now, in the weeks of the lockdown, write down your story.

Help you do this with the new feature in DramaQueen 3.1: ‘Output, Target, Progress’:



The new DQ Output & Progress Tracker now allows you to set writing goals and keep track of how fast you are progressing step by step. It shows you how much you’ve accomplished, whether you’re still on schedule, how much space you have left to finish the current chapter or story, or when your writing time is up.

Where can you find the new feature?

– In the new release 3.1 for the versions PLUS and PRO (the update is offered automatically and for free after opening DramaQueen)
– In the gear menu of the text view under ‘Output, target, progress’, whereupon another gear menu appears at the bottom of the status bar:

Here you can set which output should be displayed.

Depending on which output option you have selected, you can define the target, i.e. how many characters/words per scene, day, week, month or session you want to achieve. You can also define a negative target, for example if you are in the process of shortening.

The current progress is also displayed in the status bar – as a percentage and as a bar. If you are approaching your self-defined target, the progress bar turns green:

For example, a 90-minute script has about 100,000 characters. So if you set a daily output of 5000 characters and you create this output every day, you will have a first script version ready after 20 working days. you will have a first draft of your script ready :)

If you exceed your writing goal, the progress bar can even show you by how many percent you are “over”. There are 2 possibilities:

If you set an output goal and even managed to write more text than you set out to, the “over-achievement” is positive. Therefore, the progress bar remains green in this case:

The situation is different if your text is not allowed to exceed a certain length – for example, because your screenplay cannot meet the specified film length or because the publisher has planned a certain length for your short story in an anthology.
So if the length of the text is given and therefore exceeding it is negative, the bar will first turn orange and then red the more you exceed the length requirement:

If you keep the status bar displayed, you can follow your progress continuously. Of course, you can also hide the status bar and only show it selectively to see where you currently stand in terms of your output and progress.

By the way, you can define your own workload for each output. So you can set several workloads in parallel. And of course you can always change which output or progress you want to see.

The 3.1 update with the new feature is offered to all test users as well as to all users of version 3 automatically upon opening.


3 new test days

For those interested, we have unlocked 3 additional test days where you can try out the DQ output and progress tracker. When opened, DramaQueen automatically switches to the test version 3.1, which already supports macOS Big Sur (11.0).

We wish you to get out of 2020 and into 2021 well, health-wise, mentally, professionally and financially. Hopefully, the new year is under a better star. But before that, we wish you a wonderful and positively reflective and maybe even especially creative and positive Christmas!

All the love,
Your DramaQueen Team

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Countdown to DramaQueen 3.0!

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 arcsshare 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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DramaQueen 2.8: Footnotes & starting immediately: Purchase of Version 3!

Like squirrels collecting hazelnuts, we collect new and crispy features almost monthly. In the new version 2.8 DramaQueen adds support for footnotes! But not only that: If you order DramaQueen PLUS or PRO from now on, you get the license for version 3, that means for the serial extension and all upcoming updates up to and including 3.9! :)


Insert footnotes

This is how the new footnotes work in the main texts:

The footnotes can be created via the toolbar of the Text panel, the Add menu, the context menu or the shortcut [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F]:

The footnote texts are entered and edited in the footnote editor. They appear at the end of each text page:

The numbering can be continuous or per page and the start number can be set freely:

The footnotes can be individually laid out in the layout settings:

The import, export and printing of footnotes is also supported.


Improved Synchronization

Furthermore DramaQueen now detects if a file has been changed externally (e.g. via an installed Google Drive or DropBox service) and warns accordingly when saving – before unknowingly overwriting these changes. The warning dialog offers to open the modified file as a separate document. From there, you can integrate the changes between the two versions of the document. Changes can be identified and navigated easily when they have been recorded with Track text changes.

Be aware that there is a time delay – depending on the internet connection and file size – when saving a document on one computer until it is synchronized to another computer via a cloud storage service. When two users save a document at the same time, there is no way for DramaQueen to detect the conflict.



All details and improvements can be found as usual in our update report for DramaQueen 2.8!


Starting immediately: Buy version 3!

If you order DramaQueen PLUS or PRO now, you already buy your license for version 3!

This means that you not only get the next update for version 2.9 for free, but also all upcoming updates from 3.0 (Serial extension) up to and including 3.9!

Have fun with the new footnotes, we wish you a nice remaining summer & creative holidays!

We will be back with version 2.9 – the extension for stage and audio plays… :)

 

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Inserting Images in DramaQueen 2.7

 

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

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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