Table Reads

A table read reads your screenplay aloud from the cursor on: each character in their own voice, and a narrator for scene headings and action. The teleprompter shows the same read in large type for the people at the table, who can take their own parts while the voices read everyone else.

Both are in the View menu while a screenplay is open (on a phone or tablet, in the View group of the drawer). They need the screenplay editor, so they are greyed out on other pages.

Starting a read

Put the cursor where you want to start and choose View ▸ Table Read. A bar appears at the bottom of the screen with:

Previous line, Play / Pause and Next line;
who is speaking, and "Line 12 of 340";
Teleprompter, Cast and Stop table read.

Choosing Table Read again, or X, stops it. Opening a different file also stops it.

A few things to know:

The read covers the script as it was when you pressed Play. Edits made while it plays aren't picked up until you start again, and the highlight in the editor can land on the wrong block after an edit above it.
Pause remembers where you were, and Play restarts the current line.
Dialogue is spoken by its character. Scene headings, action, shots and centered text are spoken by the narrator. Character cues, notes, synopses, sections, Bone Yard text, page breaks and cast lists are not read.
If the script has nothing to read, or no voice is available for its language, the bar says so.

Voices

By default a table read uses this device's own voices, the ones your operating system provides. They run on the device, so nothing in your script leaves it, and voices that need a network connection are not offered. It uses voices for the script's language, not necessarily the app's.

If you have pinned a voice to the Speech task in Settings → AI, the read uses that instead, and every line is sent to that provider; the bar says so while it plays. A remote voice is only ever used because you pinned it. On the desktop app, an AI voice you have downloaded to run on the device is used first too, without a pin. These on-device AI voices can be much slower than real time, so the OS voices are often the better choice for a long read.

When more than one kind of voice is available, the Cast button has a Voices choice to switch between them. See Read Aloud for how voices are set up.

Casting

Cast lists every role in the script, Narrator included, each with a voice to choose from. Your choices are remembered for this project on this device.

Parts read by people

Next to each role in Cast is a person button. Turn it on and that role is read by a person: the voices read everyone else, and when the read reaches one of that person's lines it stops and waits. The bar says "Waiting — press Next when done". Press Next when they've finished, and the read carries on. A line read by a person is never voiced, so it is never sent to a voice provider either. Which roles are read by people is remembered for the project on this device.

The teleprompter

View ▸ Teleprompter opens the read in large type over the whole screen, with the line being read in the middle and the script scrolling with it. If no read is running, it opens paused, so you can hand out parts in Cast before pressing Play. Lines read by people are picked out, and when the read reaches one it shows "Your line — Continue when you're done" and a Continue button.

Smaller text and Larger text change the size; it is remembered on the device.
Space plays and pauses, or continues when the read is waiting on a person.
→ or ↓ goes to the next line, ← or ↑ to the previous one.
Esc or the X closes the teleprompter. The read keeps going under the bar.

On a phone, turn the device sideways to fit more of the script on screen; the teleprompter re-centres the current line.

Read Aloud — speak a single chat answer or draft.
Dictation — the other direction, voice to text.