TreeLine : high level source-writing manager (How it can help )

[Eastwind - Vent d Est]

I Would like to clarify some aspect about the TreeLine software and
how it s related to this group .

TreeLine was designed for manage different media source information
you face to .. For exemple :

you wanna keep some book quote , webiste content , idea that come ,
story you need to think work on , some dialog you would like to think
about , some article on magazine you find interesting and would like
keep a track , and every source of information that you would like too
keep , and get it back quickly for you narrative design ..

that s what TreeLine is desinged for , it s a kind of free style
database , and you can access back really quickly . For my part I use
it for keep track of book quote , of story that I find usefull ... and
can get back in less than one minute ..

TreeLine let you design your own way of organisation of your memory .
It s your memory and you know better than anyone how you would like to
organise it . It s done by template that you can create without
anyskill of programming . It include also HTML render if you would
like much more structuring . You can so get some HTML table from
internet and put it inside as a template .

I don't think TreeLine will replace a tools like CeltX , because it s
not same area . TreeLine is the tools that let you manage cleanly
all your info source , and CeltX is designed for scenario , and
narrative . But as you can create all structure you want you can also
create a strucutre to manage narrative design and branching dialog but
it wasn't it aim :)

Regarding to the recent survey , here some compare between the needs
and the features

Database Driven

Treeline is a free form database oriented for user (not like mysql or
postgresql )

Customizable Sorting Functions

TreeLine have sorting function that based on field area , and other
options , you can customise field area and content as you wish or
create your own

Customizable Input Styles

TreeLine philosophy is to give the user , the power to input their own
style into database , all TreeLine is designed for that

Extensible and Modular

TreeLine have plugin managament function , is programmed in open
source and modular way with python

Version Control Software Sync

TreeLine does't have CVS , or something like this

Branching Dialog

You can create branching dialog with TreeLine internal link , external
link , and field structure

Custom Metadata tags

I don't think there is meta tags , but conditional filter exist

Visual and verbal tool set

TreeLine use set of Icon in the tree , so you can see what is done ,
or not , or nearly done ..

Correlates various script formats

I don't think treeline have that filter

I see TreeLine it s used first for manage all your source writing
generally speaking (book , website , content , story , game design ,
narrative , dialog structure ..) and CeltX used for a specific
project you are working on . If you wanna find back some story ,
book , magazine , website , quote ... TreeLine will be there and serve
you quickly :)

[Ron Toland]

I'll download and play around with TreeLine tonight.

At first blush, though, TreeLine seems like it's a little *too*
flexible for what we need. I think the initial attraction of Celtx is
that they have software specifically targeted toward writers and their
needs, while TreeLine seems like a more general-purpose note-keeping
tool. That's not to knock it or say we shouldn't take a serious look
at it; while a single piece of software that does everything we need
would be ideal, a one-two punch of something like TreeLine plus a
modified Celtx might also work.

Have you tried using Celtx, Liu? It has features to track scenes and
characters, keep notes, and do storyboarding. Are there things Celtx
won't currently do that TreeLine does?

Ron

On Jun 11, 10:06 am, Eastwind - Vent d Est <liu.qi...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Eastwind - Vent d Est]

> Have you tried using Celtx, Liu? It has features to track scenes and
> characters, keep notes, and do storyboarding. Are there things Celtx
> won't currently do that TreeLine does?
>
> Ron

Yes, I tried Celtx and , it s a very good tools , it s the perfect
replacement for software like Final Draft, as Firefox is perfect
remplacement for Internet Explorer . Howewer Treeline intend not to
replace FinalDraft , but give you the freedom to write a draft
quickly , and change structure and experiment you need to experiment
in a draft stage mind . You know when you create new charactere ,
there is a lot of idea and situation you need to manage , sometime you
need to change the timing or switch between one scene to another and
everything that creative process need to try , and experiment .. That
s where treeline is for , for drafting quickly , and experiment
quickly theses . When your story have good basic and don't need
experiment much , and the final stage is coming , Celtx also coming
for formating and writing in good standart your script ..

Based on the foundation of interactive story post on igda writing blog
( http://gwsig.quantumcontent.com/?p=13 ) . I have make a quick and
short video demo from a narrative design draft using treeline . You
can do much more in fact , it s just a quick view of the features that
can be used for that purpose .


The file is in the google group and is named
Treeline.Drafting.demo.IGDA.Writing.groupe.7z

or : http://groups.google.fr/group/gw-sig-tools-initiative/web/Treeline.Dr...

the 7z is a new open source zip format that compress much better ( I
can compress to 150 % ) you can find at http://www.7-zip.org/ of
course open source :) for Windows, Linux and Mac :)

If you wanna direct download the video , you can go to here :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7R6DYOVK

The video is in open source ogg theora video format (you can use
vlc :)

Are there things Celtx

> won't currently do that TreeLine does?

Yes , it draft quickly , template quickly , let you switch and change
quickly your narrative design and let you experiment quickly your
drafting , find back quickly :)