So Final Draft 10 is here in all it's glory. I have version 9, do you think it's worth upgrading or will I somehow manage to survive without it?

http://store.finaldraft.com/final-draft-10-upgrade.html

I'm not upgrading - the current version has all I can use or need

I'm not upgrading I use FadeIn now :-)

The fact that there are 10 of them should answer the question for you. You shouldn't have to pay for screenwriting software... especially when it's free or easily template-d in office.

I use 9. I love my Final Draft. Will update just because I want to.

I just bought 9 and it gave me a free upgrade to 10.  I just didn't realize it was going to be upgraded this soon!  I was using Trelby and it saves as a FDX file, but Final Draft won't make a PDF of the script after I import it from Trelby.  The file looks ok, but something is wrong with it and I have to rewrite if I'm going to make any changes on existing ones.

I will upgrade just because I'm just now using Final Draft and might as well go all in.

Quoted from Jeremiah Johnson I just bought 9 and it gave me a free upgrade to 10.  I just didn't realize it was going to be upgraded this soon!  I was using Trelby and it saves as a FDX file, but Final Draft won't make a PDF of the script after I import it from Trelby.  The file looks ok, but something is wrong with it and I have to rewrite if I'm going to make any changes on existing ones. I will upgrade just because I'm just now using Final Draft and might as well go all in.

That's surprising: Have you tried "Print to PDF" rather than "Save as PDF.? To do the former, hit print and then select the "Print to PDF" at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Yeah.  It still makes a 0 byte file.  I sent it to Final Draft along with a copy of my script.  They haven't got back to me yet and it's been over a week.

I think I'll stay with 9 for now. I think it's cheeky to offer it free to new customers but want me to fork out $80 just to get some new features I may never use!

Quoted from MarkRenshaw I think I'll stay with 9 for now. I think it's cheeky to offer it free to new customers but want me to fork out $80 just to get some new features I may never use!

I don't blame you.  I did pay 169 for version 9 with the free upgrade to 10.

Quoted from Jeremiah Johnson Yeah.  It still makes a 0 byte file.  I sent it to Final Draft along with a copy of my script.  They haven't got back to me yet and it's been over a week.

That sucks.

Last option - and not an ideal one. Try pasting and copying your Trelby file to WORD and use the copy as Plain Text option. Then copy that to a FD. At least that way you'll have all of the words you typed and will only have to do the formatting on FD

Dave,
Thanks.  I'll try that and let you know.  I'm still glad I bought FD.  Trelby got me through the initial stages of "Am I a writer, or not?"  I guess this means I'm serious enough about it. :)

Quoted from Jeremiah Johnson Dave, Thanks.  I'll try that and let you know.  I'm still glad I bought FD.  Trelby got me through the initial stages of "Am I a writer, or not?"  I guess this means I'm serious enough about it. :)

I do like the software - never regretted purchasing it.

Hey, I've got 8.... and haven't yet felt any need to upgrade....

Quoted from wonkavite Hey, I've got 8.... and haven't yet felt any need to upgrade....

You are so retro!

Quoted from eldave1 That sucks. Last option - and not an ideal one. Try pasting and copying your Trelby file to WORD and use the copy as Plain Text option. Then copy that to a FD. At least that way you'll have all of the words you typed and will only have to do the formatting on FD

I just did similar with an old script that I wrote in Word. Fancied giving it a rewrite, but wanted to do it in Celtx. I couldn't be bothered with any conversions and simply cut n pasted the lot then realigned everything as I rewrote it. It was a 164 page script... just got it down to 128 A4 size. US letter size and the page increases by around 10. Anyway, I'm blathering. Point has been made.

Quoted from DustinBowcot I just did similar with an old script that I wrote in Word. Fancied giving it a rewrite, but wanted to do it in Celtx. I couldn't be bothered with any conversions and simply cut n pasted the lot then realigned everything as I rewrote it. It was a 164 page script... just got it down to 128 A4 size. US letter size and the page increases by around 10. Anyway, I'm blathering. Point has been made.

Yeah - I was originally on Celtx and did the exact same thing. It was a bit of an ass ache, but as it turned out I found a lot of stuff that needed editing in the process - so it was worth it in the end.

Been working a lot at my real job so haven't only tried to save as a .txt file in Trelby and import to FD.  Worked for the most part but some formatting off.  Thought "no big deal" and went to fix them.  It wouldn't let me fix some of it... at all.  So,  looks like the copy-paste into Word-then into a fresh screenplay - will probably be the best option.

The other way I tried did save to PDF okay.  Still makes me wonder if it's really a Trelby problem or FD problem.

Oh well, doesn't really matter.  Thanks for the help on this Dave and Dustin.

Back to the discussion, still glad I got Final Draft.  I believe out of the free ones I tried, Trelby was the best, to me anyway.

No problem Jerimiah - best of luck with this

Why does it have to be a choice?  Just upgrade.

Quoted from eldave1 No problem Jerimiah - best of luck with this

Dave or anyone else thinking of importing/copying scripts from Trelby to Final Draft 10:
I didn't really give an update, so here it is.

Copied script from Trelby into a Word (LibreOffice) doc.  Copying the entire text does format and display correctly, but CANNOT edit very much at all.  If I called the first line GENERAL when I pasted the text, it pasted with all the format adjusted correctly.  But when I tried to make a change to, let's say, a scene heading, it would jack up all the formatting.  Just many issues.

I'm left with only pasting the text and possibly the dialogue, but recreating the scenes headings and Act breaks.  Not a huge deal, but I need to do it.  I'm already in rewrite on this one anyway.

I'm still glad I bought FD10.

Update to my update! ;D

So, I went back into Trelby and removed the unnecessary spaces and made sure the ACT BREAKS were correctly formatted as such.  The spaces were there because Trelby didn't have an actual PAGE BREAK.  After that, I exported as .FDX file.  Opened with FD10, and Voila!  Inserted actual PAGE BREAKS and all looks good.  FD10 correctly identifies the ACT BREAKS as well.

I still need to work on this.  Jeff (Dreamscale) has really made me take a look at my action lines closer.  I just did a search on the word "AND", and  ;D I had more of them speckled in my first page than I care to admit!

Moving on...

Good to hear you had a successful conversion. I'm sticking with FD9 for now.

Thanks Dave.  Yeah, not sure there is much of a reason to upgrade if you're already using 9.  I'm coming from free to this, though WriterDuet looks promising also.  Again, the main feature of both of these is collaboration feature.  I don't work with anyone else (yet) so that doesn't do me any good.

Thanks also for responding.  For a minute there, I was thinking I was just talking to myself!  :)

Final Draft 10 is dope.  Final Draft has always been dope.  You can't go wrong with industry standard.

What are the differences?
I don't really find myself using a lot of the extra features of these all singing screenwriting programs.

I think I would be fine with FD8 as I am with FD9.

Quoted from HyperMatt What are the differences? I don't really find myself using a lot of the extra features of these all singing screenwriting programs. I think I would be fine with FD8 as I am with FD9.

I had purchased FD9 about seven nanoseconds before FD10 came out and got the free upgrade.

According to FD, the new features include:

• Story Map (don't use it, so can't say anything about it)
  
• Beat Board (excellent replacement for index cards)
  
• Collaboration (don't use it, at least not yet)
  
• Alternate dialog (useful, but not to-die-for)
  
• Structure Points (bookmarks on steroids)
  
• Header and Footer Improvements (were the old ones bad?)
  
• Scene Numbering Options (irrelevant for spec scripts)
  
• Revision-Control Improvements (irrelevant for spec scripts)
  

There is a hilariously bad sample script included that illustrates most if not all of the new features.

Maybe this should be on a seperate thread. But has anybody had experience of using the Final Draft IPAD edition? It's very cheap.
It would be great having even just the basic features on an IPAD to be able to write your screenplay anywhere, on the train, in the waiting room.

Any reason why Celtx PDF looks way different to Final Draft?  I prefer the former when it comes to PDF presentation.

Quoted from HyperMatt Maybe this should be on a seperate thread. But has anybody had experience of using the Final Draft IPAD edition? It's very cheap. It would be great having even just the basic features on an IPAD to be able to write your screenplay anywhere, on the train, in the waiting room.

Nope.

I can't stand iPad typing.  I'm typing this on the iPad, lol.