Formatting Your Speech File

SpeakerView turns a plain text file into full-screen cue cards. This guide explains exactly how to write that file so the app splits it into cards correctly.

What kind of file do I need?

A plain text file ending in .txt. Not a Word document (.docx), not a rich text file (.rtf), not a PDF, and not a Pages document. SpeakerView can only read plain text.

If you’re not sure what program to use, here are safe choices:

• On a Mac: TextEdit (see the warning below), or any code editor like VS Code
• On a PC: Notepad
• On an iPhone or iPad: Notes (see note below) or a plain-text editor app

⚠️ Important if you use TextEdit on a Mac: TextEdit defaults to “rich text” format, which will NOT work. Before saving, go to the Format menu and choose Make Plain Text, then save with a .txt ending.

Note on iPhone Notes app: The Notes app saves in its own format, not .txt. If you write your speech in Notes, you’ll need to copy the text into a plain-text app (like a text editor app from the App Store) and save it as a .txt file before SpeakerView can import it.

How SpeakerView splits your speech into cards

Each “card” is a full screen of text during your presentation. You decide where one card ends and the next begins by placing a separator line between them.

The separator is a line that contains only three dashes: ---

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us.

Today I'll cover three topics: where we are,
the challenges we face, and our path forward.

---

Let's start with where we are today.

Over the past year we've seen 30% growth
across all major product lines.

---

In closing — thank you for your hard work.

The foundation we've built is strong.
Let's go make it happen.

This example creates three cards — one for the welcome, one for the “where we are” section, and one for the closing.

Rules for the separator line, exactly

1. It must be on its own line — nothing else on that line, not even a space.
2. It must be exactly three dashes: ---. Not two, not four, not an em-dash (—) pasted in from a word processor.
3. There must be a blank line before and after it (as shown in the example above). This is what naturally happens if you just leave an empty line, type ---, and leave another empty line.

If a separator line doesn’t match this exactly — for example, if there’s a trailing space after the dashes, or you used a different number of dashes — SpeakerView will not treat it as a break, and that text will get merged into a single card instead of splitting into two. See File Won’t Import or Cards Look Wrong if this happens to you.

Paragraph breaks within a card

Any blank line within a card (that isn’t a --- separator) creates a paragraph break. This matters most if you use Paginate mode (see Settings Reference), where each paragraph becomes its own page. In the default Auto-Shrink mode, paragraph breaks just add visual spacing — the whole card still displays as one screen, shrinking the text to fit if needed.

Writing tips

• Write it the way you’d say it. Short bullet-style lines, full sentences, or a mix — whatever matches how you naturally speak.
• Don’t worry about card length while writing. SpeakerView automatically shrinks text to fit the screen (or splits it into multiple pages, depending on your settings). You can always go back and split a card into two later by adding a --- line.
• One idea per card is a good rule of thumb. It keeps each screen glanceable during your presentation, but it’s not a hard requirement — the app will fit whatever you write.

Where to save the file

Save your finished .txt file somewhere your iPhone can reach it — iCloud Drive is the easiest option. If you save the file to iCloud Drive from your Mac (or any device signed into the same iCloud account), it will automatically appear in the Files app on your iPhone, ready to import.

Next step

Once your file is saved, head to Importing a Speech File to bring it into SpeakerView.