Screenwriting : Final Draft 9 by Ryan D. Canty

8 is working fine for me. Plus Final draft is the industry standard. You're fine with 8. No need to spend unnecessary money.

I use 8 as well. Can't imagine what more 9 would have to make it so appealing to spend the money for the upgrade.

I have 8 also and I will treat myself to 9 after I sell a script.

Thanks everyone! I'm going to hold off on it. FD 8 is pretty damn awesome and I'll take a page from Eric Pagan's book and treat myself later on down the road )

I have 8 and have no need for 9 yet. In fact the producers/directors I work with have older versions than mine and I have to send them the final drafts in FDR instead of FDX format!

I have updated to FD 9. It has some new features including a more refined UI. I started with FD from it's inception and just keep updating. Go to the Writers Store site and see what the new features are, and if they appeal to your needs.

9 is the biggest improvement in the interface they've done. Most notably to the navigator which accesses scriptnotes, character arcs, scenes etc. (They've also added over 70 curse words to spellcheck if that's of interest) . It's on sale and worth it if you can swing it.

Lisa, there is speech control in FD (I believe back to v.6, lots of voices to choose from), but nothing is as good as a live read.

I don't use it, I don't find the need for it but as a beta tester for FD I have tested it. 24 voices at various speeds is plenty for any script, if there's more characters than that then there's a bigger problem.

Lisa, it does have that in 8, I use it from time to time to estimate imagined pauses in action lines.

I find the latest FD 9 very user-friendly and quick to write on.