Customer Reviews

Final Draft Version 8

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I got my copy as a gift so I may be biased here but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised about how much more I liked version 8 than I thought I would. Beyond the hokey packaging, the application is solid and a lot more stable than version 7. I primarily use version 6 but have decided to upgrade as I really like the color features and the new navigator (not to mention the improved zoom options that I've been waiting for a long time for). It's by no means a perfect piece of software but for me, I find this latest version has been far more stable than anything I've seen from Final Draft in years. Be aware though that the new version automatically saves as an xml file and not the standard .fdr format so you have to do the extra step of saving as if you want to send to others.

Before reading my review, you should know that I am a beginner screenwriter and don't have any experience with competitive products on the market. With that said, the reason I had always put off becoming a screenwriter was because I was intimidated by the process. I had no idea how to make a screenplay look like the ones I had read. So many rules, so many formats, I didn't think I'd ever be able to learn, so I gave up on my dream without even trying. Then on a whim, I did some research and I bought Final Draft 8. I have only had the product for about two months, but so far, there is nothing bad I can say about it. It's been EXACTLY what I was looking for! When it says "just type," it's not kidding. As long as you are patient enough to read at least the first chapter of the instruction manual, you'll be screenwriting within minutes.

I have read other reviews of this product and people have had some bad experiences that I have not encountered. Some of it could be chalked up to human error though. Unlike Microsoft Word, FD8 does require a little bit of getting used to in order to completely maximize its potential. The learning curve isn't as deep as others have made it sound. It is capable of doing a great deal, but if you're just starting out like me, learning the very basics could not be any easier.

I give this review 4 stars because I haven't had the program long enough to determine whether or not I'm going to experience bugs pointed out by other users, so my love affair with it could end later, but for now, I can't recommend it highly enough. Combine this purchase with a copy of "Screenwriting for Dummies" and you'll be on your way!

As a new writer, I learned of Final Draft from my brother in Los Angeles. I was thrilled about the program and how easily it allowed me to write my first script. Once I returned to Chicago, I immediately ordered my own copy to finish my script. As of today, I am five pages away from completion. I LOVE IT!!!!! I look forward to getting my script copyrighted next week. Anyone who is serious about their writing, Final Draft is critical to their success!

If you're serious about writing screenplays for any media format, you've got to get this program. So EASY! Unreal! It takes the formatting right out of your hands and let's you, the writer, focus on the story. When writing creatively, you can't focus on technical areas and still be creative, this program takes that technical edge from you let's you just write. You've gotta get this! Forget all the templates on the web, spend the money and get it!

Yes, I know this is the industry standard, but the new version, Final Draft 8, is so complex and convoluted that I have been tearing my hair out over it. First of all, most of my industry contacts have version 7. You'd think converting from 8 to 7 would be easy. Not! I spent 3 hours with an online techie to try and resolve my problems. I ended up having to figure it out myself. And speaking of tech support, what company would expect you to fork over $200 and then provide only 20 MINUTES of phone support before demanding $2.50 A MINUTE for phone support once you've used up those few precious minutes? Convert my Screenwriter scripts to FD 8? Should be easy, right? Again, not. FD crashed repeatedly at the effort. This should be the first line of defense. I finally gave up and haven't tried since.

Other difficulties have cropped up as well. I can't get any answers as to why it's so difficult to find the automatic backups, if indeed there are any. No one seems to know why the caps on the first letter of a sentence are sometimes functional and sometimes not. I could go on, but you get the point. Believe me, if I could go back to Hollywood Screenwriter and make the industry folks happy, I would do it in a heartbeat!

I've been using Final Draft to write screenplays for the last 2 years. Before that I suffered greatly with MS Word. I've waited what seems like forever for Final Draft 8 to come out and it was worth the wait. I live in Japan so I've had for a few days already. I've test driven it and it's great. The new layout is smooth, sexy and most of all it's helpful. The new features are many so I haven't messed around with most of them but the new scene finder makes jumping around within a document a breeze. The program comes with a brand new tutorial in 3 parts and a heap of new preloaded templates from popular TV shows. I bought the upgrade so it was very worth it for me at 79 USD. If you have to buy the program in full it's tough to say if I'd just as easily pay 300 USD for it. As for the program itself, nothing beats it that I've found.

I bought and upgraded to version 8 to use final draft with a friend to work on a script . We are both Industry professionals - but neither one of us had used the collaborwriter part of
the program ... sadley this part of the program has not been updated since 2004!!! When you call support for assistance they go on and on and on about how the internet
has changed ... since 2004, and yes it has. Then the tech people talk about how now everyone uses routers and yes they do so guess what ... they have not managed to update the program so that it works with routers - they told me that you need a direct line from one computer to another - sort of like playing telephone... with paper cups.

working alone this is a fine program - if you need to collaborate over the internet - forget it.

At FD7, I couldn't think of how they could improve FD except by putting a highlighter in the toolbar. But that was it. Oh they did that in FD8, sure. But they "improved" it even more.

1. It's very slow. And I'm running a 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro with 4G RAM. If I open the same file in FD7, it works beautifully.

2. You know that nice toolbar at the top where you can easily change between Action and Scene Heading? It's GONE! It might be buried in some godforsaken part of FD8 but there's no point in looking for it because the rest of the app is garbage.

3. FD took a page out of the Microsoft Playbook by upgrading their files by creating the FDX format (X standing for XML, I suppose). Yes, folks, backward compatibility is out the window, so you have to buy the new version.

It's bad enough that you have to pay an arm and a leg for it but when it's badly written and badly designed, that's adding insult to injury. AVOID!

I've been a final draft user since 1998. I have known and lived with its buggy nature the entire time (and without much complaint) but 8 was either rushed before it was ready or horribly thought out. Here are some major beefs:
1. They lost the STRIKETHRU button on the toolbar. I find this inexcusable. I hear rumors they will release an update to fix this but for that inconvenience alone i give it a thumbs down.
2. finding the CAP toggle button took forever and took some ingenuity to get it on the toolbar.
3. STILL no highlighting toolbar button. MS Word has had a highlighter on every toolbar as long as I can remember. Why has FD overlook this simple tool?
4. The program forces you to save in fdx format in the autosave mode. Most of my writer friends were smart enough not to upgrade so in order for them to read the file, it needs to be saved in fdr. And you can, but I constantly get prompts to save in fdx and there's no way to turn that off (or more importantly, make it save regularly in fdr) except to turn off the autosave, so seriously, what's the point?

I have no doubt there are several other issues, as I just got 8. Do yourself a favor and stick with 7 if you can find it.

I used the default settings (12 point courier new, etc) for Dramatists Guild New Play format (which in Final Draft are the same as for Dramatists Guild Traditional Play format). A 90 page play is 90 pages when Final Draft prints it as pdf. It is 71 pages if saved as rtf and then opened in Microsoft word. It is also 71 pages if imported into Movie Magic Screenwriter v6. A typed page takes a minute to play on the stage but this is a typed page in Microsoft Word or Movie Magic Screenwriter. A typed page in Final Draft is obviously shorter.