Preferences

In Storyboard Pro, there are a series of preferences that are available to customize behaviour and help you set up an efficient workflow.

This section includes the following topics:

General Tab
Naming Tab
Import/Export Tab

To open the Preferences dialog box:

  1. Do one of the following:
Select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Storyboard Pro > Preferences (Mac OS X).
Press [Ctrl] + [U] (Windows) or [⌘] + [,] (Mac OS X).

General Tab

The preferences related to script and panels editing are principally grouped under the General tab, in the General and Scenes sections.

Show Rename Dialog Automatically
Automatically Create New Sequence
Enable Acts
Break Scene when Performing Split Current Scene Command

Show Rename Dialog Automatically

When you move scenes around, the Rename Scene dialog box opens prompting you to rename the scenes. This option is enabled by default. When you deselect this option, existing scenes keep their original name and new scenes are automatically named without the Rename Scene dialog box opening—see Renaming Scenes

Automatically Create New Sequence

By default, new storyboard projects are created without sequences. Select this option so that new projects are automatically created with a sequence—see SequencesSee Sequences.

Enable Acts

In Storyboard Pro, you can organize your panels in scenes and acts. By default, acts are not available because it is not relevant to every script. If you have a story divided into acts, select this option to display and manipulate these sections—see Acts

Break Scene when Performing Split Current Scene Command

By default this option is disabled, this means that when using the Storyboard > Split Current Scene command, the current scene will be split in two before the selected panel. When enabled, the scene will be broken in three, isolating the selected panel in the middle. If you select multiple panels and use the Split Current Scene command, each selected panel will break into a separate scene—Splitting or Breaking the Current Scene

Naming Tab

The Naming tab contains preferences related to the naming convention and behaviour of scenes, sequences, and panels.

Scene Name Section
Sequence Name Section
Panel Section

Scene Name Section

Automatically Add Leading Zeros
Minimum Number of Characters
Increment Name by
Increment Naming on Copy
Resolution Suffix
Automatically Add Leading Zeros

By default, newly added scenes are named without a leading zero: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc... You can change the default behaviour so that new scenes have leading zeros in their name: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, etc... When this preference is enabled, the Minimum Number Characters option becomes available.

NOTE: Enabling this preference will not add leading zeros to already existing scenes in your project.
Minimum Number of Characters

By default this preference is disabled. You must enable the Automatically Add Leading Zeros option before in the Scene Name section, because they work in tandem. This field determines the minimum number of characters the scene names will contain, using leading zeros.

For example, the default value is “2”: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, etc...
If you type “4”: 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005, 0006, 0007, 0008, 0009, 0010, etc...
Increment Name by

When adding a new scene, the increment is 1. Select this option to choose your own increment number.

Increment Naming on Copy

When copying a scene, the copy retains the same numbering as the original, but with an added suffix. For example, a copy of scene 10 would be named 10_A. Note that if the scene is copied in a different sequence, it will be named 10.

When you select this option, the copy of the scene is named using the next available scene number, following the established increment rule. For example, the copy of scene 10, could be called scene 11.

Resolution Suffix

Use this preference to set up the suffix pattern to use when a suffix is added to a new scene when the name is already in use.

You can choose the punctuation mark preceding the suffix from the first drop-down menu:

None: Suffix appears immediately following the name of the scene. For example: 12A.
_: Suffix appears after an underscore. For example: 12_A.
.: Suffix appears after a period. For example: 12.A.

You can choose which type of suffix to use:

Auto: Uses an upper case alphabetical suffix. Once the suffix reaches Z, it will start again at A, preceeded by a number. Example: 12_A, 12_B, (...), 12_1A, 12_1B, and so on.
Numerical: Uses a numerical suffix. For example: 12_1, 12_2, and so on.
Uppercase: Uses an upper case alphabetical suffix. For example: 12_A, 12_B, and so on.
Lowercase: Uses a lower case alphabetical suffix. For example: 12_a, 12_b, and so on.

Sequence Name Section

Automatically Add Leading Zeros
Minimum Number of Characters
Increment Name by
Increment Naming on Copy
Resolution Suffix
Automatically Add Leading Zeros

Newly added sequences are named without a leading zero: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so on. Select this option so that new sequences have leading zeros in their name: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, and so on. When this preference is enabled, the Minimum Number Characters option become available.

Minimum Number of Characters

By default this preference is disabled. You must enable the Automatically Add Leading Zeros option in the Sequence Name section, because they work in tandem. This field determines the minimum number of characters the scene names will contain, using leading zeros.

For example, the default value is “2”: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, and so on.
If you type “4”: 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005, 0006, 0007, 0008, 0009, 0010, and so on.
Increment Name by

By default, the increment when adding a new sequence is 1, you can change this behaviour by enabling this preference and choosing the desired increment number from the Increment Name by field.

Increment Naming on Copy

By default, when copying a sequence, the copy will retain the same numbering as the original but with an added suffix. For example, the copy of sequence 2 would be named 2_A. You can change this behaviour by enabling the Increment Naming on Copy preference. Doing so, the copy of the sequence will be name using the next available sequence number, following the established increment rule. For example, the copy of sequence 2, could be called sequence 3.

Resolution Suffix

Use this preference to set up the suffix pattern to use when a suffix is added to a new sequence when the name is already in use.

You can choose the punctuation mark preceding the suffix from the first drop-down menu:

None: Choose this option for the suffix to appear immediately following the name of the sequence . For example: 12A
_: Choose this option for the suffix to appear after an underscore. For example: 12_A
.: Choose this option for the suffix to appear after a period. For example: 12.A

You can choose which type of suffix to use:

Auto: Choose this option to use an upper case alphabetical suffix. Once the suffix reaches Z, it will start again at A, preceeded by a number. Example: 12_A, 12_B, (...), 12_1A, 12_1B, etc...
Numerical: Choose this option to use a numerical suffix. For example: 12_1, 12_2, etc...
Uppercase: Choose this option to use an upper case alphabetical suffix. For example: 12_A, 12_B, etc...
Lowercase: Choose this option to use a lower case alphabetical suffix. For example: 12_a, 12_b, etc...

Panel Section

Allow Custom Panel Names
Panel Name Auto-increment Rule
Display Total Number of Panels in Panel Name
Allow Custom Panel Names

By default, it is not possible to rename panels in Storyboard Pro, but you can change this behaviour if you need to. Once you enable this preference, the Storyboard > Rename Panel command, as well as the Panel name field in the Panel view become active—see Renaming Panels

Panel Name Auto-increment Rule

By default, panel names are named numerically. Using this preference, you can select from three other alphabetical increment rules. The difference between each of them is the behaviour once you reach panel Z.

Display Total Number of Panels in Panel Name

The total number of panels is displayed with the panel name.

Import/Export Tab

You will find some more preferences related to panels and script on the Import/Export tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Auto Premultiply Imported Image by Alpha Channel
Ask before Creating Panels when Using Automatic Insertion
Ask before Removing Existing Layer When Using Automatic Insertion

Auto Premultiply Imported Image by Alpha Channel

Premultiplies the channels with the alpha value of the layer, resulting in an opaque layer. This is helpful when creating layers used by other effects, or in certain compositing situations. Use this option if you are importing a semitransparent image. Deselect this option if you are importing a PSD image.

Ask before Creating Panels when Using Automatic Insertion

This preference refers to the behaviour when using Storyboard > Import Images as Scenes function. If the element you are set to create upon import does not already exist in your project, you are prompted to create the element.

Ask before Removing Existing Layer When Using Automatic Insertion

This preference refers to the behaviour when using Storyboard > Import Images as Scenes function. If the element you are set to create upon import does already exist in your project, you are prompted to remove the original element or keep it.