Screen Writing Tools: Final Draft, ScriptThing.

Reviewed by David Nerlich

Screen writing software tools are premised on two ideas - 1: that there's a standard industry format to which an ambitious screenplay ought to conform and 2: achieving this with its variable indents, capitalisations, right and left hand scene numberings and so on using a normal word processor is a serious pain in the arse - as if you didn't have enough of one already sitting in that chair typing all night.

Here we look at Final Draft and ScriptThing, both cross-platform tools. Scriptware (PC only) has been overlooked but may warrant investigation by interested Windows users.

What these programs do is activate a whole range of shortcuts as you work your way down the page. Start by typing a character name and it will appear capitalised at page centre. Hitting return will jump you automatically into dialogue mode with the appropriate indent and a return to lower case. You can then choose, by using tab or enter/return, whether the next paragraph is to be more dialogue or a change to action.

Using this system of alternating keys without a hitch may seem a little like a ballet at first. As an alternative First Draft gives you hotkeys to select the mode or 'element' of your choice, be it scene heading, extension (INT., EXT., DAY, NIGHT, etc.) action, character, dialogue, parenthetical or transition (CUT TO:, FADE OUT: etc). A list of the available modes appears at the bottom of the screen in case memory fails you. ScriptThing only lets you do this selection via a menu, which is about the only area I found in which it is less streamlined than Final Draft.

Once you've got the hang of all this the learning curve isn't too steep - just as well since Final Draft's tutorial is a bit clunky and overwritten. One difference between these programs is the relative ease with which ScriptThing can be understood from its tutorial and help files.

As you build your screenplay other assistant functions come into play. Type the first letter of a previously entered character's name and a pop-up window offers you a best guess as to what you were about to type. Return/enter will print the name and jump to the beginning of a new paragraph of dialogue. So in theory when writing dialogue you'll never have to type a character's name twice. ScriptThing shares this feature with slight variations. A list is built up as you work and the lists update automatically every time you invent a new character, scene heading or other element. You can view and edit these lists for all elements. Both programs also place the appropriate MOREs & CONTINUEDs at the top and bottom of the page automatically.

If you want to import existing work from another word processor, Final Draft does a reasonable job of recognising a character name and formatting it appropriately above the ensuing dialogue. You'll probably have to go for a once-through by hand distinguishing between some action and dialogue but Final Draft's Reformat window made this a quick and simple keyboard-only process. I wasn't really able to test this on the demo version of ScriptThing as some import/export options are disabled. Results from simply pasting text into ScriptThing weren't too impressive.

Both programs give you an overview mode letting you see your scenes as a table of index cards or a scene list. You can drag and drop index cards for adding to, deleting or re-ordering your scenes with changes updated to the screenplay. When editing you can also leapfrog through your work via various 'go-to' parameters - using bookmarks, scenes revisions, characters and so on as search criteria.

Both programs offer live spell checking with unknown words highlighted as you type, also a thesaurus and a searchable database of character names are available. You can request reports and stats on a range of criteria. Final draft offers floating windows for keeping script notes, ScriptThing keeps them in the body as italicised text that can be omitted when printing.

You can globally configure the text and formatting of all elements yourself, which fortunately meant I was able to adapt work from both programs to conform to script layout guidelines published by the Australian Film Commission.

In fact, other than a few special functions, there isn't a lot to distinguish these programs. Final Draft features a text-to-speech capability with different voices assignable to specific characters. ScriptThing's SmartCheck searches for common formatting errors such as a character speaking twice in a row. Each has minor variations in the use of tabs and returns for formatting while you write. Personally I preferred the simpler design and the sequential logic of ScriptThing to write with but some of Final Draft's editing functions preclude me from recommending one program over the other.

Working demos are available for download. The Final Draft demo is save-disabled, ScriptThing can save but is limited to files under 40 pages with export to other programs disabled. Both can print but print outs are watermarked. See www.finaldraft.com or www.scriptthing.com for the demos or more information.