Rating: 
Summary: Final Draft 5 is Better
Review: 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: 
Summary: Final Draft 6 Far Exceeds Expectations
Review: I am a screenwriter who is proficient with Microsoft Word. I put off buying Final Draft because I thought with the macros I'd created in Word, this product could not be much better than what I was already using. I WAS WRONG!! This program GREATLY simplifies screenwriting and is INCREDIBLY easy to use.
The program is also able to convert screenplays written in Microsoft Word into Final Draft documents, and does so with a minimum of errors. My hard spaces in Word were inconsistently converted to question marks; some of the scene headings in the Word document were mistaken for character headings in Final Draft - both easily fixed. (However, Final Draft documents are not easily converted back to Word, as the formatting is lost.) Final Draft is also able to save documents in pdf format. However, one cannot simply click on the document and have Adobe Reader open it. Instead, one must open Adobe Reader, and then open the document through that. In spite of its minor faults, this is a TERRIFIC, easy to learn and operate program!
Rating:
Summary: Best investment I've made for writing.
Review: I purchased Final Draft a couple of years ago, and it was the best investment for writing I've made yet. I had loads of story ideas in my head, but had no idea how to write a screenplay or teleplay, and didn't have the patience to read a book about it. I am a VERY basic computer user and feared formatting software would be nothing short of a nightmare, but within a month I formatted three one-hour teleplays, started on a screenplay, and knew how to navigate the software fairly well. The Smart-type feature is a lifesaver, and the various view, outline, and report features are incredibly helpful and save loads of time. There are a few features that were more complicated to learn, and as an absolute novice I had some questions that I couldn't find answers for in the program, but overall - I'm thrilled with it and use it everyday. I'd recommend this software to anyone, rank amateur or paid professional ,who's looking for a user-friendly, helpful, and reliable formatting system.
Rating:
Summary: There's a reason the whole world uses it -- it's the best
Review: Final Draft is simply the best there is. Screenwriter is buggy [I borrowed an install from a friend], Scriptware is a joke [based on the demo I tried] and Sophocles doesn't even run on my Mac. If you follow the directions it does exactly what it says it's going to do. It's a professional-grade tool [even though I'm not a professional-grade writer - YET], it's got 24/7 help [that I haven't even come close to needing] and everyone I know uses it [and I do work in the industry]. As far as I can tell the people who have problems with it aren't using it right or they have crappy computers. Don't mess around with other programs. This one is the one to use.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Time-Saver
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Movie Magic 2000 - Not Buggy
Review: I test drove this and Movie Magic 2000 before making my purchase. Movie Magic is just NOT ready for prime time. It is BUGGY. The cursor will pop into different places on the screen after operations. The voice read uses windows system and is MUCH harder to control than Final Draft. Also, some of Move Magic's default formatting is outdated (like CONT after action between the same character which is no longer used). This is clearly better and more professional. Movie Magic may have more "options" but when you want a correctly formatted screenplay, what kind of options do your really need anyway? If you want to save the test drive time which I did for several days, go ahead and just get Final Draft. If you run the two side by side, you will see what I mean... Movie Magic is so unprfessional looking and feeling. I do hope they put an index and a way to edit in index mode in future versions however. Mike
Rating: 
Summary: Quirky program made useless by copy protection
Review: Buyer beware: Final Draft incorporates an archaic copy protection scheme that will drive you nuts. Every other category of computer software did away with this kind of user-unfriendly copy protection scheme in the mid-80s, but the screenwriting software vendors persist. You're probably better off using Microsoft Word (which is far more robust) and using a simple formatting utility when you're project is finished. If you have any hard drive crashes or hardware upgrades and you forget to de-install Final Draft you will lose your install keys. Tech support is scarce and the online help system is only good for the most basic information. While it should make your life simpler this product will make your life hell. Avoid it like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: App problems
Review: I've use Final Draft for about 4-5 years and in terms of development as a useful app it has done nothing but sit still. It is in fact a dinosaur, a left-over from a forgotten era when computers (macs in particular) were a pain and totally incompatible. The Mac community has changed dramatically in the past 3 years. Final Draft is, at best, doing the bear minimum. It continues to be the one app I use on a daily basis that I hate. I hate it because it is buggy, clunky and doesn't conform to MacOS standards. I hate it because it uses proprietary standards for everything (including e-mailing scripts), it fails to take advantage of Quartz smoothing, the toolbar is the ugliest thing I have ever seen, the layout of the program doesn't make any kind of sense, the different "modes" do NOT function as they should, you cannot export into an useful format whatsoever (the only way to send a script to someone is via OSX's built in PDF exporting, and thank god for that), and all the "bonus tools" like scene reports and location reports are utterly useless. And don't even get me started on the authorization process. I have absolutely no problem with companies requiring some kind of direct consumer-producer contact to authorize that you actually bought the software but the implementation you've developed is unusable. What kind of sense does it make to ask that a person de-authorize their hard drive before they re-format it when one of the only times one must do this is when the system goes down and access to the app is impossible? I've had to do it a few times, and I've moved computers a few times. Every single time I attempt to de-authorize the computer online, it as failed. Oh, it tells me while I'm de-authorizing that everything is honky-dory, but come to find out that it's not and the ONLY way to fix it is to make a phone call. I also have no problem with the phone, but what kind of a company in a multi-billion dollar a year business is not open on the weekends!? This has happened to me in the middle of production and I had to use a pirated version to get my work done. I could go on about the shortcomings of the app, but I think the point is made. Beware Final Draft, your days are numbered. Linux is ready to crush Microsoft in the business and server markets because companies refuse to choke down one more piece of bad code and wait in vain for the next "security update" which will do little to protect them against real threats. Businesses are realizing that open industry standards provide them with both flexibility and insurance against obsolesce. Unless you too make this realization, you too will become obsolete. This is by far the worst quality app on my computer, and the one I use every single day. You want to improve things? Take a look at Mellel. Take a look at anything the Omnigroup is doing, Take a look at Nisus Express (even though it is a half-ass app). Take a look at any cocoa app written in the past year, hell take a good look at TextEdit. Take your costumers seriously and support, for real, open industry standards like RTF and XML, which would make your product easy to use and much, much better.
Rating:
Summary: It formats everything to industry standard.
Review: If you want your screenplay to look like an industry standard screenplay then FD6 will do exactly just that. It is also simple to use and the learning curve is like 10 minutes. It is so easy to format a screenplay that you will no longer need to pay attention to the format. Once you understand how it works your ideas will flow from you brain and will almost automatically format themselves correctly on the page. This is a must for any screenplay writer. However this package is a waaaaaay toooooo expensive!!! Please lower the cost of this thing by a $100. People need software like this for school theatre work and other community scribes.
Rating:
Summary: Instruction book is worthless and phone support is $$$$$
Review: As a writer of Novels and Short Stories, I decided to try my hand at a screenplay, using Final Draft 6. BIG MISTAKE! The instruction book assumes you already know how to write a screenplay and never explains the basics. Tech support is very expensive and will cost you more than the price of the software by the time they explain how it works. An instructional video would be helpful, but is not available. My advice would be to not purchase this software unless you know someone who is willing to teach you how to use it. I'm sure it's great for those that already know how to write a screenplay, making it much faster. But for a novice to the trade, it is worthless.
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