Elora Studio Tips & Tricks

Writing A Script

When writing a script in Elora, you are writing instructions for her AI-powered voice (TTS, or Text-to-Speech). How you format your text directly impacts the tone, pacing, and clarity of the final audio.

Here are essential tips for writing a script that will produce the most natural-sounding narration.

1. Expand Abbreviations and Symbols

Elora's voice model reads exactly what's on the screen. Ambiguous characters, symbols, or abbreviations are the most common cause of unnatural-sounding narration.

• Words vs. Symbols. Type out the full word. For example, use "inches" or "feet" instead of the " or ' marks, which the AI may misinterpret as quotation marks.
• Full Titles & Words. Expand all abbreviations to ensure the correct pronunciation. For example:
  • Write "Doctor" instead of "Dr."
  • Write "Street" or "Saint" instead of "St."
  • Write "approximately" instead of "approx."

2. Control Pacing with Punctuation and Pauses

You can guide Elora's delivery and pacing using both standard punctuation and the block-level pause controls.

• For Short Pauses (a beat). Use a dash (–) or em dash (—) to create a brief, natural pause in the middle of a sentence, as if taking a small breath or adding emphasis.
• For Hesitant Tones. Use an ellipsis (...) to make the voice sound more hesitant or reflective, as if trailing off in thought.
• For Long Pauses (breathing room). For significant pauses—like creating space between paragraphs or allowing a point to sink in—do not rely on punctuation. Instead, set a dedicated pause length on the line block itself. This gives you precise control (e.g., 2 seconds) and produces a much cleaner, more intentional break in the audio.

Editing A Script

Here are a few helpful tips and keyboard shortcuts to help you work more efficiently in the Elora Studio script editor.

How to Merge or Join Two Lines

If you have two separate lines (or sentences) that you want to combine into a single line block, you can do so without cutting and pasting.

• To join a line with the one ABOVE it: Place your cursor at the very beginning of the line (before the first letter) and press the Backspace key.
• To join a line with the one BELOW it: Place your cursor at the very end of the line (after the last word or punctuation) and press the Delete key.

Note: When you merge two lines, the new, combined line will automatically use the pause length setting from the bottom line. You may need to adjust the pause length for the merged line.

How to Delete an Empty Line

If you have an empty line block in your script that you don't need, you can easily remove it.

1. Click your cursor onto the empty line (in the area where you would normally type).
2. Press the Backspace or Delete key on your keyboard.

Pasting Text from an External Source

Sometimes, when you paste a script from another program (like a PDF, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word), the text may incorrectly paste as one single, long line.

To prevent this, use the "paste as plain text" keyboard shortcut. This will paste the text while respecting the original line breaks.

• Windows/Linux: Ctrl + Shift + V
• Mac: Cmd + Shift + V

How to Automatically Add Pauses When Pasting

When pasting a script from an external source, you can automatically set pause lengths by including annotations directly in your text.

If your text includes a pause duration formatted like (5s pause) or (2m pause), Elora will automatically detect it when pasting and set the pause duration for that line block accordingly. This saves you from having to manually adjust each line's pause setting after pasting.

Troubleshooting & Known Issues

Dragging a line does not auto-scroll the page

I am aware of a limitation where dragging a line block to the top or bottom of the screen does not automatically scroll the page. This can make it difficult to move a line a long distance.

This is on the to-do list to fix.

• Workaround: For now, the fastest way to move a line far up or down the page is to use the cut (Ctrl+X) and paste (Ctrl+V) keyboard shortcuts.