As regular readers know, I’m fascinated with how non-technical users employ Emacs in their work. Paul Rankin has a video on how to set up fountain-mode for screenwriting. Artistic people are like the rest of us in that they like things the way they are used to and are not anxious to embrace new methods or formats. Especially not new formats. If their work product has always looked like A, they don’t want to hear about making it look like B.
Fountain mode is a very nice package for writing screen scripts with Emacs. Rankin doesn’t like its out-of-the-box look so he made a video on how to make its appearance and output be more like what screenwriters are used to. Initially, I was a little put off that he used the customize interface to make his changes. It made it hard to follow what he was doing and seemed to indicate that he was an Emacs neophyte.
Except that he’s the author of fountain-mode and olivetti-mode and obviously knows what he’s talking about. In retrospect, I realized that he was using the customize interface because that’s what the typical member of his audience would use. If you’re a screenwriter and looking for an efficient and pleasant way writing your scripts, you should give fountain mode a try. And watch Rankin’s video. It will show you how to make it like what you’re used to.