Arc Studio is built to make all forms of collaboration and feedback frictionless, including:

• Live collaboration with multiple writers
• Offline collaboration where drafts can be written in private and then shared with co-writers when ready
• Securely sharing your script with others for feedback and comments

• Collaboration
• Managing collaborators
• Start a Zoom video call from the app
• Viewing changes by writer
• Alternate Drafts
• Draft information
• Feedback
• PDFs
• Sharing Alternate Drafts
• Comments

Collaboration

You can invite a collaborator to your script with their email address or via a sharing link. Once they accept the invitation your collaborators will be able to read, edit, add to, and comment on your script.

Each collaborator is assigned a unique color so you can see their live cursor position onscreen and what text they’ve added to the script.

The avatars of all the collaborators are shown in the toolbar to the left of the “Share” button. The avatar color corresponds to the color of the collaborator’s cursor and text. If the collaborator has added a profile picture, that picture will be shown as their avatar with a colored outline.

When the collaborator is live in the script a green “live” light appears on the bottom right of the avatar.

Managing collaborators

To invite a collaborator to your script, click “Share” in the toolbar above your script to open the Share Script menu.

You will see a list of all the script’s current collaborators. The owner of the document will be labeled “Owner.”

Email invitations

In the box labeled “Enter names or emails…” type the email address of the collaborator, or their name if you’ve collaborated with them before on any script. You can add multiple collaborators. Click “Send Invite” once you’ve entered all the collaborators.

They’ll receive an email and a notification on the Desk in the app inviting them to join the script.

Sharing links

You can also invite collaborators to the script by sending them a sharing link.

Start by clicking “+ Create new link” and change the name of the link. Then click “Create link” and you’ll see your newly created sharing link appear.

To share the link, click “Copy link.” The link is now copied to the clipboard. You can paste it and share it with your collaborator.

To delete the link, click the ellipses “…” and select “Revoke.” New collaborators will no longer be able to join using that link. Existing collaborators who joined using that link have to be removed independently.

You can create multiple sharing links to use for different collaborators or groups of collaborators so they can be revoked separately.

Removing collaborators

To remove a collaborator, simply click on the ellipses “…” next to their name and select “Revoke.”

If the collaborator has not yet accepted the invitation, select “Remove invitation.”

Collaborator color

To change a collaborator’s color, click on the ellipses “…” next to their name and select “Change color.” Then click on the new color you’d like to assign them.

Invites

When you invite someone to collaborate on a script, they’ll receive an email invitation.

The invitation will also appear in the app on the Desk under “Invites.”

Start a Zoom video call from the app

When two or more collaborators are live in the script, the video call icon will appear next to the collaborator avatars. Click it to start a Zoom call.

Viewing changes by writer

You can view the changes to a draft by the writer who made the changes. To start, make sure tracking changes is activated by toggling on “Changes.”

Then click on “Changes” and select “By writer.”

Now all the text added to the draft will be in the collaborator color of the writer who made the change, which corresponds to the color of the writer’s avatar in the toolbar.

Alternate Drafts

You don’t always want your collaborators to see what you’re writing while you’re writing it. With Arc Studio’s Alternate Drafts you have a private workspace to work in without affecting the main draft. Once you’re ready to share your work with your collaborators you can share the draft with them.

Creating Alternate drafts

To create an Alternate draft, open the Drafts sidebar and click “Alternate draft.” Then give it a description like “New intro” or “Revised Act 1.” If you want the changes to be tracked, click “Start marking changes.” Then click “Create.”

This is now a private Alternate draft that your collaborators cannot see. You have complete freedom to write without worrying about someone peering over your shoulder. (Again, this doesn’t affect the Main draft!)

Sharing Alternate drafts

Once you’re ready for your collaborators to see your work, click ‘Unhide’ in the Drafts sidebar.

Draft information

The Drafts sidebar tells you who filed each draft and which writers contributed edits to that draft.

Feedback

PDFs

Along with our more advanced features, Arc Studio allows for the most common way of sharing your script with someone: emailing them a PDF.

To export a PDF, click the ‘Export’ icon in the toolbar and select ‘PDF’

Use the Advanced settings options to choose what you would like included in the PDF and then click ‘Export.’

Sharing Alternate Drafts

If you want a collaborator to be able to edit a script without affecting the Main draft, you can create a private Alternate Draft for them and share it instead of giving them access to the entire project.

This can be useful if you only want them to review a section of your script.

To start, create an Alternate draft. If there are portions of the script you don’t want the reviewer to see, delete them.

Make sure you’ve selected the Alternate Draft in the Drafts sidebar. (If you’re looking at the Main draft, you’ll be sharing the full script. If you’re looking at the Alternate Draft, you’ll be sharing that.)

Click “Share” to open the Share Script menu. You should see “Share Draft” at the top above the name you gave the Alternate Draft. (If you see “Share Script” above the name of your script, you’re not sharing the Alternate Draft.

Follow the instructions above to share the draft.

Their name should appear in the Collaborators list next to the word “Draft.” This indicates you’ve shared the Alternate Draft with them, not the full script.

Comments

Comment mode

At any given moment we either don’t care about comments (like when we’re writing first drafts or new sections of our scripts) or we really care about comments (like when we’re revising and implementing notes). Ideally comments would be unobtrusive in the first scenario, while in the second scenario they’d be readily apparent and easily accessible.

They’s why comments appear by default as small, subtle bubbles in the margins of your script.

But when you access Comment Mode by clicking on “Comments” in the left sidebar:

• All the comments are shown in the left sidebar
• The portion of the script that was commented on is underlined in yellow
• The avatars of each commenter appear in the right margin so you know who commented.
• If the window is big enough, the text of the comment itself is shown in the right margin as well. (If you don’t see the comment text, try expanding the window and unpin the right sidebar to close it.)

Comments Sidebar

All your comments are listed in the Comments sidebar. You can scroll through them using the up and down arrows and choose your viewing options by selecting the ‘Comment view settings’ icon.

Unread comments are indicated with a purple dot.

If you click on the comment in the sidebar, the comment opens in the script.

Add global comments

To add a global comment to the script, open the Comments sidebar and click the ‘+’

Or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + M (Ctrl + M on Windows)

Type your comment and click ‘Comment’ or hit Shift + Return

Add script comments

To add a script comment, select the portion of the script you’d like to comment on and click the comment bubble in the palette bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Option + Cmd + M (Alt + Ctrl + M on Windows.)

Write your comment and click “Comment” or hit Shift + Return

Reply to comments

To reply to a comment, click on the text area beneath the comment. Type your comment and click “Reply” or hit Shift + Return

Resolve comment

When you’ve finished addressing a comment and would like to resolve it, hover your cursor over the comment and click the check mark. The comment will disappear.

(You will still be able to find it in the Comments sidebar by selecting “Show resolved”)

Edit comment

To edit a comment, hover your cursor over the comment and select the ellipses “more options” menu. Then click “Edit.”

Once you’re done editing the comment, click “Save.”

Delete comment

To delete a comment, hover your cursor over the comment and select the ellipses “more options” menu. Then click “Delete.”

Copy link to comment

To copy a link to a comment, hover your cursor over the comment and select the ellipses ‘more options’ menu. Then click “Copy link to comment.”

Tags

You can add and create tags for your comments. Hover your cursor over a comment and click the “#” then select the colored tag.

To create a new tag, click “New tag +” and write the name of the tag. Click on the color circle to change the color of the tag. Then click “OK”

Mentions

To mention a collaborator in a comment or reply type “@” and choose their name from the pop-up menu. They will be notified that you mentioned them in a comment.

Commenting on Beats

You can also comment on beats on the Plot Board or in the Outline view. To comment on a beat, click the comment bubble and leave a comment.