CBT Thought Diary vs Final Draft

I am a psychologist and I have been in therapy on and off for a lot of years. I was having trouble finding a therapist that did anything but psychotherapy. While that was beneficial in the beginning of dealing with my ptsd it became harmful later because I was just repeating the same stories , both literally and figuratively, and not moving forward. It was keeping me stuck. I needed a tangible way to change unhealthy thought patterns and not just reinforce them by talking about them. This app has helped me more than the last decade of therapy has. Not only does it help me change my thought pattern and habits it allows me to do it in the moment when it’s happening. Not after the fact and the damage is done. I know this sounds dramatic but it really has made a profound difference in my ability to change course and deal with stress and unhealthy thought patterns and helps me avoid those thought rabit holes all together. I am grateful for this app and am hopeful more people find it and get themselves out of negative and unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It is a game changer for sure.

- serendipity889004

Self-therapy is important too and this app helps to make that statement a reality. It’s a shame more people don’t know about CBT and how many of us are unaware how it can help us out of suffering and raise us from the deep pits of ANTs. So if your one of the people that have gained insight to what it is and how to use it to heal your mind, body, and soul, GET THIS APP. I downloaded this app when I was on a verge of a breakdown. My therapist was not available but her notes were and in them I saw “CBT,” did a little more research and stumbled upon this app and my life has been steadily improving. I’m able to notice what triggers terrible moods and what makes me feel good or bad. I can easily write my negative thoughts down and confront them in this app with easy to understand definitions of the types of negative connotations that have been paralyzing me. After using it awhile I have been able to utilize the practices of the app in real time, and identify exactly what negative cognitive behaviors are trying to take over. My brain, my body, and my soul has improved dramatically because of this app. It’s not a fix it all, let everything be gone type of thing, but it is a VERY VERY POWERFUL TOOL. It’s worth the money as well! I feel fortunate that I get to track my life and see what is causing me misery for such a low cost. This app is amazing and I only gave it four stars, because the app can only get better even though it’s already really great.

- VConscious

I wish this app existed a decade ago. CBT is a great tool but when you have low energy/motivation because of depression/anxiety, finding the will to write out thoughts and dissect them can be a bit burdensome. This app removes barriers and invites the user to follow a few simple prompts and before you know it - you’ve dissected your thoughts! Another great feature is the wealth of information available on various aspects of CBT. The content for each subject is brief but covers enough to give you a sufficient understanding of a theory or the reasons why an exercise works. When you’re suffering, the last thing you need is a 20 pager — you need the Cliff Notes. My last comment is a recommendation: a scratch pad to jot our thoughts so we can pick out the “hot thought” or to understand what we’re thinking in the first place. Yes, we could use the notes on our phone but I think keeping them in the app makes sense as a one-stop-shop for anything related to CBT.

- hachster81

This is a wonderful app. And mind you, how much the desktop version costs. First off, The Final Draft people were the FIRST to make screen writing software...back when the Mac was just beginning with a 9 inch screen. That means they worked out all the bugs. Also, Final Draft Mobile uses a custom scrolling feature that specifically shows you where you are in the the screenplay...so you can quickly find what you’re looking for. And to all those people who say “It doesn’t hav Dark Mode” or “It doesn’t have Night Shift” or “It doesn’t have dictation,” as the Final Draft technicians have said, that’s a part of your system if it supports it. All three are supported in iPadOS 14. In iPadOS 14, just choose the “Display and Brightness” heading in the Settings app to enable Dark Mode or Night Shift systemwide. And if you want to dictate in Final Draft Mobile, it’s in the keyboard. As I only have iPadOS 14, I cannot speak for any other IOS systems. It exports to .FDX and .PDF. Prints with Apple’s Air Print feature. Emails from within the program.

- Lachlan S

Cursor behavior on iPad On my iPad Pro (2020), I'm getting weird cursor behavior with Final Draft Mobile. When I click after the last sentence in a dialogue section, the blinking line appears to the left of the period. If I start typing it acts as if the cursor was actually to the right of the period, so it's kind of okay. A much worse behavior is in trying to highlight a section of text. The way I usually do it is to click at one end of the selection, then shift-click at the other end. It works on every editing app I've ever used. Not this one. The cursor just moves to the other end, with no highlighting. The workaround would be to shift-click-drag, but that doesn't work either. It just moves the cursor without any highlight. I've contacted Final Draft support about this. Apparently their iPad acts fine. For me, it makes the mobile version almost unusable. I have to say, the desktop version, much pricier, has none of these problems. Since I do my work half-and-half on my Mac and my iPad, it will probably keep me from using Final Draft as my main editor. Too bad, because it has several nice features. Same behavior exactly on my 2015 iPad. Further research indicates that Final Draft expects you to double click a word, and then drag the little wings out to select a section of text. Then they provide a (Copy/Cut) balloon above. This is not good. One needs to be able to use the built-in editing capabilities on Apple products, IMHO.

- CalifJack

Update April 17th, 2022: in addition to the app crashing when working directly out of Dropbox (it is better with this issue when files are stored directly on the iPad Pro - which contradicts the ‘mobile’ point), the mobile app also turns ‘characters’ into ‘actions’ on occasion. I work on iPad Pro and have the Windows 10. I have been a Final Draft customer for almost 25 years. The short script is this; it crashes periodically when working with files in Dropbox, even with documents made available offline. It freezes… I quickly have to screenshot what I have done to ensure I don’t lose my latest work… then it crashes. I’m working on a current iPad Pro. I have Final Draft 12 on my computer, but use this mobile version when traveling or working away from home. Update: To FD - your ‘templated’ response is disappointing. Many people are currently having issues with FD Mobile. The Dropbox problem is very real. It makes this particular process frustrating and the app impractical to use. Instead of writing ‘99% of users are crash-free’, why not look into the actual problem?

- British Paul