Features:

  • Final Draft automatically formats and paginates screenplays and teleplays to entertainment industry standards
  • Prominent filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, J.J. Abrams, and Sofia Coppola recommend using Final Draft.
  • The market leader and the preferred file format of the Writers Guild of America West online Script registration
  • Final Draft is the proud recipient of a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award
  • Scripts created in Final Draft 11 on Windows, Macintosh or in the Final Draft Mobile app for and iPhone/iPad look exactly the same
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Significant Upgrade for Writers and Producers

Final draft has always been a great facilitator and enabler for writers of scripts. Version 11 continues this tradition. Though v11 has several teething problems, it nonetheless offers many useful new features – and some great ones – that work really well. For me the most useful is the improved Character Navigator. "Improved"? That's an understatement: no make-over here, no incremental step forward ... it's nothing short of revolutionary. It works as an easy-to-use spreadsheet. Character names are automatically listed in the (repositionable) first column ... you then can designate as many additional columns as you wish and choose from existing headings or create your own. As an example, my own column-headings at this stage are ROLE, BACKSTORY, DEFINING MOMENT, (HIDDEN) AGENDA, MEMORABLE LINE, PERSONALITY and PERCULARITY. Templates ordinarily are static pages. Spreadsheets on the other hand are dynamic. That is to say, elements are highly and easily changeable: for example, columns can be moved, resized and sorted, column-headings can be renamed and cell-entries visualised as pie-charts. Since character-names are listed in the Navigator only when entered in the script, one may say that Character Navigator isn't a planning tool proper but an ongoing tool. It's an opportunity for writers to re-engage with their characters (whose traits and backstories may have been initially planned in the Beat Board) and put questions to them in the light of the column-headings. For example, a writer may ask: would this character's delineation improve if he or she has an agenda that links to his or her backstory? Or: why hasn't this character a line that is impactful? Producers may love the absorption by Final Draft of what used to be a separate application called Tagger, which can generate lists helpful for prop purchases, shooting schedules and overall budgeting. Writers may use Tags (as it's now called), to track motifs for example. For writers especially, this upgrade takes the superbly useful Beat Board to the next level. With its Beats (cards) now able to support images, a writer can use the Beat Board for storyboarding. In addition, writers now have formatting control of text within Beats: text can be coloured, highlighted and their fonts and font sizes changed. Finally, the list of background colours for Beats has been extended and includes pastels such as pink, lime and mint – and custom colours. Much welcomed. Beat markers and Structure Points, two different indicators on the Story Map, a timeline running across the top of your writing space, can now carry images, which pop-out when hovered over. If you believe a picture is worth a thousand words you’ll see my point. Story Map can become a linear shorthand for the story boards that have been set up in the Beat Board or simply for signposting a story with pictures. Night Mode, new to v11, comes into its own when writing in the dark as it eliminates the glare from a white background by converting the background to dark grey (and black text to white). This really works: much easier on the eyes. And it provides a wonderful (but illusory) sense of working in a clutter-free environment. Whether writing at night or during the day, I'm now using Night Mode more often than normal mode. The macro-maker, Final Draft's unsung hero for automating various writing tasks such as upper-casing character names in action paragraphs, if that's your thing, has been freshened. However, to make sure the macros you created in previous sessions work properly, open the utility and click the OK button at the start of every new writing session. Until the macro-maker is fixed, this easy-to-forget-to-do action is nonetheless a must for macro-users. Should the text-colouring and highlighting tools behave erratically, revert to Classic View (View > Classic View) and back (View > Switch to Ribbon View). Repeat procedure for relapses, usually occurring, like the macro-maker, with new writing sessions. Version 11 raises operating system minimums. For example Windows 7 users will have to meet the additional cost of upgrading to Windows 10. Should writers in FD v10 upgrade to v11? For me, it’s an obvious “yes”. Final Draft is a multi-tool and what artisan doesn’t savour sharpened tools? Given the issues, why the five stars? Teething problems are unintended consequences when big new features are developed. Where errors occur in some areas of FD, you almost can be sure something wonderful has been achieved elsewhere (witness Character Navigator, the Beat Board and Tags). Software development entails intricate dependencies, sometimes so intricate that it is difficult to track to the nth degree in the short term. The real question is: should v10 users in operating systems unsupported by FD v11, eg Windows 7, upgrade to v11? I have and it's been worth it – but each writer has to decide how important the new and improved features are to one's workflow. The strangely wonderful problem with v11 is it tries to do perhaps too much for writers and producers. This effort itself (and of course existing efficient core features) and my confidence that the small number of errors will be corrected in free updates are what for me earn Final Draft five stars. (Updated: 13 May 2019 AEST).

One of those products that comes along and COMPLETELY CHANGES THE GAME

It's not an exaggeration to say that upgrading to Final Draft from Microsoft Word must have been what it was like when writers upgraded from the typewriter to a word processing software. The script formatting alone is a game changer but the Story Map & Beat board are what launches this product into a whole other dimension. They allow writers to truly SEE their story. Gone are the days of trying to hold all the structural beats in your head or plotting them on a giant whiteboard. Gone are the days of having hundreds of different documents for all of your character bios, settings, notes, and scene list. Final Draft integrates all these seamlessly and makes it fast and effortless to navigate your story from concept to final draft.

FINAL DRAFT IS THE PINNACLE OF SCREENWRITING SOFTWARE

I have been using Final Draft since the early 90’s. That’s a long time to perfect a product and they have! Having sold or optioned many screenplays over the years, I think Final Draft has set the industry standard for the look of screenplays. This has probably more than just helped my being read by industry insiders. What’s more remarkable is the 50’s-style customer support that still exists today. Short hold times, friendly, congenial and knowledgeable experts abound!

It's the best

I can use it on my laptop, iPhone and iPad. So there's no excuse for procrastination. Final Draft is my security blanket.

There is a reason it is the industry standard

Final draft is very simple to use to adhere to standards. Over the last few versions, they have implemented a lot of additional features lately with story boarding etc that are a bit more complicated and not entirely intuitive but I look forward to working with those features as well for my rewrite.

Industry Standard for a reason

I've been using Final Draft since version 5. It is very user friendly. Good manual and support team if you need them. Great features. When I use Final Draft I have confidence my product is formatted exactly right. I highly recommend it for anyone writing features, shorts, teleplays, stage plays and on and on.

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