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TableRead — Tutorials

Written guides for every feature in TableRead, the casting and AI read-through app in the PolySpeak pipeline. Work through them in order for a full introduction, or jump to any section using the contents list.

1 Opening & Creating Scripts

What you'll learn: bringing a script into TableRead — with or without PolyScript.

  1. Press ⌘O, or choose File → Open…, to open an existing script.
  2. TableRead opens both .fountain and .fusiondoc files directly. You don't need PolyScript installed — any properly formatted Fountain screenplay works, from PolyScript or any other source.
  3. Press ⌘N, or choose File → New, to start a new script from scratch inside TableRead itself.
No PolyScript required. TableRead reads the Fountain format, not a PolyScript-specific one — it's a standalone entry point into the PolySpeak pipeline for anyone who already has a script, however it was written.

2 Casting Characters

What you'll learn: assigning a trained or imported voice to each character before generating a read-through.

  1. Open the character sidebar — TableRead lists every character it finds in the script automatically.
  2. Click a character to open its casting slot.
  3. Choose a voice from your Talent library to assign it to that character.
  4. Repeat for each character you want to cast. Cast characters show as ready in the sidebar; uncast characters are flagged.
Clean character names pay off here. Casting is per character name, so a typo'd name in the script (e.g. "SARAH" vs "SARA") shows up as a second, uncast phantom character. Fix inconsistent names in the script rather than casting the same voice twice.

3 Importing a Voice Model Directly

What you'll learn: casting a character with a voice model file, without needing Talent at all.

  1. In a character's casting slot, choose Import Voice File… instead of picking from your library.
  2. Select an RVC .pth model file from disk.
  3. TableRead assigns it to that character for this session — no trip to Talent required.
When to use this. This is the fastest path if you already have a .pth file from elsewhere and just want to hear a scene — you don't need to add it to your Talent library first. If you'll reuse the voice across projects, importing it into Talent instead keeps its resume and consent record in one place (see the Talent tutorials).

4 Full Read-Through vs. a Selection

What you'll learn: the two ways to generate audio, and when to reach for each one.

Generating a full read-through

  1. Cast every character in the script — the full read-through button stays disabled until all characters have a voice assigned.
  2. Click Generate Read-Through. TableRead converts every line of dialogue in the script, in order, through each character's assigned voice.

Use this once you're ready to hear the entire cast together — a full table read of the script, start to finish.

A read-through is a flat reading, not a performance. TableRead's AI voices read the lines as written — useful for testing casting and hearing the whole cast together, but it's a mechanical delivery, not a captured performance. It's the same relationship film motion capture has to a finished character: an actor covered in tracking markers delivers a real physical performance, and that performance drives the CG character — the timing, the emotion, the choices are the actor's own, just rendered in a different skin. Studio works the same way for voice — a real performer delivers the lines with real timing and emotion, and Studio's conversion carries that performance through the cast AI voice. TableRead tells you whether the casting works. Studio is where you get the actual performance — see the Studio tutorials once casting is settled.

Generating just a selection

  1. Select the dialogue lines you want to hear — a scene, an exchange, or a single speech.
  2. Only the characters who speak within that selection need to be cast.
  3. Click Generate Selection. TableRead converts just those lines.

Use this to test a single scene or a single character's voice before committing to casting everyone — much faster than generating the whole script just to check one line reads well.

Test small, commit big. A common workflow is: cast one or two key characters, generate a selection of their toughest scene to make sure the voice choice works, then finish casting everyone and generate the full read-through once you're happy.

5 Playback & Saving Audio

What you'll learn: listening to a generated read-through and saving it to disk.

  1. Once generation finishes, click Play to hear the result.
  2. Click Save… to export the generated read-through as a WAV file.
  3. Choose where to save the file and give it a name — perfect for quick YouTube projects or testing casting before moving to performance capture.
Unlimited characters, AI voices included. TableRead supports unlimited characters with no additional cost — ideal for quick YouTube episodes or audio book projects where you need a finished track immediately. For performance capture (real emotional delivery through trained voices), continue to Studio after you're happy with the casting.

6 Multi-Window & Saving Your Session

What you'll learn: working on more than one script at once and keeping your casting and read-throughs safe.

  1. Each script you open or create in TableRead gets its own window — cast and generate for several scripts side by side.
  2. Press ⌘S to save your casting and generated audio references with the script, or ⇧⌘S to Save As under a new name.
  3. Dragging a .fountain or .fusiondoc file onto the TableRead icon in the Dock always opens it in TableRead for that one file.
Double-clicking opens PolyScript or FusionMD, not TableRead — on purpose. PolyScript owns .fountain and FusionMD owns .fusiondoc as their default editors, so double-clicking a script in Finder opens one of those. To open a script in TableRead specifically, use File → Open inside TableRead, or drag the file onto TableRead's Dock icon. If you'd rather make TableRead the default for a file type, select a file of that type in Finder, press ⌘I (Get Info — no right-click needed), choose TableRead under Open with, and click Change All….
Casting is saved with the script. When you reopen a saved TableRead script, your character-to-voice assignments come back with it — you don't need to re-cast every time you revisit a project.