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I love it for writing not planning
43 Final Draft Reviews
Final Draft is simple to use, as soon as you open a document, everything is formatted correctly. It is professional and without a doubt the industry standard for screenplays. It's easy to focus on creating a good story and good content when all the formatting is automatic and accurate. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The only dislike is the price. Final Draft is a little pricey, especially compared to Cetlx. However, it truly is the industry standard and there's no other software that can compare to it's simplicity and reputation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
My favorite features are the ability to convert text files into screenplays, edit elements line by line, and night mode. The former are useful when I'm editing a screenplay and the writer has written their script in another program. Final Draft is intuitive and includes more features than you'll usually even need. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
If you are writing anything besides a feature film, this is where the other templates suffer - even for a television script. I have multiple screenwriting programs in rotation for this reason alone. That said, if for some reason I needed to delete all but one screenwriting program off of my computer, I would keep this program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Final Draft has all the basic features, and many of the advanced, that screenwriters, both professional and beginners need in the construction and development of industry standard narrative writing. Its simple layout and accessibility, added to its advanced option features make it the go to resource for writers working within the film business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There is very little, practically, to dislike about what is in effect an industry-leading software. Most of the issues with it, given its US-centric customer support, relate to the ability to resolve problems, or gaining advice on use of little used or unfamiliar features, of which there are many. Other than that, perhaps making it more financially viable with extended licencing or cost-free multi-installations, might make it even more broadly appreciated, especially since competitor programs such as CeltX, are being offered at lower price points, or, as with CeltX, for free. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I’ve been using it for so long that I’m used to it and it seems very intuitive. I love that you can now voice transcribe and the new beat board is great Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The sharing option still seems like you could use some work for when your co-writing on a project Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
As far as formatting screenplays goes, Final Draft is still an easy to use way to get your screenplay on the page. It's ability run reports for characters and locations can be handy when scanning your script for budgeting reasons. Exporting as PDF works well and is necessary if you want to send to anyone who does not have Final Draft installed on their computer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The application is rarely updated and many of the features (such as the Names Database) don't work on my computer (MacBook running High Sierra). Additionally, there are many more cost effective/free solutions to screenplay formatting (CeltX, Highland) that make it hard to justify spending over $100 on Final Draft. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
If you write screenplays for a living, this is the only software you need. Once you learn how to use it (which takes 10 minutes), you'll find it remarkably simple and user friendly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's not cheap and sometimes when either Final Draft and/or Apple do software updates, they are (at least temporarily) incompatible! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What I like best about final draft is that it has brought together a community of writers and filmmakers by by far being the most popular in Hollywood. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
What I dislike is that it is a bit dated compared to its new competitors Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's great that your script can be tied into soooooo many different tools to help produce the film, not just write. Trying to do all things like breakdowns, shot lists, etc separately would be a nightmare. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I don't like how complicated it is. I feel like I need to go to college to learn how all the tools like the navigator work and I need to have a dictionary available to know what the labels mean. I'm sure a very experienced writer would get it, but not me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
This software makes screenwriting a breeze. It walks you through everything and is very collaborative. I’ll only use this industry standard! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love everything about Final Draft. It meets all of my screenwriting needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
