Final Draft AV 2.5 Win/Mac

Other products by Final Draft, Inc.

Product Features

• Professional audio-visual scriptwriting software with auto formatting
• Import from any word processor; export to multiple file formats
• Create customized templates for different clients and projects
• 120,000 word spell-checker and thesaurus; custom dictionary
• Identical scripts on both Windows and Macintosh platforms

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BYRUAI
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,583 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #12 in	Software > Macintosh > Business & Office > Word Processing
  #15 in	Software > Education & Reference > Script & Screenwriting
  #23 in	Software > Home & Hobbies > Movies & Television

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Final Draft AV is the only dedicated full-featured scriptwriting software specifically designed for the professional writers of commercials, corporate and training videos, documentaries, and presentations. Unlike standard word processors, Final Draft AV keeps the audio and video columns automatically aligned when text is added, edited, or deleted. There are no complicated commands to learn and no need to worry about style or placement of text; Final Draft AV creates a professionally formatted Audio-Visual script in no time.

Features:

• 100-percent cross-platform: Final Draft AV scripts are identical on both Windows and Macintosh platforms and can easily be exchanged between both.
• Import/export: Files from any word processor can be imported easily, no need to re-type your script. Export to multiple file formats (including PDF) to easily and securely share scripts with anyone.
• Automatic formatting: Paragraphs stay aligned as you type. When text is added to one column, the matching paragraph in the opposite column automatically stays with it.
• Elements: create separate styles for video description, character, dialog, etc. to make the script look exactly the way you, your company, and your client demand.
• Layouts: Create customized templates for different clients and projects. Switch between formats without having to retype any text.
• Export to teleprompters: Scripts can be sent directly to most teleprompters, with or without character names. There is no need to retype or reformat the text.
• Storyboard with Keynote: (Mac OS only) Export the text of a script into Apple's Keynote presentation software to create storyboards. Note: Keynote must be purchased separately.
• Final Draft AV to Final Draft: seamlessly transfer scripts between Final Draft AV and Final Draft with ease and take advantage of all possible media formats.
• Spotlight: (Mac OS Tiger only) search through text within your Final Draft AV documents quickly and easily and place it at your fingertips.
• Guide line: Rearranging and realigning text is easy. The blue guide line indicates exactly where text will be aligned as it is moved.
• Spell-checker and thesaurus: A 120,000 word spell-checker and thesaurus with synonyms and antonyms. Create a custom dictionary to add your own terminology.
• Script registry: Final Draft AV is a preferred file format of the WGAw online registry service. Final Draft has an authorized agreement with the WGAw online registry service.

What's new in Final Draft AV 2.5?

• Rearrange Guide Line: The new Rearrange Guide Line provides the ability to drag-and-drop any video text and have it line up with any audio text--or vice versa. This enables scenes and shots to be easily reordered after they are written. This function is unique to Final Draft AV.
• Improved Importing and Exporting Capabilities: Importing of RTF files with and without tables has been enhanced significantly. Both plain text files and Rich Text Files (RTF) can be imported. In addition, when there are three or more columns in a Microsoft Word table, a special import dialog appears to determine how the text will be formatted in Final Draft AV.
• Teleprompter Export: dialogues may now be separated by carriage returns.
• Instant Elements: you can create a new Video Description or Dialogue element with a simple mouse click.
• Spotlight: (Mac OS Tiger only) search through text within your Final Draft AV documents quickly and easily.
• Script Registry: Final Draft AV is a preferred file format of the WGAw online registry service. Final Draft has an authorized agreement with the WGAw online registry service. (Note: you do not need to be a member of the WGAw to use this service.)
• Foreign Language Spell-Checker and Thesaurus: add-on British English, French, Spanish, and German spell-checkers and thesauri are now available.

Product Description
Final Draft AV is the only dedicated full-featured scriptwriting software specifically designed for the professional writers of commercials, corporate and training videos, documentaries and presentations. Unlike standard word processors, Final Draft AV keeps the audio and video columns automatically aligned when text is added, edited or deleted. There are no complicated commands to learn and no need to worry about style or placement of text; Final Draft AV creates a professionally formatted Audio-Visual script in no time.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment, September 17, 2006

By	DVD Author (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

I am so disappointed with this software. It crashes and seems to be extremely sluggish. I expected much better from a product that costs so much. I need to be able to create scripts for my clients, so I don't know what I'm going to do. But I may have no choice at some point to buy something else. I've got to get my work done and not have to constantly be frustrated with the way the software stumbles along.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The slowest program I've ever seen., July 20, 2007

By	alfalfa "alf" (NY) - See all my reviews

I bought this to work on a long form documentary. I have about 70 pages and it takes 5 minutes to just open up. It is extremeley slow to use. Very frustrating. This is true when I use it with my IBook 600 mz or with my dual core 2g. This program is worth nothing unless you only use if for one or two pages, which I guess would not take up too much memory. Don't know cause I haven't tried. Good Luck

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Software for the Application, but needs work , August 31, 2006

By	Whitney Ellsworth "Mineralogist" (Deadwood, SD USA) - See all my reviews

It actually does what it promises to do.
Because many operations can be completed with a single keystroke, and because it is flexible, it cuts the time of writing a script in half (compared to Microsoft Word). The manual is very well written, which should be no surprise.
In more than a month of use, it crashed on me once, but I have not lost any data.
It still needs a little polishing. In particular, it locks the user into only 4 structures: character, dialog, video, and parenthetical. This needs to be modified to conscribe to news reporting and reality television norms such as Voice Over, On Camera, and other common elements of modern scripts.
I recommend modifying the keyboard shortcuts by moving them to function keys. I am using F1, F2, F3 and F4. Much easier than 2-key commands.
However, it is a good value, and it has no competition.