BryceBeattie.com

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AudioScripter - Free Software for Formatting Audio Theater Scripts

AudioScripter is a free windows app that help format plain text audio drama scripts into nice html or pdf. It automatically builds a character list of characters in your play, lists of characters in each scene, and it automatically numbers your scenes.

I got the idea to build this after seeing Fountain, which took its cues from Markdown. Even fountain seemed like too much for the lighter formatting requirements of an audio drama script. So I built this for myself, but I figured a few other people out there might find it useful. I built 2 versions of this years ago using a technology that is now dead (Adobe Air), but recently found the project and decided I could probably get it to work again.

Why would you want an html file or pdf of a script? Scrolling on a tablet is quieter than rustling pages. Also, all the "official" formats for an audio drama I ever found online were a pain to set up in word processing software. I wanted actors to be able to highlight their parts, show only one scene at a time, automatic cue and scene numbering, and I wanted it to be simple.

AudioScripter lets you view the script nicely formatted within the program, and export html and pdf versions.

Here is a quick walkthrough.

Formatting your script file

Formatting a text file is pretty easy. Follow this template

Script Title
by The Author
copyright notice
more lines with whatever info you want

SCENE: The Beginning

MUSIC
Up and under

CHARACTER
This is my spoken dialog.

PERSON
(very exited) And I have dialog, too!

SCENE:

PERSON
Why didn't you put more info after the SCENE line?

CHARACTER
I don't know.

FX
Bell rings

CHARACTER
Oh, just to show you don't need anything.

BOSS
Get back to work!

…and so on until your script is done. Then just open that text file in AudioScripter. It will format your script all nice and neat.

Some notes:

  • FX and MUSIC are special characters. Those lines will be underlined in the formatted script.
  • Directions in parenthesis will be italicized in the formatted script.
  • The block of text at the beginning with title info and such can have however many lines you want.
  • The formatted pdf script will start a new page for every scene.

Example Scripts and Output

example

This is a silly, simple example to show the parts of a script and how they look after being formatted by AudioScripter.

Go Away, Dixie Gillian

This one was an episode of the classic old time radio show Pat Novak For Hire. It gives you a better idea of how a full script would work and look.

Download

Windows only. AudioScripter v3 Installer ~19 mb

Say Thanks, maybe Leave a Tip

If you'd like to send me a tip for providing this amazing software for free, you may do so:

via Paypal -

via Ko-Fi -

Or, you know, at least find and send me a message on social media or email to say thanks.