Final Draft Version 7.1 (MAC/WIN)

Final Draft Version 7.1 is the industry standard for scriptwriting, used by many Hollywood writers. The program has been used to create many professional movie scripts, television episodes, and stage plays. It is a sophisticated writing tool that automatically paginates and formats work as it is entered, relieving the writer of the clerical burden. This new version adds many significant features that help to solidify the application's position as the essential tool for the creative writing process.

As testimony to its position in the field of professional writing, the program's file format has been accepted by the Writers Guild of America West (WGAw) as the preferred format for their registry. The guild provides a service of registering scripts in the creation of legal evidence, a function they have performed for members since 1927. Each year they register more than 55,000 scripts and other forms of literary matter. Their site (http://www.wga.org) lists Final Draft as a recommended writing tool.

The new Panels capability helps the author both organize and develop their story. It supports the simultaneous display of both the script outline and electronic index cards, enabling the writer to see scene and summary information at the same time as the actual script contents.

The new Tagger feature addresses a need long recognized in theatrical production, that until now has remained a manual yellow highlighting process. Users can apply tags to certain script elements and export them to scheduling software, making the process significantly more efficient.

Other features in the software provide real benefits to the author. These include Text-to-Speech, wherein the author can assign different voices to script characters and hear the script read aloud; CallaboWriter, a function that enables two or more writers to write, edit and discuss a work over the Internet, in realtime; ScriptCompare, which compares two versions of a script, highlighting differences between them; SmartType, a type ahead capability that fills in character names, scene headings, locations, etc. after the first few letters have been typed; cross-platform exchange between Macintosh and Windows; and much more.

This program is easy to recommend. It is a best-in-class selection.