help..desperate!!!!

[tcsp]

Hi, I want to submit a script to the Nicholl. However, I have written it on Final Draft, I need to convert it into PDF. I have never used Adobe before, and I can't get my script into PDF no matter what I do.

Please, please help if you can. It is driving me completey insane. I am getting quite emotional as I thought writing scripts did not require a degree in ICT. Does anybody know what to do???

[matt35mm]

In Final Draft, you should be able to go to FILE, then SAVE AS...

Then, under "Save as type," select "Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf)"

That should do ya.

[songswithoutwords]

It's getting so that even answering a telephone requires a degree in ICT. :-(

Ironically, working in IT does not. (I am proof!)

[echenry]

Final Draft 8 makes it real easy. If you go into the area where you would print your script, there's a box on the bottom left which reads, "PRINT TO PDF." Click on that, then all you have to is name your new pdf file and where you want to save it too.

Matt35mm's suggestion worked on an earlier version of Final draft I had, version 6.

Couple quick reminders BEFORE you enter the Nicholls:

1) Make sure your name and any identifying contact information IS NOT on your title page. Nicholls rule. So edit your title page BEFORE you print it to a pdf file.

2) You have to supply a logline under 200 characters. Sounds easy, but spaces and punctuation counts against that total. If I were you, if in question, run your logline through a word document that summarizes word counts. I used Word Perfect on mine. My first logline was like at 224 characters... and it looked good. But I had to edit it down, which I did, and by the time I submitted I had it down to something like 170.

Anyway, you don't wanna get disqualified because you made either of these mistakes...

Good luck, tcsp. Hope you file conversion works now!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

[tcsp]

Thank you all so much. What a great site this is. I now understand...you have to PRINT the doc, I was trying to save it as a PDF. It seems a little confusing doesn't it? All the techie stuff sometimes gets in the way of just writing!

EC thanks for the tips. I'm checking now. Best of luck to all on here who are entering this and any other competition. I am in England, where there is no film industry!!!! But y'all don't forget you can send scripts to the BBC @ the writers room. Look it up, it's not a bad resource. Cheers everyone.

PS...thanks to these genuinely helpful replies I now feel a lot better about the human race.