Final Draft 7

ComicBent. I hardly feel that what I said warrants your reply. If I called a moderator on this board a "jackass" I'd get that post deleted and a strong warning. So, for you to tell me to settle down, I'd have to say the same to you. I didn't name call.

I merely meant that your comment (and other admins before you) seemed to say "We all know FD will fix it. They'll come through this time as they have before." This is a softened response to a hardened problem.

All I was saying is that these FD employees who pick through these threads are constantly belittling the startups like Sophocles. Now here is a case where they have screwed up royally and made many people pay for such lunacy. That was my only point. I didn't resort to calling you a crass term.

Now we shake hands on it and move on.

:hat

Sophocles is probably a fine program but I agree with what was said in the earlier thread and think FD is only wrong to assume that FD7 is better. The only robust "industry standard" is Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 (which I think has only gone through 1.7 versions?). In the days of FD5 that would have been a matter of opinion, but FD's superb reporting features can no longer tip the balance in its favour. I think Magic has always been the sharper formatter and the most Spartan (in the best sense of the word) program, the fact that you have to prepare scripts entirely in page view mode in FD7 makes this pretty cut and dry.

But if I was paying for an alternative to FD7 I'd either get Movie Magic or FD5. I think they are the only serious alternatives. If you're on a tight budget you can get Hollywood Screenwriter (which is Movie Magic sans production features and things like card view) for $32.99 from Amazon!

So I think Sophocles, which costs $120, is pretty much out of the picture. You can get the full Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000 from ebay for less.

--"I've seen competitors obsessed with competition, say, with Microsoft, that keep looking in the rear-view mirror and hit a tree head-on because they're so distracted." Google's Sergey Brin.

I'm wondering if the change in daylight savings time didn't trigger a "deactivate" code in the FD7 program. That might explain why it happened last night, when my computer clock automatically changed.

BTW, I saw your other post, Richard, and I'm having almost identical problems. I'm going to write tech support and make sure Iam not penalized for this bogus deactivation/activation cycle, too.

Time for the FD shills to go home.

Shill? I've been the one complaining the most about Final Draft 7. Just because I was able to use a little common sense about what might have caused a computer problem is no reason to assume that I've got anything to do with the company. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the moment that Sophocles does WYSIWYG, it becomes my one and only screenwriting program. In my opinion, Final Draft has become fat, lazy and totally uncaring about the customer base. That's where MM2000 has them, hands down. Those people actually work with the customers to fix problems.

Rich (Not A Shill) Morgan

So I think Sophocles, which costs $120, is pretty much out of the picture.

Movie Magic, which retails for $230, is well worth it, but Sophocles, which costs $100 less, out of the picture?

Why is that?

Okay Richard, I believe you. It must've been your post count.

Erm, because Hollywood Screenwriter (which I understand as a raw formatter is the same application as Movie Magic, but without index card, rainbow pages etc) is $32.99 from Amazon.

I didn't play much with the Sophocles demo, I doubt it has much if anything on Hollywood Screenwriter as a script formatter. So, if you are prepared to pay going on $100 more for Sophocles, you may as well get the full Movie Magic 2000 from ebay for $93.95

search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?query=%22movie+magic+screenwriter%22&ht =1&sosortproperty=1&from=R10&BasicSearch=

Or pay $100 more and get MM or FD retail.

I think Scenewriterpro is also a nifty little formatter, $29.99 www.virtualamnesia.com/scenewriterpro/Default.asp

Sophocles is priced in a grey area. What do you want, a budget formatter, or fully-fledged screenwriting software in a widely used format with production features? Sophocles is neither budget nor "industry standard".

[Writeman shakes his head ]

Brough, Brough, Brough...

Click here and see that you are wrong on the price point of Sophocles. You can snag it right now for only $60.

Scenewriter sux. I bought it when they ran their $10 promo deal. They later admitted it is a memory hog and said all those that paid for it could get a watered down no-graphic version. It is slow, counter-intuitive and dull. They attempted to copy the brilliance of Sophocles and failed miserably.

I do agree that MMS2K is way better than FD, since I own almost all of the scriptwriting apps. Never tried Hollywood Screenwriter.

I think the apps rank in this order (and I've written scripts in all of them so I should know)

1. MMS2K - most complete feature set, smartest formatting
2. Final Draft 6 - industry standard blah blah, works well.
3. Sophocles - small MB footprint, most customizable for screen views and formatting. Best navigation of any app.
4. Scriptware - Oldie but goodie. In sore need of an update.

and I've written scripts in all of them so I should know

Just remember that people are different, and may have different reasons for liking one application over another.

For example, I think Movie Magic is the worst of the bunch, as it really doesn't fit my style of writing and I dislike the interface.

I prefer Sophocles over the competition. It has a clean interface, intuitive dual-panel design, color coding, and has allowed me to can my separate outlining program. Then again, I do find myself rewriting and toning the first draft in FD 6.

Different strokes for different folks.

Then again, I do find myself rewriting and toning the first draft in FD 6.

Is that because of WYSIWYG?