This page covers the archive: a store inside the rundown itself. For the clip that might be needed, the notice that was cancelled this morning, the block you use every other week. It stays in the file, keeps all its settings, and takes no part in the show.
What it is
One group per list can be the archive. It has three properties that no other group has:
- It always sits at the top, above everything else, and cannot be moved.
- It has no number, and neither do the lines inside it.
- It never plays. Arming, GO and automatic follow-on all run straight past it.
Below it sits an empty separator line, so it reads as a shelf above the show rather than as the first item of it.
Putting something in it
Drag lines onto the archive folder. Where the right-click menu offers Move to archive, that does the same thing for a whole selection at once.
The first time you use it, the folder is created. A list can only have one.
A cue that was on air and lands in the archive stops immediately, and the playout goes to black. If it was the armed cue, the green marker moves on to the first line that does take part. That is deliberate: the archive means “not taking part”, and something still on screen would contradict that.
Getting something back
Right-click → Take out of archive. The line returns to the running order at the bottom, keeps everything about itself, and is renumbered along with the rest. Then drag it where it belongs.
What it is for
| Situation | Why the archive fits |
|---|---|
| The notice that was pulled this morning | It is still there if the decision reverses |
| A clip you might need if something overruns | Findable in seconds, without a file dialog |
| The block you use every other week | It travels with the list rather than living in a folder somewhere |
| Cleaning up a list you inherited | Nothing is thrown away while you work out what it was for |
What it is not
It is not a bin — nothing is deleted from it automatically, and it is saved with the list like everything else. If a list has collected forty archived lines over a year, that is forty lines the program still loads. Clear it out now and then.
And it is not a hiding place from another operator: it is at the top of the list, in plain sight, which is exactly where a store belongs.