📔 User Manual
- The Purpose of this App
- Who is it for?
- Design Principles
- User Interface
- Main Menu
- Themes
- Exporting Notes
- Configuring Note Buttons
- Checkboxes, Colors, etc.
- Deleting Notes
- Sending Feedback
What's the Purpose of this App?
This App lets you quickly and easily take notes on your phone or tablet during a film screening.
It was specifically made for note taking during a color grading review session, when you watch the whole film without stopping. You can also configure it for other purposes though, e.g. for QC screenings, editorial approvals, etc. Feel free to contact us with your wishes and feedback.
Who is this App for?
The App was primarily made for Colorists, DOPs, Directors and Post-Production professionals.
Design Principles
The App is designed to require the fewest number of "clicks" for note taking, so that you don't have to take your eyes off the screen for too long.
Notes are composed of one or more configurable keywords, like "contrast", "warmer" or "colder". Those keywords can be added to your list of notes with a simple press of a button. Each note also has a timecode (TC) value attached, so that you can find that point in the film again later.
The App's timecode clock runs in parallel to the film's timecode and it stays in sync, even if you close and re-open the App during the screening. The only requirement is that you manually sync the timecode at the beginning of the screening. Simply enter the starting TC of the film into the App and press the "Start" button when the film playback starts. Don't worry though, if the TC is not perfectly in sync with the film.
The User Interface (UI)
Menu / Help Button
Opens the main menu with various configuration and note export options.
Maximize Notes Button
Resizes the note list to a full-screen view.
Timecode Window
Enter the film's start TC in the hh:mm:ss format here before the screening. Colons (:) are added automatically. Don't enter frame numbers! Frame numbers are never used in the App.
Start & Nudge TC Buttons
Press the "Start" button when the film playback starts, to also start the App's TC clock.
The "Nudge TC" buttons around the "Start" button let you add or subtract seconds, minutes and hours from the App's TC clock. This even works during a screening, while the TC clock is running, allowing you to re-synchronize the App's TC clock to the film's TC, if they should have run apart for some reason.
Notes Window
This window displays your notes. It can be switched to a full-screen view with the "Maximize Notes" button in the top right corner of the App. The list of notes can be exported in various ways via the main menu ("Menu / Help" button). Tapping a TC or note entry lets you freely edit it.
Note Color Buttons
You can select a note color with these buttons. New notes are assigned this color then, letting you visually differentiate between notes. If you export your notes as a Marker EDL, the marker colors will correspond to the individual note colors.
Note Buttons
Tapping a note button adds its text to your list of notes. When tapped, a short timer starts running (3 seconds by default) after which the note is set to "done". While the timer runs, other note buttons can be tapped to chain multiple keywords together into a single note. For example, quickly tapping "face" and "warmer" results in a single "face warmer" note. You can also tap the "Note Done" button to manually finish a note, before the timer has run out. When a note is done, tapping another note button adds a new note to the list.
If you need a new button quickly during a screening, you can hold the "Hold for new Button" button for a second. This will show a prompt, which lets you enter the new button's text. After tapping "OK" or the Enter key, the button is added to the note buttons.
Note buttons can be further configured in the "Menu / Help" menu.
Custom Note Textfield
Tap this textfield to freely type a note on your keyboard. Pressing the Enter key will save the note to the list. Pressing Done, Escape or defocussing the textfield will cancel the note.🤔 But why does the Done button on the iOS on-screen keyboard cancel the note? Because there is no Escape key on the iOS keyboard and I wanted a sure-fire way to make the keyboard dissapear. Tapping somewhere else to defocus the textfield might result in accidental taps on other UI buttons, which I wanted to avoid.
Left/Up/Down/Right Buttons
These buttons add their keyword to the last note in the list, even if that note is already done. This lets you specify where in the frame your note text applies to. E.g. "face warmer left", if there are two faces in the frame.
Note Done Button
Tapping this button marks a note as done. If it’s done, tapping another note button will add a new note to the list. The "Note Done" timer can be configured in the main menu and also set to 0 seconds to disable this feature.
Copy Button
This button copies the last note's text into a new note, with the current TC and color.
Delete Button
Tapping this twice will delete the last word in the notes list. If the last word is a timecode, the whole note will be deleted.
The Main Menu
Tapping the "Menu / Help" button opens the main menu. Here you can configure the App, export your notes and send us your feedback. At the bottom, the current App version and its licensing information is displayed.
Theme
You can switch between three brightness themes. Choose the darkest comfortable theme and also lower your screen's brightness to the lowest comfortable level, so that glancing at your screen doesn't affect your vision in a dark color grading environment.
Exporting your Notes
You can copy your notes to the clipboard as plaintext to paste them into another App. Copying the notes "with MD Checkboxes" adds a Markdown checkbox symbol before each note, in case you want to paste the notes into a Markdown-based note taking App (e.g. Joplin).
You can also e-mail your notes using your device's mail client, export them as a plaintext file (.txt) or as a Resolve Marker EDL.
All App data, including your notes, is saved to the local App/browser cache. While this should be fine for most occasions, modern smartphone operating systems don't necessarily keep this cache indefinitely, so make sure to export your notes after a screening.
Configuring the Note Buttons
The App comes with three different note button layouts: "Simple" (the default), "Techie" (for more technically-minded people) and "QC" (for QC/Mastering screenings).
You can also tap the "Configure Note Buttons" button to open a configurator window. There, you can freely create your own button layouts.
Each line in the textbox represents one note button.
Button colors can be set by adding a standard color name in parenthesis. E.g. "(red)".
If a line only contains a slash (/), an empty slot/placeholder is inserted instead of a note button.
If a line only contains a double slash (//), a row separator is inserted.
Empty lines in the textbox are ignored, but can be used to visually aid you when creating your own layouts.
You can export and import your own layouts as .cfg files. Those files are simple plaintext files, so you can also edit them in an external text editor app.
Displaying Checkboxes, Colors, etc.
You can un-hide checkboxes next to your notes. These can be used after a screening to check off notes that have been worked on.
Hiding the color buttons makes the interface simpler, in case you don't need the color indicators.
You can also hide the "Left/Up/Down/Right" buttons and the custom note textfield.
Resetting Data
Here you can delete your notes and timecode to prepare for a new screening. You can also fully reset the App to its default settings, which deletes all data, including custom note button layouts, notes, timecodes and settings. Resetting will also fetch the latest App version from the server.
Sending Feedback
Feel free to send us an e-mail with feedback, wishes, business inquiries and Quokka photos.
