Speaking purely for myself, I often find myself wracking my brain to figure out which actor is missing from a gathering (rehearsal, company meeting, press, etc.). They are all signed in, but my count is one or two off. I either got caught without a cast list or I had one in my hand, got stopped or pulled aside for something else, and left it on a trash can or some nonsense like that. I decided to finally create an option that would let me have easy access to a cast checklist from my mobile devices that also doesn’t require endless scrolling or searching through a Dropbox folder.
Here’s how I did it.
Create a simple cast list with a ”check off” column in your program or app of choice. I took the “no frills“ route and made a 2 column table, example below. I skipped a show logo and anything else that I would normally add to make something look a little more clean and fancy. No one will see this except me.
Export a PDF and save it to your iCloud Drive.
Open the “Shortcuts” app on your iPhone or iPad.
Hit the “+” to create a new shortcut.
Tap “Add Action” and search for the “Get File from Folder” action. Select it.
The command will default to get File from “Shortcuts” at path “example.txt.”
Tap “Shortcuts” and select “replace” from the pop up menu and select the folder where you previously saved your PDF from your iCloud Drive. Tap “Done.”
Back on the previous screen type the full name of the PDF file including the extension (.pdf) into the text box after “path.”
Add another action, this time searching and selecting “Quick Look.”
Rename your Shortcut at the top of the screen, if you choose.
Tap the share button and “Add to Home Screen.”
Name the Shortcut, alter the icon image if you want, and tap “Add.”
Now, right from my Home Screen, I can open a simple Cast Checklist, and mark up the PDF either with my finger on my phone or my Apple Pencil on my iPad To check off actors without carrying around (and ultimately throwing away) a paper cast list.
Any questions?
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