Final Draft 7

Final Draft, one of the leading products in the screenwriting format and development software realm, continues to evolve by offering new tools while reintroducing refined versions of past features.

Final Draft 7 hit shelves in April, promising a more advanced product that would run even more comfortably on Mac OSX and the most up-to-date Windows machines. The product generally delivers on all accounts while offering fresh features for the veteran Final Draft user to enjoy.

The most important development in Final Draft 7 is the Panels System allowing writers to look at their story in different forms while organizing it in text or visual forms.

Users may split the Final Draft screen into separate panels and view script pages in one panel and cards in the other. The new Navigator Panel lists scene headings (not unlike the Outline feature in MS Word). A double-click on a scene heading takes Final Draft to that scene in the script panel.

The panels act independently of each other, allowing writers to view different pages of the same script simultaneously—either in text or card forms.

Years ago, the company that is now Final Draft, Inc. offered a simple visual outlining program called Three by Five. Designed to resemble index cards on a corkboard, the software allowed writers to enter text or graphics into index cards of varying sizes and colors. Those cards could then be moved around the corkboard and printed out in outline style.

It seems everything old is new again as Final Draft 7 reintroduces the focus on index cards. Adapting and improving version 6’s Scene Navigator and its card-based interface, the feature still provides a map of a script. However, writers can enter notes onto the index cards that hold script scenes making it possible to add revision notes, brainstorming ideas and other observations into your script outline.

Comments typed into the Summary Cards appear under the Scene Headings in the Navigator. This feature is a clear improvement over the effective but basic Script Notes feature in previous version, as it allows you to see your story notes while looking at the scenes themselves in outline form.

Meanwhile, Final Draft 7 includes all of the traditional features users expect, including:
• Adobe PDF format save capability.
• Bold/italic/underline for text in all fonts.
• Customizable Reports.
• Format Assistant.
• GoTo Scene and Scriptnote navigation.
• Improved Final Draft Courier font.
• Menu allowing for the printing of selected index cards.
• On the fly redraw for smooth scrolling.
• Page layout, ruler functions and scroll bars.
• ScriptCompare
• Smart Drag and Drop text editing and moving.
• Spell-check.
• Updated TV Templates

Final Draft 7 provides all of the features working writers rely on, while adding enough of a new look and improved editing, organizing and developing tools to warrant a new edition.

In fairness, the developers did release this new version a little earlier than they should have as early, out of the box editions were plagued by some hiccups. However, Final Draft, Inc. quickly solved those problems. They now provide free updates for version 7 that repair any possible bugs to the first editions of the new Final Draft.

As always, registered users can download the software updates and special interactive templates free at www.finaldraft.com