How to mark up a prompt book on a computer
The prompt book is the copy of the script the show is called from: every cue on the word it goes on, the standbys before them, the notes from rehearsal. Doing it on a computer does not change any of that. It should just stop you rubbing out pencil at two in the morning of the tech.
1. Start with the script as a PDF
Ask the director, the producer or the licensing agent for the rehearsal script as a PDF. Use the edition the company is rehearsing from, so your page numbers are the ones people say in the room. If all you have is paper, scan it; there is a guide to working from a scanned script.
Keep the PDF as it is. Do not re-type it or paste it into a word processor: the moment the pages reflow, "page 42" means something different to you than to the actors.
2. Put each cue on the word it fires on
On paper the convention is a line from the exact word out to the margin, with the cue number in a box beside it. A prompt book on screen should look the same, because the people reading it learnt it on paper.
In Cuemark, pick the cue tool and click the word. It draws the tick at that word, the rule out to the margin and a numbered badge in the gutter, in that department's colour. LX, Sound, AV, Flys and the rest each count on their own, so the next lighting cue after LX 12 is LX 13 without you keeping track. A cue that has to go between two others is a point cue: number it 12.5 and it sits between LX 12 and LX 13.
3. Add the standbys
A standby warns the operator a few lines before the GO. Put them where you would say them, not a fixed distance up the page. Cuemark's Cue ▸ Add Standbys… places one for every cue a set number of lines before it (three unless you change it), counted in the script's own lines, so a cue at the top of a page gets its standby at the foot of the page before. Running it again only adds the ones that are missing.
4. Keep the rest of the book in it too
Highlight lines the way you would with a marker. Write notes against a cue: what the board does, the fade time, which sound plays. During rehearsal, mark where lines were dropped or paraphrased so the notes go back to the actors. All of it lives with the script rather than in a separate notebook.
5. Expect the cues to move
They will, mostly in the technical rehearsal. On paper that is rubbing out and re-numbering by hand. On screen you drag a cue badge to its new line, undo a mistake, and renumber a whole department in script order when the running order changes. Because the cue sheet is built from the marks (see making a cue sheet from a script PDF), it changes with them.
6. Share it
Save the whole book as one file to hand to the ASM or the next stage manager. Print or export it as a marked-up PDF. A lighting operator does not need the sound cues, so Cuemark can write a separate book per department in one go: The Long Dark — LX.pdf, — SND.pdf and so on, each with that department's cues only.
Can I do this with an ordinary PDF annotator?
Yes, for the marks. Acrobat or a tablet notes app will let you draw a line and type a number. What they do not know is that the marks are cues: they cannot number them by department, add the standbys, list them, call the show from them or give you a cue sheet. You end up keeping a spreadsheet alongside the PDF, and the two drift apart. That gap is what Cuemark is for.