[FAQ] Electronic Prompt Copies

[MatthewShiner]

After hours on the phone with mirco-soft, my answer, keep the old version of word on your computer.

[BeckyGG]

Yea...

I updated my version because I got a new computer.  Since I still have the old computer I am tempted to just do the script on that version.

Thanks for the advice ... I was sort of thinking that might be the answer.   

[Delbert]

We are going to start using electronic prompts scripts in the fall (2011).  Our plan is to save the script as a PDF file and use PDF Expert on an iPad to add annotations and notes.

-Delbert

[MatthewShiner]

One of the main advantages of using a digital version of the script to lay our your calling script is the mobility of the text.

You have a huge cue sequence between two lines, you can spread those lines apart, insert a page break, reorder text - whatever.  Once you PDF the document, you loose that ability, right?  I love being able to restructure the script to make it work for cues - as opposed to try to scribble the cues in tight corners around the text.

If you are just doing an Electronic Prompt Copy of the script to make it look neat or have a digital copy, I doubt it's worth the work - unless like me, you have really crappy hand writing.

I also still wonder about TECHING directly to an electronic script - I think if you are taking the time to put into the e-copy you are going to slow down tech . . . I still think you can, in the heat of the moment, tech faster with pencil (or pen) and paper.

[BayAreaSM]

With the new Office the default line is thick and weird and I am having a hard time figuring out how to adjust it ... and when I try callouts it seems hard to put exact placement.  Am I just not figuring out an easy way to do it as I'm new to this version of software and tired from my tech/preview period?  Any suggestions on an easy way to type this sucker up?

Personally, I used lines when I teched in pencil. When I tried the electronic script, I switched to color codes. I have a legend in the front of my book that explains each color (Yellow = Electrics, Blue = Sound, Green = Electrics & Sound Together, etc). I put my cues in text boxes on the side of the page, then put the highlight the text in the appropriate color code where the cue belongs. Granted, I'm still using the old version of Office, but it's worked out really well for me.

When using the electronic prompt during tech, I actually revert to pencil and paper. I prepare my script as much as possible, then I print it all out. During tech I use my color codes again, but with see through dots, and after tech is over, I update whatever pages need it, then reprint those pages for the next day. I do not call off my computer, for fear of power loss, computer crashing, etc. So it's not a waste to print the pages, at least for me.

[spencersm]

Personally I like to use footnotes for my blocking notes and comments for my cues. This works very well for me because if I take blocking by hand I use a blank page on the right, script on the left and numbers circled by the moment of action in the script correspond to a number with the blocking note at the right. All of the comments containing cues are not obstructed by any blocking as I am reading through while calling the show.

[Kristine]

I called my second show from an electronic prompt book. Everything was on my computer and I'm using Word 2011 for mac. I had my Blocking in Comments then hid those and put my cues in to the right with text using underlines off to the right then typing in my cues. It worked very well for me. I wasn't worried about losing my script because my laptop was plugged into a surge protector, I had a flashdrive with my current script, my ASMs had a key to a locker with another flashdrive and it was also backed up to my campus' drive and my computer backup. I also had it open on my iPhone and another laptop very close to me.

[Tony Godders]

I discovered this annotation application for MAC OSX that has been around a while I think and it looks quite promising so far. Searching the board I didnt see it mentioned before so thought I'd bring it to the attention of the group.  Its called "SKIM" and its found at the following site  newbielink:http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/ [nonactive]. As well as annotating a pdf quite freely with text,  lines,  boxes and ellipses you can export these notes as a list in text format which potentially could be imported to your favourite spread sheet or word processing tool.
 

[RBSchaf94]

I called my first show two months ago, and had the script and all cue sheets electronically formatted. My handwriting is awful, and I found it easier to email notes. It's probably worth noting that our program isn't professional (high school), so the director kept deciding to add new cues up to two days before the performance...

However, I'm a complete worrywart when it comes to my important info, especially as the only laptop available to me was a five-year-old Mac named Martha with no Internet availability and only able to manage Word and Excel. So, in an attempt to be completely prepared, I had a printed copy with me at all times (black and white, even though my call book as color-coded), a USB with the updated sheet, a backup on my home computer, and a copy-pasted version saved to Google Docs.
Luckily, good 'ol Martha got me through without a hitch, and I didn't need a single backup.

[mnsalz91]

In my liberal arts college, I stumbled into a computer science minor and I just got a project approved for my last semester to create a Word Processor specifically for creating Call Scripts.  I'm going to be working on it both within the theatre department and the computer science department.  So a lot of things that people like are the OCR abilities and text boxes/comment boxes. 

In Word I struggled with the fact that every time I put objects on the page it would jump to the top of the document.  Has anyone else had this problem? 

I also got bogged down with how complicated it was to change the header/footer in Microsoft Word.  Does anyone else find that frustrating?

Thanks!
Miriam

[EFMcMullen]

You need to change the "Wrapping" to "Behind Text" and then you can move the object to wherever you want. 

I can't help you with the header/footers as I don't find them that annoying (Mac using Office 2008).

[MatthewShiner]

When I was on MAC . . . I did have to keep an older version of word to do the type of formatting I like.

Now, on PC - I find that I am, on the current version of world, able to do the formatting I like.

[Maribeth]

Newer versions of Word allow you to edit the headers and footers just by clicking on them. (I find it a pain to edit the headers/footers in Excel though).

I find that setting the wrapping to "front of text" works well and I never have problems with boxes jumping around.

One thing I like about the newer editions of Word- I find that when doing digital calling scripts, I don't like to spend a lot of time formatting and re-formatting the callout boxes themselves, so I edit a blank callout until it suits me, and then save it as a "Quick Part". I end up with a blank "standby" bubble, a box with a tail (for cues called off of a line), a box with no tail (for visual cues), etc that I can pull up quickly. I don't remember seeing this feature in older versions (or maybe I just didn't know about it). But it saves me a lot of time when typing up cues.

[MatthewShiner]

One thing I like to do is create a seperate document with one of everything I use for the calling script

a stand by
a cue
a warning
a headset check (Like, confirm set is on palette)
etc

and that was I just copy and place in the script.

[Maribeth]

One thing I like about the newer editions of Word- I find that when doing digital calling scripts, I don't like to spend a lot of time formatting and re-formatting the callout boxes themselves, so I edit a blank callout until it suits me, and then save it as a "Quick Part". I end up with a blank "standby" bubble, a box with a tail (for cues called off of a line), a box with no tail (for visual cues), etc that I can pull up quickly. I don't remember seeing this feature in older versions (or maybe I just didn't know about it). But it saves me a lot of time when typing up cues.

I just figured out a way to save these callouts as a "Gallery", so you can save all the different shapes you use on a menu above the text and quickly pull the one you need into the document. (Basically the same thing, but I'm using OpenOffice on this computer and it works a little differently).

On the "Tools" menu- select "Gallery", which pulls down the gallery to sit at the top of the page. Select the object with the cursor, release it, then click and hold for 2 seconds, and continue dragging it onto the Gallery. The Gallery stays saved even after the program closes so you can use it from show to show.