Comments on: Final Draft 8, briefly

By: kal

kal — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:48:42 +0000

how does pdf function behave? if you;’re a busy working pro, it doesn’t. ridiculous. you can’t print as a pdf with title page anymore without reverting the file back to FD7. absurd. this is such a crucially important feature for me, as i am constantly making pdf’s and sending my scripts that I’m dumping mine and going back to fd7. How could they overlook this??

By: Joseph Francis

Joseph Francis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:41:52 +0000

Am I correct that FD7 renders pdf scripts into gigantic files of unsearchable images, rather than searchable text? How does FD8’s pdf output behave?

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:55:47 +0000

No one seems to talk about it, here, but I have both Final Draft 7 and a twenty-year-old version of ScriptWare. ScriptWare kicks Final Draft’s a** in almost every regard. I’m a pro screenwriter and, for the life of me, can’t figure out why FD is the “industry standard”. They must have slipped someone a few bucks under the table.

By: PMW

PMW — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:18:01 +0000

@Kirsten, if you are still lurking...

*It would be nice if the Zoom level for the script view window had a "Fit Visible" option much like the Adobe Reader so that only the text is visible without the margins. Lots of screen real estate gets taken up with those margins.

*I'd like to be able to split panels at least twice so that I could have up to four panels sharing space on the screen.

*I second for requests to add "Save as PDF" back in the file menu.

@Synthian & Valiente

You can set the zoom to any level you like by simply typing in the zoom level you desire in the zoom window. (At least on Windows you can.)

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:32:15 +0000

Thanks Richard

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:28:52 +0000

TO ROB #50. It may be a little late, but to delete a character from Final Draft 7. Go to ‘Document’ then ‘SmartType.’ Or on a Mac, Command+L. There is a list of all your characters, places, etc. Click on the name and then the delete button. Poof, he/she/it no longer exists. Or course, you could always keep the misspelled word and try to use it. Have a character named ‘Sussam’ instead of Susan. :)

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:01:28 +0000

@GeGe (#66) Does you computer have an integrated graphics chipset with shared memory or a proper graphics card? Both my laptops have integrated graphics, while the desktop has a 128Mb Nvidia card. I’m wondering if this difference between both my laptops and my older desktop are responsible for the issue. Other possibility could be a Centrino-specific issue. Anyway, I’ll stick to MMS6 whenever I need it. Software isn’t that important, anyway, but it bugs me when I can’t get some app to work as it should.

By: GeGe

GeGe — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:59:32 +0000

@Neson (#60) Yep, I have the same problem here with the CPU load on my Toshiba laptop with Win XP both in FD 7 and 8 (Demo). For that reason FD is useless to me. Also, when writing, the letters are displayed in delay. This can be quite annoying, when writing fast. FD 6 works fine.

By: .LAG

.LAG — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:47:01 +0000

Nelson (#56)…great, well-reasoned response. thanks for the insights.

By: Lane Applewhite

Lane Applewhite — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:09:25 +0000

I tried the demo last night. It's pretty much a dud for me. Again, some innovative new features, but sloppy-ass programming and testing by the FD crew. Sorry Kirsten.

I love the notecard feature, how it shows you all your sceens (with dialog) and allows you to move them around. There are other little features which are nice including a pop up window which allows you to look at the scene headings and re-type them.

Not sure if the torture of the SmartType bug has been fixed.

But I am on board with this version because the thing is just damn slow! The autosave takes too long. I hate the FDX formats -- is that necessary?. WTF is that for. Are you guys trying to be Microsoft by rendering old file formats obsolete?

Biggest problem: when I am scrolling down or writing fast it hangs up for a second on my computer (running a Toshiba A135 which I bought in June 2007). Totally unacceptable for a ADHD speed demon like me.

Final 7 is fine for now.

By: Ella

Ella — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:11:48 +0000

Please help – does anyone know how to you place “elements” onto the toolbar – it doesn’t seem to automatically appear and it’s the most important aspect of any screenwriting program…?