Dear Final Draft: GOODBYE

I’m on a PC running Windows and, despite purchasing FD7 and installing all the bug fixes, I’m still using Final Draft 6. That’s because after I installed the 7.1 update it somehow screwed up both FD7 and FD6 so bad I had to uninstall both of them, then reinstall.

FD6 does, however, work great for me — but Final Draft 7 is the Bay of Pigs of software releases.

I use FD7 [now 7.1] and I don’t have a problem. I had one issue and emailed FD for advice… solved in 24 hours. I’ve been tinkering with computers since the early ‘70’s using IBM 360 mainframes and ‘language’ but didn’t really get going until Apple and Mac in the early ’80s. What exactly makes FD7 the ‘Bay of Pigs’ of software releases? Forget about 1st AD’s for a minute and lay it on the line… How about opening up the software pissing contest one more time?

Why update FD in the first place?

I’m on a G4 laptop runnin 10.1.what-ever-the-hell. Never bothered to update it ‘cause with 10.1.x it’s a fairly serious pain in the ass.

That, and I never really saw the need.

I don’t use my beat to hell, but dearly loved beauty, for anything at all more than writing, posting on BBS’s about writing, readin the news, and watching DVD’s.

But my real question here is why update FD from version six?

I bought ver four or five, updated to six ‘cause, (I’m not sure but I think), that was the first version that’d output pdf. Imo that WAS worth payin for the update.

But at this point, six works, does everything I need, so why bother to update?

Frankly most of the “added functionality” offered by the updates impresses me as a bunch of fairly silly bells and whistles.

Six had that “troop of robots reads yer dialog” crap added into it, which seemed to wow people, though I’ve got NO idea why.

The “index card” function impresses me as digital fluff in search of a purpose. I can use a real box of index cards and a pen to do that job in half the time it takes to print the buggers. And 90% of the time the first few lines in a scene aren’t even what I’d want on the dammed cards in the first place. More digi-fluff imo.

I’ve ALWAYS hated, absolutely HATED onscreen buttons, for ANY purpose. That’s what function keys and keyboard “shortcuts” are for dammit. Onscreen buttons, especially big pretty high tech lookin buttons, imo, do not a God dammed thing more than suck up screen space that could have been used for displaying the blasted script I’m workin on.

If I wanted a video game I’d buy one. I use this puppy for work. I use it to save time. Aesthetics don’t enter into it.

And yet… it seems with every dammed program, with every “update”, waddaya get? More blasted buttons and toolbars crowding out screen space that could have, SHOULD have, been used to display more of the pages I’m workin on.

“Updates.”

To quote Craig, “FEH!” Not interested.

(Especially if I’ve gotta PAY for the dammed things).

Unless…

Somebody’s got a few points that they think could help me pull my head out, I gotta ask, and this is a serious question…

WHY SHOULD I BE BOTHERING WITH UPDATES TO F.D.?

I’ve never used FD, but MMS is great. Just be careful to unregister any time you have a chance of losing your preferences. I made the mistake of registering MMS on two separate logins (which seems wrong). I didn’t even think about it when I reformated and upgraded, because I had saved my whole user folder. Now I only have one install credit left, so I am trying to be very careful with it. I unregistered before upgrading to Tiger and then registered when everything went well. The nice thing is that the registration process is a breeze.

I’ve never used Final Draft. I’m an avid fan of Movie Magic Screenwriter.

Mariama

I made the switch about a year ago from FD6 to MM. I liked the feature set and more intuitive approach. In addition, I’d had several very strage glitches in the program that screwed up the formatting. And of course, I could not get help unless I paid money.

I have found MM to be rock solid. Not a single unsolvable problem in the last year and very good customer support.

I happened to get a free copy of FD 7 (a contest prize) and tried it again. While I kind of like some of the new features, it was still buggy.

MM is what I am staying with as I move into a semi-professional screenwriting mode.

Dave

Maybe it’s because I’ve never had any problems with it, but I still prefer Final Draft. In our production office, I get a chance to use both products. But when I go home to write, I do it with Final Draft. To this day, MMS still has a Windows feel to it that turns me off. Final Draft has always had a more Mac-centric way about it, probably due to its roots as a Mac-only program. I could very well feel differently if I were a Windows user.

As I mentioned in a previous post, FD 7.1 has been fine for me. I’ve had no problems whatsoever and I’m happy to continue using it.

i use fd5. yes, 5. i’ve got the program on a flash drive and can drop it onto any machine i want. see no reason to upgrade (plus, everyone says 6 and 7 are kaakaa). do want to try mms. i mean, why not? bottom line, i just want it to work

I’m glad to hear your review of MMS. My writing partner and I struggle all the time with FD, both in the internet collaboration “feature” and a problem with cross-platfrom file-swapping. (She’s mac, I’m PC, and when I edit a file and zip it back it crasher her FD.) She’s also INCREDIBLY frustrated with FD support — she’s a programmer by vocation, so when she sends in a bug report it’s VERY researched and detailed.

MMS used to be Script Thing and before that Scriptor. The guys have never been anything less than accessible and friendly whenever needed. A first rate company.

I have both programs, but I use FD because for some reason I can’t make PDFs in MM. Everytime I try to convert, an error message comes up.

I’ve owned and used MMS since 2000 and absolutely love it… you’re right about their customer service — they’re even great with techno retards like me. :-)

If this program isn’t industry standard, it certainly should be…

I know that MM does have a bug in creating a PDF on the Windows platform. If you change text colors (a color other than black) the colors will not be reproduced in the PDF. I have been told that this issue will be addressed in an upcoming release. The bug doesn’t exist on the Mac, so that’s what I use to create my MM PDFs.

However, I know of no problem that would keep you from creating a PDF altogether in MM.

I’m happy with FD6, however, I think it sucks that they charge for customer disservice.

I’ve used both extensively - FD because I was at a studio where I was forced to, and MMS because I like it.

I am a PC guy (though switching soon) and have always found MMS to be superior and easier in every way.

FD has always had too many “quirks” for me compared to MMS. But their marketing folks have done a Gatesesque job of making it the industry standard, even though imho, it’s an inferior product.

So, any trouble importing FD files to MMS?

Because, well, that would be a major hangup in switching.

Yes there are problems importing .fdr files - MMS doesn’t recognise them (or at least my copy doesn’t) and opens them in ASCII, which strips away all the formating and leaves a complete mess. But that’s okay, because Final Draft won’t even open .scw files.

Of course the obvious solution is to export from either program by saving in .rtf - the universal text file format, which does the trick, even if it can mess up some of the formating. But it’s not as if it’s unworkable (and it gives you a chance to procrastinate by checking for any format errors).

I’ve used both and while I still find that I use Final Draft for simple text editing (yeah, I know, I really need to get myself a real world processor), Movie Magic definitely feels much more intuitive for screenplay writing - and that’s despite me using Final Draft for a couple of years before getting hold of Movie Magic.

Do we get geek points for partaking in this discussion?

Re: importing a FD file into MM. I have had very good success simply copying the FD script and pasting it into MM. All, or almost all of the formatting will remain.

Dave

Dave:

I saw this comment and immediately tried it.

Fantastic!

The export-to-rtf-and-import-to-MMS method was pretty so-so. Lots of errors.

The cut and paste method was nearly flawless.

THANKS!

Craig, Craig, Craig… welcome to the world of MM. I downloaded the demos of both back in 2000 and while I didn’t find any major functional differences, MM just had a better feel to it. What most people like - the fact that FD has a more Word-like interface - actually turned me off. When I’m working in a program that’s not Word, I don’t want it to look like Word. With MM, my brain switches over more seamlessly to the specific shortcuts I’ve set up for that program. Also, the support is far, far superior.

Isn’t it nice to work with a company that actually seems to care about its customers?

And, unfortunately, doesn’t it just show up how wretched many companies actually are?

Superior customer service works really well as a business strategy. It’s surprising how many people don’t realize that.

Wow.

Craig makes this great post about high concepts needing an intrinsic connection to the human condition and we slug it out on Wordplay for about a trillion posts. But he says he’s switching to MM and there’s of frenzy of replies here.

I’m waiting for MM to release their much talked about and long awaited new version before I buy, until them I’ll stick to Scriptware which has never crashed, never lost a file (on win 95/98 and XP), and has unlimited installs.

Did I hear a “feh”?

:)

Does it bother any of the people using MMS that they’re working with a product called “Movie Magic?” I mean, why not go ahead and call it “Up With People Screenwriter?” It just seems like an irredeemably silly name for something you’re going to use for serious work. Is there some other program with Screenwriter in its title they’re trying to distinguish it from?

I hope the people at Final Draft learn from their mistake. The premature release of version 7 was a catastrophe and the reason I stayed with FD6.

The PDF format creates compact files, but what I like the most is the Final Draft secure format. Like PDF, it’s uneditable, but it still allows the addition of notes by people who use the free viewer or FD. There has been plenty of situations where the secure format was useful.

I love FD6 but if something better comes up, that is something with new functions I’ll actually use, I might consider a change.

I’m following the progress of a new program called Celtx ( http://www.celtx.com/ ). The program is freeware, available in multiple languages with spellcheckers, is platform independent, and has some nice production features. I wouldn’t be surprised if it became the “OpenOffice” of screenwriting.

DL

Jay:

Feh! I should mention that I did forward the URL of this to the Movie Magic people (because hey, why not reward them for their good service), and they immediately responded. They’re apparently working hard on a major update right now, so perhaps you won’t have to wait too long.

DL:

I checked out Celtx. It’s not ready for prime-time, but perhaps one day.

for many weeks now i have been feeling like a freak for loving mms and thinking fd below par.

it didn’t stop me doing what i felt was right, but still - it was an odd feeling knowing that 80% of the industry was against me on this one.

a couple of points from comments above - the index card thing is not just about noting index cards. you can add an entire scene to a screenplay as you think of it, then use index cards to move the text automatically to the correct place. (in mms) (this won’t be news to a lot of people, i’m just responding to how things came across on the net as a reader)

it doesn’t bother me that it’s called movie magic. i don’t care about the name, i care about the functions. the end.

also - to my knowledge - movie magic scheduling came first. so they just carried on with the name when they went into screenwriting software to add to that.

i could be wrong, in that when i made my first feature the ONLY thing i’d heard of from movie magic was their scheduling software, so if it wasn’t the first thing they did, then i will ammend that to “the first internationally famous thing they did”.

but then i come back to my former point - whatever came first and whatever it’s called, i prefer function over name.

embarrassed by the name? then just tell people you use “an excellent program that suits my screenwriting needs”

(hey, you’re going to need to get used to talking in vague terms if you want to work with a studio …)

oh yeah, that’s the other thing - many MANY mms users have complained about the lack of updates, but which would you prefer - a good one? or one like the latest fd which has caused so much dislike of their product in the professional field?

[if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it]

I’m still using Final Draft 6. I like it O.K., but if I ever do need to upgrade, I’ll certainly be switching to Movie Magic.

I have the latest deluxe movie magic program. It has all sorts of options and a device that reads back the script in comically robotic voices, but doing simple things like getting rid of “continued” at the bottom of the page requires sifting through the marginally useful options.

I’ve started using my old Scriptware program again lately. It came on two floppy discs, is very simple, elegant, is more intuitive and gets the job done. Another thing - it doesn’t require being connected to the internet or a CD to use unlike MM. Simple is better.

So I’m the only one still using an Underwood?

I’m tossing my opinion into this thing. It’ll only cost you free-ninety-nine.

Where’s the love for MS Word? (I heard that sigh, Craig).

As far as writing and formatting a script goes, it can do any and everything FD can do. If you’re willing to create or customize a template, that is. If you are willing to do this, you become your own tech support for the most part.

Call me a control freak, I guess, but I think you should be allowed more options when it comes to spacing what FD calls elements. 1, 2, or 3 just ain’t enough. Maybe MM is better at this. Is it?

And for the life of me I can’t figure out why, when using FD 7+, if a page starts with a “Sceneheading” there’s more space at the top than if it starts with “Action”. Can anyone help with that?

Bottom line, FD and I’m assuming MM, are merely simplified word processors created to do one main thing. They’re semi-customizable templates disguised under their own GUI.

Word can do what FD and MM can do, plus more.

(All that said, I’m stuck using FD for reasons nobody cares about).

As I’ve said before, one of the only things that really bugs me about Final Draft—and Movie Magic, from what I can tell, has this problem, too—is that it’s unable to recognize certain characters, like accents on capital letters.

Michael:

I just put an accent on a capital E in MMS, so it seems to work.

C.

Been using FD6 on OS X for a few years, and I shudder at every email Final Draft sends me, to “upgrade” to FD 7. Iiigh. Some quirks in 6, but at least it’s functional.

Would love to switch over, but I’ve never had the guts. Final Draft just looks so purdy in OS X – and I have no idea what Movie Magic Screenwriter looks like in OS X, since all they have on their site is Windows screenshots. Does it look all right? Or will it really be Windows-looking software, on my Mac?

Daniel:

Looks native to Mac. Nice font-smoothing, which you can turn on and off with preferences.

As always, I have to chime in as one of those rare users of Sophocles.

Craig;

I just ran into that “not registered” problem you mentioned w/FD (rev 6). I “registered” the bugger more than a year ago. Now all of a sudden when I start it the bugger tells me it’s not registered and asks if I want to run in “demo” mode. How’d you fix that do you recall?

Hmmm, well, I seem to recall it involved getting on the phone with them, verifying who I was, getting an emailed version of the app with a new customer code…

…awful.

Have you tried just reauthorizing it with your current customer code?

Mike:

From Final Draft website -

“Should you need further assistance with authorizing/activating, you can call 818-789-6281 and you will not be charged…”.

I had the “not registered” problem a year or so ago, called, and they handled it right away at no charge. Not that I’m married to FD. After reading this thread, I am definitely going to give MMS a whirl.

(Note to self: never piss off a screenwriter with a popular blog.)

Nathan:

I too am a user (and lover) of Sophocles. Are you doing the 2005 beta test? I’m not sure I need the full version, but I’m liking it so far.

Craig:

I know we get the “feh,” but have you tried it? I know you’re pretty much invested in this current line of thought, but you should secretly look at it if you haven’t.

BTW, finished the first draft of my script this morning. I’m feeling good. Who will rejoice with me?

out. -3

Trey:

I’d repeal the “feh”, but Sophocles is Winblows only, and even though I have a ThinkPad because everyone needs a cheap plastic laptop they can spill coffee on, I do all of my writing on my PowerBook. Any company that doesn’t take the Mac screenwriting market seriously isn’t interested enough in the pro writer, IMO.

Congrats on finishing your draft, though!

Craig:

Thanks for the repeal. A quick anecdote, because I feel I should defend myself for only owning a PC.

I have a Toshiba Satellite…

…no, continue laughing, I’ll wait.

I worked for an ad agency. Got burned out. Wanted to seriously pursue my love of writing, so I quit. Problem was, I didn’t own a computer. I was recently married, overworked, underappreciated (by that I mean poorly paid), so I proposed an idea to my creative director. I would be on retainer with them for the remainder of the calendar year (9 months) in exchange for the Toshiba Satellite the agency let me use. They agreed.

Over the next 9 months my phone rang zero times. That could be taken in several ways; I choose to look at it as getting a computer for free. On which I just finished the first draft of my latest script using Sophocles. One day I’ll go Mac, but until then I’ll enjoy Sophocles.

-3

Cue Denise Meyer, who will now defend the honor of all Toshiba laptops (even though they break her heart)…

Hey, what’s wrong with Toshiba laptops? They have one of the best reps going. I use an older one as my secondary wireless unit in the livingroom, and it has never let me down yet, watch I’ll prove…USER CUT OFF BY HARDRIVE FAILURE

I’ve read through all the posts and can’t help but come to the conclusion that Scriptware is tops. Everyone here seems to have problems with FD and MMS. I used MMS for a couple years and constantly had little buggy problems. I used Scriptware for a number of years and never once had a problem, it’s as stable as a rock. I think Scriptware only fell out of favor when FD and MMS installed the ridiculous robotic acting voices and scriptware couldn’t compete with that. I don’t see any reason to get upgrades as I can’t see screenplay format changing in any significant way for a long time to come.

Scriptware fell out of favor when the founder of cinovation stopped putting money into R&D and advertising. Amazingly, despite it’s ugly win 95 GUI, it is more stable and intuitive than either FD or MM.

They could have easily had robotic voices and PDF exporting and real time collaboration but that takes money and Steve stopped putting money into Scriptware to pursue other things.

I’ve tried the demos for Sophocles (I can barely type it without cringing at the non WYSIWYG interface) and FD and MM and I have to say Scriptware, as old as it is, still beats them for ease of use and intuitive interface.

Too bad that Steve abondoned the Scriptware upgrades. I see there’s a copy of Scriptware up for sale on ebay for 99 cents. If anyone’s curious they should snap it up.

I’m going to go back to contemplating phil spector’s hair and feeling grateful I’m still in New York rather than L.A.

Okay, I’ll give it a shot. I use FD 6. The one thing that bothers me about it, well, two things: 1) I can’t undo a page break; once it’s there it’s there. 2) When a character’s speech is continued on the next page I can’t adjust where the character’s name appears below the top margin. It’s built in somehow and it always seems too cramped up there, especially if I have CONTINUEDs turned on. Other than that, I love it. I can’t imagine any other software being more “intuitive”. FD always seems to know where I’m going next with the text.

Oh, one more thing that seems kind of buggy. Whenever I open a file the page count is never what it was when I last saved it and the page breaks aren’t what they were either. A hit on the enter key after the last line causes an automatic adjusts for this, but it’s kind of wierd that it would do that. Is that a PC thing or a FD thing?

As for Word, I haven’t used it in years. I love the fact that FD auto capitalizes the first word after a period and doesn’t auto-adjust my elipses or dashes to suit itself. With Word I’d have to stop after every page to adjust the text at the top and bottom margins to make it look right and if I made any revisions it would screw up my page breaks, particularly if I had continued dialogue. FD automatically adjusts for such things.

When I read about FD 7 there was nothing of interest in the upgrades so I never even thought of buying it. I’m not familiar with MMS, although if it comes in a bundle with the rest of the MM line I might be tempted.

One more thing: I recently had my hard drive reformatted but did not unregister my copy of FD before doing so. I was able to register it again after the format but it counted as my second registration. When I tried to add FD to my work computer, naturally, I wasn’t able to register it. I simply e-mailed FD tech support, explained to them what happened and the credited me one registration. So now I have my two registrations on two different computers. I just need to remember to unregister them if I ever change computers.

My work computer is a Mac and I either use a flash drive or e-mail pages back and forth from my home PC. It seems to work pretty well, though sometimes the font changes. But that’s an easy fix.

Scriptware. Am I the only one?

I think that wordprocessing programs, including dedicated ones like FD and MM, have pretty much reached their limits. No significant improvements have been made in this area for over a decade and I don’t forsee any dramatic changes with any of our favorites.

But once in a while, I find a program that makes my life as writer much easier, and in the past several years, all of them have come from the opensource or freeware communities. Keynote ( www.tranglos.com ), AtNotes, Copernic Desktop Search, but especially Keynote.

FD and MM alike keep adding to their already long list of functions when in actual pratice, writers use only a few of them.

Like Craig, I believe that along with subjective preferences, customer service remains the only key factor in choosing a program.

DL

I use MMS (was $50 cheaper than FD when I was looking for a screenwriting program). It does what I need, but there are features I’d like to see added: being able to handle MONTAGE/SERIES OF SHOTS correctly, recognizing SUPER—nothing that couldn’t be done by just misusing an action element or two, if you don’t mind some odd spacing.

As for things that I can’t fake: I’d like WYSIWYG editing of MMS’ “cards” and I’d like to be able to edit two pages at once on my widescreen laptop and be able to see ( a la Word) multiple pages if I want.

And I’d like existing features to be smarter: e.g. compare two scripts requires that you have already open two scripts in MMS, it should prompt you to open the script(s) you want to compare.

Of course, I think spending $ on robotic voices is just silly.

All of which is to say, I think that there is room for improvement for MMS.

T

In 1998, I found a laptop computer in the New York Subway. After reporting it stolen, and having no one come forward to reclaim it. I began to use it. In the CD ROM there was a Movie Magic Screenwriter program. There were no scripts saved on the laptop. (perhaps the unlucky writer backed them up on disks) And the laptop died about three weeks later. But I have been a writer and a Movie Magic Screenwriter user since then. The program opened up doors for me I never even saw there. It has taken me from the projects of Newark, NJ to the off-broadway stage, SIX TIMES,I’ve had pitch meetings, the Nicholl Fellowship semi-finals, and an option. I have written bad plays, good plays, TV PILOTS and several screenplays, TWO OF THEM PRETTY DARN GOOD. I will never use anything but MM, not because it’s better or worse than FD. But because MM was a gift from the Universe… LITERALLY.

I used Scriptware for many, many years, with no problems. I switched for two reasons — I teamed up with a writing partner who was using Final Draft, I wantd PDF output, and I needed the internet collaboration features.

If it wasn’t for those bits, I’d probably still be using it.

Count me among the big MMS fans. I’ve used it for at least five years, under two different interations (ScriptThing and Screenware, if memory serves) and on four different episodic series. The software is remarkably easy to use and the tech support, on those rare occasions when its necessary, is terrific.

Question for the chorus - am PC now, switching to iBook or Powerbook, depending on the whim of my credit card that day. Anyone have a dependable laser printer they like, 18-20ppm? I am dying with my inkjet, and can no longer use work to print out my scripts. Sigh. Anyway, would like to stay below $300, and find something both PC and Mac friendly, if at all possible…

Craig,

You forgot to mention that you sent them a nice head shot too ;-)

T

I own and like MMS, but I still prefer MS Word.

I know, I know, but I never have to worry about page breaks, or the autocapitalize, or autoformatting.

I set up Word to format with a single keystroke. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but my laptop is pretty old. MMS runs way too slowly for me. Also, the price for Word was perfect. (That is, free).

Always glad for an opportunity to vent a vatful of spleen at the hideous abortion that is FD 7.

I’ve used a copy of FD5 for years, mainly because it made me feel more like a ‘real’ screenwriter than MS Word, which is perfectly capable of doing everything that FD can do and more, given a little geek love (and after two years as an office admin, I share the kind of bond with Word 2000 that is quite possibly illegal in many parts of the world).

When a TV show requested scripts in FD format - the only time that’s happened in five years as a pro, for all FD’s “industry standard” nonsense; not in the UK, it’s not - I got over-excited by the thought of a usable outline feature that I could display at the same time as the script, one of FD7 fantastic new features, and rashly upgraded. Only to find that the new features don’t work, that FD7 disabled some of the features that had embedded FD5 - 5, mark you, I skipped v6 - into my writing process, and that the programme crashed, flickered, fell over and generally bollocksed up at every available opportunity.

Current state of affairs is that I’ve uninstalled the useless heap of junk of FD7, write with FD 5, and can’t wait for the new version of Movie Magic - I’m going to buy it and write to the charlatans at Final Draft telling them in exhaustive, vengeful detail why I will never buy any of their useless products EVER AGAIN.

I feel better for that.

Using FD 6 on Windows XP. Besides the occasional problems with onscreen font squishing and weird scrolling behavior, it does everything mostly everything I need it to do. What exactly is so wonderful about MMS?

Reply to WriteOnBklyn, looking for a laserprinter:

I use the HP 1300 - around $350, works great, well worth it. Check out reviews…

Did someone ask about a printer?

I highly recommend the Canon PIXMA iP90.

Genuinely portable — about the size of a textbook, fits inside my computer bag along with my Powerbook with room to spare — and capable of completely wireless operation.

16 ppm black and white printing (quality superior to my HP laserjet at home, without the heat-curled pages problem you get with a laserjet), 12 ppm color. It also prints bordeless photos up to about 5X7 in size, and can do so directly from the camera.

It’s proven invaluable for production work, particularly out on location; I’m going to use it for my default printer when I get back home, too.

(and, unlike HP products that say they are compatible with PC and Mac but aren’t really compatible with Mac unless you define “compatible” as “works sporadically, provided HP has actually got the right driver for your system”, it really is compatible with both PC and Mac).

-

Toshiba has hidden strengths, literally. My husband forgot that he had put my Toshiba satellite on the ground while he loaded the back of our 4x4- (well, his Mother was yelling at him at the time). And reversed said 4x4 over it . Result?. The fan caught on the case and made a dreadful noise, which our friendly neighbourhood computer person fixed in two minutes. No other problem of any kind. Is there a demo version of Movie Magic?. I’d like to try it before I shell out. I use FD 6, having been warned off seven just in time.

caroline:

http://www.screenplay.com/products/download/index.asp?productKey=mmscreen

http://store.yahoo.com/scriptdude/movmagscreen.html

http://www.masterfreelancer.com/wsstore/ssi002.html

and so on. plenty around on google.

I’m late to the party here, but I just wanted to add one vote for poor, unloved Microsoft Word. I downloaded a screenplay template from somewhere and modified it over the years, and it works just fine for me. Anybody who wants to use it can find it at my website.

“I downloaded a screenplay template from somewhere and modified it over the years, and it works just fine for me.”

Don’t forget OpenOffice, which can use templates designed for Word and is freeware and opensource.

Yeah the support issue hasn’t exactly been Final Draft’s strong point and 7 was a monumental disaster, the company will never recover, imho. FD 8 has to be everything. But the MMS vs. FD is such a tired debate, like Mac vs. Windows. :) For the record I like both, just FD does seem to be more the standard, and like an ole friend just used to its tweaks. But MMS is making serious dents, and FD’s support issues, might tip that in Write Bros. favor even more. But FD is more than just the ‘writing’, Tagger and the Panels System are niceeeeee. More comprehensive (for me) and more used (seemingly). And 7.1 is stable. But I like MMS too. Lora Croft packs two guns. No wars. Only a tool, not a religion.

i use sophocles.

Here here! I’m so glad the fan base for MMS is picking up, the only reason I’ve bought that crappy FD is because I was told it was “industry standard” but now…is this a revolution? Could it be?

I have the same Movie Magic program I had in college, with one update, and it works like a dream. Smooth, elegant, and fluent.

Why does any of this matter? What software program was ‘Chinatown’ written? If all your screenplay problems can be solved from switching over to MMS then more power to you.

Cue Denise Meyer, who will now defend the honor of all Toshiba laptops (even though they break her heart)…

Heh. Just found this.

Given that my Toshiba’s hard drive went beserko on me a few days ago, I’m not sure I’m interested in being their white knight anymore.

Then again, it might have been Windows’ fault.

Either way, I might have to start listening to Mazin and Elliott and give those cute little Mac things another try.

As for screenwriting software, I wrote my first script on WordPerfect (no macros, even; I formatted manually…I win the geek prize! I win!). When said script caught the interest of a director I finally got Final Draft, which was in version 4 at the time. I’ve since upgraded to 6 and haven’t had any serious problems. But I might have to check out MMS…

Ha — I got Denise beat. My first six script were written in — gasp — WordStar.

Ha - I got Denise beat. My first six script were written in - gasp - WordStar.

Dammit! Yup, you win bigtime, Dan. I got to be Queen Geek for about 8.5 hours, though, whoo hoo!

Well, my first screenplay I wrote using just a word processor and I did pretty well, but now that I’ve started my second (and have a great computer now) I figured I’d try a screenwriting software program.

I’ve been reading many reviews about MMS, FD, and Sophocles among a few others. Then I decided I’d download those three and give them a test run.

Sophocles looked interesting—- but it was taking me quite awhile to figure out—- and honestly it seemed like a great deal more effort to “just write”, what with all the extra knobs and buttons. I felt like I would have to read quite alot of directions to get started.

Final Draft wouldn’t even download. I tried at least 7 times and nothing worked.

MMS downloaded fine, and I just started writing. I was able to figure out enough to write three pages in about ten minutes, just as a test, without reading a single direction first. It was easy and I liked it. Also, it appeals to me that the most production companies use the same software, and that if you need to call for help it’s free. I wish you could register your script with WGA through it, but maybe that will come.

So, MMS for me! I hope I picked the right one.

I’m also an MMS user. It’s not perfect but it’s pretty damn good. I hate the two install limitation (I have a work computer, home computer, and laptop) and I think the preferences section needs to be cleaned up—it’s not organized very logically—but otherwise it’s pretty excellent.

I used to make a program called ScriptRighter (about 10 years back) that sold well in Canada (where I am) and was a plugin for Word. I’ve been thinking about making a version for OS X (a standalone, I mean) but just haven’t.

I do the bulk of my writing (all writing) in a program called DEVONThink Pro. I then export to MMS for printing, page counting, etc. Why? Because I’m scatterbrained and like to write in snippets and DT is absolutely awesome for keeping track of what was written and where it was written (hard to explain, but check it out). It’s OS X only. It’s a little convoluted this way but I like it.

Also, what about brainstorming software or outlining software? Anyone tried Inspiration or Nova-Mind? NM actually has a screenwriting plugin. Worth a look for those of you who like visual brainstorming stuff.

I’m an aspiring writer looking for comparison of the two platforms, so thanks much for all of your contributions.

Hi Folks, I’m the developer of Sophocles, and I’d like to chime in here.

I just posted the latest beta-build, and it does do WYSIWYG (from the View menu select “Page Layout”). If you’d like to get in on the beta, the link is www.sophocles.net/beta.

It’s true the program is curently Windows-only. We’re a very small (read: underfunded) start-up. The plan is to bootstrap the thing and do a Mac port once we’re airborne and generating cash-flow (pardon my mixed metaphors — I’m a computer programmer).

Let me just say a few words about the idea behind the program. The dirty little secret of the screenwriting software business is that 80% of the dollars spent are essentially wasted. People buy a program, write a few specs, nothing happens, and they lose interest. To be honest, it makes me a little uncomforatble.

Well, my thinking is, with digital cameras improving at the rate of Moore’s law (exponentially), more and more people are going to say to hell with Hollywood, buy a camera, gather some friends together, and shoot their scripts themselves.

(Incidentally, for those of you not familiar with what’s happening in the world of digital video — it’s tremendously exciting. Within 5-10 years we’re going to have cameras under $5k that shoot at 35mm quality. And they’ll far surpass 35mm in low-light situations. If you haven’t seen Collateral, check it out. It was shot in digital (on a $100k+ Viper, I think). Notice how the movie gives you a genuine sense of being outside at night. You can actually see stuff that’s more than a block away without lighting up the whole neighborhood. And equally exciting things will be happening in the realm of sound. The signal-processing tehcnologies being developed now for speech-recognition will be applied to sound mixing. With this technology, a program could identify, say, somebody’s cell going off, and break it out into a separate track. Then you can just zero out that track. Or, you could isolate just the dialogue, zero-out everything else, and add some ambient. All on a $5k desktop.)

So, with Sophocles, you’ve got the screenplay word-processor integrated with scheduling and budgeting functions. The program automatically generates day-out-of-days, actor’s sides, call-sheets, breakdown pages, revision pages, etc, etc. If nothing else, it’ll help familiarize new writers and directors with all the bits of paper that float around the set. The program won’t elminate the need for a 2nd AD and script supervisor, of course, but for a no-budget shoot, you can see the advantages.

I write in MS Word 2003. I’m not very computer savy, but I’ve hammered out some macros and revised them over the years as I’ve learned more about the craft. (In other words, I don’t want to change to FD or MM, just yet.)

PROBLEM: The look of my printed pages is still a little “off” when compared to the professional scripts I come across, and I think it’s more a function of Font and Spacing issues than bad formatting or writing. Can someone familiar with this please advise?

Here are my settings:

FONT: Courier New. FONT STYLE: Regular. SIZE: 12. CHARACTER SPACING: Condensed. BY: 0.2pt.

PARAGRAPH LINE SPACING: Multiple. AT: 0.88.

Here’s what’s wrong with the “look” of the pages:

FONT: The characters are too light and thin, almost anemic looking. They don’t have that “blocky” look that professional scripts do. It’s not a printer problem, I’ve checked.

SPACING: The characters seem a bit too large and they chew up more white space in between them than professional scripts. I’m still able to get approx. 56 vertical lines per page but the top and bottom margins are only 0.7”.

COURIER NEW: Is there a difference between this font and plain old “Courier?” My computer only has “Courier New.” If there is a difference, how do I add “Courier” font to MS Word 2003?

Thanks for any insights anyone can provide.

Compared to Movie Magic Screenwriter, Scriptware is a breath of fresh air. The easily editable, and intuitive, list and cheat structures are perfect for those occasional forays into “experimental” formats or non-standard nomenclature. MM is simply has too many features that I don’t use, yet seem to get in the way of writing—such as the roundabout and completely unintutive system used for scene headers and times. Not everyone is tied to one particular style or list in that area, and the standard list can be cheated in MM, but it’s a far easier and intuitive process in Scriptware.

I’ve been using Cinovation’s software since 1994. It’s never crashed or lost files. Customer service, on the one or two times I had an issue, in the beginning, with copy protection, was quick, effective, and friendly.

The only downside to Scriptware is in exporting files to be imported by MM, which seems to deliberately mess things up. This is occasionally an issue, but one I’m willing to live with after trying out MM for six months quite recently.

As long as I’m not having any problems WRITING with Scriptware, I’m happy. In the end, I suppose it comes down to what fits you best. And I bypass the bells and whistles every single time in favor of slick and easy.

Can any one explain to me how I am supposed to save a title page in Final Draft 7

I cannot figure it out and every time I send my scripts out the other party gets the fill in the blanks page and it is a pain in the ass.

Go to Document—->Title Page

I’m having trouble getting my Scriptware files off of a disk of my downloaded files…I get a message stating that so and so is not a scriptware file when I know that it is and its listed in the directory…can I still open these files?

I am just about to buy Final draft as I have just bought an imac and the pc disk won’t work. Can anyone tell me if I buy Movie Magic will I be able to open the first draft of my new screenplay written in Final Draft in Movie Magic?

Yes, but you’ll have to check through it, because there will be some inevitable formatting errors.

The easiest way to convert a Final Draft script to MMS is to “select all” on the Final Draft script, copy, then paste into a MMS document. Go for strict interpretation, then review your new document and correct misformatting as you need.

You can also export from FD to rtf and then import rtf into MMS, but I find the former method works better.

I would say that Movie Magic Screenwriter are the ones that have contempt for their customers. Their copy protection requires that you insert the CD every time you run the program. If you take your laptop on a plane, guess what, better remember to pack the CD. Sure, they have more features, but as long as their copy protection is so intrusive, they get the trash can.

Eddie:

That’s simply not true. You authorize the program with a serial number just as you do Final Draft. You do not have to keep a CD mounted.

I bought MM Screenwriter before they were taken over. The program came on 4 floppies and you only had 3 installs. A couple of years of bad luck with computers later I only had one install left due to hard drive failures. I called the company and, as I had bought before the takeover, they just shrugged their shoulders and were no help at all. I would never buy anything from them now and I’m currently, happily, using the open source Celtx.

Eddie — as Craig notes. you don’t have to use the CD everytime for Screenwriter. You just have it internet authorized once and you’re good to go. I don’t remember how 2000 does it but I do remember it was non-intuitive. You had to go looking for the authorization screen. Call their customer service if you can’t figure it out (that’s what I ended up doing IIRC).

Screenwriter 6 does it automatically when you first start it up.

As to customer service. Had no problem with the 99.00 upgrade.

So far I’m very happy with 6 (best 99.00 I’ve spent this year ;-)

I like the left hand outline a lot.

Have screenplays gotten any better since the advent of scriptwriting programs? Maybe slowing down the process is what’s needed.

As for #77, on my computer Courier is much bolder than Courier New, so I’d look into that first. I wouldn’t worry too much about minor differences. Readers and producers aren’t graphic designers. As long has the thing looks pretty much like a script, and tells a good story, you’re fine.

Does anyone have any comments on Sophocles?