Community-Driven Upgrades: Addressing Professional Feedback (v2.2.5)

When professional teleprompter operator Travis from See Before You Buy shared his hands-on feedback on VocalScroll, we listened.

In his video review, VocalScroll - Prompter Studio - Free Teleprompter Software Review, Travis listed four things that stood in the way of using VocalScroll on professional client shoots: fullscreen, keyboard shortcuts, the text jumping on repeated phrases, and no way to scroll by hand while live. VocalScroll v2.2.5 answered each one.

This post describes v2.2.5. VocalScroll v3 is a rebuild, and several of these features work differently now. Each section ends with how it works in v3.

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The updates in v2.2.5

1. Interactive chapter markers

• Travis's feedback: operators need chapter markers to jump between segments of a script.
• Our solution: add markers in your scripts with # Headers or [brackets]. Click a marker badge in the prompter to jump to that section. ArrowUp and ArrowDown jump back and forth between markers by default.
• In v3: the same markers work: a # Header or a [bracket] alone on a line starts a section. Click a section badge in the prompter, a row in the rundown, or pick one from the Sections menu. The script editor has an outline pane, too. ArrowDown and ArrowUp still jump to the next and previous section in the Studio, and you can rebind them in Settings.

2. Live mouse scrolling and ASR cooldown

• Travis's feedback: you couldn't scroll with the mouse to read ahead or check earlier lines while the prompter was running.
• Our solution: you can scroll with the mouse wheel, trackpad or a touch gesture while the prompter runs. The Speech AI then goes into a brief cooldown. It does not snap back to your spoken words until you stop scrolling and talk again, so you can check your text without losing your place.
• In v3: both are still there. Scroll with the wheel, a trackpad or a finger and the word at the eye-line becomes your position. The speech engine then ignores what it hears for one second, so a late word does not pull you back, and it follows you again from where you stopped.

3. Customizable keyboard shortcuts and pacing speed

• Travis's feedback: teleprompter remotes (like X-Keys) rely on custom keybinds to play, pause and change scroll speed.
• Our solution: Settings got a Keyboard and remotes section. You can map any action (Play or pause, Faster, Slower, Previous section, Next section, Fullscreen) to any key on your keyboard or remote. The Left and Right arrows adjust pacing speed.
• In v3: Settings, Keyboard and remotes maps Play or pause, Faster, Slower, Previous section, Next section and Fullscreen to any key, and it warns you when a key is already taken. ArrowRight and ArrowLeft are the default speed keys. The command palette (Ctrl or Cmd + K) lists every action with its shortcut.

4. Theater mode (virtual fullscreen)

• Travis's feedback: the prompter needs to go fullscreen to remove browser distractions.
• Our solution: we added a borderless Theater mode inside the browser. It hides the editor, sidebars and navigation, and keeps the control toolbar below the text, so you get large, clean text with the speed and pause controls in reach.
• In v3: there is no separate Theater mode. Fullscreen (F) is real fullscreen, and the script and inspector panels slide away while you read when "Hide while reading" is on. [ and ] show or hide the two panels at any time.

5. Smarter word snapping and text formatting

• Travis's feedback: the Speech AI sometimes jumped forward when it met repeated phrases.
• Our solution: we narrowed the matching window to the nearest 25 words and added a "proximity penalty" that favors moving forward. We also fixed color parsing, so custom-colored words keep their colors while you speak them.
• In v3: the matcher was rewritten. It aligns the last few words it heard against a window of 3 words back and 25 ahead, and partial results never move you backwards. A short word has to match exactly and close to your position, which makes a jump to a repeated phrase far less likely. Colored words still keep their colors while they are highlighted.

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Thanks, Travis

Thank you to Travis for testing VocalScroll. His review is here: VocalScroll - Prompter Studio - Free Teleprompter Software Review.

These updates shipped in v2.2.5. The v3 notes above describe what you get today.