#Final draft 7 user guide how to
#Final draft 7 user guide pro
#Final draft 7 user guide software

That means that I can easily scan all of the open notes in the screenplay and quickly jump to them. In Highland, these notes show up in a different color, so they are easy to find.Īnd (!) they show up in the Navigator in the Sidebar. There’s no real way to do that in Final Draft (well, OK, there’s “ScriptNotes”, but no). Option 2 is not a real option because it is too annoying.Īnd even if I’m not sharing the screenplay, I want to be able to find the notes that I’ve written. Even if I want to share those things, I want to share them separately instead of having them distract from the reading experience.

Option 1 sucks because I usually don’t want a producer or a reader reading all of the open questions I have about the script. Remove all of the notes and put them in a separate document.Share the entire screenplay with them, notes and all.It meant that if I wanted to share an unpolished draft with someone, I had two choices: In Final Draft, my way of handling these little notes was to just write a note to myself in bold within an action or dialogue block. I use them for things like alternate lines, things that need to be fixed later, or just notes to myself about a scene, character, or beat.

Notes work in a similar way, but they are enclosed in double brackets like ]and can be used inline in a dialogue or action block:īoth of these little features have been insanely helpful while writing the first dirty draft of a screenplay where everything is messy and there are so many little things that need to be flagged so they can be dealt with in a later draft. Here’s an example of a synopsis, which is enabled by starting a line with an = sign: Here’s what I love about this: in Editor mode, you have three ways of writing text that is hidden in Preview mode: The Preview view, which translates what’s written in the Editor view into the screenplay format that you’ll want to export or share. The Editor view is the behind-the-scenes view where the writing gets done. For me, the killer feature is the Editor vs. So, what about the writing? Does it make it easier to write a screenplay? When I want to actually map something or use notecards, I prefer the physical versions. I do all of my outlining, beat boarding, story mapping, and script noting outside of Final Draft, usually in Word docs. Many of the new features are things that I have no interest in - things like beatboards and story maps and ScriptNotes. I never feel lost in the software.Ĭompare that to Final Draft, which still has a design aesthetic that reminds me of the early aughts - the icons are dated and the colors are not particularly pleasing.Īnd Final Draft has been getting progressively more cluttered and cumbersome over the years. And it’s not just aesthetically pleasing - it’s very intuitive and easy to use. You can’t quantify delight, but it’s delightful to use. It feels good to write a screenplay in Highland.

#Final draft 7 user guide how to

It’s a great introduction to how to use the program. ^^^ That’s a screenshot of the screenplay tutorial that ships with Highland 2. The impression that I get from everything in Highland is that it’s the result of thoughtful consideration by smart people, even when I disagree with the design choices. It has everything I want to see and nothing more.

#Final draft 7 user guide software

My first impression of writing in Highland 2: I feel like someone designed screenwriting software for exactly how I write.

#Final draft 7 user guide pro

I’m using the Pro version but the free version includes most of the features of the Pro version. I hope they can improve the user interface and modernize the software, because I want there to be multiple great choices in the marketplace.įor the past week, I’ve been using Highland every day, working two-three hours per day on the first draft of a comedy screenplay. I’ve used it for over a thousand hours (maybe a few thousand?) and it has served me very well. It helped me write hundreds of pages of scripts, including all of my films, several plays, and many many sketches. Final Draft was never a joy to use, but it got the job done and I could ignore all the clutter and work around the idiosyncrasies and get my writing done.Īnd while I am pretty critical of Final Draft, I should say that it has been a big part of my life and work since I started using it. Last year, I upgraded from version ~7 1 to version 10. I’m going to share some of the things that I love about Highland 2 (just going to call it Highland from here on out) and a few things that I don’t love.Īs background: I’ve been using Final Draft since 2011. This isn’t meant to be an in-depth review of every single feature.