Digital scripts

[Brian Holder]

I'm hoping for some enlightenment. I have used paper scripts forever but am looking to move with the times. I usually receive my scripts as Word documents so this is my starting point. Ideally I would like to display the script on a screen mounted on the mixer. My stumbling block is stepping through the displayed pages, which I would like to be under the control of MultiPlay. The ideal would be to have a page down cue in the cue list at appropriate points and hot buttons for Page up and Page down to assist when the cast go off cue. Has anybody achieved this or got a practical solution?
Brian

[David]

Can you save the script as a PDF file? If so, you can use Launch cues to target the Acrobat Reader exe file and send it keystrokes.

On my system it's C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe so that's what I put in the Command part of the Launch cue.

Set the Action to Keystroke. For the Key values, you can use PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT. Enter them the same way as you do in the Hot Key. ie. Put the cursor in the Key field and press the keyboard key that you want to use.

PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN will only work correctly if Acrobat Reader is displaying the pages as a perfect fit height wise. I found that the LEFT and RIGHT are better as they will always keep the top of the page at the top of the screen.

As a test I put the launch cues in the Adlib list then triggered them via two Hot Buttons, but you could use those Launch cues anywhere in your cue list.

If Acrobat Reader is not open when MultiPlay loads the production you'll see warnings for those Launch cues, but it will still work. The warnings will disappear when the next error / warning check is done.

[Brian Holder]

Thanks David
That gives me something to work on. Is it possible to send this command from the computer operating MultiPlay to a second computer or will it only work if the two are on the same computer?
Brian

[David]

The launch cue can only target programs on the same PC.

To control the PDF viewer on another PC you'd need something on that PC that could take MIDI or OSC and do the PDF actions required.

I have briefly looked into making a very simple PDF viewer program that can be controlled via OSC, but don't have anything to show yet.

[David]

OK, I have a simple stand alone PDF viewer done, but it's not OSC controlled yet.

As well as the OSC settings, you'll be able to have it load the last used PDF file at startup.

It also remembers the last folder used when opening files and will default to that next time.

What sort of OSC commands should it accept? For navigating the pages I'm thinking:

/select/first
/select/prev or /select/previous or /select/-
/select/next or /select/+
/select/last
/select/{page number}

[Brian Holder]

That sounds promising.

[SynthKeyWizard]

Great! Especially if you can link "Script Ref" with page numbers in that pdf viewer (in future) to select pages automatically based on a script ref number of selected or playing cue.

[David]

What about using the integer portion of the script ref as the page number to send to the pdf viewer as the GO position changes?

The fractional part would be ignored. So script refs 2.1 and 2.9 would both be page 2.

[David]

I have the PDF viewer working with OSC control. You can also use it as a very simple stand alone PDF viewer.

There's a few settings and menu items as per the images below.

Is anyone interested in testing the first version?

[goblet1]

Yes, please.
Are  the OSC commands as described above?

[David]

Yes, the only OSC commands are as per post #4.

I've just enhanced the settings window and added a Network Adapter selector. It will always listen in on 127.0.0.1 (localhost) but can be told to listen on a different adapter if required.

It's been tested to work with OSC over my LAN (from a different PC) as well as local.

[David]

The PDF component I'm using has the capability to show the thumbnails down the left side like Acrobat Reader. Is it worth adding an option to show them?

[goblet1]

OSC commands from post #4 should be fine, thanks.

Thumbnail section could be useful for general use, but I don't think it is necessary if the primary use is being cued by OSCs. However if adding that part of the code isn't too stressful, then why not...

Were you going to add another section in the forum for downloads?
Or sneak it in with the next Multiplay release (like the messaging program)?

[David]

See here for the download link post.