Revision Mode is a tool used by writers, script coordinators, writers' assistants and other production personnel to keep successive versions of a script organized. In the interest of working efficiently, it's important to be able to quickly see which pages have edits on them, and on those pages, the lines that have been changed or deleted. Final Draft’s Revision Mode makes this easy.
When a script is put into revision mode, any new text added will be denoted as a revision. Revised text is black (but can be colored or styled) and there will be a revision mark (usually an asterisk) in the right margin. If text has been removed, the line from which it's been removed is also marked as revised.
If Show Page Colors is chosen as an option, any page on which a revision has been made will show that revision set's assigned color in the margins. If the revised script is saved as PDF, the entire page will be colored. You can disable the colored margins by going to Production > Revisions (Setup) and unchecking the Show Revision Page Colors box.
NOTE: You must be in Page View (View > Page View) for the colored margins to be displayed. If the zoom scaling is set too high, the colored margins may become hidden.
When you go to Production > Revision Mode, by default you're placing your script into the first revision set, sometimes called “Production White.” The Collated Revisions field should already be in the header, so “Production White - 7/1/24” (or whatever the first revision set is called) will appear in the header of any page that’s been revised while the script is in this set.
After enough changes have been made to the script, a certain period of time has passed or another writer takes over – whatever the criterion – the script is moved to the next revision set. Cast and crew can then organize successive drafts by color or number.
To move to the next set, go to Production > Revisions and click Next Revision. The script is now in the Blue set, and any revisions made now will make the page margins blue. To distinguish text in the first revision set (which is black by default) from text in the second (the Blue) set, you can set the text color in the Blue set to blue.
The standard revision set colors included in Final Draft’s feature and television templates are per WGA/Cole & Haag. Although some shows have their own patterns, many shows use a cycle of
- White (Unrevised Production Draft)
- Blue
- Pink
- Yellow
- Green
- Goldenrod
- Buff
- Salmon
- Cherry
- Tan
After Tan, the script usually goes to 2nd (or double) White, 2nd (or dbl) Blue, etc. It’s common practice to add the date to the end of the revision set name.
However, if the revision set names in the template don’t suit your needs, you can rename and reconfigure the existing ones or create and configure new ones. Click the plus sign to add a new set, then configure its properties by clicking the Settings icon at the lower right of the Revisions table. There you can name the new set and optionally assign a color to it. You also have options to make revised text appear not only as a different color but also as bold, a few variations of underlined, or struck through.
Although it’s not recommended to change the traditional revision mark from a standard asterisk, you also have the option to use a different mark.
Using Revision Mode
Check Production > Revision Mode to turn it on (uncheck to turn it off):
When the script is in revision mode, all text added or edited is marked as revised per the active revision set’s style (colored text or page, margin marks, etc.). It is easier to turn on Revision Mode than to manually mark every change after the fact using the Mark Revised command. All new text entered is marked as revised and displayed in the current revision style. Any lines from which text has been deleted will have a revision mark (if a revision mark is one of the attributes of the current revision set) next to them.
In this example, the dialogue is originally "And what is the key for? What door will it open?"
When "Am I the one to open it?" is added, this new text is blue (because that is how this revision set's text has been configured), margins of the page turn blue (because this edit is made while the active revision is the Blue set) and revision marks appear in the right margin.
(Note that revised text is usually black; for purposes of illustration and to point out that this option is available, the revised text in the graphic above has been set to blue).
Other Revision Mode Controls
Mark Location
If the scene heading indents have been extended so that the scene headings are now closer to the right edge of the page, they may step on the revision marks. You can move the revision marks even further to the right with the Mark Location adjustment tool. The measurement indicated here is from the left edge of the page.
Production > Mark Revised
You can highlight a section of text, go to Production > Mark Revised and an asterisk will be placed in the margin. If the Show Page Colors option is on, that page’s margins will be colored.
Production > Clear Revised
Highlight a section of text -- be sure to highlight the entire line or block margin to margin -- go to Production > Clear Revised and the revision mark will be removed. If you leave some of the text on a line as revised, the line will still have the asterisk.
To clear an entire script of revised status (colored pages and revision marks), go to Edit > Select All then Production > Clear Revised. Note that the script will still be in revision mode, so any subsequent typing will again be marked revised.
Best practice: Save every new revision set as its own separate file. When you move to the next revision set, go to File > Save as and rename the file <ScriptName> Blue Revisions 7-4-24. When you move to the Pink set, go to File > Save As and rename the file <ScriptName> Pink Revisions 7-7-24.
For more information on revisions watch the following video:
To learn more about marking your script with revisions and Revision Sets read "How do I mark or clear script revisions?" and "How do I select, modify and create a Revision Set?"