Write a skill

Start from the example skill, describe your own scripts, and try the skill on a real script before a show uses it. To read what a skill is, see Skills.

Before you start

• You are an admin or a showrunner.
• You have a real script of the kind of show the skill is for.

Step 1: Start from the example

Click Skills in the rail. Under Example: the bare minimum, click Start a skill from it. A new skill opens with the example’s three headings.

To start empty instead, click New Skill, give it a Name, choose Script processor and click Create Skill.

Step 2: Name and describe it

In the skill’s panel, set:

Field	Holds
Name	What the team calls it, for example the show’s name.
Category	Script processor, to be offered when a script is imported.
Description	One line: what kind of show or file it is for.
Default for new shows	On to preselect it in New Show.

Step 3: Write the Markdown

In Skill, keep the three headings and replace the lines under them:

• The show: what kind of show, how long, who hosts, where the presenters are.
• How the script marks things: what starts a section, what starts a part, what a slide change looks like. Paste a few lines of a real script and say what each one means.
• What to leave out or watch for: notes for the writers, names that are not people.

Spelvin follows examples better than rules. Preview shows the Markdown formatted.

Step 4: Save it

Click Save Skill. Shows that use the skill read their next import with the saved version.

Step 5: Try it

Under Try it, click Read a test script with this skill… and choose a script. The sections and parts Spelvin makes appear below, without creating a show. Change the skill, save it and try again until the result is right.

Verify

• In New Show, Process input with skill offers the skill, with (default) if you made it the default.
• In the Studio, Settings › This Mac › Skills lists it after the next sync. Sync Now fetches it at once.

Related

• Skills
• Script reading
• Import a script