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Folks, today I had another panicky email from someone whose script had been gobbled up and pooped out by Final Draft. In this case it was FD 8.
The writer was supposed to give the script to his director today. Let me skip ahead and say that this case had a happy outcome (more about that later) — but that was unusual. Generally, these things turn out to be disasters.
What happens is that someone tries to open a Final Draft script and receives some kind of screwy message that the file is not compatible with this version of Final Draft. When the person opens the .fdx file in a text editor, nothing is there (or there is a file full of NUL NUL NUL, etc.). I know that the file is unrecoverable when it has NUL NUL NUL. I am not sure about when it appears to be blank — but, if it looks blank, it probably is.
In any case, I must have received about a half dozen of these requests for help in the last year. The files are never recoverable, and nobody has ever been able to explain exactly what happens.
However, if you are religiously devoted to using Final Draft, let me offer a reminder. You should back up your work every day as a formatted text file and/or as a PDF created from within Final Draft.
Here is the situation.
(1) If you have a formatted text file, you may be able to use Final Draft to import that file with fair accuracy. And I know for certain that my favorite screenwriting program, Fade In, will import such a file with astonishing accuracy. I do not know if the trial version of Fade In will do conversions or not, but you could probably find someone with Fade In to convert it for you. Fade In will export back to Final Draft .fdx format. I have exchanged scripts with people whom I was helping, and I have never had any problems with the .fadein/.fdx conversions.
(2) Fade In will also import PDF files that are created with some of the higher-quality PDF drivers. It imports FD-created PDF files with a high degree of accuracy. I always know that I will have very little cleanup to do if I have a PDF from Final Draft.
In the case today the writer did not know about the automatic backups that Final Draft does. I explained to him how to find the backups, and — glory be! — he had a backup there. A happy ending to the story.
For the record, I have had some people with this same problem who looked for the backups and found that these, too, were corrupt or were just not there. Sometimes people do not clearly explain things to me or they never follow up with the complete story. Anyway, you should not depend on the automatic backups alone, because, if Final Draft has a seizure, it may leave you with nothing at all. I would save as formatted text and/or PDF every day and also check the file to make sure that it is all right. You need to have a backup with which Final Draft will not be having any further contact.
The writer was supposed to give the script to his director today. Let me skip ahead and say that this case had a happy outcome (more about that later) — but that was unusual. Generally, these things turn out to be disasters.
What happens is that someone tries to open a Final Draft script and receives some kind of screwy message that the file is not compatible with this version of Final Draft. When the person opens the .fdx file in a text editor, nothing is there (or there is a file full of NUL NUL NUL, etc.). I know that the file is unrecoverable when it has NUL NUL NUL. I am not sure about when it appears to be blank — but, if it looks blank, it probably is.
In any case, I must have received about a half dozen of these requests for help in the last year. The files are never recoverable, and nobody has ever been able to explain exactly what happens.
However, if you are religiously devoted to using Final Draft, let me offer a reminder. You should back up your work every day as a formatted text file and/or as a PDF created from within Final Draft.
Here is the situation.
(1) If you have a formatted text file, you may be able to use Final Draft to import that file with fair accuracy. And I know for certain that my favorite screenwriting program, Fade In, will import such a file with astonishing accuracy. I do not know if the trial version of Fade In will do conversions or not, but you could probably find someone with Fade In to convert it for you. Fade In will export back to Final Draft .fdx format. I have exchanged scripts with people whom I was helping, and I have never had any problems with the .fadein/.fdx conversions.
(2) Fade In will also import PDF files that are created with some of the higher-quality PDF drivers. It imports FD-created PDF files with a high degree of accuracy. I always know that I will have very little cleanup to do if I have a PDF from Final Draft.
In the case today the writer did not know about the automatic backups that Final Draft does. I explained to him how to find the backups, and — glory be! — he had a backup there. A happy ending to the story.
For the record, I have had some people with this same problem who looked for the backups and found that these, too, were corrupt or were just not there. Sometimes people do not clearly explain things to me or they never follow up with the complete story. Anyway, you should not depend on the automatic backups alone, because, if Final Draft has a seizure, it may leave you with nothing at all. I would save as formatted text and/or PDF every day and also check the file to make sure that it is all right. You need to have a backup with which Final Draft will not be having any further contact.
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