Final Draft 7 Professional Scriptwriting [OLD VERSION]

Edit: I hereby redact the rest of my review. I still think the program could use some polish on a PC...but my previous ire was more from ignorance than the program itself. It ain't so bad.


Finished Another First Draft With Final Draft   June 4, 2004
8 out of 15 found this review helpful

I have written or re-written over 30 scripts, both hits and flops, both TV and Feature, with Final Draft. Like most people who have made the mistake of buying Movie Magic Screenwriter, I switched when the program didn't work and they made me angry on the phone. I have never had a problem with my fonts, or tech support, or upgrading or updating. Ever. They even make their own font to make the switch from Mac to Win seamless and it is. The other programs are okay, but not as 'finished', maybe because just about every TV show and Film is made with Final Draft. It really is combat tested. I just bought another copy from amazon.com for my office and both companies are great!


Great formatter with poor font rendering.   May 27, 2004
S Smyth (Belfast, Co Antrim United Kingdom)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

As a screenplay formatter Final Draft 7.0 works as well as its predecessors, but still has a rotten font rendering quality. I would have thought that this would the number one priority to attend to at this stage in Final Draft's development cycle.

That gripe aside - and it's a really significant one - everything else works very smoothly.

Because of this issue, I would recommend Screenwriter 2000, which does everything that Final Draft can do, and doesn't have any issue with its ability to render fonts cleanly. In addition, screenwriter 2000 has a more useful suite of associated products, notably: Dramatica 4 pro and Storyview 2. The tech backup is superior, too.


IT ROCKS!   May 20, 2004
E. Levin (valley village, ca United States)
12 out of 18 found this review helpful

I bought the upgrade to Final Draft 7 and I was pretty disappointed. It
was full of bugs so I went back to FD6. Then I got an email from them
saying they had an update. Which I downloaded. Now FD7 is totally
better than FD6. They still have to fix a couple of things but the
cards and the panes are awesome, they really help me see my scenes and my story.

I was PO'd at Final Draft for releasing such a buggy program but they
said they would fix it and they totally did. It's great now and the guy
said they're going to be add even more features. He wouldn't tell me
what ones but I'm looking forward to it. They screwed up and they knew
it but they took care of it and I'm very happy with Final Draft 7 again.
Great program (finally), great company. Good job, guys!


The King is Back   May 19, 2004
Billy Levi (Suffern, NY)
10 out of 17 found this review helpful

As with most sophisticated software, the initial release of a new version has flaws. What separates good companies from bad is how quickly they fix the problems. Now that Final Draft has released a patch for Version 7, it shines. I wish Microsoft would fix their products this fast! I think the new Summary Cards are the bomb! They have given me a great way to develop projects, enabled me to make all kinds of notes and to view them along with my script. Simply fabulous.