I'd like to put in a good word for the fine folks at Digiscript.

Well, not that good of a word. You see, their product is really nothing more than a template for Word with some nifty macros to format your screenplay according to standard screenplay format. Really, if I had a spec of standard screenplay format, I could recreate their product in less than an hour.

To be fair, though, they make a fully useful version available for free, and they only charge £10 (about $16, I'm told) for some convenient advanced features, like the ability to assign a character's name to a macro. And the screenwriting software which their product duplicates the functionality of costs several hundred dollars, so it's not that much money, really. But overall, I'm not that impressed with the product.

So why am I shilling for them?

Because they scored me points with my girlfriend.

Jenn had a ton of work this weekend, so on Sunday it was necessary to forgo even our ritual of watching Trading Spaces on TLC. (Side note, if you click on that link: the Discovery channel's website is evil. Menus should not move on their own. That's Usability 101.) I was on my own until dinner, time I filled with improv rehearsal and playing the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 demo Adam had downloaded.

6:00 rolled around, and I headed over to Jenn's. As soon as she opened the door, I knew things had taken a turn for the worse. She felt warm, feverish, and she said "Hi" in that tone of voice that really means "I'm completely miserable."

"What's wrong?" I ask (because what else are you going to ask after that kind of "Hi"?)

The movie she was supposed to watch had been unavailable when she went to watch it, and she'd been struggling with Word for a few hours. "The stupid program thinks it's smarter than me, so it won't let me do what I need to do."

Aha. This is a problem I can deal with. I fuss with the program for about five minutes (computer savvy people, as it turns out, have less patience for uncooperative programs) before I pull up a browser, head to Google, and search for "microsoft word screenplay formatting". The first result is good ol' Digiscript, which looks to be exactly what I'm looking for. I download, install, eat the dinner I've just finished preparing, and it's up and running. "Come here," I tell her. "I think I've got it to do what you need."

On her face is hope, but underneath, certainty that this isn't going to work.

"So what you do is go to New, then pick the 'Script' template. Now you hit F5, and type, I don't know... 'EXT. A PARK.'"

"Why is it bold and underlined?" she asks, crestfallen. "It's not supposed to be bold and underlined." Her fears are confirmed. She will be unable to complete her assignment and she will fail out of school and have to scrape together a meager living as, I don't know, a wet nurse.

Not so! I am quick on my feet. I have (gasp!) read the documentation. "Well, then you hit F9." I type EXT. A PARK once more, this time neither bold nor underlined. What's going to happen in this park? I don't know, I haven't planned that far ahead.

But that's all she needs. After a few minutes of using the software she's back to her old cheery self, cranking out movies faster than Woody Allen could produce them.

My theory is reaffirmed: Google is a boyfriend's best friend. Excluding, one would hope, the girlfriend.