Setting multi-line cue text with OSC command

[Jérôme Tuncer]

Hello there,

First message in this list for me !

I'm digging deeper and deeper into QLab's OSC dictionary. This thing is a treasure chest (-:

I'm desperately looking for a way to set a multi line string as text to a text cue through OSC command (/cue/{cue_number}/text/live {string}). I tried a few things namely :

• Adding \n and/or \r to my string
• Querying a multi-line text cue for its string to see how it comes up in the OSC reply. It actually appears as : "First line\nSecond line". But sending the same message in my string doesn't work.

My last resort would be using an external text handling app (I'm thinking Glypheo) and displaying in QLab it though Syphon. But that would make my whole setup more complex, which I do not want at this point except there is no other solution.

If anyone has an idea...

Jérôme

[micpool]

Can you use a script, e.g,

tell application id "com.figure53.QLab.5" to tell front workspace

set the live text of cue "1" to "One

two"

--or "one" & return & "two"

end tell

or are you controlling QLab from an external OSC only source?

Mic

[Jérôme Tuncer]

Thanks @micpool !

This is indeed the solution I found.

I typed a response here but, as a true beginner, somehow only sent it to myself (-:

It said it turned out that setting multi-line text through Apple Script works.

But that it was somehow slower than through OSC methods. Below 1 second though, but OSC seems instantaneous.

If someone has an idea on what to try via OSC, topic is still open (-;

Jérôme

[micpool]

The script is instant for me.

To speed it up, you could try unticking the run in separate process box and use

tell front workspace to set the live text of cue "1" to "One

two"

[micpool]

Screen recording

[micpool]

The OSC solution is to set a network patch to plain text routed to port 53535

Plain text network cues allow escaped characters for formatting. (When you used your query to find the text string QLab was probably treating that as plain text in the log)

Mic

On Friday, April 18, 2025 at 6:35:49 PM UTC+1 jerome...@gmail.com wrote:

[micpool]

You need to turn the passcode off.

The default cue name will only be the text up to the first escaped character.

Mic

[micpool]

You can also just type the returns directly in a plain text network cue (using option shift return)

e.g

/cue/1/text/live "555
456
345"

[Jérôme Tuncer]

Thanks Mic !

The option to send plain text over UDP brings back old memories.  A long time ago, I remember saying to myself : "What could be the use case of such  a thing ?" (-:

Jérôme