Switching screenwriting tools is not a weekend vanity project — it is a bet that your next rewrite will be easier to navigate than your last. Final Draft earned its place in production offices, and Inkwell does not pretend otherwise. The switch that works is the one that keeps the production file intact while you learn a few new primitives: save points, draft lines, and changes you can actually read. Here is the first hour, step by step.
Start from the FDX you actually want to continue
The most common switching mistake is importing the wrong file — the one that happens to be open, not the one you mean to keep writing. In Final Draft, export the exact revision you want to carry forward as a .fdx. If you have been working in revision mode, export the specific revision you intend to continue and name the imported production baseline when it lands in Plot.
Then open Plot, start a new screenplay, and choose Final Draft (.fdx) from the Import / Export menu. Inkwell imports both FDX and Fountain and exports FDX, Fountain, and industry-formatted PDF — so nothing you bring in is trapped, and nothing you write is locked to one tool.
Name the read before the rewrite
Before you change a single word, create a save point and describe why it exists: "Imported from Final Draft — Jun 20" or "Table read draft." A save point is an immutable, named moment you can always return to — the label is the whole value. When tomorrow's pages diverge from today's, that named moment is how you see exactly what moved, scene by scene, without a folder full of _FINAL_real.fdx files pretending to be version control.
This is the habit that makes the switch pay off. In Final Draft, history is something you reconstruct from filenames and memory. In Plot, history is a sequence of moments you named on purpose — and because they are structured snapshots rather than a pile of files, the tools that read them can be precise. That precision is the entire reason to switch, so build the habit on day one.
Try the alternate ending on a draft line, not a copy
When the room wants two versions of the third act, the Final Draft instinct is "Save As" — a second file that immediately starts drifting from the first. In Plot, open a draft line instead: a parallel version of the same screenplay where you can rewrite the ending freely without touching the original. When one version wins, land that whole draft line onto the line you keep — or keep scene-scoped work on a take or Agent Mode. No reconciling two files by hand, no wondering which one has the good version of scene 14.
Export when the room asks — not before
Draft in Plot and export FDX or PDF when a coordinator or a table read needs a file. Export from the same Import / Export menu: PDF for reads, FDX when a downstream system expects Final Draft's format, Fountain when your pipeline wants lossless plain text. Because the export always reflects the save point you are on, what leaves the building is never a mystery.
For production handoff, Plot keeps the locked baseline, A-pages, revision colours, breakdowns, and delivery export tied to structured save-point history. Run screenplay submission preflight before PDF export to confirm title-page details, printable structure, production apparatus, and anonymous-delivery settings; use FDX when a downstream system expects Final Draft's format.