For a fine working combination, preliminary work in Scrivener and 'final draft' in FInal Draft is probably hard to beat. PDF is the most usual way of transferring stuff, and if you get to the point where a producer/director wants a script in the other format to the app you have, there are plenty of ways around it.įor a standalone writing environment, then, Screenwriter, for me, wins easily. Not really true, and shouldn't really be a major factor in your choice. Stage plays use 'internal' and 'external' direction, and it would be nice to be able to call your elements by those names instead of trying to remember that ACTION is now being used for INT DIRECTION.įInal Draft is touted as the Hollywood 'industry standard'. And, like FD, it won't let you rename standard elements - which can be a pain, frankly. Creating a new element (I'm working with a LYRIC element a lot at the moment) is less intuitive with Screenwriter. Screenwriter isn't as good as FD for reformatting - going through an (imported, perhaps) script making sure all the elements are properly assigned. But it's like an old Land Rover: may look crufty on the outside, but you forget about that once you're one the move and, instead, just enjoy its reliability. Every time I fire it up (most days) I think: Lord, but this is fugly. On the downside, Screenwriter is less 'Mac-like' than FD 8. Final Draft 8 has the 'FD Exchange format' which solves the problem unfortunately Screenwriter can't export to that (though the brilliant Scrivener can). ***CAVEAT***: both FD and Screenwriter get completely confused if you import/paste anything using the SHOT element. Screenwriter is also much better at making sense of cut-and-paste or imported RTF files, which may or may not be of use to you. There's not that faint walking-on-eggshells I get with FD. The nearest comparison is the Mellel outliner. Move the outline item and the script passages associated with it move too. Screenwriter's foolishly-named 'NaviDoc' is actually a very useful, very powerful outliner with total control over what is visible, what prints, and so on. Of course, Final Draft devotees may say the same thing about FD it's maybe what you're used to that counts. Swapping fretting about formatting styles for fretting about your writing app is obviously no progress at all, and my experience is that Screenwriter is a bit less noticeable in use than Final Draft. The only point of a screenwriting app is to get out of your way. Screenwriter's strengths are, first of all, in its transparency. (Celtx and Montage are both coming along, but I'd not yet trust real live work to them. It's not without its frustrations but I find it a more robust and congenial tool than its only real rival, Final Draft. Been using Screenwriter for many years and v6 is a big jump ahead of the previous version (Screenwriter 2000).

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