Edit a Final Draft script with locked pages

What eDraft does with Final Draft’s locked pages, and what to check.

In Final Draft, a production can lock a script’s pages, so that later changes don’t move the text on any locked page. As the script is edited, Final Draft moves each lock along with the text.

eDraft keeps a file’s locked pages when it saves, but it doesn’t move them with your edits yet. After you add or remove text above a locked page, that page can start in the wrong place when the file is opened in Final Draft.

The notice

The first time you edit a Final Draft script that has locked pages, a notice appears below the toolbar: “This script has Final Draft page locks.” It appears once each time you open the script, and doesn’t change the file. To close it, click the Dismiss button (X).

What to do

• If the pages are locked for production, make your changes in Final Draft, so the locks follow the text.
• If you edit the script in eDraft, open it in Final Draft before you send it, and check that each locked page starts where it should.
• To keep an untouched copy, duplicate the file in the Finder before you edit it.

Opening the script, reading it, and saving it without changes leave the locks exactly as they were.