Where the Scripts Are
No different from any other program, Final Draft saves your script to any folder you tell it to save to -- your Desktop (which is a folder), your Documents folder, the Scripts folder you created or the folder bearing the name of your movie. It can save to a USB stick, a network drive, an external hard drive or a local cloud storage synch folder such as Google Drive, iCloud, Box or DropBox. It will save anywhere the operating system gives it permission to save.
Your scripts are not saved to the Final Draft program itself, and if you install Final Draft on a second computer, your scripts don't automatically get copied to the new machine. They have to be copied to a USB stick and transferred, or downloaded onto the computer from cloud storage, or by some other means like emailing them to yourself.
The default save-to folder is the Documents folder, and unless you specify some other folder when you save a script for the first time, that's where your script will be saved. You can pick a different folder by going to File > Save As and selecting whichever save location you like.
Auto-Save and Backup
Click to learn about the Auto-Save and Backup functions.
Beyond Final Draft's backup function, include your Final Draft scripts in whatever other backup application or procedure you use for your other files. If you don't currently have a way to back up your data, we suggest you go online and search for ways to ensure that your digital scripts, pictures, songs, letters and anything else of value are stored somewhere outside of your computer.
Save Different Versions
"Writing is rewriting," goes the saying, and you can create an unlimited number of different versions of your script. Do this so that you don't lose work that you think you no longer like, but may change your mind about later. If your script is called "Monster Movie" and you've just reworked Scene 4 (a very important scene) go to File > Save As and title this new version "Monster Movie - Scene 4 Updated - <date>." You'll still have the "Monster Movie" script with the original Scene 4, and now you have this new copy, with the improved Scene 4, right next to it. You can access the old one if you later decide that the first Scene 4 is better after all.
When you're finally finished with the project, you should have many, many different versions, all with descriptive file names and dates. If the studio says they want to go back to the version set in NYC, that they no longer like the one set in Vegas, you'll still have the correctly-labeled NYC one.
Use most or all of the characters available in a file name -- there are 255, to be exact -- to name different versions specifically:
- Monster Movie
- Monster Movie - Scene 4 Updated - <date>
- Monster Movie - Scene 9 deleted - <date>
- Monster Movie - NYC - <date>
- Monster Movie - Vegas - <date>
- Monster Movie - Happy Ending - <date>
- Monster Movie - Sad Ending - <date>
If you're working with a partner or partners, make sure that each pass everyone does is labeled, similar to:
- Monster Movie - JL edit - <date>
- Monster Movie - GS edit - <date>
- Monster Movie - RWS edit - <date>
- Monster Movie - GS edit - <date>
- Monster Movie - JL edit - <date>