Man, just erase it and get Celt. It's free and easy with no freezings.

I have been using FD for years and have never had this problem.

Are any other programs on your pc doing this?  If so then it is probably your PC.  If not your installation of FD probably got corrupted.  Reinstall the program.

And check the Final Draft websites for updates.  I bought v5 and v7.  Each had bugs in it that needed to be fixed.


Phil

I also use FD7 and have also never had this problem.  Sounds like a PC issue to me.  

One possible solution, though, is in FD7's auto-saving capability.  You can set this function to save your work every five or ten minutes, even as you're still writing.

Clean you cache out, spring clean your PC and re-install FD.

Which operating system are you using...please don't say Vista!

Uninstall - reinstall is my suggestion as well. It's the best fix for a good program gone bad. Bottom line is that something is corrupted, and don't forget to remove all associated files and rebooting before reinstalling.

Hi,

I recently obtained the newest version of Final Draft.  I had a file of my script which was created in the older version on my uncle's computer and it clocked in at 97 pages.  When I open that file in my version, however, every time I want to write something new it turns red and an asterisk appears in the margins.  Is there a way to fix this?  I think it may be because of the version difference, but I don't know.

I tried opening the RTF file in my version, and that works fine, but it curiously reduces the page number down to 90.  I have no idea what the deal is.  Can anyone explain to me what's going on and if there's any way to fix the red type/asterisks?

Thanks

When I recently switched versions, it made every file a read only which means I have to re-save every file.

Have you tried any other scripts written in the old version? Maybe it's just the one file.

Greg,

It sounds like you have the revision mode activated; changes get highlighted that way. In my version (V.6) you would fix it by clicking on "Production" and selecting "Revision Mode".

Hope it's similar in your version so you can fix it.

As for the page count when converting to rtf, my version increases the page count. I believe it's because the convertion alters the margins. I don't know how to fix it. That's why I always save things in pdf which is the best way of preserving format (and it's even considered standard in the industry).

Hope this helps. And enjoy your new toy.  

Hello Greg,

I know the answer to your question, at least it's in my memory somewhere, but it's vague right now.

I believe it has to do with editing.  When edits have been made an asterisk appears.  This happened to me.  It's so that subsequent rewrites show the changes being made when a shooting script is going through its motions.

Maybe the shooting script version is turned on.  I'll write you again if I can remember more and can explain better.

Sandra

Thanks for responding everyone.

The program had the file running in revision mode, so I was able to turn that off and anything written after that is with plain text.  However, a few of the asterisks from before remain(even after I delete the text and write it again, one asterisk remains, so I need to work that out).  

As for the page count, I guess the new version makes it shorter.  The older version made my stuff longer, whereas this one shortens it up.  

And Wes, this is the only file I have in the older version to test with.  Everything else that I've run through it have been new RTF files and they haven't had any issues, so I think it's a thing with the versions.

Thanks again!

Greg,
The final draft fonts have changed since Final Draft 5, so that's why you are getting a discrepency.

Also, if by chance you have both the old Final Draft and new Final Draft software on your system, be careful un-installing the old software as it is known to delete some of the Final Draft fonts, causing major headaches.

Another problem is if you try and use Final Draft on more than one computer it will cause it to revert to a trial unless you contact FD about it.

Quoted from greg Thanks for responding everyone. The program had the file running in revision mode, so I was able to turn that off and anything written after that is with plain text.  However, a few of the asterisks from before remain(even after I delete the text and write it again, one asterisk remains, so I need to work that out).

I think there may be a glitch! I have the same problem on one of mine. no matter what I did I could not get rid of the one persistant asterix.
I got round it by a cut and paste of script into two sections onto a new file. paste up to the asterix and then copy and paste after the asterix...then just rewrite the line that has the asterix.

All right, problem solved.  In my infinite wisdom, it didn't dawn on me to just download the file again from my email.  I think the first time I downloaded it, the program saw it as an older version so automatically put it in Revision Mode.  I made sure it wasn't this time and everything is fine.

Elis, I'm "glad" that someone else had the same issue.  I think you're right that it probably is a glitch.  I tried a whole bunch of things to get rid of that damn thing but it wouldn't work.  

Stew, this is my first Final Draft product, but I appreciate the heads up, sir.

And thanks again to everyone who took the time to respond.  I'm going to go back to playing with my new toy now