I don't know because I didn't buy it for 14 months after release. They have had major, crazy, maddening, productivity eating fuck ups in V5, 6, 7, and now 9. They have an anti-customer service department.Įven if you do inexplicably stay with Final Draft (Alex, you're the only guy I've ever met who can't seem to learn Screenwriter easily - a program that's way more stable and has none of these bullshit issues) you should never, ever, ever buy their software for at least one year after the Version upgrade. Crazy.įINAL DRAFT never, ever, ever changes.

UPDATE #3: This post solves the activation problem.įinal Draft takes a pretty abusive approach to its customers.Īny chance the industry will switch to something faster and more reasonable, like Fadein Pro?Īnd it's not like that error code says much. It's the usual 'press one for Final Draft 6 through 8.' except it doesn't wait for you to press a button before telling you 'I didn't get that' repeatedly.

UPDATE #2: Called the Activation Hotline. Doesn't matter though even if I update from outside the program, it still won't activate. UPDATE: Final Draft 9 will also not update itself unless it thinks it's been activated. In this era of 24-7 Bangalore help centers, it is really inexcusable to have a help desk that only works 40 hours a week, Pacific Standard Time. Y'all do know that screenwriters work on weekends? And nights? The activation people only work Monday-Friday, during Pacific Coast work hours. I get a message saying FD9 can only be activated online. And here's where it gets serious: No problem, I put my customer number back in. After, originally, activating the software with no problem, FD9 has now decided to deactivate itself. However, now I've got a more basic problem. I'm sure there must be other features I was going to look them up next week.

I haven't run across any really dandy new features, except that Script Notes are now organized. I've been using it on my current show I'm not a big fan of Screenwriter's not-very-intuitive interface. The people at Final Draft were kind enough to send me a review copy of Final Draft 9, their snappy new edition of the software.

Final draft 9 activation blocker