google doc to teleprompter script in 30 seconds

you wrote the script somewhere comfortable. google docs, apple notes, word, whatever you had open. now it needs to be on the prompter, and you don't want to fight an import flow to get it there. here's the fast version.

the one rule#

open prompter reads a markdown file. that's a .md or .markdown file sitting in a folder iOS Files can reach. iCloud Drive, an Obsidian vault, Dropbox, any folder you can open in the document picker.

there's no paste box. there's no import button. you point the app at a folder once, and it reads what's in there.

so the whole task is one thing: get your text into a markdown file in that folder. do that and you're done. everything below is three ways to do it.

option a: export straight from google docs#

google docs can hand you a markdown file directly.

that's it. the file lands in the folder, the phone catches up, and the script shows up in your library. headings and bold come across as markdown, so they render on the prompter the way you wrote them.

if you're on a mac, drop the downloaded .md into your iCloud folder in Finder. if you exported on the phone, use the share sheet to save it to Files in the same folder.

option b: paste your text into a new markdown file#

apple notes and word don't export markdown as cleanly. that's fine. markdown is just text, so you can move the words over by hand in about a minute.

• in Obsidian: new note in your vault, paste, done. obsidian saves .md by default and the vault folder is one open prompter can read.
• in a plain text editor: make a new file, paste your script, save it with a .md extension into your synced folder.
• on the mac: TextEdit in plain-text mode, or any code editor, saving as .md works the same way.

you don't have to format anything. raw paragraphs read perfectly on the prompter. the headings and bold are optional sugar you can add later if you want them.

option c: write it in open prompter itself#

if the script is short, or you want to tweak it on the phone, skip the round trip. tap the pencil to open the built-in editor and type the script right there.

the editor saves the file back through the system file coordinator. so iCloud syncs it to your mac like any other file. no proprietary container, no import-to-edit dance. the file you edit on the phone is the same file on your laptop.

this is also how you fix a typo you spot mid-shoot. tap the pencil, fix the line, save, keep rolling.

you don't need to learn markdown to start#

here's the part that trips people up before they even begin. they think markdown is a syntax they have to study. it isn't.

markdown is plain text. a paragraph is a paragraph. if you paste a wall of sentences with no special characters at all, open prompter reads it back to you cleanly.

the formatting is opt-in. a # makes a heading. wrapping a word in **asterisks** makes it bold. that's most of what you'll ever use, and it's there when you want a beat to stand out, not a requirement to get going. if you want the short version of the syntax that actually helps on camera, here's the only markdown you need.

once it's in the folder#

the file is in the folder. now the phone does the rest.

open prompter watches that folder for changes and shows a last-edited indicator so you know it's current. sync speed is whatever your sync service delivers. on iCloud that's usually somewhere in the ten-to-sixty-second range. the app is honest about that instead of pretending it's instant. give it a moment, pull to refresh if you're impatient, and the script appears.

then you open it and read. the file you wrote in google docs is now the file you're reading on camera. no copy, no paste, no separate app holding a second copy of your words.

the short version#

write wherever you like. get the text into a .md file. drop it in the folder open prompter watches.

the fastest path is google docs to Download as Markdown, straight into your iCloud folder. the most flexible path is paste-into-a-new-file. and if you'd rather not leave your phone, the pencil edits the file in place.

open prompter is free and open source. point it at the folder where your scripts already live, and the next one is thirty seconds from doc to prompter.