Feature request-Bug report

Hey-- thanks for writing and for the concurrent element idea (see below). For Google Docs, you *should* be able to simply copy/paste a google doc into a Dubscript file. I do it all the time. There used to be issues from the Google Docs app, but they were fixed in more recent versions so it should work okay. What happens when you try? Are you unable because it is not formatted correctly, or it gives you an error, or some other issue?

If you're unable to do it entirely in Android's copy/pate for some reason, have you tried the Download option in Google Docs -- and then save as a text (.txt) file which could then be opened in DubScript? Another way to go about it-- copy/paste fully on a computer into a text editor and mail yourself that file (or save to google Drive and load from there). There should be no need to do it a page at a time.

If your script is RIDICULOUSLY long (to the point that it and Google Docs together freaks out the copy buffer for your phone), the above method is probably the best way to go. (This especially works well when running DubScript in Chrome OS, because you have Google Docs in one window and can copy straight into DubScript in another without having to save it at all when you transfer between computers.)

With respect to the dual element syntax-- DubScript tries to conform with two standards-- the first being standard screenplay formatting and the second is the Fountain syntax standard. Right now, the way you do side-by-side dialogue is:

HUMPTY
This is said at the same time as the other line!

DUMPTY^
We're overlapping!

The ^ at the end of DUMPTY tells the system to put these two lines side-by-side. There's a lot of complicated calculation that goes into the layout should one or another lines break a page and such, but dual side-by-side dialog is common to the screenplay format, it's supported by other screenwriting programs such as Final Draft (and DubScript should import and export dual dialogue properly to the .fdx format)

However, it's unusual to see side side-by-side elements in standard movie screenplay format for anything other than dialogue (and of course character and parentheticals) for screenplays although there is a tradition for two-columns in radio play formats. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing coincident elements in a screenplay other than dialogue.

Scripts are always read in sequence (even side-by-side dialogue is read in-order, usually the left block first top to bottom, and then the right side, top to bottom) Usually when things are happening onscreen simultaneously, it's up to the writer to explain the sensory experience of concerrent experiences:

As orchestral music swells, our HERO marches across the bleak desert. Completely unaware of the VILLAIN'S ARMY, which rapidly approaches. Above, an EAGLE squawks a warning. But our HERO is too focused on the video game in her hand to hear it.

Okay, that's not like good or anything, but I just wanted to show lots of things happening at once. Do we need a delineated chain of simultaneous descriptions of each of these things? How would your proposed dual element syntax mark it up, and how would it be rendered in the final script?

Best,
R