Thread: Screenwriting Software

I hope this is the right forum for my question... What is the best screenwriting software out there to get? I'm tossing back and forth between Final Draft 7 and the new Movie Magic Screenwriter 6. I've heard both good and bads things about FD 7. I would greatly appreciate any feedback on these or any other product that is worth looking at.

i've been using fd since it was born, back in the 80s and wouldn't use any other... i understand mm is a close second best... i'm still with fd6... 7 has a few new bells and whistles, but nothing i need for straight screenwriting... if you can get a good price on an fd6, you'll have all you need, imo... i wouldn't let myself be scared off from the latest version, though... fd is still the program most of the people in the industry use...

Do you know of a place that still sells FD 6? I searched through google and couldn't come up with any sites still selling it. Amazon doesn't have it now. But I did find FD 7 for $130. If that isn't too much more than FD 6 will cost, would you recommend going with FD 7 at that price?

I'd vote for Final Draft, too. It's more or less become the standard in the field now.

That's pretty much the standard price for the FD line. Most of the major retailers will probably have returned older versions for credit on purchases of the new ones by now, FD7 has been out for a while. I think the only places you'd still find 6 would be little mom & pop type stores that might have some still lying around in the back room, and for the hassle of finding one it might not be worth whatever savings you'd get. On the other hand, if you happen to be a student, you can usually get a pretty fat discount on the current version by buying from a university bookstore or from Final Draft directly. I don't remember off hand what I paid for my copy of FD6, as it was some time ago, but it was substantially less than that.

I use Final Draft 7, was the first one I tried, and find it very helpful....if only I could work out how to use the Tagger

I hate final draft. I use a template for Word. Works just fine. I've won contests and have a TV series in development.

If you're working on a TV show or in production where you're having to do rewrites and everybody needs to be on the "same page" you might need Final Draft, but for getting spec scripts out to break in it's a LOT of money and I find it a pain in the ass to use.

Sophocles is very highly regarded among writers. Emphasizes writing, not margins and format crap. Under a hundred bucks.

Celtx is free and runs on all platforms.

Montage runs on Mac and is around a hundred bucks.

Originally posted by lin:
Emphasizes writing, not margins and format crap.

The focus on the writing is the writer's job. The formatting is the software's job. Shouldn't the software focus on "margins and format crap," so the writer doesn't have to?

Shouldn't the software focus on "margins and format crap," so the writer doesn't have to?

sure should... that's its main function... i'd think any seasoned screenwriter would know that...

well, i don't have money for any thing...lol so i go to scriptbuddy.com the only bad thing is that you have to pay to be able to print the pages out in that format though.

Originally Posted by Guitar_chick133

well, i don't have money for any thing...lol so i go to scriptbuddy.com the only bad thing is that you have to pay to be able to print the pages out in that format though.

Look into Celtx. It's free and works really well. You can print, make storyboards, it does stage play and screen play formatting.

celtx - Download Version 0.991