I know of Final Draft, but are there other titles out there similar to it?

The reason I ask is because I keep reading bad things about Final Draft. Case in point:

http://lithiumjournals.com/wordpress/2004/05/11/

(Caution: the author, being rather upset at Final Draft, has the tendency to drop the F-bomb frequently) :censored: (http://misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=0#)

Moviemagic (http://www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=670&cPath=128_167)
Hollywood Screenplay (http://www.hollywoodscreenplay.net/)
Sophocles (http://www.sophocles.net/)
ScriptWare (http://www.scriptware.com/)

There are MS-Word macros floating around that do the formatting for you, that's probably the quickest way to go. Bottom line is, not everyone will be satisfied with every program, some people are overly picky, or too damn lazy to learn how to use it. I used Sophocles and Hollywood Screenplay the most (along with a very bad Word Macro) for a long time before I started playing with Final Draft.. Final Draft just has cool features the others don't. Like the script statistics report, that breaks down the percentages of things, what percent of the script is Dialogue, what percent is action, etc.. and then for each character how many lines they have, all that fun stuff.. heck it even tells you how many curse words are in the script, what scene they occur in, and WHO says it. maybe it's just a cheap extra that isn't needed, but it's mighty nifty none-the-less.

Also, check out the screenwriting software section at The Writers Store (http://www.writersstore.com/products.php?cPath=128_167).

Whether or not the links are all current, I don't know, but this site (http://www.online-communicator.com/swsoftin.html) has a bunch of links to macros and templates and whatnot..

And yet another site with more links (http://www.dvshop.ca/dvcafe/writing/formatting.html)...

If all else fails.... Check out the Google Directory for Screenwriting (http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Writers_Resources/Screenwriting/)! :)

When I write screenplays or stage plays I always forgo the formatting with the first drafts any way. It ends up looking like this...

MARY
(picking up the knife)
Are you insane?

FRED
(drops and starts doing push-ups)
Yes - one - I - two - am - three - in - four - sane.

After the story is out of me and on my hard drive I go back and format. Depending on the bells and whistles you need/require match it up with your budget and like Will says find one you like then take the time to learn to use it.

Because of the way I write first drafts then go back and format, regular old word processors work for me. Maybe not you but when you build your own computer it doesn't come bundled with MS Office. So I found three, free word processing solutions.

First, check out Sun Microsolutions answer to Microsoft Office called "Open Office" It has bugs and is considered a work in progress but it is free. Go to openoffice dot org to check it out.

AbiWord is a free opensource word processor. It's put together really well. I haven't tested this one extensively but it does what I need it to.

The last one I've tried Jarte. This is a free word processor as well. It's bare bones basic and the buttons are not where you'd expect to find them but once you get used to it, it works very well. You can find it at jarte dot com.

There are other free ones out there (google) but none of them (that I know of) are specific to formatting screenplays. Just thought you'd (or others) would like to know.

The Final Draft 7 that is sold now has those bug fixes that were mentioned. Those were bugs that were found when they first came out with 7.

Personally, I like FD, it has a lot of features that I like that my old screenwriting software didn't. I like being able to copy and paste from other programs and it keeps the format, etc.

7.1 is available. Here's the link to the 7.1 upgrade.
http://finaldraft.com/support/update-to-71.php4
If you bought 7, this upgrade is free. It fixes the bugs in 7.

I know of Final Draft, but are there other titles out there similar to it?

One other alternative (for Windows only) is SceneWriter Pro (http://scenewriterpro.com). It's on sale right now for $19.99.

I’ve heard from a lot of people that Final Draft is becoming the industry leader simply because the files have no cross-platform problems and does basically what Movie Magic does. I’ve never had any problems with it.