Prefer to read? Here is the quick-start summary:

1. Open flub. You will see your Production Library, which starts empty.
2. Click New Production in the top right.
3. The Setup Wizard opens. Enter your production name, theatre or company, director, and your name as SM.
4. Everything in the wizard can be edited later in Production Settings, so do not worry about getting it perfect now.
5. Click Create Production. Your show appears in the library.
6. Tap or click Open Production to enter the workspace.

While the video is in production, see the written article Importing a script below for full instructions.

While the video is in production, see the written articles for each panel below.

New to flub? This is the map. Every named part of the workspace is labeled below, so when the rest of the Knowledge Base says “open the notation panel” or “tap the page selector,” you know exactly where to look. Keep this handy for your first week.

Your cast list lives in the sidebar on the left side of the workspace. It is built automatically when you import a script, based on every character name flub detects. You can also add and edit actors manually at any time.

Adding a character or actor

Open the Cast Manager from the ellipsis menu at the top right of the workspace. Tap Add character / actor at the bottom of the list. This adds both characters and actors through the same flow.

Characters from import

Characters are added to your cast list automatically when flub detects them during script import. If you need to add a character manually after the fact, use Add character / actor in the Cast Manager.

Color coding

Each character in your cast list gets a color. This color appears on character names in the script view and on notation dots in the right margin. flub assigns colors automatically, but you can change them in the Cast Manager by tapping the color circle next to any character.

Editing and deleting

Tap the pencil icon next to any character to edit their name, color, or actor assignment. To delete a character, swipe left on iPad, or right-click on Mac. Note that deleting a character removes all notations associated with them, so use this carefully.

Initials

The two-letter initials shown in the cast avatars are generated from the first two letters of the character name. They update automatically if you rename the character.

flub has two levels of display settings: global defaults that apply to all productions, and per-production overrides for individual shows.

Global settings

Go to Flub menu (macOS) or Settings to access global display defaults. You can set:

• Script layout: Scroll (continuous) or Page Turn (one page at a time)
• Script font: Choose from available monospace fonts
• Color character names: Toggle colored character names on or off

Per-production overrides

To override global settings for a specific production, open that production and look for the (…) (three-dot) menu at the top right of the workspace, sometimes called the ellipsis menu. Tap it and choose Production Settings, then go to the Display section. Any setting here overrides the global default for that production only. Set a field back to "Use global setting" to remove the override.

flub can import scripts from digital PDFs, Word documents (.docx), scanned PDFs, and plain text. Digital PDFs and Word files give the cleanest results. Scanned PDFs use OCR and may require some cleanup after import.

What works best

• Digital PDF on a Mac is the number one method. It gives the highest accuracy and the most reliable page numbers.
• Digital PDFs exported from Word, Final Draft, or a PDF editor import well on both Mac and iPad.
• Word documents (.docx) import cleanly on both Mac and iPad. Because Word reflows pages, flub paginates evenly by content rather than using fixed page numbers.
• Plain text pasted directly into the import field works well if each character name is on its own line in caps, followed by their dialogue.
• Scanned PDFs work but may have OCR errors, especially with dense serif fonts or photocopied books.

How to import

1. In the Setup Wizard when creating a new production, scroll to the script section and tap Import .pdf, .docx, or .txt file.
2. To import into an existing production, tap the ellipsis menu and choose Replace Script.
3. Select your file or paste your plain text.
4. flub parses the script automatically, detecting character names, dialogue, and stage directions.

What flub looks for

flub identifies character names as lines in all-caps that appear before dialogue. Stage directions are recognized when enclosed in parentheses or brackets. If your script has a different format, the import may need manual cleanup using Edit Line.

Verse plays are formatted differently from prose plays. In prose, a line break is usually just word wrap. In verse, every line break is intentional. It marks the metre. When flub knows your script is in verse, it switches to Verse Mode during import: each line of verse is kept as its own line exactly as written, and flub recognizes the classic verse layout where a character's name sits on its own line directly above their speech, with no blank line between them.

How to turn it on

Verse Mode is triggered by the Playwright field when you set up your production. For Shakespeare, enter William Shakespeare or simply Shakespeare. Capitalization doesn't matter, but spelling does. "Shakespear" or "Shakspere" will not turn Verse Mode on, and your script will import as prose with the line breaks merged.

Other verse playwrights flub recognizes

Shakespeare isn't the only one. flub also switches to Verse Mode for these dramatists. The last name is enough, spelled correctly (accents are optional, so Moliere works for Molière):

• Elizabethan and Jacobean: Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Kyd, Thomas Dekker, Cyril Tourneur, John Fletcher
• French verse drama: Molière, Jean Racine, Pierre Corneille, Edmond Rostand
• Greek and Roman: Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Seneca
• Modern verse: T.S. Eliot, Christopher Fry, Maxwell Anderson (full name required for Anderson)

If you imported with the wrong name

1. Open Production Settings and correct the Playwright field.
2. Tap the ellipsis menu and choose Replace Script to re-import. The script will parse again, this time in Verse Mode.

When a playwright sends revised pages during rehearsal, you can swap the new content into a single page without disturbing the rest of your script or its page numbers. The page keeps its number; only the content on it changes.

How to replace a page

1. Find the page divider in the script that reads Page N (shown between two short rules).
2. Click the options menu (the three-dot button) next to that page divider.
3. Choose Replace this page.
4. Paste or type the revised text for that page, then confirm.

flub reparses the new text, attributes it to the same page number, and replaces the old lines on that page in place. Everything before and after the page is untouched.

Sometimes a single page needs a different number. For example, an inserted page, or a page that imported with the wrong label. You can relabel one page, and flub will shift the pages after it to keep the sequence in order.

How to relabel a page

1. Find the Page N divider for the page you want to change.
2. Click the options menu (the three-dot button) next to the divider.
3. Choose Relabel page number.
4. Enter the new page number and confirm.

This page and every page after it shift by the same amount, so the numbering stays sequential. If you need to renumber the whole script at once instead, see Renumbering the whole script below.

If your whole script starts on the wrong page number, you can renumber every page at once with the Renumber pages tool. This is a common situation after importing a file whose first page is really page 7, or page 100.

Opening the tool

• On Mac: turn on Edit in the script toolbar, then click Renumber pages (or use the Edit menu › Renumber Pages, Shift+Cmd+R).
• On iPad: open the options menu (the three-dot button) and choose Renumber pages.

Two ways to renumber

• Set the first page to a number (the default). Tell flub what the first page should be, say 7, and it renumbers the rest in sequence from there (7, 8, 9…). This is the easiest fix for an import that started on the wrong number.
• Shift every page by an offset. Add or subtract a fixed amount from every page number (for example, +6 or −2). Useful when you know the exact gap to correct.

A live preview shows the before and after for the first, middle, and last pages so you can confirm before applying. The spacing between page numbers is always preserved, and the whole change is a single undoable action.

Once in a while a PDF imports on iPad as random symbols, accented gibberish, or what looks like a different alphabet, even though the script is in plain English. The good news is your script is fine and there is a simple fix.

Why this happens

A small number of PDFs are built with an embedded font that iPad cannot read correctly. When that happens, the iPad substitutes the wrong characters. This is a limitation in how Apple software on iPad reads certain fonts, not a problem with flub or with your file. The same PDF often imports perfectly on a Mac, because a Mac reads that font correctly.

You can tell this is the issue if the imported text looks like symbols or a non-English alphabet even though the original script is in English.

The fix on iPad: convert through Google Docs

This works entirely on an iPad with no other device needed. It works because Google rebuilds the document text on its own servers, replacing the unreadable font with clean text.

1. Upload the PDF to Google Drive on your iPad.
2. Tap the file, then choose Open with Google Docs. Give it a moment to convert.
3. In the Google Doc, tap the three-dot menu, choose Share and export, then Send a copy, and pick Word (.docx).
4. Import that Word file into flub.

One thing to expect: a Word file has no fixed page numbers, because Word reflows pages as text changes. flub will paginate the script evenly by content instead. The script will be complete and correct, the page breaks just will not match the original PDF exactly.

Other quick options

• Paste the text. Open the script in any app that shows it correctly, select the text, copy it, and paste it into the import box in flub. The paste box is right below the file import button.
• Use a Mac if you have one. A Mac can usually read the original PDF correctly, so importing there, or re-saving the PDF in Preview and importing the new copy, often resolves it.

Why the scan matters more than anything else

When you import a scanned script, flub reads the words off the page the way you would by looking at the shapes of the letters. If the scan is sharp, it reads them correctly. If the scan is coarse, it guesses, and it guesses wrong in ways that are hard to spot later.

At low resolution, letters genuinely stop being distinguishable. A capital B and the number 8 are the same handful of dots. So are S and 5, and so are rn and m. That is where imports like these come from:

The damage lands hardest on character names, because they are short and they are usually the first thing on a line, where scans are weakest at the edges. One character can end up as four or five separate people in your cast list.

This is not something flub can fix afterwards. The detail was never captured, and no amount of clever software puts it back.

The number to remember: 300 DPI

DPI means dots per inch, how much detail the scan captured. 300 DPI is the standard for reading text, and it is what flub is built to work with.

• A 300 DPI scan: names come through clean, dialogue is accurate, cast list is correct first time
• A 125 DPI scan: character names break apart, words are misspelled throughout
• A 100 DPI scan: barely usable, expect to correct large amounts by hand

A photo taken with your phone's normal camera is usually around 100 DPI once it is in a PDF. That is the single most common cause of a messy import.

Scanning with a scanner

1. Look for a setting called Resolution, Quality, or DPI
2. Set it to 300 DPI (sometimes shown as "300 x 300" or "Fine" / "High")
3. Choose Black and white or Greyscale rather than Colour, text scans are sharper and the files are much smaller
4. Scan one page at a time, not two pages side by side
5. Save as PDF

If the only options are Draft / Normal / Best, choose Best.

Scanning with a phone

Your phone can produce a good scan but use a scanning app, not the camera. A scanning app flattens the page, squares up the edges, and sharpens the text. A photo does not.

On iPhone, this is built in and free:

1. Open the Notes app and start a new note
2. Tap the camera button, then Scan Documents
3. Hold the phone over the page, it captures automatically once the page is square
4. Scan every page, then tap Save
5. Share the note as a PDF

On Android, Google Drive has the same feature: + New > Scan.

For the best results:

• Bright, even light. Daylight or a room light, avoid a single lamp, which casts a shadow across the page
• Flatten the book. A curved page near the spine blurs exactly where the character names are
• Fill the frame with the page, and keep the phone parallel to it rather than at an angle
• Do not zoom. Move the phone closer instead

One page at a time

Scan single pages, not two-page spreads. A two-page scan gives flub two columns of text side by side, and it cannot reliably tell which line follows which, so you get dialogue interleaved from both pages. It also halves your resolution.

Checking what you have got

Open the PDF and zoom in to 200% on a page of dialogue. If the letters look crisp, you are fine. If they look soft, fuzzy, or have coloured speckles around the edges, the scan is too coarse.

flub also checks this for you. If it finds a scan below about 150 DPI during import, it warns you before it starts reading and tells you roughly what resolution it found.

Before you import

• Delete the title, copyright and cast pages from the PDF first. flub reads names on those pages as characters, so they show up in your cast as entries like "Note on Billing" or the playwright's name.
• Fill in the playwright field in the setup wizard. Many published scripts print the author's name at the top of every page, and flub uses what you type to recognise and ignore it.

A stage direction is not something the actor says, so flub separates it from the dialogue and places it where the script prints it.

Where directions sit

• A direction that governs how a line is delivered appears above the line. For example: CAROL. (singing) Never wanna give you up.
• A direction that happens after the line, such as an exit, appears below it. For example: RALPH. Goodbye. (He exits.)
• A direction that stands on its own between two speeches, such as an entrance, is its own item rather than being attached to whoever spoke last. An entrance like "BERNIECE enters on the stairs" used to render inside the previous character's speech, as though they were describing her.

This is how it appears in Script view and in the promptbook.

Directions inside a speech

A direction printed in the middle of dialogue is pulled out of the spoken text. Before, an actor reading Peter's line would see "(An announcement.) There is a lot." as their words.

Editing a direction

Open Edit Line and you will find separate fields:

• Stage direction before the line for how the line is delivered
• Dialogue for the spoken text
• Stage direction after the line for what happens next

Leave either direction field empty if the line does not need it.

flub reads a Word (.docx) script using the formatting already in the file, which makes it more reliable than a scan. Nothing is guessed from the shapes of letters so names come through as written.

What flub looks for

• The speaker's name in bold, followed by a tab. This is how most Word scripts mark a cue, and it means names like Shea, Dad or All Company are recognised even though they are not in capitals. Before this, a script could arrive as a few enormous blocks of run-together text.
• A fully italic paragraph is treated as a stage direction. This catches directions that begin with a character name, such as "Dad sits alone behind his door watching TV," which would otherwise read as that character's dialogue.

Because the file states who its speakers are, capitalised song and rap lyrics are not mistaken for character names. All-caps italic paragraphs are left as dialogue for the same reason.

flub has three modes. Each one reshapes the workspace for a different phase of the production. You are always in one of them, and switching is instant. Your place in the script is kept when you switch.

Rehearsal mode

The note-taking mode. The script is editable and the five notation panels (Dialogue, Staging, Cues, Props, Designer) are front and center. Use it for line notes, staging, and props during a rehearsal. The run timer is available.

Tech mode

Built for tech. The view switches from the script to the promptbook, the full script with cue flags stacked in the right margin. The cue and designer panels are primary. The run timer is available.

Show mode

The running-the-show mode. You see the promptbook with cue flags in the margin, and the status bar shows the show timer instead of a note count. This is the calling view.

How to switch modes

1. Tap the status bar at the bottom of the workspace. It shows a colored dot and the current mode name.
2. A switcher opens (a popover on Mac, a sheet on iPad).
3. Choose Rehearsal, Tech, or Show.

In Tech and Show modes, flub shows the promptbook instead of the editable script. The promptbook is the full script with your cue flags stacked in the right margin, aligned to the lines that trigger them. It mirrors a physical calling script.

What is different from the Rehearsal script

• The script is read-only here. You build and edit cue flags rather than dialogue notes.
• Cue flags appear in the right margin in firing order, next to their trigger line.
• Preshow cues sit at the very top, postshow cues at the very bottom.
• The scene tab strip on the right edge jumps you to any scene.

Adding a cue flag

1. In Tech or Show, tap the + on the line where the cue fires.
2. Choose the flag type and type the label exactly as you would write it on a physical flag.
3. The flag appears in the right margin, in firing order.

See Cue flags and cue tracking for the full breakdown of flag types and labels.

Some cues are not tied to a line of dialogue. House-to-half, house out, the top-of-show sequence, the post-curtain restore. flub handles these as preshow and postshow flags.

How they work

• Preshow flags appear in a block at the very top of the promptbook, on the first page only.
• Postshow flags appear in a block at the very bottom, on the last page only.
• They are not attached to any script line, so they hold your standby clusters and end-of-show cues.

Adding one

1. In Tech or Show, scroll to the top (preshow) or bottom (postshow) of the promptbook.
2. Tap + on the preshow or postshow block.
3. Choose the type and type the label.

Scene tabs run down the right edge of the promptbook. They are bookmarks, not filters. Tapping a scene tab jumps you to that scene's page; it does not hide the rest of the script. The promptbook always shows the full script.

Using scene tabs

• Tap any scene tab to jump to that scene's starting page.
• Tap the TOP tab to jump back to the start of the script.

Setting a scene's page

Each scene tab points to a starting page number, which you set when you create or edit the scene. Open the ellipsis menu and choose Manage scenes, then edit a scene to set its title and starting page.

flub gives you two ways to move through the script: Scroll, which is continuous, and Page Turn, which shows one page at a time. Page Turn works in all three modes.

Turning pages

• Use the prev and next buttons at the bottom center of the page.
• On Mac, the left and right arrow keys turn pages too (when you are not editing a text field).
• The page indicator between the buttons shows the current page.

Jumping to a page

Use the page selector in the toolbar to jump straight to a page. In Page Turn it turns to that page; in Scroll it scrolls to it. Your place is shared across modes, so switching from Rehearsal to Tech or Show keeps you on the same page.

You can export the promptbook as a PDF for a paper backup or a handoff. This is the full script with cue flags in the right margin, matching what you see in Show mode.

How to export

1. Open the ellipsis menu at the top right of the workspace.
2. Choose Export promptbook.
3. On Mac, a save panel opens; on iPad, the share sheet opens.

The PDF includes the preshow block at the top, the postshow block at the bottom, and cue flags matched to their lines. A line with four or more flags uses a compact cluster, the same as on screen.

Dialogue notes track script issues: lines that were paraphrased, skipped, transposed, or otherwise altered during rehearsal. Each note attaches to a specific script line so you always know exactly where in the show it occurred.

There are two ways to add one. The Quick-notate bar under the selected line is fastest during a run, and it can attach a note to a single word or phrase rather than the whole line. The side panel, described below, gives you the character field and a free-text note. See Notes on specific words and The Quick-notate bar for the inline route.

Adding a dialogue note

1. Tap a line in the script view to select it.
2. The right panel switches to show the notation options for that line.
3. Tap the Dialogue tab.
4. The character is pre-selected based on the line you tapped. Confirm or change it if needed.
5. Choose the issue type.
6. Add any additional notes in the text field.
7. Tap Save Notation.

Issue types

• Called: The actor called for a line during rehearsal.
• Flubbed: The actor stumbled on or garbled the line.
• Skipped: The line was missed entirely.
• Volume: The line was delivered too quietly or loudly.
• Paraphrased: The actor said the line but changed the wording.
• Overlap: The actor spoke over another actor's line.
• Long Pause: There was an unintended pause before or during the line.
• Wrong Cue: The actor picked up the wrong cue line.
• Transposed: Lines were said in the wrong order.
• Added: The actor added words not in the script.

Lines with dialogue notes show a colored dot in the right margin. The color matches the character's assigned cast color.

A note can point at a single word or a phrase rather than the whole line. A speech often has more than one thing to say about it, and marking the exact words means the actor sees precisely what you meant.

Selecting words

• Tap a word to select it.
• Drag across several words to select a phrase.
• Tap the selection again to clear it, or use the x in the note row.

With nothing selected, the note applies to the whole line, which is still the right choice for a note about delivery overall.

Taking the note

When you select a line, a row of note types appears underneath it. Tap a type and the note saves immediately. Tap more types to add them to the same note.

The row tells you what the note will attach to. It reads Noting "the words you picked" when you have a selection, or Noting whole line. Tap words above to narrow when you do not.

More than one note on a line

Select different words and the next note is separate. A line can carry several notes, each pointing at its own phrase.

The Quick-notate bar is the row of note types that appears under a line when you select it. It lets you mark a word, a phrase, or the whole line without leaving the script.

How it behaves

• Tap a note type to create the note. It saves straight away.
• Tap more types to add them to the same note.
• Tap a lit type again to remove it. Clear every type and the note is deleted.

On iPad the bar shows the most-used types first with a More button for the rest, since all ten will not fit under a line. On Mac all of them show.

Turning it off

If you would rather notate only from the side panel:

1. Open flub settings
2. Find the Rehearsal notes section
3. Switch off Quick-notate bar

That sets the default for every production. To change it for one show only, use Production Settings.

Staging notes track blocking issues during rehearsal. Wrong crosses, missed entrances, late exits, and any deviation from established blocking are all recorded here, attached to the script line where they occurred.

Adding a staging note

1. Tap a script line to select it.
2. In the right panel, tap the Staging tab.
3. The character is pre-selected based on the line you tapped. Confirm or change it if needed.
4. Choose the issue type.
5. Add a reference or description if needed.
6. Tap Add Staging Note.

Issue types

• Incorrect blocking: Actor moved differently from established blocking.
• Crossed early: Actor crossed before the designated moment.
• Crossed late: Actor crossed after the designated moment.
• Late entrance: Actor entered later than called.
• Missed entrance: Actor did not enter at all.
• Early entrance: Actor entered before the designated moment.
• Wrong entrance: Actor entered from the wrong position or direction.
• Late exit: Actor exited later than called.
• Missed exit: Actor did not exit at all.
• Early exit: Actor exited before the designated moment.
• Wrong exit: Actor exited from the wrong position or direction.

Blocking shorthand

Beneath the staging-issue section is a blocking tracker for recording actor movement, separate from staging issues. Pick an actor, then tap the shorthand buttons to drop movement notation into the note and type the rest:

• XL cross left
• XR cross right
• XDS cross downstage
• XUS cross upstage

A toggle controls where the note lands. Attach to selected line places it under the line you selected. Between lines (after selected line) places it just below the selected line, for movement that happens between cues. Between-lines requires a line to be selected first; until you select one, the toggle reads "Select a line first" and stays on attach.

flub handles cues in two separate places, for two different jobs. Cue flags live in the promptbook and are your calling script. The Cues panel in Rehearsal tracks cue problems as notes. They do not overlap, so it helps to know which is which.

Cue flags (Tech and Show)

Cue flags are the marks in the right margin of the promptbook, stacked in firing order next to the line that triggers them. The label is free text, so you write exactly what you would on a physical flag: LQ 13, SND 74, BLACKOUT, FAN ON. There is no forced naming convention.

Each flag has one of five types:

• LIGHTS
• SOUND
• PRACTICAL/FX
• STANDBY
• GENERAL

To add one, switch to Tech or Show, tap the + on the trigger line, choose the type, and type the label. You can add several flags to the same line; they stack in the order you add them. For cues not tied to a line, see Preshow and postshow cues.

The Cues panel (Rehearsal)

Separately, the Cues panel in Rehearsal mode logs cue problems during a run, the same way the other notation panels log issues. It covers Light and Sound cues.

1. Tap the script line where the issue occurred.
2. In the right panel, tap the Cues tab.
3. Choose Light or Sound, enter the cue number, and pick the issue (missed, late, early, wrong, wrong level, hung, did not fire).
4. Tap Save.

Getting cues out of flub

Export your calling script with Export promptbook in the ellipsis menu. For cue problems logged in the Cues panel, use Export all notation, which produces the by-department notes report.

The Props panel tracks prop issues by scene and actor. Missing props, wrong props, preset issues, and anything that went wrong with a prop during rehearsal are recorded here.

Adding a props note

1. Tap the script line where the prop issue occurred.
2. In the right panel, tap the Props tab.
3. The character is pre-selected. Confirm or change it if needed.
4. Enter the prop name.
5. Select the issue type: Missing, Wrong prop, Preset issue, Wrong position, and more.
6. Add any additional description.
7. Tap Save Notation.

Props notes are organized by scene in the panel view, making it easy to generate a props note list at the end of rehearsal to share with your props master.

The Designer Notes panel is a general-purpose panel for notes directed at the design team: costume notes, scenic notes, hair and makeup, anything that does not fit Cues or Props. These are the notes you would typically compile into a rehearsal report for the production team.

Adding a designer note

1. Tap the relevant script line.
2. In the right panel, tap the Designer tab.
3. Choose the department: Costumes, Scenic, Lighting, Sound, Hair and Makeup, and more.
4. Write your note.
5. Tap Save Notation.

All designer notes feed into your rehearsal report export, organized by department. This makes it easy to copy notes directly into your report at the end of a rehearsal session.

flub can generate a variety of formatted PDF reports from your notation data. Reports are designed to be shared however your production communicates: AirDrop, Slack, text, Files, or any other method. No email account is required.

Types of reports

• Rehearsal Report: a full summary of all notations from a session, organized by type. Shared with the whole team.
• Department Reports: targeted PDFs for a single department (Sound, Lighting, Set, Costumes, etc.), containing only the notes relevant to that team.
• Actor Reports: a private report for a single actor showing only their own line notes for the current session.

How to access reports

All reports are available from the ellipsis menu (…) at the top right of the production workspace. Tap it and choose the report type you want to generate. You can also access Department and Actor Reports through the Metrics tab.

After generating

Every report opens in a preview window. From there, use the Share button to send it wherever you need: AirDrop to a colleague's device, save to Files for later, or open directly in another app.

The Rehearsal Report collects every notation from your production into a single PDF. This is the fastest way to share everything with the full production team at the end of a session.

How to generate

1. From the workspace, tap the ellipsis menu (…) at the top right.
2. Choose Export Rehearsal Report.
3. flub generates the PDF. This takes only a second.
4. The report opens in a preview window. Tap Share to send it wherever you need.

What is included

• Production name, date, director, and SM
• Dialogue notes (flubs, paraphrases, skips, added lines, and more) organized by scene and page
• Staging and blocking notes by scene
• Props notes by scene
• Designer notes organized by department
• Run time for the session if the stopwatch was used

Department Reports let you send targeted PDFs to individual departments, sharing only the notes relevant to that team. No other production data is included. This is ideal for sharing cue notes with your LD or sound designer, or prop tracking with props.

How to generate

1. From the workspace, tap the ellipsis menu (…) at the top right.
2. Choose Department Reports.
3. A list of departments appears: Actors, Lighting, Sound, Set, Costumes, Props, and others depending on what you have noted.
4. Tap the department you want.
5. A preview appears showing the contents: the department name, number of notes, and a summary. Tap Generate & Preview.
6. The PDF opens. Tap Share to send it.

What each department report contains

• Actors: all dialogue notes for all characters, organized by character, scene, and page. See also: Actor Reports for sending notes to a single actor privately.
• Lighting: all LX cue notations with cue numbers, notes, and page references.
• Sound: all sound cue notations.
• Set / Costumes / Props / Other: designer notes for each department.

Actor Reports let you export a private PDF of one actor's line notes from the current rehearsal session, without including any other actor's data. This way, actors only see their own notes, not how many notes anyone else received.

How to generate an Actor Report

1. From the workspace, tap the Metrics tab in the top toolbar.
2. Scroll down to the Notes by character chart. Characters are listed from most notes to fewest.
3. Tap any character's bar. Their individual report opens as a panel showing all of their notes for the current session: error type, the line itself, page number, and any director's note you wrote.
4. Tap Export PDF in the top right of the panel.
5. The PDF generates and opens in a preview. Tap Share to send it via AirDrop, Slack, Files, or however your production communicates.

What is in the Actor Report PDF

• Actor's character name and the production name
• The rehearsal date
• Line accuracy score (percentage of lines with no notation)
• Each notation: error type, the line of dialogue, page number, and director's note if one was written
• Notes are sorted by page so the actor can follow along in their script
• A confidentiality footer: Confidential: prepared by stage management

Things to know

• Actor Reports reflect the current session's notations based on the time filter active in your Metrics tab.
• If you have not changed the filter, it shows all notations for the production. Set the Metrics filter to Today to export only the current rehearsal's notes.
• Each actor's report is a separate PDF. You generate and share them one at a time.
• No email account is needed. You choose how to deliver the PDF.

flub uses Apple's iCloud to keep your productions in sync across all your devices. Your data is stored in your personal iCloud account. Flub Studios does not have access to it.

What syncs

• All productions and their scripts
• All notations (dialogue, staging, cues, props, designer notes)
• Cast lists and actor assignments
• Run time records
• Per-production display settings

What does not sync

• Global settings (script font, layout preference) are stored locally on each device and must be set separately
• The last page you were viewing is saved per device

How long sync takes

On a good Wi-Fi connection, changes appear on other devices within a few seconds. On a slow or cellular connection it may take 15 to 30 seconds. Give iCloud a moment to catch up before assuming something is missing.

A common workflow is to set up productions and do detailed work on your Mac in the production office, then carry your iPad into the rehearsal room for note-taking during rehearsal.

Recommended workflow

1. On your Mac: create the production, import the script, set up your cast list, and adjust display settings.
2. Let iCloud sync before you leave for rehearsal. Give it at least 30 seconds on Wi-Fi.
3. In the rehearsal room: open flub on your iPad. Your production appears in the library.
4. Take notes on the iPad during rehearsal. Notes sync back to your Mac in the background.
5. After rehearsal: export your rehearsal report from either device.

Offline use

flub works without an internet connection. Any changes you make offline are stored locally and sync to iCloud the next time you have a connection. You will not lose notes taken without Wi-Fi.

flub can generate a formatted rehearsal report PDF from all the notes in your current session. The report is organized by notation type and scene, ready to email to your production team.

How to export

1. Tap the ellipsis menu at the top right of the workspace.
2. Choose Export Rehearsal Report.
3. flub generates the PDF with all notations from the current production.
4. Use the Share sheet to email, save to Files, or AirDrop to your computer.

What is included

• Production name, date, and SM name
• Dialogue notes organized by scene and page
• Staging notes organized by scene
• Designer notes organized by department
• Props notes organized by scene
• Run time for the session if the stopwatch was used

flub has a built-in stopwatch for tracking rehearsal run times. Times are saved per session and visible in the Metrics tab, so you can see how run time changes over the course of the rehearsal process.

Using the stopwatch

1. In the workspace toolbar, tap Run Time.
2. The stopwatch panel opens. Tap Start when the scene or act begins.
3. Tap Stop when it ends.
4. The time is saved automatically.

Viewing metrics

Tap the Metrics tab in the toolbar to see run time history across rehearsals. Each session's times are listed by date, with act and scene breakdowns where you have used the stopwatch at that level.

Things to know

• The stopwatch does not auto-detect scene starts or stops. You must start and stop it manually.
• If you run multiple timed segments on the same day (for example, Act 1 in the morning and Act 2 in the afternoon), you can combine them into a single run time record while preserving each act's individual time.
• Times are associated with the production, not a specific build of flub, so they are preserved when you update the app.

Your flub data belongs to you. It lives in your iCloud account on your own devices. Flub Studios does not store, host, or have access to any of your production data. This means we cannot recover it for you if something goes wrong.

What flub stores and where

All productions, scripts, notations, cast lists, and settings are stored in two places: locally on your device and in your personal iCloud account. No data ever passes through Flub Studios servers. Because flub uses iCloud Drive, your data exists independently of the app itself.

How to make sure your data is backed up

You do not need to do anything special inside flub. As long as iCloud Drive is enabled on your Mac or iPad, flub data syncs automatically to iCloud. To verify iCloud Drive is on:

• On Mac: open System Settings, click your name, click iCloud, and make sure iCloud Drive is turned on.
• On iPad: open Settings, tap your name, tap iCloud, and confirm iCloud Drive is enabled.

We also strongly recommend running Time Machine backups on your Mac. Time Machine creates a full local backup of your device, including all iCloud Drive content, and lets you restore individual files from any point in time. Plug in an external drive and set it up in System Settings under General, then Time Machine.

What happens if you delete flub

Because flub uses iCloud Drive, deleting the app does not delete your data. Your productions remain in iCloud. Reinstalling flub and signing in with the same Apple ID will restore access to everything. The exception is if you manually delete flub's data from iCloud Settings or iCloud.com, in which case the data is gone and cannot be recovered.

What happens if you lose or replace a device

If you sign into a new Mac or iPad with the same Apple ID and enable iCloud Drive, flub will sync your productions automatically once it is installed. Restoring from a Time Machine or iCloud backup before setting up flub will also bring everything back exactly as it was.

Import issues are most common with scanned PDFs, but can also happen with digital PDFs that have unusual formatting. Here are the most common problems and how to fix them.

Em dashes showing as question marks

This happens with some OCR engines on scanned scripts. Open the ellipsis menu, choose Search and Replace, search for ? (space then question mark), and replace with the correct character. Undo is available if you make a mistake.

Character names not recognized

flub looks for all-caps lines before dialogue. If your script uses title case for character names, they may not be detected correctly. Use Edit Line to correct individual lines, or use Search and Replace to fix a pattern across the whole script.

Lines merged together

This can happen when a scanned PDF has poor OCR or when text was copied from a source that did not preserve line breaks. The cleanest fix is to export a plain text version of the script from your original source and re-import.

Two-column layout problems

Scripts formatted with dialogue in two columns (sometimes seen in older published editions) may import with lines in the wrong order. Single-page scans and digital PDFs avoid this issue.

Using Edit Line

For individual errors, tap any line in the script and tap Edit in the toolbar. You can correct the character name, dialogue text, and stage directions for any line without affecting the rest of the import.

If character names came in damaged, the most likely cause is scan resolution. See Scanning your script so flub can read it for how to check and fix it. flub warns you at import when a scan is below about 150 DPI.

If changes made on one device are not appearing on another, work through these steps in order.

Step 1: Wait

iCloud sync is not instant. Give it 15 to 30 seconds on a good Wi-Fi connection. If both devices are on cellular or a slow connection, it may take longer.

Step 2: Check iCloud is enabled

On the device that is not showing the changes, go to Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, and make sure iCloud Drive is turned on. Also check that flub is listed and enabled under iCloud apps.

Step 3: Check your internet connection

iCloud cannot sync without an internet connection. Make sure both devices are connected to Wi-Fi or have a cellular data connection.

Step 4: Force close and reopen flub

On iPhone or iPad, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and swipe flub off the screen to close it. Reopen it. On Mac, use Cmd+Q to quit flub and reopen it from the dock or Applications folder.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, open a support request and tell us what device the change was made on and what device is not showing it. The form collects your device and app version, and lets you attach a screenshot.