Final Draft

Writing for stage and screen has its own arcane set of rules. Break them, and your masterpiece is likely to be tossed in the garbage before it ever gets considered. Courier is the only typeface that's acceptable, dialogue must be centered, "foreground" is abbreviated f.g., while "interior" is INT. Final Draft promises it will sweat these details for you while you just churn out those magic words that will make box-office millions. The program also converts text to speech, so you can assign different voices to characters and have your computer read your masterpiece out loud. A function called SmartType anticipates what a given word might be, saving writers from repetitive typing. If your script goes into production, the program has a revision mode to create A and B pages. ScriptNotes is another nifty feature that allows writers to create separate windows within a script for notes or comments--without taking up script space.

This isn't really a "how to be a screenwriter" program. The assumption here is that the user already has a grasp of screenwriting basics. This program's format is designed for big screen, stage, and television episodics and movies--it won't work for television-news scriptwriting or any other format that requires two columns with visuals on the left and sound on the right. Now get out there and write the next Cats. --Anne Erickson

Amazon.com Product Description
With Final Draft, screenwriting is easy. The Script Reader text-to-speech feature assigns different voices to different characters and allows you to listen to your script read aloud. It's like having a table reading without hiring live actors. Complete with full Internet capability, Final Draft lets you e-mail a scene to your writing partner, or the whole script to a producer. Visit the Final Draft Web site, or e-mail tech support, all with a click of the mouse, and without leaving the program.