Folders and sharing

Folders

A folder holds scripts and other folders, up to eight levels deep. New scripts land wherever you made them; anything can be moved later with the Move action on its card.

Deleting a folder deletes the folders inside it and puts the scripts back at the top level. It never deletes a script. A folder is an organising idea and a script is work, and losing the second because you tidied up the first would be indefensible.

Folders belong to one account. Somebody you have given editing rights to can change the scripts in a shared folder, but cannot rename it, move it, delete it, or put their own scripts in it; see below for why that line is where it is.

Sharing

Press Share on any script or folder you own, type an email address, and choose a level. That is the whole flow. The address does not need a Teleprompt account yet: the grant waits for it, and the moment somebody signs in with that address the shared item appears in their library.

Only the owner can share. Someone with editing rights can change the words; deciding who else gets to read them is a different kind of authority, and conflating the two is how a document quietly ends up somewhere its author never put it.

What each level can do

View-only lets somebody present. That is the useful reading of it for a teleprompter: you are handing them the words to say, not the right to change them. If you want somebody to be able to fix a line before they go on, make them an editor.

How access is worked out

Three rules, applied in this order:

1. If you own it, you own it. No grant can weaken that.
2. A grant on the script itself applies, at whatever level it was given.
3. A grant on any folder above it applies too, however far up. Sharing a folder shares everything beneath it, including folders inside it, forever downward.

When more than one grant reaches the same thing, the most generous one wins. Somebody given editing rights on one script does not lose them because the folder around it was later shared read-only with a group.

Access travels down and never sideways or up. Being given a folder does not reveal the folder it sits in, or its name; the breadcrumb above a shared folder stops where your access does.

The rule that a script’s folder always belongs to the script’s owner is what holds this together. It is what lets access to a folder imply access to everything listed inside it. Without it you could open a folder and be shown the name of a script you cannot open.

Things shared with you

Shared folders and scripts appear under Shared with me at the top of your library, tagged with who shared them and at what level. Only the roots appear there: a script inside a shared folder is found by opening the folder, not listed twice.

A shared script is not your copy. Editing one as an editor changes the original, for everybody. If you want a version of your own, press Duplicate; the copy is yours outright and lands at your top level.

Presenting somebody else’s script

Open it and press Start a session exactly as you would with your own. The room that opens is yours: your join code, your devices, your position in the text. The owner’s copy is untouched, and they will not see your session.

As always, both of your devices have to be signed in to your own account to pair with each other. Sharing a script does not share a room.

If the owner edits the script while your session is live, your display picks the change up within a few seconds, carrying your reading position across: the same behaviour as editing your own script mid-session.

Taking access away

Open Share and remove the address. Access stops immediately; there is nothing cached and no link to expire. Anything they duplicated is a copy of their own and stays theirs, which is worth knowing before you share something you would rather not have copied.

On the other side, anything shared with you has a Remove from my library action. It gives the grant back and takes the item off your dashboard. It does not delete anything; the owner keeps their work, and they can share it again.