A guest review by Russ Aaronson

Just five short years ago I found the inspiration for my first screenplay: Philip K.Dick's cheesy masterpiece, Clans of the Alphane Moon. I could picture every scene in clear detail, especially the first appearance of Lord Running Clam, the empathic Ganymedean slime mold who oozes into our hero's apartment and changes his life forever. Unfortunately, I hardly had the spare time to write down my ideas, let alone familiarize myself with the ins and outs of screenplay format. Until now.

Short of paying the venerable Syd Field to be your personal writing assistant, the best word processing solution for any screenwriter (novice or professional) is Final Draft 5. Designed to automatically format plays for stage, screen, and television, Final Draft makes good on its promise to "take care of the style" so you can focus on the content. As a relative newcomer to screenplay and teleplay format, I also discovered that spending a little time with Final Draft allowed me to quickly learn about proper style. After all, how could a Hollywood executive grasp the subtlety of Lord Running Clam's wisdom if my scene headings are indistinguishable from my transitions.

Installation and Performance
Final Draft ships with a Mac/Windows hybrid CD and more than enough printed materials to get you started. The key disk copyright protection system has been replaced with a much more user-friendly authentication system. The program can be installed on as many computers as needed, but only one installation at a time can be "authenticated"; running the program on any other computer requires the presence of the program CD. If the user wishes to switch hard drives (or update hard disk drivers or operating systems), the first authenticated install must be deauthenticated.

I tested Final Draft on my trusty Performa 6400 (OS 8.6), a Pismo Powerbook (OS 9.1), and my beloved new Titanium G4 PowerBook running 9.1 and OS X (10.0.4) on a single partition. The program installed, authenticated, and deauthenticated on all three systems with all but one hitch. After authenticating an install through Classic in OS X, Final Draft required the presence of the CD when I booted back into 9.1. The software's authors are aware of the problem, and it will likely be solved when an OS X native version ships this winter.

Performance in the Classic layer of OS X is generally reliable, but odd behavior occasionally reared its head. On one occasion I was unable to make multiple document windows move to the front of the display. Virtually anything could have been the culprit given the rapidly changing structure of Apple's new system, and Final Draft's rock solid performance in all other cases lends it the benefit of the doubt.

Tutorials and Main Features
For those new to screenwriting, or to the program itself, Final Draft ships with a simple tutorial covering most of the application's essential features. After half an hour of poking around I was ready to pen my masterwork. I simply chose the appropriate format and got cranking.

Final Draft truly excels at providing intuitive, flexible techniques for automatically formatting a document. Each script is divided into Elements (General Items, Scene Headings, Actions, Character Names, Parentheticals, Dialogue, Transitions, and Shots), and though these items can be arranged in many ways, most compositions follow a fairly logical progression of elements. The return and tab keys allow writers to easily cycle through the most obvious choices, and an incredibly helpful status bar at the bottom of the screen tells you the result of typing either key at any time. This technique not only speeds up the composition process for experienced writers, but it acts as a fine tutorial for the novice screenwriter.

The addition of Macros makes writing even easier. The option and shift/option keys allow for the automatic entry of ten standard locations and transitions. These choices appear in the status bar when the hot keys are pressed; and, as with the program's various templates, the Macros can be easily edited by the user.

Exclusive Features: A Mixed Bag
Final Draft 5 runs the gamut of features for such a venerable program. Some of these goodies made me cry with joy, and others were simply laughable.

Smart Type: This is basically an autocomplete feature, but it works in virtually every aspect of the program. When you begin to type in any new Element, Final Draft will compare your first few letters to a list of words you've already typed in for that Element (the list also includes commonly used terms for the Element you're working in). The software then tries to predict the word you're looking for. If the suggested word is correct, simply hitting return will complete the word; if the word is incorrect or unclear, a pop-up window with a list of possible words will appear. If the term you need is new to the list, Final Draft will automatically add it. This autocomplete feature has been a standard in word processing for several years now, and I've never really seen the need to use such a feature before. But screenwriting is far more repetitive, and I found myself regularly taking advantage of this useful feature.

Scene Navigator: This allows you to view a scene in storyboard or outline format, allowing for easy manipulation of scene order and providing a nice visual overview of the screenplay. The folks at Final Draft will even sell you glossy, high quality cards for storyboard printing if you so desire.

Production Features: Should a studio ever become interested in my beloved epic of alien terrorism, Final Draft allows for A/B pages and drafts to facilitate pre-production changes. I would love to really test this feature, so if you are a key decision-maker at a major studio, just drop me a line and we'll see how the software works in a real production environment!

Script Notes: Stickies for screenplays! Again, Word has this feature, but Final Draft's implementation is simple, appropriate and effective.

Names Database: Yes, Final Draft includes a startlingly, occasionally humorously multicultural database with over 90,000 names to choose from. I could play with this feature alone for hours on end.

"Jobs in the name database? As if Apple didn't place enough products on TV already!"

CollaboWriter: This feature is supposed to let you connect over the internet with another Final Draft writer and work on a screenplay simultaneously. Though I was unable to test this component of Final Draft (technical problems unrelated to Final Draft prevented it – an addendum will be posted as soon as the problem is fixed), actual documentation on the feature was only found buried in the PDF guide on the CD. One would think such a spectacular item would receive better coverage, especially in the written manual.

Secure Document Feature: Lets you send an "uneditable" document to another person. I'm no hacker, but I was able to use a freeware program to copy the text and paste it into a new FD document in no time flat, with almost all of the formatting intact. The folks at Final Draft should leave security to the experts.

Text-to-Speech: This sounds fun: just assign voices to each character, then sit back and let your computer read the screenplay to you. Unless you're writing a screenplay about eighties' arcade games that come to life ("INTRUDER ALERT! STOP THE HUMANOID! STOP THE INTRUDER!"), I'd pass on this eminently silly feature.

E-Mail Capabilities: This yawnable feature lets you mail your script from within the application. This is largely an advertisement for the "Secure Digital Messenger" pay service provided through UPS. I'd rather use my own mail app (this is not to be confused with the OS X Mail app, which basically stinks).

Standard Word Processing: Version 5 now has the ability to perform like a standard word processor. This could be useful for writing treatments, memos and the like, but I still prefer my own WP app here.

All of these features bring up a key issue about Final Draft's latest incarnation: do we really need all of this extra stuff? Given this program's hefty price tag, one is left wondering if these folks are trying to justify the program's expense by including some optional or useless features to what is essentially a clean, effective program that fills a specific need. Would customers pay less for a "Final Draft Lite" that just churns out properly formatted scripts? Just a thought.

Aside from these features, it would be neat to see Final Draft add the capability to automatically import and format files made in Dramatica Pro (a creative, yet maddeningly obtuse piece of software created by the Movie Magic people). I would imagine that many writers put up with Screenwriter's weaknesses for this reason alone.

One Format, Many Options
It is important to note that Final Draft uses a proprietary file format (the extension is .FDR). This is generally a poor trend in software, but Final Draft offers many alternatives to work around this problem:

• Final Draft files are completely identical when created/viewed on Wintel or Mac machines.
• A free Final Draft Viewer (downloadable from www.finaldraft.com) can be distributed with the file. Both the viewer and a feature film length screenplay would easily fit on a floppy.
• I found exporting to Word Format simple and reliable
• You can save the file as rich text (RTF). Retranslated files retain most of their original formatting.
• Files created with a screenwriting Word template also import quite well.

The Final Analysis
The newest version of Final Draft is the best screenwriting software available. The interface is well designed, some of the new features are quite useful, and the resulting files have greater compatibility than any cross-platform software I've ever worked with. However, the price for such writing bliss is quite steep, and many of the newest features fail to justify the cost. Mac OS X users may wish to wait for the native version given the product's price; and Classic compatibility glitches, though minor, may force professional users to wait for the Aqua wave to crest next year.

For all but the most occasional writer, Final Draft is a necessary tool for script production. Even the great Lord Running Clam would have enjoyed such a useful program, though I doubt that Mavis Beacon herself could teach a slime mold how to type.

Russ Aaronson
English Teacher,
Pompano Beach, FL

Product: Final Draft 5
Manufacturer: Final Draft, Inc
Suggested Retail Price: $249 .... MicroWarehouse Price: $210 (check for current price)

Article Posted: August 27, 2001