Articles on: Lining

How do I use Lining tools?

Scriptation's Lining toolkit lets script supervisors easily track coverage and manage slates. Powered by intelligent scene heading and character name recognition, Lining tools save hours of time with instantly generated tramlines.

📝 NOTE: Lining Tools is an Industry Pro feature.

📝 NOTE: This video shows an older user interface, and some of the exact steps may have changed.

Quick Start: Generate your first tramlines

With your script open, touch or click Lining on the Top Toolbar:

✅ TIP: If the Lining icon isn't showing in the Top Toolbar, touch or click the plus sign on the right to show additional icons. To pin it permanently, see Customizing the Top Toolbar.

In the Lining sidebar, scene numbers and scene names are automatically populated. Select a scene.

📝 NOTE: If scenes aren't being recognized, learn more about document formatting and flattened PDFs.

Configure how the tramlines will be generated:

Slate — Touch or click in the text field to edit the name or number;
Cameras — Touch or click the + icon to add up to 26 cameras;
Color — Touch or click the color dot to set each camera's color;
Characters — Toggle on characters for straight lines (on camera); leave off for squiggle lines (off camera).

✅ TIP: Configure global Lining options — including slate numbering format (alphabetical, numerical, decimal) and lining opacity — from the Annotations tab in Settings.

Touch or click Generate. The scene's tramlines appear:

About Lining Layers

The first time you touch or click Generate, Scriptation creates a new layer called Lining and moves you into it. All your tramlines and corresponding slate notes live there — separated from your other annotations so they can be exported cleanly to an editor.

If a page runs out of room for additional slates, Scriptation automatically creates a new Lining Layer — Lining 2, then Lining 3, and so on — and continues your work there. Your earlier tramlines aren't lost; they're still in the previous Lining Layer.

Lining Layers work differently from regular layers — they don't have an eye icon. Only one Lining Layer can be visible at a time, and you switch between them by tapping the layer's name in the Layers menu. The Pencil icon moves to whichever Lining Layer is currently active, and that's the one you'll see on the page.

Regular annotation layers still have the eye icon, and can be toggled on to display alongside whichever Lining Layer is currently active.

✅ TIP: If you can't find tramlines you've generated, they're almost certainly on a different Lining Layer. See Where did my lines and notes go after generating Lining?.

Lining Layers are protected

To keep your coverage clean, Lining Layers have a few built-in protections:

Prior slates lock automatically after each tap of Generate, so you can't accidentally modify them while creating new ones;
Lining Layers can't be renamed or merged like regular layers;
To bring other annotations into your export, merge those layers into a Lining Layer instead of the other way around.

✅ TIP: To learn more about managing layers generally, see What are Layers, and how do I use them?.

What you can do with Lining

The Lining toolkit is the entry point for several Scriptation features. Each has its own dedicated article:

📚 Lining Basics

Where did my lines and notes go after generating lining? — find tramlines on other Lining Layers and bring back hidden annotation layers;
How do I merge notes layers into lining layers? — combine annotation layers into Lining for unified export;
How do I generate multi-scene lining? — for long takes that span consecutive or non-consecutive scenes.

✏️ Editing & Adjusting Slates

How do I change the slate format? — alphabetical (1, 1A), numerical (1, 2, 3), or decimal (1.1, 1.2);
How do I edit slates and lines? — rename, duplicate, delete, lock; change line type, end cameras, change camera color, etc.;
How do I split or rejoin lines? — accurate coverage within dialogue or action;
How do I move slates left or right? — fit more slates per page by repositioning or nesting them.