You have a story to tell. Use Final Draft to write it.

Use your creative energy to focus on the content; let Final Draft software take care of the style. Final Draft is the number-one selling application specifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodics, and stage plays. Final Draft 8 academic software combines powerful word processing with professional script formatting in one self-contained, easy-to-use package. There is no need to learn about script formatting rules – Final Draft automatically paginates and formats your script to industry standards as you write.

Final Draft Features:

• Send copy from the Index Card Summary directly to your script.
  We’ve added a new feature to Final Draft 8 that will allow you to select one or more individual Index Card Summaries and copy the content directly into the script. If there is only a Scene Heading, the content will appear directly below the Scene Heading as an Action element.  Otherwise, the text will appear at the end of any previously existing content in the scene. You will be able to access this feature by toolbar button, menu option, keyboard shortcut, or contextual menu.

• Scene View
  Outline your script ideas and reorder scenes in this high-level overview in Final Draft 8.With the Scene View you can look at your script from a 5,000-foot view and select, drag and drop one or more scenes to reorganize your ideas as you outline.  Insert new scenes easily in Final Draft , and hide or show information important to you such as a scene’s action, title and summary.  Scene View also displays a scene’s color so you can quickly identify one scene from another.  Print your Scene View or just view it alongside the script in Final Draft 8. With a double-click you can sync the script to instantly go to any scene you’ve selected in Scene View.

• Scene Navigator
  Manage and view the important details of your scene in this sortable floating pallet in Final Draft .Manage the pace and flow of your story with Final Draft 8 and keep track of up to nine categories of information related to your scenes. The Scene Navigator is a sortable, customizable floating pallet that displays details about your script such as a scene’s title, color, page number, length and location, and best of all it syncs with the script with a single-click of Final Draft . As your script progresses, you can pick and choose the columns of information that are relevant for your current phase of writing.

• Scene Properties Inspector (SPI)
  Add scene titles and colors to track your story lines, characters, etc.In Final Draft 8 you can track data specific to each scene in this new floating pallet, such as the scene’s story beats that will eventually make up the action, characters and dialog of the scene.  Add and edit your Final Draft 8 scene’s title such as "Villain introduced," and add color to the scene to help you track elements like storylines, character arcs, and material you need to get back to later.  Like the Navigator, the SPI will display the details of whatever scene you’re working on in your script so that you have your summary notes handy as you need them.

• Index Cards
  Easily outline your story and restructure your script in Final Draft 8 by dragging and dropping multiple scenes at a time.This improved feature of Final Draft 8 has double-sided cards that display the script’s scene on one side and the summary on the other. The Summary View allows you to enter ideas directly into the index card such as your basic outline, notes, sequence or act markers, comments, locations, blocking... anything you need to build and organize your story.  You can also color your Index Cards in Final Draft  to help organize themes, character arcs, A and B stories, etc.  Select and rearrange multiple cards at once if you need to reorder your scenes or print your Index Cards directly on 3x5 or 4x6 cards for visualizing and organizing scenes outside of the application.  Double-clicking on a card in Split Panel View of Final Draft 8 will automatically sync the scene selected with your script.

• File Format (now XML)
  Other software now works seamlessly with the new Final Draft .fdx file format.Final Draft version 8 has a new file format that we have shared with a number of technology partners to improve the writer’s overall scriptwriting experience.  Now you can save to the new Final Draft file format in a variety of products. Your information can then be opened directly in Final Draft with perfect format and structure.  No more reformatting in Final Draft and no more re-typing or lost information!

• Tab and Enter functions.You can install and start using Final Draft within minutes due to the easy to use Tab and Enter functionality that helps format all of the various types of script elements to industry standards.

• Customizable Keyboard Shortcuts. If you prefer to adjust Final Draft to a set of Keyboard Shortcuts and Macros you’re already used to, Final Draft allows you to customize your workflow specific to your writing needs.

• Final Draft Courier Font. Having a consistent page count that production companies and studios can depend on to help them estimate their budgets is crucial when working on a script. That’s why Final Draft offers its own font to ensure proper pagination on both Windows and Macintosh.

• ScriptNotes. These effective pop-up windows in Final Draft hold your ideas, suggestions, or scene fragments that you’ve cut but don’t want to toss without taking up space onscreen. Use ScriptNotes to provide feedback on a particular scene when reviewing your partner’s script or print your ScriptNotes as a report for easy reference when reviewing your script.

• Templates. Television show, screenplay, stageplay, and graphic novel templates are included to get you started with Final Draft 8. In addition to what is included in the software package, the Final Draft Online Template Library is updated regularly and allows registered users to download additional templates directly from finaldraft.com.

• Format Assistant. This Final Draft writing tool checks your script for common formatting errors such as missing dialogue, extra spaces, carriage returns, and blank elements. You can set it to run every time you print or only when you want it to.

• Text to Speech. Have your script read back to you by assigning different voices to your characters in Final Draft . It’s like having a live script reading in your computer.

• ScriptCompare. Dynamically compare two drafts of the same script (.fdr or .fdx) and Final Draft will highlight any changes, allowing you to easily see the differences from one file to the next.