The basics

CineLog uses the same patterns everywhere. The same gestures move things around, the same way of selecting works on every list, the same shortcuts edit any field. Learning those patterns once is the single biggest jump in being fluent with the app.

Four sections: a tour of the app, then the three things you do over and over again — editing, selecting, dragging. Each section ends with a short “If this isn’t working” list so you can drop in to fix a specific problem without reading the rest.

Contents

1. App tour: where everything lives
2. Editing fields
3. Selecting rows
4. Dragging to reorder

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1. App tour: where everything lives

Signing in

Sign-in is email-only. Enter your address, we send a code, you enter the code. No password. Every new account starts with a default project (“My First Project”), so you land in a workspace right away — on later launches, in the project you last had open. New productions get their own project via the New Project button (just a name and a description — the abbreviation badge is generated from the name).

The planning tools in the sidebar all live inside a project. Account-level screens — Help & Support, Roadmap, Subscription, Account — sit outside any project. On desktop, Help has its own button at the bottom of the sidebar, next to the More button; the rest live under the More menu.

The desktop window

Three regions, top to bottom:

• A thin title bar with the combined connection-and-sync indicator on the left. Windows users get the standard minimize / maximize / close on the right.
• The left sidebar plus the content area — sidebar for navigation, content for the work.
• Floating things: modals, snackbars, the hotkeys dialog.

The sidebar

Always present on desktop and tablet. Top to bottom: the project switcher, a list of features, and the More button. The sync indicator isn’t in the sidebar — it lives in the title bar at the top of the window.

The features:

• Script Editor — write the screenplay. While you’re in the editor, a Breakdown sub-entry appears underneath it — see Script Breakdown.
• AV Script — the two-column audio/visual script. Appears only if your role can view it (anyone who can view the Shot List can).
• Shot List — Linear and Production views of every shot, with each Production Day as a sub-entry.
• Storyboard — visual planning, with saved views as sub-entries.
• Call Sheets — daily call sheets, with each Production Day as a sub-entry.
• Cast & Crew — the project’s people directory, with saved views.

Updates (change history) appears only if your role allows it. Media Explorer lives in the More menu.

The project switcher

At the top of the sidebar on desktop. Shows the current project’s name and badge. Click it to switch projects — the overlay lists the current project, any pending invitations, up to three recent projects, a “New” button, and a “Show all” link.

On phone, the top app bar instead shows a compact badge with the project’s abbreviation (e.g. “ST13”) and a coloured connection strip — not the project name. Tap it to open the Projects sheet: the full project list plus a create-project button.

Switching projects refreshes the whole sidebar, so the sub-entries you see always belong to the project you’re in.

Sync vs connection

One indicator in the title bar, two different things:

• The connection half is a colour-coded dot — green / orange / red — with an “Online”, “Connecting”, or “Offline” label, for the realtime link to the server.
• The sync half, after a divider, tells you about your local edit queue by icon and label: cloud-check + “Synced” (queue empty), cloud-upload + “N pending” (changes queued — the icon switches to cloud-off while you’re disconnected), and “Syncing…” while the connection is coming up with changes queued. Nothing spins; the icons are static.

They can disagree, and that’s fine. “Offline” + “Synced” = you’re disconnected but had nothing pending. “Online” + “N pending” = you’re online and the queue is draining.

On phone, only the connection state shows — the green / orange / red strip on the badge in the top app bar. There’s no sync-queue indicator on phone; tapping the badge opens the project switcher, not sync details.

Offline mode

CineLog is built to keep working offline. The first sign-in needs internet; after that the device is logged in and stays that way. Edits made offline save to the device’s local database and queue in the sync indicator until you’re online again, at which point they drain to the server automatically.

Your sign-in has no fixed expiry you’ll normally notice. The app renews your session automatically in the background whenever you’re online — usually a couple of hours before it would lapse — so normal mixed online/offline use keeps you signed in indefinitely and you never see a sign-in prompt.

Staying offline doesn’t lock you out either: the app keeps working with your local data no matter how long you’re disconnected. Only if a device stays completely offline for about 30 days does the session finally expire. The next time the app reaches the server, it shows the sign-in screen with your email already filled in. Your data stays put: enter the code sent to that email and you pick up right where you left off, queued edits and all.

The More menu

Bottom of the sidebar on desktop and tablet; the right-most item on phone’s bottom navigation bar. Contents differ by platform:

• Desktop: Hotkeys, Roadmap, Subscription, Theme toggle, Media Explorer (only when a project is open), Account, Logout. Help & Support isn’t in the menu anymore — it’s the ? button sitting right beside the More button.
• Phone: Script Editor (with Breakdown right under it), AV Script (only if your role can view it), Updates, Help & Support, Media Explorer, Theme toggle, Subscription, Account, Log Out. Updates and Media Explorer appear only when a project is open.

Script Editor, AV Script, and Updates are inside the phone More sheet because there’s no room for them on the five-slot bottom bar. Hotkeys and Roadmap aren’t surfaced on phone at all.

Theme toggle is also bound to Cmd / Ctrl + Shift + M on desktop.

Collapsing the sidebar

Press [ to collapse the sidebar to icons only (or expand it again). Sub-entries are still visible in either state — they just show in a shortened form when the sidebar is collapsed. The sidebar never disappears completely on desktop.

There is no sidebar on phone — navigation is the bottom bar.

The phone layout

Five slots in the bottom navigation bar:

1. Shot List
2. Storyboard
3. Call Sheets
4. Cast & Crew
5. More

Everything else (Script Editor, AV Script, Updates, Media Explorer, Account…) is inside the More sheet. The top app bar shows the project’s abbreviation badge; tap it to switch projects.

The hotkeys dialog

Cmd / Ctrl + K on desktop or tablet opens a modal that lists every shortcut. Dismiss with Esc or Cmd + K. Not surfaced on phone.

Snackbars

Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen when something succeeds, fails, or finishes. They disappear on their own after a few seconds.

If this isn’t working

“Where did Script Editor go on my phone?” Inside the More sheet, not on the bottom bar.

“My connection dot and the sync indicator disagree.” They measure different things. The dot is the network link; the sync indicator is the local edit queue. Either can be unhealthy alone.

“Can I use CineLog without internet?” Yes, after the first sign-in. Offline edits save locally and sync when you reconnect. The app renews your session automatically whenever you’re online, so normal mixed online/offline use stays signed in. Only a device that stays completely offline for about 30 days needs to sign back in — and being offline never signs you out mid-shoot; the sign-in screen only appears once you reconnect.

“The app asked me to sign in again on location.” That’s the re-auth screen — the regular sign-in screen with your email pre-filled — shown when you’re back online after your session expired during a long offline stretch. Sign back in with the same email; your queued edits stay and sync up.

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2. Editing fields

Click a cell. The cell opens for editing. That’s it on desktop.

The editor’s shape depends on the type of field — a text input for text, a picker for dropdowns, an immediate toggle for checkboxes, a media picker for image cells. It always commits without a Save button.

Phone is two taps

On phone, tapping a single cell doesn’t edit it directly — first you tap the row to expand it, then you tap the field inside the expanded view. That second tap opens a bottom sheet for the field.

On tablet you get the same grid as desktop: tapping a cell opens its editor directly, shown as a dialog near the top of the screen.

If you tap a row on phone and nothing seems editable, expand it first.

Autosave

CineLog autosaves on every commit and on a roughly 450 ms debounce while you’re typing. There is no Save button anywhere.

There’s no cancel gesture either. Closing the editor — with Enter or by clicking away — always saves everything you’ve typed, including anything after the last debounced autosave. Nothing you type in a cell editor is ever discarded.

Keyboard inside the editor

• Enter commits and closes.
• Esc does nothing while you’re typing — close with Enter or by clicking outside. Either way, everything is saved.
• Arrow keys work only in the numeric editors (Day, Scene Number): ↑ / ↓ step the number up or down, and holding the key repeats. Pickers (shot type, lens, and the rest) are click or tap only — no keyboard navigation.

If this isn’t working

“I can’t edit anything on my phone.” Tap the row to expand it first, then tap the specific field. (On tablet, tap the cell directly, like desktop.)

“Where’s the Save button?” There isn’t one — autosave on every commit, plus a 450 ms debounce while you type.

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3. Selecting rows

Selecting a row is how you mark it for moving or for an action that should apply to several rows at once. Selection is a sticky mode, not a hover — once a row is selected, the list is in selection mode until you exit.

How to enter selection mode

• Desktop: Cmd / Ctrl + Click on any selectable row.
• Mobile: long-press any selectable row.

Not every row is selectable. In the Linear shot list, scene header rows can’t be selected (or dragged). In the Production view, selecting a scene header selects the whole scene — header plus all its shots — and while a selection exists it stays within that one scene: rows in other scenes grey out until you clear the selection (banner rows are exempt).

The first row you select becomes the anchor for range selection (next).

Adding more rows

Once you’re in selection mode:

• Desktop: a plain click toggles individual rows in or out — click an unselected row to add it, click a selected row to remove it. A click never replaces the selection with just one row; to start over, press Esc and Cmd + Click the row you want. (The modifier is only needed to enter selection mode.)
• Mobile: plain tap now toggles selection (outside selection mode, the same tap expands the row).

Range selection (desktop only)

Shift + Click selects every row between the anchor and the clicked row, inclusive. The anchor moves to the most recently clicked row, so successive Shift + Clicks keep extending the range.

There’s no mobile equivalent — select one row at a time.

Exiting

• Desktop: Esc.
• Mobile: the clear-selection (X) control in the selection toolbar.

Either clears the selection and returns the list to its normal interactions.

If this isn’t working

“I can’t tell whether I’m in selection mode.” The selection toolbar appears at the top of the list whenever any row is selected — that toolbar is the indicator. Selected rows themselves get a subtle tint.

“Tapping a row on mobile doesn’t select it.” Long-press to enter selection mode; plain tap is for expanding the row.

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4. Dragging to reorder

Once you have a row (or a multi-selection) marked, drag any one of them to move the lot. Drag works the same way everywhere in the app — the destination just changes meaning depending on the screen.

What you can drag

Any selectable row, anywhere along its body — the same rows you can select (so not scene headers in the Linear view, and not rows in other scenes during an active Production-view selection). There’s no separate drag handle, and no special hover cursor to look for — the cursor switches to grabbing once a drag is underway.

Starting the drag

A press alone doesn’t start a drag — and the way in depends on whether the row is already selected:

• A row that’s already in the selection: just press and move — roughly 3 pixels of movement starts the drag.
• An unselected row: press-and-move alone won’t drag it, on desktop or mobile. Long-press it first (click-and-hold on desktop); that selects the row and primes the drag, and the same small movement then starts it.

On mobile there are two ways in:

• Cold drag: long-press an unselected row; it pops up under your finger, keep moving to drag.
• Warm drag: if the row is already part of an active selection, just touch and drag — no second long-press.

Where you can drop

As you drag, a gap opens between rows at the nearest position where dropping is valid. If the spot under your pointer isn’t allowed, the gap snaps to the closest valid slot instead of disappearing — wherever the gap is showing is where the rows will land when you release. The rules for what’s valid vary by screen (covered in the feature guides); watch the gap, not the pointer, to know where the drop will go.

Dragging a selection

If you drag a row that’s part of the current selection, the entire selection moves together. If you drag a row that isn’t part of the selection, it’s added to the selection and the whole enlarged selection moves with the drag. To move just one row, clear the selection first, then drag that row alone.

That’s why selecting first, then dragging, is the predictable workflow — you can confirm what’s selected before you commit.

Auto-scroll at the edges

While dragging, if you move into the top or bottom 100 pixels of the visible list, it auto-scrolls toward that edge. The closer to the edge, the faster (up to about 24 pixels per frame). Move back toward the centre to stop.

The trackpad gotcha

On desktop, a two-finger trackpad scroll does not start a drag — it scrolls the list. Only a single-finger drag (or a mouse press-and-move) reorders. This is the single most common “drag is broken” report; if you’ve been using two fingers, switch to one.

Auto-collapse on mobile selection entry

On mobile only, expanded rows collapse back to compact view the moment you enter selection mode. This keeps row heights uniform for dragging. Nothing is lost; expanding is just a display state.

Cancelling

Releasing the pointer or lifting the finger always drops the selection at the gap that’s showing — there’s no release-to-cancel, and nothing springs back. To abandon a drag on desktop, press Esc mid-drag: it cancels the drag in place and clears the selection.

If this isn’t working

“Drag does nothing.” Either you’re pressing-and-moving an unselected row — long-press (click-and-hold) it first — or you’re using a two-finger trackpad gesture (which scrolls, not drags).

“My rows collapsed when I tapped to select.” That’s the intentional mobile auto-collapse — it makes drag heights uniform. Your data is intact.

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That’s the universal vocabulary of the app. Every feature guide builds on these patterns; if you’re ever unsure how a particular screen works, the answer is almost always “the same way every other list does.”

Where to go next: Shot list essentials is the most common next stop. Linear view vs Production view covers the split between script-order and shoot-order — most new producers and ADs run into it quickly. Keyboard shortcuts is the reference page worth bookmarking.