Storyboards

Available

Storyboard view showing an ordered sequence of sketches

A storyboard is an ordered sequence of sketches that forms a complete demo flow. While a sketch is a single scene (one planning table with narrative, actions, and screenshots), a storyboard chains multiple sketches together into a cohesive presentation.

Sketches vs. Storyboards

Think of it like a movie:

	Sketch	Storyboard
What it is	A single scene	A sequence of scenes
Contains	Title + planning table (time, narrative, actions, screenshots)	Title + ordered list of sketch references
File	`.sk`	`.sb`
Purpose	Plan one segment of a demo	Organize an entire demo flow
Editing	Full inline editing of table rows	References sketches — click through to edit

A sketch is the building block. A storyboard is the assembly.

Storyboard Structure

A storyboard contains an ordered list of sketch references — pointers to .sk files in your project.

Product Launch Demo (storyboard)
├── intro.sk
├── install-setup.sk
├── first-run.sk
├── dashboard-tour.sk
├── api-walkthrough.sk
└── closing-cta.sk

Sketches can exist independently or be referenced by multiple storyboards. Deleting a sketch that’s referenced by a storyboard will show a warning.

Creating a Storyboard

Click the + button in the sidebar
Select Storyboard
Give it a title (e.g., “Q1 Product Demo”)
The storyboard editor opens with an empty canvas

Description and Locking

Storyboards include a title, Markdown-friendly description, and optional whole-storyboard lock:

Description — Use it for audience, setup, scope, or review notes for the full flow.
Lock — Protects the storyboard from accidental manual or AI edits while still allowing you to browse and export it.
Sparkle — The storyboard description can be improved with the same silent AI workflow used by sketches and notes.

Adding Sketches

From the storyboard editor:

”+ New Sketch” — Creates a blank sketch and adds it to the storyboard
”+ Add Existing” — Opens a searchable picker to select from your sketch library
Insert buttons appear between sketches for precise positioning

Organizing

Drag and drop sketches to reorder them within the storyboard
Collapse/expand individual sketches to show or hide their planning tables
Each sketch card shows its title, lifecycle state badge, and row count

Preview Mode

Click Preview to launch a fullscreen presentation built from the storyboard:

Select which monitor to present on (multi-monitor support)
CutReady builds a slide deck: storyboard title → each sketch’s title + planning rows
Navigate through the presentation to review the full demo flow

Export to Word

Storyboards can be exported to .docx for review outside CutReady. The export includes storyboard metadata, referenced sketch content, screenshots, and rendered visuals where available. Use this when you need a shareable script or stakeholder review document before producing video.

The Storyboard List sidebar shows all project documents together:

Document Type	Description
Sketch	Individual planning scenes
Storyboard	Sequences of sketches
Note	Free-form markdown documents

Sidebar features:

Drag and drop to reorder the list
Search to filter by name
File tree view as an alternate navigation mode
Context menu (right-click) for rename, delete, and other actions
Move to / Copy to — right-click any file to move or copy it to another project in the same workspace; referenced screenshots and visuals are transferred automatically. If a file with the same name already exists in the destination, a rename dialog appears.
Open in Terminal — right-click any file to open a terminal in the project directory
Order is persisted in .git/cutready/order.json with legacy fallback from .cutready-order.json

Tabbed Editing

Opening any document adds it as a tab. You can have multiple tabs open:

Document name and type icon
Dirty/unsaved state indicator (dot)
Close button on each tab