How To Import From Word to Final Draft 7

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In this video I wanted to take some time to talk to people who've already written stuff in Word, or TextPad, or Wordpad, or some other word processing software, but are hesitant about getting software like FInal Draft because they think they'll have to write everything all over again.

Well, you won't have to. Final Draft 7 has some tools that will allow you to paste in what you've written, and then reformat everything within Final Draft so that your screenplay meets all traditional screenplay format requirements. And most importantly, it will save you from having to rewrite everything you've already got on file.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Final Draft
• Word
• Screenwriting
• Importing
• Screenplay
• Screenwriter

[stevenmarty]

fucking help me. I use windows and have final draft 8. I can't find any "change element" on format.. any idea??

[MyOtherCareer]

@stevenmarty Down at the bottom of the page you should see something that displays if you're on a Scene Heading, Dialog, Action, etc.

Highlight the selected text you want to change, then click on the box displaying Heading, Dialog, or whatever, and you'll get a menu with all the possibilities.

Click on the one you want to change it for.

Sorry you can't find the Change Element To contextual menu in WIndows. I'm sure it's there somewhere. But my suggestion does the same thing.

[scottfree1974]

if you could format with keyboard shortcuts then that would be quick. Mousing up and down is NOT quick. A 100 page script would take hours to format. Is there a way to do this please?

[MyOtherCareer]

@scottfree1974 I know on a Mac doing command E will bring up the formatting menu, where you can just select the element you want to change it to and then press enter to commit it. Outside of that, I don't think there are any other shortcuts. It might take a while... but it'll take less than retyping the whole thing all over again.

[DrPaulineAmos]

that was so helpful thank you

[MyOtherCareer]

@DrPaulineAmos No problem. If you want me to go into any more detail, let me know and I'll do whatever you need.

[MyOtherCareer]

@Urbanvizion Not a problem. I'll be picking up Final Draft version 8 this weekend, and will likely record another video doing the same thing with version 8.

[Urbanvizion]

i have 50 page screenplay( unfinished obviously) i thought i'd have to re-write , thank you for putting this up

[MyOtherCareer]

@mrinvestor36 Sorry for the late response, but I wouldn't charge anything, though it won't be a top priority for me. However, it's really not that hard. And if you've paid for FD8 you really need to use it. If you want, I can do another video in a longer format to show you how, or give more detail. I can even do it with your script if you want.

[mrinvestor36]

Hey Steve how much would you charge to convert my screen play? It's 74 pages in a word doc... I'm serious --- I have final draft 8, but I'm no good at this...