forinfo Posted November 18, 2014 Report Share Posted November 18, 2014 Hi I am a fairly new user of the iPad version. I really like the idea of Storyist and I really want to like the app but it just seems so buggy and frustrating that I am losing interest. Really, the app feels like a beta that needs a lot more work. I didn't want to post a critical review in the app store and I am hoping some of you folks may be able to help with the problems I am having. I am using an iPad 4 with the latest update of iOS 8. Here goes, these are the worst issues for me: 1. The navigation panel just doesn't work properly. When I have the navigation panel pinned open and am looking at a document in the outline or the index card view it doesn't let me scroll to the bottom of my sections/cards. Sometimes it will at first, but after a while it stops short and there can be a dozen or more cards off the bottom of the screen that it won't let me scroll down to. Very frustrating! If I go all the way back out to the home screen and back in again it usually fixes it for a while, but really?! 2. Say I have the nav panel pinned open in either card or outline view, and have the document on the right hand side in text view (ie not the cards). Then I decide I want to see all my index cards on the right hand side for a while, to get the big picture. As soon as I make the change, the nav panel goes back up to the project view! I have to hit the '>' again to go in and set up the nav panel view as either cards or outline again. But I only wanted a quick look at the grid of all my cards, now I want to go back to looking at my document again. Uh-oh, same problem! So I am constantly fiddling with the nav panel. Working with the nav panel could be so great but the way it functions makes it almost too annoying to bother with. 3. When you are looking at your manuscript and switching between sections using the outline or card view in the nav panel and you turn the Format Bar on, the bar covers the top line of whatever section you select. Painful. 4. You can't trust that what you are typing into a card will actually stay there when you are done and touch a spot outside the card to return to the normal view. Sometimes, everything you just wrote simply disappears. One time, a card that was about half filled with text wouldn't accept any more. No matter how much or little I typed, it all disappeared when I left the edit card view. Other cards on the corkboard at the time had even more text than this card. Very frustrating. Eventually I broke the single long paragraph that was already on this card into two smaller paragraphs and that fixed the problem. I was able to add the extra text I wanted. ?? 5. Third party keyboard support in iOS 8 does not work. If you are using one (eg the excellent Swype) you can't view the alternative Storyist keyboard with all the cool selection tools. I am sorry to raise all these issues but either I am missing something (make that a few things!) or else this app just isn't working properly. In the hope that it is the former, I ask for your help! Thanks Forinfo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forinfo Posted November 22, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2014 Hi, just wondering if the developers can help me out with the questions I asked above? It is question number 1 that really makes the app almost unusable, number 2 is annoying but I think I could put up with it if only I could reliably see all my index cards in the nav panel. Does anyone else have the same problems? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forinfo Posted November 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 So..... no response. This is premium priced software for iOS and it is riddled with problems. I have raised them and waited patiently. A lot of people have looked at this post and are clearly interested. I suppose nobody has a solution, or nobody has these same problems. I wish I knew. It would have been nice to get some kind of response from the developers. Perhaps they are busy spending the 10 bucks I regret paying for this app? I conclude the developers either don't pay attention to these boards or don't care about the issues I raised, either of which translate to: don't care about their customers. To anyone thinking of buying Storyist for iOS, think carefully! Look at my posts and the lack of any response. Note that the app hasn't been updated for a year, including after the release of iOS 8. Note it is full of bugs, at least for me. Maybe if you already use the desktop version you will be happy with the iOS app as a reader? If you want it for the functionality you imagine it has on iOS - it doesn't. I suspect that if (big if) Scrivener ever get their ipad app out, Storyist for iOS will disappear. I wish I had held on to my money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewitt Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 I use the iPad version of Storyist every day. My last novel was 270,000 words, and it worked beautifully. My current work is at 60,000 words and I still have no issues whatsoever. I was not able to reproduce your issues above. I cannot answer your questions. I can tell you that the Beta of the next release for iPad has been sent out, so there will be an update shortly, but I only know that because I was a beta tester for an earlier release and am still on the mailing list. I can also tell you that to open a support ticket, you should follow the instructions on the website in the Support area. I've posted them for you here. Support Tickets If you have a specific question and would like to open a support ticket, please send mail to support@storyist.com. Good luck. I have always found the author to be quick to respond to support requests. -t Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 forinfo, sorry to hear that you've been having trouble. Like thewitt, I read your posts but did not respond because I have not had these problems and can't reproduce them. I do most of my serious work in Storyist on my Mac, but I regularly port the files to the iPad for editing and have not encountered any of the problems that have bothered you. I can assure you that Steve Shepard, the developer (it's not plural, in this case—he does all the work), does indeed check the forums and usually responds. I've known him create a new version of the app, Mac or iPad, just to address a single user's issues with the program. I'm not sure why he hasn't responded to this post, but it may simply have slipped past him. If you look at the other troubleshooting threads, though, you will see lots of messages from Steve. thewitt, Orren, Thoth, Phil, myself, and various other people who answer questions on a regular basis are users, not developers. So I sympathize with your frustration, but the situation is not nearly as dire as it may appear at this moment. Best, Marguerite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 28, 2014 Report Share Posted November 28, 2014 Hi forinfo,I apologize for the delayed reply.I assume you're running iOS version 8.1.1. If not, please update your iPad. Apple has addressed quite a few issues since the initial release of iOS 8. Also, if you're using a third party soft keyboard, make sure that it is up-to-date. Support for third party keyboards is new in iOS 8, and developers have issued quite a few updates since iOS 8 was released. 1. The navigation panel just doesn't work properly. When I have the navigation panel pinned open and am looking at a document in the outline or the index card view it doesn't let me scroll to the bottom of my sections/cards. Sometimes it will at first, but after a while it stops short and there can be a dozen or more cards off the bottom of the screen that it won't let me scroll down to. Very frustrating! If I go all the way back out to the home screen and back in again it usually fixes it for a while, but really?! Unfortunately, I'm not able to reproduce this. If you'll let me know a little more about how you've set up your project (novel or screenplay, imported or begun from a new template), the approximate number of sections/scenes, and whether you're using the built-in soft keyboard, a third party soft keyboard, or bluetooth keyboard, I'll try to zero in on your configuration.If the problem only occurs with a single project, I'd be happy to take a look at the project for you. If you'd like me to do that, please send it to the support email address.Note: If returning to the Home screen fixes the issue for you, it is likely that rotating the iPad will too. You might try this the next time you run into the problem. 2. Say I have the nav panel pinned open in either card or outline view, and have the document on the right hand side in text view (ie not the cards). Then I decide I want to see all my index cards on the right hand side for a while, to get the big picture. As soon as I make the change, the nav panel goes back up to the project view! I have to hit the '>' again to go in and set up the nav panel view as either cards or outline again. But I only wanted a quick look at the grid of all my cards, now I want to go back to looking at my document again. Uh-oh, same problem! So I am constantly fiddling with the nav panel. Working with the nav panel could be so great but the way it functions makes it almost too annoying to bother with. Version 2 does return to the default project view if you switch from text to index card views. Having it retain the outline/card/comment setting would be a useful enhancement.Note, though, that if you're in the Outline level of the project view, you can easily switch to the card view in the project view and view your cards with your text. This is a more common use case. 3. When you are looking at your manuscript and switching between sections using the outline or card view in the nav panel and you turn the Format Bar on, the bar covers the top line of whatever section you select. Painful. This is not something I can reproduce either. Could you attach a screenshot of your setup when this occurs? You can take a screenshot by holding down both the Home and the power buttons.This is what I see after selecting a section:The text "Page headers typically..." is the start of the section. 4. You can't trust that what you are typing into a card will actually stay there when you are done and touch a spot outside the card to return to the normal view. Sometimes, everything you just wrote simply disappears. One time, a card that was about half filled with text wouldn't accept any more. No matter how much or little I typed, it all disappeared when I left the edit card view. Other cards on the corkboard at the time had even more text than this card. Very frustrating. Eventually I broke the single long paragraph that was already on this card into two smaller paragraphs and that fixed the problem. I was able to add the extra text I wanted. ?? Unfortunately, I can't reproduce this either. Does this happen if you create a project from the default novel or screenplay template or only in your project? If the latter, I'd be happy to take a look at your project for you. 5. Third party keyboard support in iOS 8 does not work. If you are using one (eg the excellent Swype) you can't view the alternative Storyist keyboard with all the cool selection tools. Make sure you're using the latest version of Swype (they've released 3 updates since 1.0). I get the results shown in the screenshot above using Storyist 2.2.1, Swype 1.1.1, and iOS 8.1.1.-Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystaliq Posted January 26, 2015 Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hi Steve, I would like to "push" the first bug forinfo explained above: 1. The navigation panel just doesn't work properly. When I have the navigation panel pinned open and am looking at a document in the outline or the index card view it doesn't let me scroll to the bottom of my sections/cards. Sometimes it will at first, but after a while it stops short and there can be a dozen or more cards off the bottom of the screen that it won't let me scroll down to. Very frustrating! If I go all the way back out to the home screen and back in again it usually fixes it for a while... I read in your answer that you were not able to reproduce this. I have this issue with all my projects since the update to iOS8. The latest updates for iOS didn't help unfortunately. So I really hope you can help. I try to explain the setup, when it happens: - It doesn't matter if I create sections and chapters in a text file or story sheet, as long as your list of chapters and sections is longer than what you can see on screen I'm unable to scroll down, it always jumps back to the top. I can create a new section or chapter and rename it, but it is not visible in that moment, because the navigation jumped back again to the top somehow. - Your proposal to rotate the iPad doesn't work unfortunately. I already tried all 4 possible cases. - I'm not using an external keyboard. And I only use the iPad version of Storyist, since I have no Mac. The issue never happened with iOS7.X. The app is really the best of all and I would really love to have this issue fixed. It's not so easy to go back to the Home Screen all the to time to scroll down. BTW I noticed that the first time you can not scroll down anymore is the moment the keyboard comes up the first time. I hope you can help me out! Best regards, Crystaliq Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewitt Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 I have now seen the issue #1 reported here. It's odd, in that it doesn't show up until after I edit for a while - adding new chapters. I've attached two screenshots from my iPad. The first one is as far down as I can select in my Chapter list... The last Chapter is visible when I scroll, but then "springs back" when I stop scrolling and try to select it. The second image simply captures the screen from a forced scroll-down showing the last chapter. Nothing fancy in the project. It happens in two separate projects, so I don't think it's project related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Hi thewitt, Thanks for the update. Are you seeing this in the released version or in the beta? -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewitt Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 In the released version Steve. I've only spot-checked the beta. I'll load it up with a full project this afternoon and see if I can recreate it in the beta. -Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 I've also encountered the "springing" problem in the release version, Steve. It does appear only after a fair amount of editing, but you don't have to add sections or chapters. The editing itself (that is, making a lot of changes that the app then has to "remember") seems to trigger the problem. Best, M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.