Customer Reviews

Final Draft Audio Video

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After using Word and Pagemaker to do a/v scripts for years, I decided to "move up" to a product that's made specifically for the purpose: Final Draft A/V. It has too many shortcomings to list here, but try these three for starters: 1) You're stuck with Times New Roman, a deficiency that's admitted on page 45 of the User Guide. "A future version of Final Draft A/V will permit full font control. Make sure you register so that you will be notified when updates are available." Sure, you can change the font, but at the next new paragraph, it defaults back to Times, every time; 2) When the user inserts text in the midst of existing text, it jumps automatically WITH EACH KEYSTROKE to the end of that page. To get back to the insert point to type the next character, the user must press ENTER after each and every key stroke. The wild back and forth flipping is maddening; 3) one of the options is to offset-right the script to allow lefthand space when printing for 3-hole punching. Even though I have never activated this feature, and even though the live area appears centered on my computer screen, it ALWAYS prints out with the offset and I've tested it on the two ink jets and one laser printer that are attached to my computer. It's truly the worst software I've ever purchased, but the packaging looks very good in dim light.

I have been waiting for a product like this for years. Writing dual-column scripts in Word using tables has been very painful (to say the least!) and Final Draft AV makes it quite easy. I have also been a very satisfied user of their screenplay software, Final Draft, for many years. I called the company and they are committed to improving the product substantially in the next few months...but right now I am extremely happy with what it does for me and all the time it has saved me.

I've tried to use Word processors to set columns to write short commercials and scripts. I could never figure out how to keep the audio and video together without frequent adjustments. This was a dream come true...

I was willing to pay the bucks if it did what it said. And it did, without much difficulty...right out of the box. I wrote my first script within 10 minutes of installation and it looked like I wanted...a place for video that matched the audio.

My only negative is that this software is of little use for anything else...as far as I know, it's not doubling as a word processor. It does a script and if that's what you need, buy it! It makes life just bit easier...just forget the price.

This software is a professional's dream come true, yet beginners should have no problem with it. The fellow who only rated it a one is obviously clueless. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who needs to write copy for broadcasting.

I've struggled for years (to say the least) attempting to write audio-visual scripts by using tables in Word. Final Draft AV solved all my problems and kept the Video and Audio columns aligned perfectly. It is very easy to use and I recommend it to anyone who needs to write scripts in a two-column format.