Script Annotations & Comments

Your script is where every production decision starts — and now you can mark it up without printing a page or opening a second app. The Script tab gives you a full annotation toolkit: highlight, underline, and strike through lines, drop in text boxes and production stamps, and add shapes or freehand marks — all in color, grouped into layers you can show or hide.

Paired with it: comments. Select a line, leave a note, and your team can reply, resolve, and reopen the thread — anchored to the exact spot on the page.

The point isn't another markup tool. It's markup that lives in the same place you already break down, schedule, and budget — so your notes travel with the project instead of a stack of PDFs.

Highlight, underline, and strike through — in color

Three tools cover everyday markup: Highlight, Underline, and Strikethrough. Pick one from the toolbar above the script, choose a color for highlights and underlines (or set a custom one), and select the text you want to mark. Strikethrough needs no color. To clear marks fast, grab the eraser and drag across anything you want gone.

Everything has a keyboard shortcut — H, U, S for the three marks, V to select, E for the eraser — so marking up a page never breaks your reading flow. Undo and Redo cover your recent changes, and selecting any mark and pressing Del removes it. The show/hide (eye) button hides every annotation at once so you can read the clean page — it changes only your view and deletes nothing. Because annotations sit on top of the script, they never touch the text itself or your breakdown tags; when you actually need to change a line, edit the script text directly.

Add text, stamps, shapes, and freehand marks

Highlights are just the start. The same toolbar carries the rest of the markup you would reach for on a printed script — now native to the page.

Text boxes drop a free-floating note anywhere on the page, not tied to a specific line. Pick the Text box tool (T), click or drag to size it, and type. Format it with bold, italic, and underline, set the font size, text color, fill, and alignment, then move, resize, or rotate it — hold Shift while rotating to snap to 15° steps.

Stamps mark a page with the standard production labels — OMIT, ADDED, REVISED, OK, and DATE — or your own custom label, in the color you choose. The DATE stamp drops in today's date automatically. If you work in revisions, it is the fast way to flag what changed without touching the script text.

Shapes and freehand drawing cover everything else. Add a rectangle or an ellipse — set color, stroke width, and filled or transparent — or switch to the Pen or Marker to circle a line or sketch a note by hand, adjusting color and line size first.

Every one of these lands on your active layer, so you can show, hide, or share them just like your highlights — and none of them spend Dude Coins.

Layers keep every pass separate

Every mark lives on a layer — a named, colored set you can show or hide in one click. Keep the director's notes on one layer, continuity flags on another, and your own reminders on a third, then toggle any of them off to read the clean page. You can expand a layer to show or hide marks by type, too.

Layers are also how markup stays sane on a team. A Private layer is visible only to you. Any other layer is shared with collaborators who have annotation access, so several people can keep parallel sets of notes on the same script without stepping on each other. Deleting a layer clears every mark on it, so Filmustage asks you to confirm first.

Comments turn a mark into a conversation

Comments attach a discussion to a specific part of the script. Select the text, pick the Comment tool (shortcut C), type your note — up to 500 characters — and save. The thread appears in the Comments panel on the right, where anyone with access can reply. Resolve a thread once it's handled, and reopen it later if the conversation isn't actually done.

You can leave comments on any plan. Seeing your teammates' comments — the collaborative back-and-forth — requires Team Access, which is also where each collaborator's annotation permissions are set. If you just need to message a teammate without pointing at a line, that's what Team Chat is for.

Notes that stay with the project

Because annotations live on the Script tab, they stay attached to the project — not to a printout or a separate app. Open the project on any machine and the marked-up page is there, layers and all.

That's the practical difference from marking up a PDF: the highlights sit next to the breakdown, the schedule, and the budget for the same script, and they cost nothing to use — annotations don't spend Dude Coins. Marks apply to the scene you have open, so you build up notes scene by scene as you work through the script.

What it costs

Every annotation tool is free on every plan, including Free — highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, text boxes, stamps, shapes, freehand drawing, and your personal layers, all with no Dude Coins. Team Access covers the collaboration layer: shared layers, and seeing your teammates' comments.

The bottom line

Annotations and comments close a small but constant gap in pre-production: the notes you used to scribble on a printed script now live on the script itself, in color, organized, and shared with the people who need them — in the same tool where the script already gets broken down and scheduled.

Open a project, go to the Script tab, and start highlighting. If you're working with a team, turn on comments and keep the whole review on the page.

FAQ

Do script annotations cost Dude Coins?

No. None of the markup tools — highlight, underline, strikethrough, text boxes, stamps, shapes, freehand drawing, or layers — use Dude Coins. You can mark up as much as you want at no cost.

Are annotations available on the Free plan?

Yes — every annotation tool works on Free, including personal layers. Shared (team) layers, and seeing your teammates' comments, require Team Access.

Can I comment on the Free plan?

You can add comments on any plan. Seeing your teammates' comments requires Team Access.

Can my teammates see my private notes?

No. A Private layer is visible only to you. Only layers that aren't marked private are shared, and only with collaborators who have annotation access to the project.

Do annotations change my script or breakdown?

No. Marks sit on top of the script. Your script text and your breakdown tags stay exactly as they were.