Final Draft Question: Puzzling Error Message

I have been writing on my PC laptop on Final Draft 5.0 for quite some time, and I have just installed the same program on my Mac. Every time I try to use the program I get an error message saying, "your backup directory cannot be found". Do you know how to fix it?

FD5 is two versions back, but still usable.

Whenever you see a mysterious error message in Final Draft it's time to go to the online technical database. That's under {Support}{FAQ Pages} on the Final Draft website. (At least, that's where it is until the next time they overhaul their website.) Enter the text of the error message in the search field provided there and voila!

What's happening to you is Mac FD5 is freaking out that it can't do auto-save. Go to {Edit}{Preferences}{Auto Save/Backup}{New Folder} and navigate to the backup folder in the Final Draft folder.

Final Draft Question: Faint Fonts

I'm working with Final Draft 7.1.3 on Windows XP. When I look at a screenplay exported to pdf large sections of text look either faint or bold alternately...as if I selected random portions of each page and turned the font to "bold". This effect even comes through when I print. Ideas?

A few things you could try.

1. On the premise that you are really using two fonts in your script without realizing it, check that the sections that are faint are in the Courier Final Draft font. You don't want Courier or Courier New because they are too faint.

2. On the premise that you have a defective fdr, export pdf, cut-and-paste from the pdf into a new fdr, then try outputting to pdf again.

3. On the premise that you have a defective install. Install FD7 again.

4. On the premise there's something wrong with pdf or fonts, try outputting to PDF not using the FD7 converter, but with a Windows (PDFcreator) or Mac OS X converter.

Let me know what you discover.

Thanks for the fast response! Sure enough, there was no specific font selected. I picked Courier Final Draft, saved everything, and then exported to pdf. Everything looks good. Thanks for your time! I owe you one.

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