Final Draft 11

£169.99/$179.99

“Final Draft comes with Hollywood-high credentials. Guillermo del Toro is a fan”

Requirements macos 10.12 or later • 64-bit processor • 60.5MB Learn more store.finaldraft.com Available from Mac App Store

If your profession, or passion, involves penning scripts and stage plays then Final Draft’s industrystandard word processing and formatting tools help you plan, write, outline and reorder your scripts and scenes effortlessly with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

We initially baulked at the price, but Final Draft comes with Hollywood-high credentials. Guillermo del Toro, the Oscar-winning writer, director and producer is a fan and, while we would never profess to be experts in the field, it is nevertheless easy to see why. Upon first launching the app, it resembles a standard, though undoubtedly pretty, word processor, but delve into the ‘View’ menu and you’ll begin to grasp the array of tools at your disposal. Your text can be displayed as a continuous ream or you can switch to alternate views to help you better realise and build your ideas and vision for the piece as a spectacle. Beat Board mode acts as a pinboard to attach rough ideas and grow your projects organically with notes and images, whereas Scene View can be used to break your prose down into segments to reflect each individual scene. You can even employ Index Cards to attach scripts and summaries.

Whatever mode you are in, a simple toolset lets you format the text to suit. Click on the menu at the top of the interface and you’ll be able to choose a format category, such as ‘Action’ or ‘Dialogue’ and the text will slip into format seamlessly. It takes all of the effort out of manual formatting and leaves you free to focus your energy on your play.