Is Final Draft 12 Worth the Upgrade?

Well, it's a new year, and you might still be looking at one of the most dreadful parts of buying from a software company, the upgrade. Sure it may be discounted just for having that twenty-digit customer code, but sometimes we're a little strapped and don't necessarily know if it's a necessity for us.

We'll I downloaded the new version because of one specific thing, Outlines. Throughout my college experience, Outlines were just a word document with either some beats or an in-depth act structure. I'm tired of it; I want more; besides, we pay so much money for these programs. Why just use them to write? Now speaking of writing, the program didn't change much with the formatting of scripts. Why would they? Script formatting is a battle to change in the industry anyways. It's not like they have any say in the issue, really. No, they put their efforts into something a bit more practical. We have an updated beat sheet to build cards and easily layout your future project. You can even import your beats straight into the script! Not sure if that's helpful for the up-and-coming producer who's reading your work. I'm still figuring that part out.

Outline Bar in Final Draft 12

The one thing in the update that has me fainting from joy is simple. It's two outline bars at the top of the screen parallel to your scenes and page numbers. This tool is fantastic; not only can you build your beat sheets in the final draft, but you can physically view it and see if your pages are hitting your target script pages for each beat. I no joke, spent three hours the other day importing my latest pilot into this system, and boy o' boy do I feel thrilled to run this pilot through another re-write.

Beat sheets are an essential selling tool in the industry, so I will say this could be a fun investment if it's something you're looking forward to doing more alongside your writing. Now, if you're still just working through writing, then Final Draft 11 is more than enough for you! This is your game; you are the players, the coach, and the refs. Play the game however you feel.

Final Draft 12 is an excellent branch of more features outside of just writing the script. We just need to be patient for some of us until that day comes. Till next time keep writing, and re-writing.