Groups

This page is about keeping a long list readable. A group is a container: one line that stands for a block of cues, which you can collapse, move, export and hand to someone else as a unit.

Two levels

A group can hold cues, and it can hold one more group inside it. Two levels deep, no further.

That is a decision, not a shortcoming: a rundown that needs three levels of nesting has stopped being a rundown you can read at a glance during a broadcast. Where you would want a third level, use a part at the top instead.

Members are indented, with connecting bars down the left so you can see at a glance where a block starts and ends.

Collapsing

Click the heading to fold a group shut; click again to open it. The header shows how many items are inside.

A collapsed group still reports what is happening inside it. If a cue within it is on air, the header shows that state — you do not have to open it to know where you are.

Under Settings → General, auto-open groups while playing decides whether the program opens a group by itself when the playout enters it, one or two levels deep. On a long list that keeps the window on the block you are in without you touching anything.

Making one

Group in the toolbar adds an empty group at the end of the list. Drag lines into it, or drop files straight onto it.

Dropping a folder from File Explorer makes a group of its contents in one action — which is usually the fastest way to build one.

Splitting

Right-click a line inside a group → Split above this cue or Split below this cue. The group breaks in two at that point, and both halves keep everything else about themselves.

Use it when a block turns out to have two halves that need different handling — one that runs automatically and one you step through.

Ungrouping

Right-click the header → Ungroup, keep the contents. The header disappears and its lines stay where they are, at the level above.

The icon

Right-click a group header → Group icon: folder (the default), presentation, scene, still, media or hold. It is decoration with a purpose — on a list of eight groups, the icons are how you find the right one without reading.

Handing a group to someone else

Right-click the header:

• Export group writes a .playoutgroup file: the structure and the settings, pointing at media where it lives now.
• Export group as bundle writes a .playoutbundle: the same, with every file packed inside it.

Use the first within one building where everyone reaches the same server; use the second when it has to travel. Getting it back in is the Load group button in the toolbar, or simply dragging the file onto the list.