You have two choices when it comes to scriptwriting software: pay for it or don't

The ones you pay for (namely Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter) are very, very expensive but at the same time are very, very good.

The ones you don't pay for have one huge advantage over the expensive rivals - they are free. The downside though it that they vary in quality from one to another and don't have the same "feel" to them (in terms of workflow) as the rivals. That said, you really can't bitch too much when they are free because you never had to part with any money in the first place. HOWEVER - the majority of these "free" writers usually require another piece of software installed (typically Word) so you may still yet have to pay. They work by being an add-on, plug-in or template to existing software which is how they can afford to be free.

Anyway, without further ado, here is a list of some of the software available for your scriptwriting needs. My recommendation is that if you are going to be using the "free" road, that you try all of the software available as it won't cost you anything. As a writer, you need to be comfortable with the software you are using or else you will end up putting your fist through your monitor. And that really hurts. Trust me.

	FINAL DRAFT
	Cost: £150/$200 (do a Google search to save money!)
	Software Type: Stand-alone
	Trial Version: Yes - www.finaldraft.com Unsure of limitations
	Key Features: Script-compare, collabowrite, text-to-speech, format assistance, film & tv industry templates
	Comments: Final Draft is intuitive to use, pleasing on the eyes and is packed-full of useful features such as the ability for two or more people world's apart to be able to work on the same script together at the same time (Collabowriter). But the essentials are all present and correct and once you get used to how the software works, you can save hours of your time by letting Final Draft format your script for you with just the press of a key.
	MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER
	Cost: £140/$190 (do a Google search to save money!)
	Software Type: Stand-alone
	Trial Version: Yes - www.screenplay.com File size is limited to 40-pages and prints with a watermark
	Key Features: Script-compare, online collaboration, voice playback, format assistance, film & tv industry templates
	Comments: Like Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter is a please to use and has everything you could possibly want to help you write your first, second and 100th script!
SCREENFORGE
Cost: Download here (Word 6) or here (Ver 97+)
Software Type: Microsoft Word Template
Trial Version: n/a
Key Features: General Formatting
Comments: To say this product is free (well, Shareware) it works phenomenally well. The tricky thing is learning all of the keyboard shortcuts for the various script elements (selecting options from menus is not practical when writing). But once this is mastered, it works very well with only the occasional formatting error. It comes with a very thorough manual as well. Fantastic stuff!
SCRIPTMAKER
Cost: Download here
Software Type: Stand-alone
Trial Version: n/a
Key Features: Tree-structure formatting
Comments: I thought I'd give it a try and my word, what a pain in the ass to use! The tree-structure approach as they call it is a terrible idea. Instead a typing a script, you have to fill in shite loads of forms and boxes! What's the point? When you have an idea, you need to be able to write it down quick without needing the headache of this form bollocks. I know it's free, I know someone put a lot of effort into it. But fuck me, it's bad mmkay.
SCRIPT MAKER (not to be confused with "Scriptmaker")
Cost: Download here
Software Type: Microsoft Word 2000+ template
Trial Version: n/a
Key Features: General Formatting
Comments: Much better. Those are the words that spring to mind when comparing this software template to its peer of a very similar name. Once more, you need to learn your shortcuts to get the most out of it but once you have it should be a fairly pleasant experience using it
ROUGHDRAFT
Cost: Download here
Software Type: Stand-alone
Trial Version: n/a
Key Features: General Formatting
Comments: Not bad. In fact pretty good as it uses (partially) the professional "tab" key approach whereby you press it once and it will line up the character name and capitalise it for you. If you press tab again it will go to the parenthesis and pressing enter will line it up for the dialogue. Overall, very good but again suffers from the occasional formatting flaw

SO IT'S UP TO YOU...

Make sure you test out all of the software available before settling down with one. The important thing is that YOU need to be comfortable with the software. Don't let anyone else tell you what you should be using - make up your own mind. If worse comes to worse, you could always use Notepad for your script but a bit of functionality will become very important the more you write so choose your software carefully.