The Final Draft Thread

A few days ago, I was able to try Final Draft 7.1.1 for the first time. As some people on here might be aware, I generally dislike screenwriting programs because I enjoy the freedom a regular word processor offers in writing anything, and I'm quite used to formatting everything manually without a program.

That being said, I popped The Fempiror Chronicles: The Initiation of David into this Final Draft to see what it would do to me. Beyond few minor corrections I had to make based on the way I'd originally written it so it would work with the parameters of the program it looked good, but the format is not the reason I'm writing this.

I used the speech function that Wes mentioned on this program awhile back. Honestly, I could care less how the format looks, this speech function was probably the most useful part of this entire program. I sat there for an hour as it read out loud the first 45 pages of the script. (It would have gone on, but I really needed to go to bed.) I corrected several typos that existed from Draft One (September 2004) of the script that neither the spelling checker, Word's grammar checker, nor every single person who has read this script has ever caught. What I caught was not misspelled words, but missing words altogether, or correctly spelled words that were incorrectly vernacularly used (but from a grammar standpoint, might look correct).

Now, I will note that this machine does not put much feeling into the words, nor is the pacing altogetehr correct is how it is read. But the machine makes no mistakes is reading what is in front of it (though it does amusingly mispronounce some words and names -- Ophelia (oh-FEEL-yuh) was pronounced awful-EYE-uh and Rufus (ROO-fuss) was pronounced Roo-Fooz). I was impressed, though, that it has a built in phoentic dictionary or something, because it made several near-correct guesses at the pronunciation of several Felletterusk words in my script, which is a language I made up for this series. It even butchered the Felletterusk dialogue with an American accent.

So for something to read every single word exactly as you wrote it, the machine works perfectly. If you want feeling and emotion, get actors. But actors will likely make subconscious corrections to your work.

Someday, I might use this program to write scripts so all is formatted just so, but since I can't load this up at work, it's unlikely I will anytime soon for most projects. However, I will be running almost everything through that speech reader function. Bert, this would definitely catch your Angel/Angle issues.

And if this is in the wrong place, I'd like to know where else to put it.

In that program, I don't even think they show a measurement line/or the thing to show the angles.

Measurement line? Thing to show the angles? Could you be a litle more descriptive?

I know that writing beyond basic screenplays requires a knowledge of screenwriting format, since I had to add a couple of formatting things to it the first time I used it.

For me, the best feature of Final Draft is the character reports. It's great for tracking relationships between characters and ensuring their dialogue is unique. Go to 'tools' and 'reports'

Hey guys, I have FD 6 and I never worked with...I agree with George...I got Script Maker (a Word template) from its creator in 1995/6 and it works very well until now!

Quoted from George Willson

Measurement line? Thing to show the angles? Could you be a litle more descriptive?

My bad. I mean the ruler, I guess.

I actually recommended FD6 as I hate FD7 but yeah, though they are a bit comedic it reads back what you wrote. I'm not sure what it would do with slang and or spelling mistakes like adn instead of and but who knows maybe it just skips over them.

I haven't used it really myself but did find a feature that allows you to talk to other writers as you write in it and possibly even share your work as you write it. The future of screenwriting programs is good.

The way I have been using the feature is to read the script as it reads it to me. You might call it two sets of eyes. I'm certainly not going for performace, as I said, but just for another level of proofreading.

And as this is the only screenwriting program I've ever messed with, I doubt I'll complain or anything since I don't need it for formatting. Interesting, though, how the font size shaved about 5 pages off my total count... That's good when your script was clocking in at over 140 pages, and not really that many visible places to cut anything (as I've made several trims here and there only to find myself adding other things to fill out character).

And there's a ruler on the top of the typing area. Not sure what went wrong there. I'll definitely play with it more since knowing how this works would be useful to me.

Yeah, the voice thing is really helpful.

Martin's point is good as well, however...those "reports" have become invaluable. I'm really quite pleased with FD.

I used the report and it told me something that I never knew about my own series, the character Kenny is basically the character who carries the epsiodes.

In my head Jason was always the main character but if I were to believe the reports (Which why wouldn't I) he talks about 40 times per episode and Jason may talk a third of that if even that.

Thanks Mabuse, that's a very telling little tool.

Yeah, it's great. The best feature IMO.

I just looked at the reports function. That's pretty cool as well. It confirmed what I already knew about Initiation...Zechariah carries the film and David whines a lot...and I mean A LOT. :P

The cast report gives a nice overview and a place to start on figuring out which cast members to mess with. I'm sure "all of them" is the right answer, but for some reason, I don't feel like digging into Townsperson 1's single, solitary line. I'm glad this little program makes for a tool beyond just formatting.

Final Draft vs. Movie Magic Screenwriter

Rivalries in Hollywood aren't limited to studio heads. Two major screenwriting programs, Write Brothers Movie Magic Screenwriter  and Final Draft's namesake product, have been playing a game of one-upmanship for years. The most recent versions offer the best feature sets yet, and they both run in Mac OS X. The laundry list of features common to both Final Draft 7.1 and Screenwriter 4.7 is extensive. Both include standard script templates for TV and film; script-to-PDF output; extensive and easy-to-use formatting assistance; import from other applications; quick-type lists for frequently used words, such as names, scene slugs, or locations; embedded script notes; text-to-speech; index-card view; Internet collaboration; and production features, including scene breakdowns and character lists.

Each program also has exclusive features that the other lacks. Final Draft's big one is an ’Ask The Expert with Syd Field’ help area, based on Syd Field's popular screenwriting books, that works as an automated script doctor. Screenwriter’s exclusives are more production-centric and are heavily integrated with Write Brothers other products (such as Movie Magic Scheduling), shooting and revision reports, and password protection. Though Screenplay has more features overall than Final Draft, the real difference between these two applications lies in the execution of their common features - and what a difference it is.

It has been argued that Final Draft's dialogs, menus, and icons look right at home in the Mac interface, while Movie Magic Screenwriter  feels more like a Windows port.  Movie Magic Screenwriters interface possesses a preferences window and onscreen menus full-to-the-brim with options and provide many customization opportunities, such as assigning functions to menu commands. Final Draft's preferences window offers less than a dozen options, with all the feature-specific ones integrated into the menus. Some users might find this limiting, but others will enjoy being able to start writing without having to master complex options.

Basic functionality, including auto-formatting for different types of screenplays, automatically switching between elements (dialog, action, and character), and industry-standard page breaks (mores and continues), are virtually identical in both applications. Both programs can also import old scripts from Microsoft Word format  in either RFT or ASCII text and let you collaborate over the Internet, provided you and your writing partner use the same program.

Choosing between the two comes down to two things: the feel of the application and whether you're a working screenwriter (meaning others actually pay you to write and then shoot the film themselves). Writers who deliver scripts to mainstream studios, or independent producers with the intention of also shooting their own work, are better off with the added production features and customizability of Movie Magic Screenwriter. Writers who work on spec or who primarily submit scripts to contests or readers will probably feel more comfortable working in Final Draft.

If you ever write a masterpiece SPEC script and the producer asks for a latest draft to be sent via an email attachment then I would choose Movie Magic Screenwriter because invariably the producer will be using Movie Magic and can make notes, production breakdowns directly in your screenplay from within the program itself – Final Draft is unable to do that.

Movie Magic Screenwriter and Final Draft are both excellent programs and either one can handle most script-writing needs.  If anything, Movie Magic Screenwriter has the edge and it does appear a lot more of Hollywood professionals are beginning to use it. Even the ‘Project Greenlight’ screenplay competition, sponsored by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, request that screenplays be submitted and uploaded in Movie Magic Screenplay file format.

If anybody on SimplyScript boards would like their screenplay formatted in Movie Magic Screenwriter and or Final Draft, if you do not have these programs then get in touch with me and I'll do this for you. I'll also print the screenplay to PDF format from Movie Magic for you too.. I would send all these file formats back to you as an attachment.. Just email me..

Working demos are available to download for both programs for both PC and MAC at the addresses below..

FINAL DRAFT
http://www.finaldraft.com/

MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER
http://www.screenplay.com/products/index.html
http://store.write-bros.com/Default.aspx

I'm working on a feature script in Final Draft 7. Occasionally, I write on my work computer which only has MS Word installed. When I save from FD to RTF and open it in Word, my script ends up between 10 and 20 pages longer.

I use the default settings in FD7 and I assume this is correct. When I open it in word, the format looks fine, but it's just a lot longer.

Right now, when I open my first act in MS word, it's 45 pages as opposed to 29 in FD. Which is the more accurate (page per minute) length? I assume it's FD.

Anyone else have this problem? It really screws up my act breaks.

I usually create PDF from MS Word (due to the huge file sizes in FD) so this will seriously alter the length of my script.

The exact thing happens to me (including the "writing at work" part ;D) It seems that the page count increases because page margins get changed when saving to RTF, but I´m not sure.

Other thing I noticed is that page numbers dissapear when saving to rtf.

Yeah, the page number thing is annoying.

Since posting, I've discovered that the discrepancy is due to the font change. If you open your script in FD and change the font from 'Courier Final Draft' to "Courier New' you'll get the same extended page count as in MS Word.

That doesn't really solve my problem though. I want the script shorter not longer. I guess the answer is to download 'Courier Final Draft' font for MS Word.

I'll look into it.

Problem solved. Download the demo of Final Draft and it adds Courier Final Draft to your font folder.

It happened to me. I did without I know!

I'm prob being retarded...but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to save the title page in Final Draft with the rest of my document. I can open the title page...I fill it out hit save...close it...open and go to to the title page which is blank with the defaults in it.

Anyone else have this problem...or figure it out?

thanks in advance

Jaykur

I know how to do this in Final Draft 7.1, which is to open the title page and fill it out like you already know how to do. Once you're done, you hit file>close, which will close the title page, and then save it. If you are just going from window to window saving your file without closing the title page, it won't save it.

Had exactly the same problem in the beginning until I dug through the help file for a little while.

Thanks George...appreciate it.

Yep, George is right.. You have to save it..

Once you've created the "title page" and clicked "close" then save it as the script file with it's title as a file name and the script will contain the title page for you..

Here's what the help file says:

Title Page
Displays the Title Page template.

This template was developed from guidelines published by the Writers Guild of America.

The Title Page is a Text Document, with most menu commands available including File > Print.

Edit the template's information to include all the information desired for the current script.

When File > Print is chosen there is an option to also include the Title Page at the same time. Default is disabled.

When File > Save As PDF is chosen there is an option to also include the Title Page at the same time. Default is enabled. To have the Title Page excluded, see (Windows) Tools > Options > Document or (Mac OS) File Menu > Preferences.

When edits to the Title Page are done:

Choose File > Close (there is no File > Save function).

Note: When the script is saved the Title Page is saved, too.

I have FD7 and I'm pretty sure there's a bug which means if you save to RTF you get no page numbers and no title page. I'm yet to find a way around it other than manually adding it in MS Word. If you save to PDF you get a title page but the file is 3mb. Admittedly I dont have any patches for the software, but I'm happy to say I didnt pay for it either. For the price they charge, it's buggy as hell and there isn't much support for the paying customers.

RTF is kind of a side save for FD. It prefers fdr file for all its wonderful features to stay intact. The pages numbers, continueds, and title page are all extras you lose with the RTF save.

Many moons after this old post, I learn the secret of the Cournier Final Draft Font. It isn't a smaller font than Courier New, but it takes attributes from the old Courier (which doesn't do double quotes for some reason) and Courier New (which does) and combines them (sort of). What's the big difference? The spacing between the lines. I learned this because I use some non-English characters such as this: Ã¤. In it's capital form, it will not display the dots in Courier Final Draft because the narrower spacing allows more writing on the page. This is why I got fewer pages than I did with Courier New. Interesting? I think so.

I actually have a question regarding the fonts. In many guides and contests they say "Only 12 point courier font," but many scripts I read on here are in 12 point courier new. Is this a loop hole or something, or if a contest says "only 12 point courier" then should it just be 12 point courier?

Personally I found the new courier a little neater and easier on the eyes.

I've found it to be the same way and I tend to use Courier New a lot. The problem comes in with the spacing between the lines. Take any script and paste it into Word or some other WP program that has both fonts. Select All and change the font to Courier New. Take note of how many pages you get. Select All again and change to Courier. You'll note a difference in pages. It's not huge but I found Hard Rain in txt format and used it. I went from 119 pages in Courier New to 116 in Courier. Little changed but the spacing between the lines. In Courier Final Draft, it's only the spacing.

However, in most cases, either is still acceptable, but if you're looking to trim a couple of pages...

Yeah, I have FD5 and have yet to figure out how to save a title page. It's not a big deal, but it does kind of piss me off, you know?

The process in FD7 may be backwards compatable to FD5. Barring that, I would suggest scouring the help file. That's how I figured it out.

I'll try it later, thanks.

so final verdict....i'm using MS Word .... 12 point Courier new is GOOD?

When I was writing a script on Word and Courier FD replaced Courier or I didn't have Courier to begin with.

Herodreamer, I'd use Courier as a safety. But if you don't have it, then Courier New will just have to do.

Hi

I was wondering if anyone knew how to get final draft to cheat your screenplay down to 120 pages. I read about it in a thread I think but I can't seem to find it. Maybe it was in a review I read about final draft though>?? I dunno.

thanks in advance

Jaykur

If you're going from Courier New to Courier Final Draft, there will be a minor page reduction because of the space between lines being less in Courier FD than Courier New. Beyond that, the only trick is editing, and that's more of a skill. :P

If you try to cheat pages down by reducing margins or increasing dialogue width, the readers will notice. I wouldn't try it.

What George said, and I might add that somewhere you can choose between "normal", "tight", or "very tight". That compresses the script a lot.

I don´t remember exactly where´s that option, and I don´t have FD here at work to check it out. But it should be easy to find; there aren´t much menus in FD.

On a sidenote, do know that professional readers are famous for spotting this kind of cheating from a mile away.

They read normal scripts all day long, so when they spot one that's cheating, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. Best to let the 125 pages or whatever through.

Hi Jaykur!

Instead to compress you script why do not to reduce the words in what you trying to say for example:

- Gonzalez, a guy about 30 years old, tall and unshaved wearing an exaggerated hat are asleep leaned on the sheriff office’s wall.

- Protected by his Mexican hat Gonzalez, 30, sleeps leaned on the sheriff office’s wall.

PS: Sorry I know that there are better examples than that I showed.

Jaykur

If you send me the screenplay in Final Draft format I will export it as an RTF and import it into Movie Magic Screenwriter and this will reduce the pages by about 8 or so..

I can then print your screenplay in PDF format and obviously save the screenplay in Movie Magic Screenwriter format and send them back to you as attachment..

Give me a day to do this because I'm just going to bed so I'll do it tomorrow night if you would like me to do this little job for you.. It's no problem, you'll be happy with the results..

Kevan..

You''ll find my email address in my avatar..

Kevan why would Movie Magic reduce the page count by so many? I figured out the reason behind the font change, but what's up with this? Is it tweaking the margins or something?

Kevan thanks for the offer but I'm going to working right up to the deadline, I've managed to cut down 10 pages using Helio/George's method, I know it's on the long side but hopefully it's acceptable. Thank you all for your suggestions.

Jaykur

If you can find an old version of Final Draft (like FD 4), copying it to that and reformatting it will also trim about 8 pages off of your script. Don't ask me how or why but I've seen it done.

Someone else said it best thought, a script can always be tightnened. If you have 120 pages, it's too long. I know of many studio execs who check the page count the second they are handed a script to read. You would be better served to see if you can tighen your script and your writing. It's a great exercise for a writer.

I don't have Final Draft, can any of you tell me where I can get it?

One thing I learned with FD is that if you save the file as a .rtf, you can trim a few pages off the length.

Given that, the best thing you should do is go through the script and remove all the orphans that you find.  An orphan is when a piece of action or dialogue ends with one or two words on the last line.  See below:

           JOHNNY
Remember that time on that really
hot day last August when Bobby got
sick?

The word 'sick' is an orphan as it takes up a whole line by itself.  By changing it to:

           JOHNNY
Remember that time last August
when Bobby got sick?

I just saved a line by trimming the dialogue.  If you remove one orphan from each page, you can trim four pages off your script.

Phil

Alright, I tried Yahoo Answers and must of searched about six different search engines on this topic and I haven't had any luck. When I'm finished with the draft that I'm working on, I want to be able to show it here and get some feed back. The only problem with this is the fact that not everyone has final draft, so that makes it out of the question. Is there an easy way to convert Final Draft to either a word doc or a PDF file? If there is, this would be really helpful in getting closer to letting the world see it.

Choose 'Save As' from 'File'. Below the box which displays the name of the file, there's another box which indicates the format: 'Final Draft Document (fdr)' as a default. From there you can choose 'pdf' or 'rtf' or any other.

Hope that helps.

Yeah, that did it. Thanks.

Have a problem with the title page when I convert it from Final Draft to PDF. It doesn't register it. Anyone with Final Draft: What exactly do you do, step by step?

Thanks guys/gals!

Go to Document>Title Page. Fill out your title page.

Go to File>Close to close the title page. Save it.

Now you'll be able to convert to PDF and keep that page.

THink that did it. Thank you for your time , George!

I wonder if anyone can help me?

I am using Final Draft 7 and alls well until I try and do the title page. I complete it and then go back to the script page. The help says it will save the title page automatically but it doesn't. Each time I load up my script the title page is gone. So when I convert to pdf the title page is not complete, any ideas?

Also when I save as pdf the file size is very large, like my 9 page short is bigger than the 90+ page scripts I read on here. Any ideas?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

Alffy,

when you finish your title page, save it. It will give the first name of your script as your doc name. For instance Hello Sunshine, it'll give you Hello.fdr. Then close it and save your script again. Check for the title, it should be there.

Michel

Correct.

As soon as you enter the title page information, close that back to your script. Save the script right after, and it should be good.

Also - there is a patch for Final Draft 7 that fixes the abnormal file size for PDF.

Cheers for the quick response guys.

Im sure i've tried to save the title page but you cant unless you go back to your script and save the whole thing, which I'm pretty sure i've tried but i'll give it another go.

Thanks MacDuff i'll try and get the patch.

Anyone have a clue what that means? If it means what I think it does, I really am screwed. All the master copies of my FD screenplays are all giving me that message and so is the PDF versions and even some odd .doc files as well and not just on this PC, on my laptop as well.

What version are you using, Wes? Can you open them in Word or any other package?

Phil

I am using 6. It seems every script in any format that had anything to do with FD minus my series which is crazy but they are all giving me that message.

This is not just the files on here either, my back-ups to.

Wes - pick a final draft file and do the following:

1. Right-Click on .FDR file and choose "Open With..."
2. Choose Program
3. Browse
4. Navigate to Final Draft folder
5. Find final draft.exe and highlight it.
6. Click on Open

This should fix up your problem (if it is a file association problem...)

Stew

That doesn't seem to do it either. I really have no clue why this happened unless putting the files on a thumb drive, then onto my laptop and back and forth so I could work on stuff depending on where I am... The problem with that is that that is why they created thumb drives.

FinalDraft help and advice says the only reason that Unexpected File Format happens is when you send files over AOL (E Mail) and I have never had the e mail nor do I send my scripts through e mail to myself.

I have just been having bad luck these past few weeks.

WEs,

I'm going to e-mail you a script in FD5. See if you can open it.

Phil

I should send someone who has FD6 or 7 one of the screwed up files and see if they can get either the PDF or FDR versions to open.

You can send it to me Wesley and I'll check it out and let you know.

Stew

Defrag doesn't work either and I just finished getting in contact with Final Draft themselves and "Tarik" the guy who was helping me basically told me the same crap that is on the website so I politely told him to do it himself if he is so smart.

These people expect you to pay all this money for a program that ruins 90% of your hard work and they can't even bother to HELP you.

Wes did send me a couple of his scripts that I tried opening in FD7 as well as Notepad, Word, Works, and Wordpad, but I was completely unsuccessful. I even tried tweaking the fil extension and maybe seeing the code or text or something, but I was still empty handed. I even downloaded the FD6 viewer and tried that but same thing.

I hope you can do more with it, Kevan.

The ones that screwed up are in PDF, fdr, notepad and even a few htm documents that all came out of Final Draft in one way or another.

I have the files backed up on my laptop, a thumb drive, and an external hard drive that is brand new as of last month just to be safe I even sent a few to myself through e mail and uploaded them to my site because I'm paranoid about this type of thing.

Like I said before, my series is perfectly fine so I dodged that bullet but basically everything else and even the back up files on my other drives are in a similar state of error.

Quoted Text

Dear Steven,

It sounds like the script became corrupt or damaged. To remove corruption, follow the steps below:

If you have Microsoft Word, then open Word.

1) Go to the File menu

2) Select Open

3) There should be a dropdown menu where you can select -- Recover Text from Any File

4) You will find a lot of junk at the beginning and at the end of the file -- you will have to highlight/select & delete this extraneous information

After the file is clean, then follow the instructions below:

1) Save your file as a text only file, not rich text format (rtf), not Text with Layout, but text only.
2) Launch FD7, then go to the File menu and choose New -- select the type of script you want to be writing.
3) Go to File>Open;
4) Navigate to where you saved the text file;
5) CHANGE FILES OF TYPE TO TEXT DOCUMENTS
6) Select the text file and click Open;
7) Open as Script;
8) Go to File>Save As and name this file, ideally something different from the original;
9) Continue to work from this new file.

If a more detailed change is needed, then take these additional steps.

1) Go to the Format menu> Elements> Apply a Template (7.1) or Load (all other previous versions)> Select the type of format you would like to use -- most users choose Screenplay

2) Go to the Tools menu>Reformat -- click on the corresponding buttons to the text selected in the script. Go through the whole script to ensure 100% compliance.

For updates go to http://www.finaldraft.com/downloads/index.html

That is the e-mail from Final Draft customer support. I tried it and did not even get past the lots of junk idea because the file was not even opened as his e-mail says.

I just wish I knew what I did wrong so I can avoid it happening ever again.

Final Draft does save back-up files but for some reason when I checked the folder it only has the latest files which doesn't help.

http://www.freewebs.com/ninjascurse/ninjascursereborn.pdf

Right click and save as because it says something weird when you just click on it.

This is a file I have on SS so it doesn't matter much but if you can recover it at least someone figured out a way to do it.

I sent Don a PM about that Ninja's Curse file from Shorts because I believe I e-mailed him a second copy as is the case when you submit stuff, you attach the file on the next page of the submit form. (It wasn't corrupt originally if I have at least a page of reviews for it.)

I did have someone send me a fairly recent draft of my superhero screenplay that was only a couple revision off of where I was when it was screwed up. Luckily for me I wrote the script originally in Word and converted it later thus meaning the master copy was not damaged.

As far as the others that I really cared about; nobody would have the latest drafts. Hopefully the older drafts I sent myself about 2 months ago are perfectly fine waiting for me to download them.

-I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, if it isn't, my apologies-

For some reason, recently, my Final Draft has been freezing up on me every couple of minutes. Now, you can imagine how unbelievably frustrating it is to write 3 or 4 pages and then find out it's gone. Now, imagine this happening 9 or 10 times in a span of 2 days, and that's how I'm feeling right now.

Has this happened to anyone else?

Any solutions?

To clear it up, basically, the program'll stop responding randomly, causing my work to be lost. Yes, I could save periodically but I'd prefer if my writing wasn't interrupted with freezing every couple of minutes.

>:(

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. 8)

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

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 :)

Hello, all. I was wondering if anyone has any info they could offer to get an *.fdr file to open where I am getting the message of "Unexpected File Format"! I originally wrote the script using FDR5, but now I have Final Draft 7. I cant see how this has anything to do with it, as out of all of the other scriptwork I have from FDR5, this is the only file that I cannot seem to open. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can open this? I have tried various methods using word, etc. to try to somehow convert/open/access it, but no luck so far. I actually asked a Data Recovery shop if they could work with it, but they had a $65 minimum charge and for no guaranteed results, I figured forget that.
This is for a script that I wrote a few years back, that I had originally saved on a floppy as a backup, but those have since become nearly extinct. Nevertheless, I tried to make a copy but somehow something was lost in translation as I cannot open my draft and I no longer have access to the floppy. There will be notes and the like in the draft, that I was thinking at the time I was working on it, otherwise, I could just re-type the whole thing off of my one hard copy from 7-8 years ago. I did a little research in this forum where this problem came up 2 years ago for another member, but couldnt find any info on it since, so I apologize if there is info here that I am not finding.
Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

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