Editor's guide
As an editor, you prepare text for narration with emphasis, pauses, pronunciation, alternative readings, comments, tone and structure cues. Comments, tone and structure provide guidance for narrators and reviewers without becoming part of the audio. Emphasis, pauses, pronunciation and alternative readings are reading instructions that also affect generated speech.
In the Studio's editor view, use the annotation toolbar at the top and open the annotation panel from the right edge. The waveform overview lets you listen without recording over existing audio. Leads, producers and administrators can choose Editor in the role switcher to preview these tools.
Listen to existing audio. Imported articles can include narration from an earlier production, labelled Pre-recorded. Play it from the waveform overview, or select a sentence's bar and press Space, to check pronunciation or hear earlier narration. Editor view offers playback without recording, re-recording or trimming controls.
Your production card
The Productions dashboard shows a card for each production assigned to you. New invitations appear under Incoming, with Accept and Decline buttons. After you respond, the card moves to the appropriate group and its ⋯ menu becomes available.
The ⋯ menu has two items. Production roles lists everyone assigned to the production, their roles, invitation responses, assigned chapters, and deadlines. You can view the crew but cannot change assignments; those controls belong to the lead or an administrator. Production details shows the full description and details of your assignment, including your role, deadline, and assigned part of the publication.
Finding your way around
Move between sections
Open Table of contents from the left edge and select a section. Below the production title, the header shows the open section and your assignment progress, for example Section 3 · 2 of 5 sections done. The labels follow the publication type, such as sections for documents and chapters for books.
Search the text
Click the magnifying glass in the top bar (or press Ctrl+F) to open the search bar. Type at least two characters; matches highlight and a counter shows your position (2 of 17). The search covers every section of the production you can open, so stepping through the matches can carry you into another section. Step through them with the up/down buttons or Enter (⇧Enter backwards), and close the bar with its × or Esc. A phrase is only found inside a single sentence, so a search that straddles a sentence break finds nothing.
Select what you want to annotate
Click a word or drag across several words to select them. The annotation menu opens at the starting sentence's status dot. Emphasis, Pronunciation, Reading form, Tone and Comment require a selection. Pause and Structure mark a point and can also be added at the highlighted sentence.
Annotation tools
Add annotations from the toolbar, sentence menu or keyboard shortcuts. Most show a marker in the text; the annotation panel lists all seven types.
| Tool | What it does | How it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Emphasis | Tells the narrator to stress a word. Three strengths: Light emphasis, Normal emphasis, Strong emphasis. | Words are underlined, with a different colour for Strong emphasis. Light and Normal look alike in the text; check the annotation panel for their strength. |
| Pause | Sets a pause length: Short pause, Medium pause, Long pause or Breath pause. | A pause glyph and a length symbol (·, ‖, |||, ⟡) before the word. |
| Pronunciation | Sets the phonetic pronunciation (IPA) for a tricky word, in a small dialog that fills in a suggestion when the pronunciation lexicon has one. | A badge with the IPA after the word. |
| Reading form | Specifies how words, letters or numbers should be read. Alternative reading asks you for the words to read instead; the fixed forms — Spell out, Year, Currency — specify how to pronounce numbers or letters. | An alternative reading gets a badge with the words to read instead, in parentheses after the marked words; its tooltip reads "Read as: …". A fixed form gets a badge carrying its label — Spell out, Year or Currency. |
| Comment | Leaves a note for the narrator or reviewer — guidance, not part of the audio. Three kinds: Inline comment, Studio comment, Internal note. | A chat-icon badge; the note is its tooltip. An inline comment also tints the words it covers. |
| Tone | Suggests a tone for the narration — Neutral, Informative, Warm, Formal, Enthusiastic, Calm, Serious. | A coloured bar marks each word, with a tone badge after the passage. |
| Structure | Adds narration guidance for a Transition, or a passage to read as Dialogue. The document's own structure (chapters, headings, quotes, paragraphs, fact boxes) comes from the imported article, so there is nothing to mark by hand: if a boundary is wrong, fix the source and re-import. | A labelled structure badge before the word. |
Managing your annotations
Undo, redo, and save
Undo with ⌘Z and redo with ⌘⇧Z, or use the toolbar buttons. Edits save automatically; ⌘S saves immediately. “Unsaved annotations” appears while changes are waiting to be written, followed by “Saved” once they reach the server.
What survives a reload
Saved annotations remain available when you reopen the chapter, including on another machine. Comment, Tone, and Structure are stored as notes; Pause, Pronunciation, Reading form, and Emphasis are stored in the chapter text. Both your annotations and those added by colleagues appear in the text and annotation panel.
A fixed Reading form choice shows a badge with its label — Spell out, Year or Currency — after the words it covers, while you edit and again when you reopen the chapter. It also appears in the annotation panel.
Import, Delete recordings, and Unimport reset the chapter and remove its guidance annotations, recordings, reviews, and bookmarks. The lead or producer can run these actions from ⋯ ▸ Article. Re-importing a chapter to correct its source therefore also removes the guidance you added to it.
Guidance is shared
Everyone working on the chapter can see its Comment, Tone and Structure guidance. You can edit or remove your own guidance. Other people's notes have no delete control, and Clear all preserves them.
The annotation panel
Open the annotation panel with the speech-bubble icon in the rail at the right edge of the studio. Click the same icon to close it. The panel lists every annotation in the section. Filter by type using the buttons at the top, or click a row to jump to its annotation. Clear all asks you to confirm how many annotations it will remove. You can undo the removal with ⌘Z.
Reading comfort
Open Reading settings with the gear icon in the rail at the right edge of the studio to tune the text size, line height, and reading width to whatever is comfortable. The text reflows live, and your choices are remembered for next time.
Handing a section to the next role
You finish one section at a time. When the text of the section you have open is ready, click Mark article complete in the header: that section moves on to the narrator, who is told it is waiting. Your other sections are untouched, so you can hand on one chapter and keep editing the next.
The handover button appears after you accept an editor assignment covering the open section, while that section is at Draft.
You cannot undo this action yourself. It changes the section's stage. If you hand over a section too early, ask the producer to move it back using ⋯ ▸ Article ▸ Change stage.
Keyboard shortcuts
Open Keyboard shortcuts from ⋯ for the shortcuts available in your current role. Common editor shortcuts are listed below.
| ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z | Undo / redo |
| ⌘S | Save |
| ⌘B | Strong emphasis on the selection |
| ⌘⇧P | Medium pause |
| ⌘⇧U | Pronunciation |
| ⌘⇧A | Alternative reading |
| ⌘⇧S | Spell out |
| ⌘⇧C | Comment |
| ⌘⇧T | Tone — cycles the selection through Neutral, Warm, Formal |
| Ctrl+F | Search |
| V | Reading settings — also in focus mode |
Focus mode, the notifications bell, locked manuscripts, and other controls shared by every role are described under Common to every role on the overview.