Highland, our [award-winning screenwriting app](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/) for the Mac, has a major update available in the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).
While Highland looks largely the same on the surface, we’ve rebuilt quite a bit under the hood and added features for screenwriters who want to use Highland for all their daily writing.
Highland 1.7 — already updated to 1.7.1 — offers:
**Better pagination, particularly with dialogue.** Unlike a certain company, we don’t regard our pagination as the One True Way. But our pagination is now pretty damn great. I turned in a script last week written entirely in Highland. Without any tweaking, the pages flowed exactly how I wanted. No split sentences, no orphaned transitions.
**Markers to help you find your way in long documents.** I’ll often find myself scrolling back to look at something earlier in the script, then losing my place. So now I hit Control-M to leave a marker [[%]]. You can hop between markers with Control-Option-M. (If you’re used to markers from timeline-based apps for music or video, you’ll probably find this particularly natural.)
**Improved stability and file-handling.** Highland is much smarter (and less aggressive) about auto-saves, which were a leading cause of crashes. The version in the Mac App Store today (1.7.1) addresses launch issues some users were having with our revised code base.
**Search via integrated Find bar.** Faster, and one less window to close. If you have’t tried Find Again (⌘G), give it a shot. It’s always ready to search for the last thing you looked for.
**Better syntax highlighting.** By making it really clear what prints and what doesn’t, you can focus on your words, not the syntax.
**Much faster PDF parsing.** Highland 1.7 is better at both melting and building PDFs.
We [update Highland frequently](http://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland/changelog), but 1.7 is a significant upgrade in actual functionality.
When people used to ask if someone could write a script in Highland, my answer was generally, “Well, you *could.* But that not really what it’s for.”
Now it is. Highland 1.7 is the first version I’ve used to write an entire script from outline to delivered draft, and I loved it. Highland is fast and lean and distraction-free.
So if you haven’t checked it out lately — or only use it as a converter — give it another look as a daily writing app.
