LOT 006
SPLIT PAGE
Manual · Version 1.1
ODDLOTS01/20
SPLIT PAGEWhat it is
A two-column AV script that tells you, as you type, whether your :30 is actually a :30.
The audio and video format used for commercials, corporate video, explainers and agency work. Live runtime timing against a target spot length.
LOT 00602/20
SPLIT PAGEContents

Contents

  1. 02What it is
  2. 04Before you start
  3. 05The window
  4. 06Getting started
  5. 07Cuts
  6. 08Timing
  7. 09A row
  8. 10The expander
  9. 11Rows
  10. 13Saving
  11. 14Drafts
  12. 15Export
  13. 16Keyboard
  14. 18Limits
  15. 19Housekeeping
LOT 00603/20
SPLIT PAGEBefore you start

What it needs

Your key
In your download email. Asked for once, at first launch, and checked on your Mac. Keep it: a new Mac asks again. One Film & Video key opens four apps. Lost keys: software@filmflamingo.com.
Requires
macOS 12 Monterey or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.
Writes
A .splitpage file. One readable JSON document, no bundle, no database.
Exports to
PDF, DOCX, CSV and plain text.
One at a time
One window and one job, with a recents menu. A job holds as many cuts as you need. Two jobs side by side is not possible.
LOT 00604/20
SPLIT PAGEThe window

Where things are

12345
1
The header bar: client, title, draft.
2
The row number, and its duration.
3
VIDEO and AUDIO. The two columns.
4
The inspector: this row, and how it counts.
5
The running total, against your target.
LOT 00605/20
SPLIT PAGEGetting started
The main job

Writing a spot

  1. Start from a template⇧⌘N. Five ship with the app, and you can save your own.
  2. Set the targetScript › Target Length. The bar tells you where you stand against it from the first word.
  3. Write in rows↩ makes the next row. The left column is the picture, the right is what is heard.
  4. Type the audioEach line of audio is an element with a kind: voiceover, dialogue, music, sound effect or note.
LOT 00606/20
SPLIT PAGECuts

One job, all its cuts

What a cut is
A :30 and the :15 cut down from it are two cuts of one job, kept in one file. One thing to open, and one thing to hand over.
New Cut from This One
⌃⌘N. It starts from the words you already have, which is how a :15 gets written. New Empty Cut sits beside it in the Cuts menu.
Moving between them
⌥⌘← and ⌥⌘→, or click a tab in the bar along the top. Every tab carries its own runtime, and a cut running long is in orange.
Naming
Right-click a tab to rename it. Left alone, a cut is named after its target length.
What is shared

Client, title, writer and job number are kept in step across every cut. The draft number and the target length stay per cut, because a :15 is on its own draft and by definition its own length.

LOT 00607/20
SPLIT PAGETiming

Two sources, always named

A row's duration is either what you typed or what the words imply.

The derived duration is the row's spoken word count divided by the document's reading rate. Type a duration instead and it locks, and the interface says which of the two you are looking at.

Only voiceover and dialogue count toward the running time. Music, sound effects and notes never do. A row marked cut stays in the file and contributes zero.

LOT 00608/20
SPLIT PAGEA row

What a row holds

ONE ROWVIDEOVOMUSICSFXCOUNTS TOWARD THE RUNTIMEMusic, sound effects and notes never do.
The video cell
Free text. What is on screen.
The audio cell
An ordered list of elements, each with a kind.
The flag
The row's status, from approved to cut.
LOT 00609/20
SPLIT PAGEThe expander

The expander

What it does
Reads what is written and counts what would be spoken. $1.5M is not one word and NASA is not four.
What it never does
Edit your script. Nothing writes an expansion back into the document.
When it guesses
It says so, and the inspector lists every token with the rule that produced it.
Overriding
Per written form, which applies everywhere, or on one token in one element. An override records the written form with it, so it cannot survive onto different text.
LOT 00610/20
SPLIT PAGERows

Working the rows

Numbers
Derived from position, never stored. There is nothing to renumber, because nothing stored could disagree with the order of the list.
Status
No status, approved, needs rewrite, pending or cut. ⌃0 through ⌃4.
Reordering
⌥⌘↑ and ⌥⌘↓. Every row and every element keeps a UUID that survives it.
Undo
One stack, covering every structural action including reorder. Typing coalesces into one step per burst per element.
LOT 00611/20
SPLIT PAGERows

Two kinds of paste

⌘V
Pastes into the cell you are in. An ordinary paste stays predictable.
⇧⌘V
Pastes as rows. Copy a two-column table out of Word or Google Docs, or a PDF, and it comes in as rows.
The menu says how many
The Edit item names the number of rows on the clipboard, or says it cannot find any, rather than being enabled and then failing.
LOT 00612/20
SPLIT PAGESaving

It saves itself

There is no Save step, and nothing to remember.

Type, and a couple of seconds after you stop the script is on disk. Quitting asks nothing, because there is nothing to ask. ⌘S still works: it writes now rather than in two seconds, and says that it did.

A script started here is given a home by itself, in a Split Page folder inside your Documents, named after the title you typed. Move it wherever you like afterwards. Type a title later and the file is renamed to match, until you rename it yourself in the Finder, after which the app never touches the name again.

Revert to Last Opened

In the File menu. Split Page keeps the script as you opened it, inside the file, so you can try an idea, hate it, and put it back. It survives quitting, and one undo brings your changes back if you revert by mistake.

LOT 00613/20
SPLIT PAGEDrafts

Drafts and comparison

Snapshot this draft
Keeps the version of this cut you have now, inside the same file.
Increment draft
Moves this cut on to the next draft number.
Compare
Rows are matched by id, not by text, so a comparison is exact rather than a text diff. Moving a row reads as a move.
LOT 00614/20
SPLIT PAGEExport

Getting it out

PDF
US Letter or A4, portrait. Pagination keeps a row's video beside its own audio.
A row taller than a page
Splits. Both columns break at the same boundary and both halves are marked (continues) and (continued) in space reserved for them.
DOCX
Written directly, with no third-party library. The ZIP writer is in the source for that reason.
CSV and text
For anything that needs the words without the layout.
A cancelled export
Leaves nothing behind. There is no part-written file to mistake for a finished one.
LOT 00615/20
SPLIT PAGEKeyboard
Reference

File and rows

  • ⌘N / ⇧⌘NNew / New from Template
  • ⌘O / ⌘S / ⇧⌘SOpen / Save / Save As
  • ⌘EExport
  • ⇧⌘VPaste as Rows
  • ↩ / ⌥⌘↩Insert Row Below / Above
  • ⌘↩New Audio Element
  • ⌘D / ⌘⌫Duplicate / Delete Row
  • ⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓Move Up / Move Down
LOT 00616/20
SPLIT PAGEKeyboard
Reference

Audio, cuts and script

  • ⌘1 – ⌘5Voiceover, Dialogue, Music, Sound Effect, Note
  • ⌃0 – ⌃4No status, Approved, Needs rewrite, Pending, Cut
  • ⌃⌘NNew Cut from This One
  • ⌥⌘← / ⌥⌘→Previous / Next Cut
  • ⇧⌘[Swap Columns
  • ⌃⌘] / ⌃⌘[Wider / Narrower Video Column
  • ⌘Z / ⇧⌘ZUndo / Redo
  • MenuHelp › What Split Page Does Not Do, Keyboard, The .splitpage Format
LOT 00617/20
SPLIT PAGELimits
Stated plainly

What it does not do

  • No thumbnail column and no storyboard image per row. The case is reserved in the file format and round-trips unharmed, so a document written by a later version is not damaged by being opened here.
  • No File › Open for a .docx. Copy the table and paste it as rows instead.
  • No read-aloud timer.
  • No landscape or wider print layout. Page size is US Letter or A4, portrait.
  • No more than one open script at a time.
  • No network code in the app at all.
LOT 00618/20
SPLIT PAGEHousekeeping

Where things live

Your script
Wherever you saved it. A .splitpage file is one JSON document you can open in any editor.
Writes
Atomic, and under the app's own control. A recovery copy stands behind the seconds between a keystroke and the write.
If the file changed underneath you
The write is refused, and Split Page says so and leaves both versions alone rather than guessing which one you meant.
Recents
Kept as security-scoped bookmarks, not as paths, so they still resolve after a restart.
The format
Published, under Help › The .splitpage Format. A script written by 1.0 opens as a job with one cut in it, keeping every draft you had saved.
LOT 00619/20
Split Page

Lot 006 of the Oddlots catalogue. Made by Flamingo Films, LLC.

Pay once. No subscription, no account, no licence server, and no upgrade fee later.

Help › What Split Page Does Not Do is a screen inside the app, kept as a claim ledger. It is the same list as the one in this booklet, and it is maintained in the source.

ODDLOTS20/20