This is amazing

I wish I knew this years ago. Just discovered it on a whim of trying something.

Alpha Smart writes text files, .txt ... in Celtx you can import text files.

So I tried this on the AS:

INT. HOUSE - DAY

Blah blah description.

MARY
Hey.

TOM
Hey.

Blah blah more description.

EXT. HOUSE - DAY

(end)

In other words I was writing a screenplay but using a flush left format. Quick and easy! OK, now I save this and imported it into Celtx ... and it came out in perfect screenplay format!

I find this astounding. I will tell my students.

There aren't many of these available used any more. Shocking how few come up at Amazon. But there are several under $15 called "very good" and for a writer on the move, man, I would say this is a steal.

Although ASmarts were made for grade school kids in the early PC days, I turned on to them after reading about how many foreign journalists were using them in war zones and other places without electricity. The large keyboard and the 700 hours of battery life were perfect! And it holds about 100 pages of single spaced text. I mean, this is one of the forgotten tech wonders of the world, as far as I am concerned. I wish I had one with wireless, though. I made a mistake years ago not buying the more expensive model. Little did I know.

I still have to learn about xfer without screwing up the PC keyboard.