Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Final Draft 5 is Better
This was a real disappointment. I've had version 5 for some time and liked it a lot. When I was offered a special deal on an upgrade to 6 I figured, why not. Now I'm sorry I went for the upgrade.I use a G3 PowerBook with Mac OS 9.1 and more than 300 MB of RAM. Final Draft 6 -- particularly the print preview -- is quite a bit slower than version 5. I also don't like the new interface, which is "carbonized" to look like Mac OS X, as much as the clean, Word-like interface of version 5. That said, Final Draft 6 has pretty much the same features as version 5, although you can now save a script in PDF format. In short, if you're happy with Final Draft 5 I wouldn't bother with the upgrade. You might also try Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000. It's a very nice, customizable program that's easy to use. In fact, I find that I'm using MM 2000 over either version of Final Draft. Update: I just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.2 and Final Draft 6.0 works much better than it did with 9.1. Excellent product.
Rating:  - Big time saver and easy to use.
The use of a script formatting programme such as Final Draft 6.0 is a bit of an indulgence if you simply want to generate a decent looking piece of work. Setting up a Word template and a set of paragraph styles will do the job very adequately. Beats a Selectric anyway.What Final Draft 6.0 is all about, is the automatic adjustment of a script's format so that when re-writes or revisions are made, the document will be appropriately modified. For example, working with a Word template and you have included the (more) and Joe Blow ( continued) tags, to get the dialogue across a page-break, these will remain in place even if they are not required after an edit or an addition or a rearrangement of scenes. Final Draft 6.0 will delete or include these tags as you proceed. And with line spacings kept as they should be. Final Draft 6.0's other big feature is its analysis capability. So if Harlan Ellison and Bll Shatner had been running this application when Bill was reading through 'The City on the Edge of Forever' script at Harlan's house, Bill could have, with a click or two of the mouse, discovered how many lines that he and Leonard Nimoy had between them and saved a lot of reading and mental arithmetic time. Which is what Final Draft is all about for the serious or professional writer. The saving of time when you need to know what,where, and how much of, a script contains, and the avoidance of a lot of tiresome manual tweaking. At its most basic, Final Draft, will dispense with the need for a multitude of keystrokes in a word processor, since mostly the tab and enter keys are used. Most of these formatters use this approach in one way or another. A file can be saved as an RTF ( rich text format ) for delivery to those not running Final Draft, and you can also export a script to PDF for peace of mind, if you want others to see and print the script as you do. Another useful feature is the ability to take text created in a Word template and copy and paste it into Final Draft for it to apply the correct text styles to the, scene-heading, dialogue, parenthetical, and action sections, etc. This means that you don't have to worry about re-doing your pre-Final Draft scripts in Final Draft. There are cheaper options to Final Draft 6.0, but I have found them to be either lacking in features or simply confusing and awkward to use. More time being wasted getting one's head around their idiosyncrasies, than doing anything useful. The documentation for Final Draft 6.0 is the best of all the options that I've seen and they have even gone to the bother of creating their own font - Courier Final Draft. This font is different to Courier New 12 Pt in Word, etc. At high zoom levels, on screen, it looks good and beefy, not thin and weedy like Courier New 12 Pt . It also prints much more strongly making your script more easily readable. It's a fair simulation of a type written page. Other fonts can be substituted, but it's highly recommended that you stick to Courier to be consistent with expectations. Courier Final Draft also looks pretty much the same on PCs and Macs. Final Draft 6.0 won't write you a better script, but it will allow you to keep your mind on the job.
Rating: - Excellent Time-Saver
Writing a screenplay can be a very daunting task, especially for someone who is not familiar with the format. Before purchasing Final Draft, my previous screenplays were written in your basic, custom-formated Microsoft Word document. Final Draft 6 does it all the formating for you. A function called "SmartType" finishes off character names for you, so you don't have to keep typing in names. This is wonderful when you have two or three characters talking to each other in a string, so you can quickly type the conversation, as if it were going on in front of you. When I transferred my previous screenplays into Final Draft, it took about an hour or so to reformat a 106-page document correctly. Final Draft was able to interperate about 80% of the formatting correctly, getting confused on mostly transitions and telling the difference between some scene headings and actions. Although, it knew exactly what was dialogue just by where it was placed in the word document, which I thought was remarkable. Some of the templates for actual T.V. shows are a little silly, but they serve their purpose: giving you the raw format for a certain show, which can vary greatly depending on the series. If you have your own show you've created, you can save a blank document with the initial beginings of the script as a template and be able to have a fresh document ready for your next episode. Final Draft is a great purchase for the novice screen writer learning the format, and a wonderful time-saver for the somewhat-established to established veteran.
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