Getting Started with PromptDog

Preparing a Script

When writing scripts for teleprompting, it can be helpful to use punctuation and CAPS to help the talent deliver the script with meaning: even if it’s not quite grammatically correct.

“Quotes” can help set a word or phrase off . . . (but parentheses are hard to interpret).

PromptDog works with plain text files with a .txt extension and RTF files with a .rtf extension.

If your script is in another format, just export it to a file with a .txt or .rtf extension.

Loading a Script

There are several ways you can load a script into PromptDog:

1. Click the Import Text button, navigate your hard drive and locate the script text file you’d like to load, select it and click Open.

2. Drag your script file directly into the main operator window.

3. Click the Edit Text button. Copy and paste your script text into the text window and click Apply*.

   * NOTE: If you are copying text from an RFT document, the color information will be retained, so you may need to select any black text and apply another color in order to see it in the prompter windows.

Editing and Saving Your Script

You can edit the script text by clicking the Edit Text button or hitting Command E. The Edit Window will open allowing you to make any text change you’d like.

To jump to a specific place in your script, simply type a few letters or words into the Search field at the top of the Edit Window and hit the return key. Hit enter again and it will continue to search the text for the nest occurrance of your find criteria. You can also use Command F to put your cursor in the search field.

To colorize sections of your script, select the text that you would like to change and click one of the color squares. With the text highlighted, you can also use your number keys to selct a color (1 thru 8, starting from the left color chip). This can be useful to designate certain sections for multiple speakers or to emphasize a word or sentence.

Once you’re finished editing, click Apply to view your changes in the prompter windows.

To save your script to your local hard drive, hit Command S or choose Save from the File menu.

Your script will save with an .rtf or .txt extension depending on if you have colorized sections of your script.

Prompting

Click the Start Prompting button and move your mouse scroll wheel down to activate scrolling. Moving your mouse scroll wheel down will also increase the speed of prompting. Moving your scroll wheel up will slow down the speed of prompting and then reverse the direction of the scrolling text.

You can also check the invert scroll direction box to reverse the direction. Then, moving your mouse scroll wheel up will activate scrolling.

If you do not have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can also use the up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to adjust your scrolling speed and direction.

If you are using a laptop, your trackpad can act as your scroll wheel. Just make sure you have your trackpad preferences (under System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Trackpad) set to allow two-finger scrolling.

ALSO SEE: Flying Solo – How to Operate a Teleprompter When You are the Presenter

If you’re using two monitors, showing a second prompter window for your talent would be handy! Click the Show Talent Window button to launch a second prompter window. Voila!

You can adjust the placement of the talent window by simplying clicking the title bar of the window and dragging it wherever you wish.

This Talent Window will mirror everything you do in the main prompter window, such as changing the window size, text size changes, inverting text, the placement of the eyeline triangle and it’s opacity, font choices and color, etc.

Check the Mirror Talent Window option to reverse the text. You would only use this feature if you’ve set up a teleprompter with mirrored glass for your shoot.

Customizing Your Prompt Display

You may need to adjust your font size, line spacing and font depending on how your studio is set up, the distance between the talent and the prompter, what kind of monitor you’re using and other situations.

To change the font of the loaded script, click the font pull-down menu and choose a font.

Please note this will change the font in the main prompter window and in the Talent Window. If you choose to mirror your talent window, the font popup will be disabled and the main prompter window font will automatically switch to Arial Black and will be locked to this font.

You can adjust the size and line spacing of the text with the text size and line spacing sliders.

If your talent finds it easier to read white text on a black background, simply click the Invert Background button.

You can also choose to have the eyeline indicator on the left, right or both sides of the window. Use the opacity slider to lighten or darken the eyeline indicator.

You can also adjust the size of the main prompter window by clicking and dragging the resize button in the bottom right corner of the window. If you are using the Talent Window, it will automatically adjust to match the main prompter window.

Searching

To jump to a specific place in your script, type a search word into the Search field and hit return. Hit return again and it will continue to search the text for the next occurrence of the text you specified.