What’s inside

Everything Proscenium does, in roughly the order you’ll need it. The names are the app’s own, so you can find them when you get there.

Learning it

Help & Tutorials: Six guided lessons of about three minutes, in a practice play of their own. Show Me does a step for you.
Open the Sample Play: On the Plays screen. Two acts, four characters and every element the editor knows.
Keyboard Shortcuts: Every key in one list, from the Help menu, or ⌘/.

Enter, Tab and ;: Each new line is the kind you probably want. Tab changes it; a semicolon opens every element, a letter beside each.
(CONT’D): A speech that runs over a page takes its name with it, and no name is left alone at the foot of a page.
Check Spelling as You Type: It knows your cast’s names and the theatre’s words, and each play can be American or British.
Find: Search the whole script, or only dialogue, stage directions, cues, or one character’s speeches.
Comments: Notes to yourself in the margin, in amber. They never print.
Focus: Everything but the page slides away. Esc brings it back.

Board: Scenes as cards. Move a card and the script moves with it.
Outline: Every scene in a table, with its pages, summary, notes, status and label.
Cast: A cast list made from whoever speaks, and Who’s on stage, scene by scene.
Scene navigation strip: Under the script, each scene sized by its pages, so a long one shows while you’re in it.

Binder: Research, character sheets and notes beside the script. Anything in the play’s folder appears there.
Character sheets: Start with Want, Obstacle, Voice, Backstory and Relationships, and keep a list of the scenes each person speaks in.
Split Side by Side: Keep the Board, a character sheet or a dramaturg’s notes open beside the script.

Import a Draft: Final Draft, Word, Pages, RTF and plain text come in as a new play, with your original kept.
Export PDF: Seven formats, from the Dramatists Guild’s to a UK layout, or design your own in Settings.
Sides: One actor’s speeches, each after the few words that cue it.
Anonymous copy: For a blind reading: no name or contact details.
Edit Opening Pages: The title page, the characters page and any opening notes.
Export .docx and .odt: For the theatre that wants a Word file.

Plain files: Each play is a folder of ordinary files you can open with anything.
Versions: A copy about every five minutes as you write, what changed since, and a way back.
Changes: If a file changes on another Mac, both versions are kept and you choose.
The Plays screen: Every play with its length and a status, from idea to produced. Shelved is a status, not a verdict.
Where you left off: It opens on the play you were writing.