Articles on: Lining

How do I use Lining tools?

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

Scriptation's Lining toolkit allows for script supervisors to easily track coverage, and manage slates. Powered by intelligent scene heading and character name recognition, Lining tools help keep you organized on set and will save you hours of time with instantly generated tramlines. You’ll never need a ruler or eraser again.

NOTE: Lining Tools is an Industry Pro feature.

Using the Lining Tools

With your script open, touch or click Lining on the Top Toolbar:
|| NOTE that if the Lining Tool icon isn't in the Top Toolbar, learn to customize your Top Toolbar to always show it.

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

NOTE: If the scenes aren't being recognized, it may be the script. Learn more about document formatting and flattened PDFs.

After selecting a scene, a variety of options to generate tramlines are presented. You can edit:

**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 select a color for each camera's lines
Characters - Toggle on characters to generate straight lines (character is on camera); keep toggles off for squiggle lines (character is off camera)

All of these preferences can be adjusted later. When you've made your initial selections, touch or click Generate.

TIP: Scriptation also supports Multi-Scene lining.

TIP: For information on adjusting the slate format, click here.

After the Generate button is touched or clicked, the scene's tramlines will appear:

Adjusting the Lining

After your slate and tramlines have been generated, touch or click individual sections (right-click on Mac) to make edits.

Touch or click a slate at the top of a tramline to display this toolbar:

**Rename **- changes name or number of slate (text size adjusts to fit)
**Duplicate **- makes an editable copy of the selected slate
**Delete **- deletes the slate and all cameras
**Move **- opens a screen on which you can drag the tramline to a new position on the page (touch or click Shift to make the change)

**Lock / Unlock **- locks or unlocks a slate to disable or enable editing

Touch or click on a **tramline **to make these edits:

**Line Type **- Straight, Squiggle, Dirty
**Split / Rejoin **- opens the Split window
**Start **- moves the entire slate to begin at the selected point
**End Cam **- ends the selected camera at the selected point
**End All **- ends all cameras at the selected point
**Delete Cam **- removes the selected camera from the existing slate
**Cam Color **- allows a change of color for the selected camera

NOTE: Every time a new slate is generated, all prior slates lock.

Lining Layers

The first time you touch or click Generate, you are automatically moved into a new layer called Lining, which contains all tramlines and corresponding notes.

To view other layers of notes alongside your Lining Notes, toggle on those other layers.

If you generate more slates than a page has room for, additional Lining layers will be automatically created. They will be numbered sequentially, e.g. Lining 2, Lining 3, etc.

NOTE: Lining layers can't be renamed or merged. To learn more about exporting a complete lining PDF (i.e. to an editor) click here.

What's Next

How do I insert fillable forms and reports?
How do I generate multi scene tramlines?
How do I export my lining notes?

Updated on: 21/03/2025

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