#FINAL DRAFT PRO 8 HOW TO#

And worst of all, if you revise your script, you could end up with two speeches by the same character in succession. This forces you to have to enter a hard return in the dialog and retype the character name. In Word, if your dialog speech goes beyond the end of the page it either moves the entire speech onto the following page, leaving a big, white gap on the previous page, or it continues the dialog on the next page, without the character's name. However, one great advantage to Final Draft is the automatic use of MOREs and CONT’Ds. The dialog element works the same in Word and Final Draft. And if you want to change to another character all you have to do is a type one or two letters of that character’s name and the rest of the name appears. Final Draft anticipates the conversation and alternates the character names, allowing you to continue typing dialog exchanges without having to retype names. This is particularly helpful when writing conversations between two characters. CHARACTER NAMEĪs with slug lines, Final Draft’s SmartType feature suggests character names for you. Typing action is virtually identical in Word and Final Draft. And if you don’t like it you can always turn it off. Personally, I found SmartType’s slug line completion to be a bit finicky, occasionally giving jumbled suggestions, but for the most part it is helpful. Final Draft also allows you to simply type “int.” in a new line of action and it automatically anticipates that you want a slug line and reformats the line as a slug.

All you have to do is hit the tab or enter keys and it completes the typing for you. Final Draft’s “SmartType” feature suggests an entire slug line based on what you’ve previously typed. But in Final Draft you get additional help. In Word, as noted, you type ctrl+S and you’re automatically formatted for slugs. Let’s go through the script elements one at a time. Unlike Word, Final Draft can do much more than simple script formatting. But this is really where the similarities end. For example, they can both automatically take you from slug line formatting to action formatting by just hitting the enter key. Both Word and Final Draft can be set to automatically format the next element. In Final Draft this can be done with ctrl+1. In Word, ctrl+S can be used to instantly set slug line formatting. They both have shortcut keys that change the formatting. Word and Final Draft work the same with respect to the basic functions of formatting script elements. If you read my post on turning Word into a screenwriting program you know what Word can do. I’m going to break this review down into three parts: basic script formatting, useful screenwriting tools, and cost. This review is for those who want to decide between using Word as a simple screenwriting program and a more robust program like Final Draft. I’m not going to get into every detail of the program because you can find that elsewhere.

So let me give you a short review on Final Draft 8. Final Draft, in contrast, does those things and much more. Whereas Word allows you to easily and automatically format basic script elements such as slug line, action, character name, parenthetical, dialog and transitions, that’s about all it can do. I received a blog comment from Ben Cahan, the creator and co-founder of Final Draft, who pointed out that a true screenwriting program was more than just “margins and capitalized slug lines and character names”.

#FINAL DRAFT PRO 8 HOW TO#

In my previous post, How to Turn Microsoft Word into a Terrific Screenwriting Program, I explained how to use Word’s “styles” to automatically create script formatting.

Final draft pro 8