Movie Draft SE... mainly for the ease of rewriting and moving scenes around. I can hide the scene and make a new scene at ease. It allows you to break down Acts with estimated time for scene, act and script... Everything helps...

Scrivener for pre-draft and first draft and, occasionally, big rewrites. Otherwise, FD8.

I use Celtx, but it has a few bugs. Switching over to Final Draft or Movie Magic soon. Still deciding.

I was raised on Final Draft, but working in production had to use both that, MMS, and Celtx. All have their advantages and disadvantages. There's a few more apps or online tools that I'll list for the sake of argument/completion. A definitive list would be dandy eventually! SCRIVENER is writing/story software that isn't solely for screenplay format, but also any type of writing (novel, prose, etc.). It includes bulletin board/scrapbooking features and cards. Their free trial/walkthrough explains it better than I do, but that may be the one I try to implement as my "go-to" app. MONTAGE is another screenplay software that's native to Mac. The company also makes story software so isn't just a one-trick pony. I've not used this enough to see why or what the advantages are to this over established brands, other than it being designed specifically for Mac OS. SCRIPT BUDDY is web-based scriptwriting software. No bells and whistles, but it is auto-formatted for screenplay format. SCRIPPED is another web-based screenwriting software site that I liked. I used it for my last Script Frenzy. Scrivener (Literature & Latte Mac OS, $45.95) Montage (Mariner Software, Mac OS, $49.95) Script Buddy (Free version or $5/month subscription) Scripped (Free version or upgrade to $9.95/month or $90 one-time lifetime Pro subscriptions)

In all honesty, if it's in format and in 12 Courier, you could use an Olivetti... I wrote my first attempt at a script on Celtx, because it was free. It got me my agent, even though he knew it wasn't written on Final Draft -- he said it looks "just off enough to be distracting". I figured that if he could tell, then I'd better pony-up for Final Draft. I haven't looked back since. Now I can pretty well look at any script and determine which software it was created on. Things like MM and Celtx have different default margins before sluglines than Final Draft. It's not a big deal, but Final Draft just looks the most professional and aesthetically pleasing to me. Not to mention the interface is the easiest, once you get the hang of it.

My agent told me to get Final Draft (hey, maybe they're all getting backhanders!) after writing my first few scripts in Word. Obviously, it's a big step up from that. The one thing I do miss is Word's automatic spelling correction (when it corrects common mistakes the moment you've finished typing them, without drawing your attention to them)...

I've used just about everything out there at some stage, and while FD is easy and familiar, I like Movie Draft because of the way you can break stuff down and because it's quick to flip stuff around while writing - and it's cheap! Currently though, I'm using Scrivener because you can *build* a screenplay in it. I recently wrote a book using it so I know it's perfect for long form work, gathering sources, keeping notes or pieces for inspiration, like images etc. and it compiles beautifully. I decided to write my current script using it for those same reasons. I can write everything in it - log-line, outline, treatment, notes and so on and have it all there in one place for when I need it. Right now I have the treatment (colour coded and with annotations) pasted into the page and I'm writing the actual script alongside it while I go. It makes the whole process feel really fast and more like, as I said, building the story, in chunks, and for me that makes it a lot less daunting and easier to handle.

Trying the "Scrivener-all-the-way-through" approach on my latest commission. I've outlined with it before but am now trying the embedded screenplay format. i quite like the one scene at a time approach and being able to work straight off your index card outline. We'll see if the promised export to FD8 goes as smoothly as advertised ( if we ever get past draft stage!)

Movie Draft. I've used Celtx and but MD has a few more features, like working entirely in FD8 format. I'm keeping my eye open on Fade In, Trelby and others.

Final Draft NEEDS a way to hyperlink into PDFs. Everyone reads on iPads and computers now. Hyperlinking would be a great way to reference songs, concept art, etc. in a non invasive way.

As the co-founder of Final Draft (and the guy who actually created the software), I got a pretty good chuckle out of Kent Tessman’s article. A guy who is trying to push and pimp his own software writing an article that says it is trying to be unbiased, but by a happy accident his software comes out on top. Gee whiz, Kent, guess there is no shame in Hollywood. I may not be the CEO of Final Draft, Inc. any more (that honor goes to Marc Madnick these days, I now run the screenwriting site Talentville.com), but either which way, thanks for the long rant on FD’s shortcomings. Truth is, Final Draft probably owns 90+% of the entire worldwide screenwriting market, a position it has held for over a decade. Others have come and gone, various companies have tried to come out with internet-based screenwriting software (Adobe Story, Writers’ Store’s Screenwriting Pro, Scripped, Celtx, and on and on), yet FD remains firmly as the standard. With the newly released iPad version of FD (even I am happy they finally released it), that position will probably be cemented for the foreseeable future. Does it matter which is the best? To use an analogy, is Microsoft Word the best word processor on the planet? Who knows and who cares? Everyone uses it, I use it, and it does the job just fine. Whether Final Draft remains at the top or not will depend on whether new technology dramatically changes the landscape and whether Final Draft keeps up and remains innovative. Fact is, I would postulate that in the short term, if Kent were to stand at the corner of Hollywood and Vine giving away free copies of Fade In to one and all, it would have no impact on Final Draft or its position at the top. Heck, I am in the screenwriting business and I have never even heard of it before. So, the real state of the art in screenwriting software isn’t quite as Kent states. Hollywood uses Final Draft, agents and producers want scripts in Final Draft format, and that’s just how it is. Good luck with Fade In, Kent, it’s gonna be a long climb up that hill.

Ben, thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Honestly I had no idea about Kent's connection to Fade In, just thought it was time to connect with folks about various options out there. I own both Final Draft and MMS, and have no dog in this hunt, both fine programs, and recommend FD to my students. Thanks again for your observations.

If Final Draft format is the important thing, why not just use Fade In and save 200 bucks? I'm not sure that it is though. Everybody wants things in PDF.

Use whatever you want, or like, for spec scripts. But when you start selling stuff, the studios and production companies use final draft. Industry standard. When you hand in a draft, you hand in a .pdf and FDX. If you don't, you will get a call from the studio exec's assistant asking for the FD. And once you go into production, if you're so lucky to still be on the movie, and you lock the script it's FDX all the way. Might as well get familiar with it. I'm using Scrivener right now btw for a novel and it's pretty badass. I see myself using it to structure screenplays, but once pages start FDX. BC

That's what I was asking. Since Fade In can save as FDX why not use that instead and save money since Final Draft is so much more expensive?

Late to the game here, but wanted to make a quick comment. I understand that you have a strong, personal connection to Final Draft, but I think you missed the point of that blog post. It seems that he was commenting more on the feature set than the adoption rate. If his comparison is at all accurate, then I'd say that Final Draft clearly is not on top when looking at either the feature set or the price. I guess some people care more about features than others, though. As for being unbiased? He admits he's biased towards Fade In, for the obvious reason. I don't see how openly stating that is shameful.

I'm late to the party here. I teach beginner-level screenwriting at a university in a flyover state. I recommend Celtx and ScriptBuddy (RIP FiveSprockets) for beginners on a budget and either FD or MM for the occasional serious students who want to go west to specifically try to write screenplays for a living. I consider it part of my job to be as familiar as possible with as many different apps as possible. I've even messed around a bit with ScriptWrite for the iPad, which also is okay for beginners. I teach 100 screenwriting students per college semester, and they don't all use Celtx or work on the same type of machine. I can't take for granted that they'll even use screenwriting software -- some still use Word even though I dock them points. Oh well. On my own, I use MM simply because it's cheaper than FD, but definitely is an upgrade from Celtx. What the Celtx people do is great, but I wanted more bells and whistles. Sure, the little things are a bit off (margins), but that's an easy fix when I'm ready to send things out. MM has been stable for me and I've had a lot of fun writing with it. I've also heard pro screenwriters extol the virtues of MM (Craig Mazin, for starters), so I don't feel too bad about the choice. All that said, I can't be the only person who is a little leery about blindly trusting software to get things right. Doesn't matter what I'm using -- I need a formatting guide by my side when I write, too. Trottier, Riley, whatever. This thread has been really helpful for me. I'd heard good things about Scrivener, but wasn't aware of Fade In or MD. Thanks for the heads up on those. Cheers, all.

Very late to the party, bouncing over here from MSW. I've written on several different programs on the Mac and didn't want to fork over when I went PC. I used MD and really liked it for the color coding, but it was buggy as all get out and the developer was AWOL too often to answer questions. So FD it was, and it was a very good investment. Still using Scrivener for that corkboard and the ease of outline, and now with the Scrivener Corkboard available on the iPad, along with FD for iPad, I'm in heaven. Aside from PDFs and ease of formatting and workflow, the playback is invaluable for loglines. That somewhat dull digital voice reveals all the flaws. If a logline is still interesting in that voice, I'm on the right track. If you go through The Writer's Store, it's fairly inexpensive compared to the headache meds you'll save on.