Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

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  • Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

    does anyone know exactly how ****ed I am now that I upgraded to High Sierra (a 64-bit file system) which does not apparently allow me to even open my old .fdx Final Draft files?

    one other wrinkle, when it told me that Final Draft 8 would no longer run under High Sierra, I just made the switch to Fade In Pro. if i upgraded Final Draft to 10.whatever, would it recognize the old v.8 files?

  • #2
    Re: Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

    (nm, Fade In appears to be opening my old .fdx files like a champ. sorry for the momentary freakout)

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    • #3
      Re: Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

      For potential loss of work freak outs up the scale to blind murderous rage should be permitted in courts of law.
      I heard the starting gun


      sigpic

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      • #4
        Re: Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

        i *think* i just hadn't validated my receipt to make the program fully active. but seeing all my old .fdx files greyed-out in the "Open File" dialogue box was . . . disconcerting

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        • #5
          Re: Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

          Originally posted by JoeBanks View Post
          one other wrinkle, when it told me that Final Draft 8 would no longer run under High Sierra, I just made the switch to Fade In Pro. if i upgraded Final Draft to 10.whatever, would it recognize the old v.8 files?
          Hey JoeBanks, (or anyone else) if you see this would you mind telling me how that transition from FD to Fade In has gone?

          I got an email saying FD will no longer support FD8 and I'll have to upgrade to FD 10 -- but all my scripts are in FD. Is it even worth it to switch to Fade In? Am I going to have to reformat every script -- some I can let go but others, man, that's a good solid two handfuls of scripts that have value to have to redo.

          (I'm using a PC if that matters)


          -- How do you transfer a script written in FD8 into Fade In? Will Fade In just automatically open a FD file?

          -- are the page numbers the same? I found another thread that talked about orphans in dialogue in the transition were not similar from one program to the other, but how did that affect your overall page count plus or minus?

          -- Can you just open the thing and go like usual or do you have to learn all new keystrokes for the elements like Character/Action line etc...?

          -- Are you happy with it in general?

          -- Anything that's been a particular headache?


          I'm in the middle of a first draft of something right now and don't want to stop the momentum of writing in order to figure it out if its going to be an ordeal. I wish I were more tech savvy -- usually anything that can go wrong, for me, does. Just trying to get a grip on what I'm in for if I do it.

          Thanks, any and all.

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          • #6
            Re: Final Draft (8) files and High Sierra

            Originally posted by figment View Post
            Hey JoeBanks, (or anyone else) if you see this would you mind telling me how that transition from FD to Fade In has gone?

            I got an email saying FD will no longer support FD8 and I'll have to upgrade to FD 10 -- but all my scripts are in FD. Is it even worth it to switch to Fade In? Am I going to have to reformat every script -- some I can let go but others, man, that's a good solid two handfuls of scripts that have value to have to redo.

            (I'm using a PC if that matters)


            -- How do you transfer a script written in FD8 into Fade In? Will Fade In just automatically open a FD file?

            i guess there are two ways: (1) import the old .fdr or .fdx files natively; or (2) convert a Final Draft-created PDF. i've only done #1 so far

            -- are the page numbers the same? I found another thread that talked about orphans in dialogue in the transition were not similar from one program to the other, but how did that affect your overall page count plus or minus?

            Nooope! My main gripe so far (and it's not a huge gripe, just annoying) is that Fade In's layout is not identical to Final Draft's layout so it's not a straight 1:1 conversion in terms of page numbers or line breaks. A free Final Draft template is provided to apply to any old FD scripts, which is better, but even that didn't faithfully replicate my old script formatting. Probably about 90% faithful but a man who wears two watches never knows what time it is

            -- Can you just open the thing and go like usual or do you have to learn all new keystrokes for the elements like Character/Action line etc...?

            Workflow is basically the same in terms of text editing. Only thing I miss from Final Draft so far is that when two characters are speaking in a given scene, FD would predictively ping-pong back and forth by autocompleting the two character names. In Fade In, you can start to autocomplete by typing the first letter of a character name but then you have to manually choose from a pop-up menu if there are multiple characters with that first initial. again, not a huge inefficiency but i liked the way Final Draft handled that situation just a little better.

            -- Are you happy with it in general?

            Very much so, the more that I work with it and get a feel for the little details. The basics of writing and producing a professionally-formatted screenplay are solid. And it's currently $10 cheaper to buy Fade In than upgrade FD from an old version to v.10 (and Fade In apparently does free updates in the future, which FD will likely never do)

            -- Anything that's been a particular headache?

            just the minor annoyances in bringing my old FD files into Fade In's sandbox.

            I'm in the middle of a first draft of something right now and don't want to stop the momentum of writing in order to figure it out if its going to be an ordeal. I wish I were more tech savvy -- usually anything that can go wrong, for me, does. Just trying to get a grip on what I'm in for if I do it.

            Thanks, any and all.
            my brief experience is noted starting here in the main Fade In thread (i accidentally posted this thread in the wrong forum, apologies)

            http://messageboard.donedealpro.com/...&postcount=168

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