Screenwriting : Final Draft 8 vs 9 by Michael Kraxenberger

I love Final Draft 8 too but I was curious about the character arch function that seems to be new. And you are probably right!

I'm getting the upgrade. They had me at "new navigator features."

I did get the update but I have to update my mac first before I can install it :(

There's a post on Linked In's Screenwriting member group from one particularly unhappy camper. He said it frequently crashes and that there are registration and tech support problems. No one else has chimed in. No personal experience with it. I'm waiting for awhile as it's not my default software.

I worked with 8 for a year with ZERO problems. I am now on 9 and so far everything is running smooth. I am on a Mac running Mavericks.

I can say that I have been part of the beta testing on 9 for over a year -- it's vastly improved (and no they aren't paying me to say that) it's the first FD upgrade that is actually much different. They had to force me to go from 6 to 8 so I was skeptical -- but IMO it's worth it.

What would you say are the advantages of 9 over 8? So far, I'm very happy with 8. Thanks.

So far I have not seen a huge advantage over 8. Still playing though. I would say if 8 is working great and you are not one to move up for no reason stay where you are.

The advantages of 9 over 8 are two-fold. 1) it's a more modern interface, much more user intuitive to go back and forth with the OS platforms of today. 2) and the biggest, is that it helps you work more efficiently. The navigator has brand new tools and functionality for script notes, general notes, scene and character breakdowns. The sharing, exporting, reporting, and versioning tools are much more advanced for production purposes. Will your writing suffer if you don't upgrade? No. But if you are a working writer (or hope to be) the tools make your workflow smoother, and are more interactive and intuitive. Is it perfect? No. But it's a step in a good direction.

Well, I'm loving Final Draft 9. It runs smoother on my Mac. The new navigator features are great. They are extremely beneficial when rewriting. You can move around your script very easily. Being able to highlight each character's dialog in a different color is helpful when fine-tuning. Most of the added 30 features, in my opinion, do help you work more efficiently. Their benefit does come more into play for rewriting and production purposes. I guess it depends on how one writes to determine if Final Draft 9 is right for you. Nonetheless, I think it is wise to keep up with industry standards. Be current and congruent. Therefore, I recommend the upgrade.

Ok, get ready to make fun...I wrote my first screenplay on Celtx, writing the 2nd on FD9, and it's night and day...pissed I didn't start with FD. In all honesty, never thought I'd make it this far...

I'd like to reboot this topic. I'm considering upgrading from Final Draft 8 to 9, but even with the Stage 32 discount it's a wodge of cash. In your experience, is it worth the outlay? Has anyone with FD8 had difficulty reading or opening other writers' scripts that were written in FD9?

It's worth it to read through the previous comments, but to your question -- I've not heard of anyone having difficulty opening v.8 files (myself included) or other's files.

The reason I ask is because one of my contacts is sending me .fdx files written in FD9 which my FD8 can't open (even though FD8 uses .fdx). For me to read them he has to convert them to the much earlier file format, .fdr, which seems strange to me. Anyone else had this problem?