How-To Guide

Start by uploading your screenplay on the Upload page. TableRead accepts the following formats:

• Fountain (.fountain) — Plain-text screenplay format used by Final Draft, Highland, and others
• Final Draft XML (.fdx) — Native Final Draft file format
• WriterDuet (.wdj) — WriterDuet JSON export format
• PDF (.pdf) — Best-effort text extraction from PDF screenplay files

Drag and drop your file onto the upload area, or click it to browse. TableRead will parse the screenplay and display the title, author, number of scenes and lines, and a list of all detected characters. Review the character list to confirm the script was parsed correctly before proceeding.

On the Voice Assignment page, assign an ElevenLabs voice to each character in your screenplay. You will need a valid ElevenLabs API key to load the available voices.

Special Characters

In addition to the named characters in your script, TableRead includes two special roles:

• Narrator — Reads all action lines (scene descriptions, stage directions). Assign a neutral, clear voice for best results.
• Scene Announcer — Announces scene headings (e.g., "INT. COFFEE SHOP — MORNING"). If no voice is assigned, scene headings will be skipped with a brief pause.

Tips

• Characters without a voice assignment are silently skipped during playback
• You can return to this page at any time to change assignments without losing your place
• ElevenLabs voice names are shown as-is from the API — check your ElevenLabs voice library for previews

On the Playback page, use the transport controls to start your table read. The script viewer on the right scrolls and highlights the currently-playing line in real time.

Transport Controls

• Play / Resume — Starts playback from the current position, or resumes after a pause
• Pause — Pauses audio mid-line; resume continues from the same point
• Stop — Stops playback and resets to the beginning
• Skip Back / Skip Forward — Navigate to the previous or next element

Skip Modes

• Line — Skip moves one element at a time (default)
• Scene — Skip jumps between scene headings for fast scene-to-scene navigation

Auto-play After Skip

When Auto-play is on (default), playback continues automatically after each skip. Turn it off to stop after each skip and manually resume.

At the bottom of the Playback page, you can export the full table read as an audio file. TableRead synthesizes every element in the screenplay from start to finish and packages it into a single file.

• MP3 — Smaller file size, universal compatibility
• WAV — Lossless audio, larger file

Enter a filename in the text field, select your format, and click Download Audio. The export progress is shown while synthesis runs. Longer scripts with many characters may take a few minutes to export.