digi-quest

Published: 12:00am, 15 Jul 2007

I have always wanted to write a screenplay featuring a mixture of English and Chinese dialogue. The problem is that the software I have seen for writing screenplays does not support Chinese characters. I could try Microsoft Word but I have been told film studios are extremely fussy about format. Do you know of a solution?

Raymond, Mid-Levels

DQ: Hollywood studios are indeed fussy about how a television or movie script should be formatted. Two of the most popular screenwriting software programs, which you can test for free, are Final Draft (www.finaldraft.com) and Movie Magic Screenwriter (www.screenplay.com). These run on both Macintosh and Windows machines but do not support Chinese-character input.

Luckily, there is Mariner Software (www.marinersoftware.com). This US software company has a screenwriting program called Montage, which I have been testing for some time. Although Montage does not claim support for Chinese characters, it is a well-behaved piece of software that follows Mac OS X rules about handling fonts and text. That means you can enter Chinese characters, but it is possible some features - search, for example - may not work well. According to Mariner Software, it is in the process of testing support for Chinese characters. The company wants to ensure the program works faultlessly before making its support official.

Montage is the only software that will do what you want, but only on a Mac. I like its design and you can test the product for free.

My husband and I have too many chargers (all incompatible) for our portable electronic devices. Wasn't there a battery-charging plate, about the size of a mouse pad, invented a few years ago that supports different devices? When will we see this charger, or devices like it, sold in stores?

Cindy Wan, Sheung Wan

DQ: What you refer to is known as a universal contactless battery charger. There are many patents out for such a device and various science journals have written about them. These devices have not yet appeared in Hong Kong shops. This may be due to problems implementing the technology. It is a great idea, of course, and the first company to market such a device will surely make a lot of money. Watch this space.

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