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Friendly Warning: very long post by new user


Lauren

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Greetings!

 

I am a new almost-user of Storyist--I say "almost-user" because I haven't purchased it yet. I'm on Day 5 of my 15 day trial period, and I'm currently in the process of (very slowly) getting my manuscript formatted into chapters and sections in Storyist so that I can continue working on it.

 

While going through this process, several things have come up that have made me worry that Storyist might not be reliable enough to trust my precious baby to its care. However, my son (a software developer who also writes fiction) has spent some time exploring the program and convincing me not to worry. Almost. So my plan right now is to continue the formatting process and assume that along the way I will learn enough about how Storyist works to feel completely comfortable with it--hopefully well before the trial runs out!

 

I'd like to explain the things that I find a bit disconcerting (in hopes that some of them might be considered as changes in the future), but I think a little background might help so you'll know where I'm coming from. I am a full-time writer. My current work-in-progress is far from my first book--I have ten novels published with Penguin (Signet Books), so I am pretty set in my ways as far as my writing process is concerned. All but my first book were written in WriteWay Pro, a Windows-only novel-writing application. I *love* WriteWay, but I switched to a Mac about a year and a half ago, and I have recently come to the realization that if I have to work in Parallels even one more week, I am going to become certifiably insane. ;-) Since I don't want to go back to working on a Windows computer (ever!), I decided to look around and see which Mac novel-writing application might suit me best. After downloading a few and playing with them, I decided that Storyist is the closest fit to my writing style.

 

My current project (written in WriteWay up to now) is a historical trilogy spanning 40 years with lots of research and characters in common. I am writing all three books at once, and the fact that Storyist will allow me to keep all three books in the same project--where I can share the research, settings, and characters--was a big part of my decision to choose your software.

 

I also really like the fact that I can design my own workspace. My preferred workspace setup won't work the way I want it to, however, which I will explain below.

 

So here (at long last!) are the things that I'd like to see added or changed. This first one is by far the most important.

 

--In WriteWay, I didn't have to number my chapters--the program did it for me. If I moved chapters around or added a new chapter in the middle, the chapters automatically got renumbered. As part of my process it is *very* common for me to take a long chapter and split it into two--in Storyist, as it stands, this will mean having to manually renumber every chapter that comes after it. One suggestion my son had was to allow users to title a chapter something like "Chapter <#>" with the <#> indicating that Storyist should use auto-numbering to fill it in. Apparently Scrivener (his personal app of choice for novels) does something similar. This way when chapters are moved around, or more are added in the middle, the user doesn't have to go through the long process of renumbering over and over (and over!). My novels average 70 chapters, so this is pretty important to me.

 

The rest of them are not as important, but would be nice. :-)

 

--When I switch to a different Main View area in my workspace, the item selected in the Project View doesn't necessarily change to match. I find this very confusing. After working with Storyist and having my son explain how it works, I now *do* understand it, but this is one of the things that originally led me to worry Storyist isn't stable. Maybe it's just because I've worked with WriteWay for so many years, but it seems intuitive to me that the Project View, which is essentially an outline of my book, should show me which item I am currently working on. The current behavior makes the Project View seem unreliable (i.e. not a safe place to store all the many, many sections of my manuscript with confidence that I can easily navigate to all parts of it).

 

-- I can see that blue text in the navigation bar indicates which view is active, but it is easy to overlook. In addition, clicking into the Project View does not change the blue text in the Main View navigation bar to black. This leads me to make mistakes, such as…

 

--…deleting whole sections and a couple of times even deleting my whole book! I think a user should need to do more than simply hit the Delete key to delete something as large and important as a section or a whole book. The problem happens when I don't realize I'm in the Project View (see above) and think I'm in the Main View editing text . . . I hit backspace (Delete), and--bam!--my whole book might be gone. Yes, I can find it in the Trash or click "Undo," but recovering from the near heart-attack is not so easy. ;-)

 

--My preferred workspace setup is the Project View on the left, with the Main View split into three parts--text in the middle, plus a third column split horizontally with the notecard for the text displayed in the top half (linked to the text so it automatically switches when I switch sections), and whatever bit of research I want at the moment (setting, character, historical stuff) displayed in the bottom half. This, however, is very hard to accomplish, because if I link the text and notecard views, the text shows up again in the bottom half of the third column. The only way to get my research there is to unlink, but that means the next time I switch sections, the notecard won't change to match. If you could make it so that each of the third column views locks to the text separately (so I can leave one locked and one unlocked), the whole system would be much better for me personally as well as more versatile for everyone else.

 

--I find the Trash icon confusing. I managed to find the Trash early on, then forgot where it was and had to hunt all over again. I've got it memorized now, but I think if you put a little picture of a trash can in place of the panel slide-up icon, that would be very helpful for new users.

 

And this is really, really picky--more a question, really . . .

 

--Why do you call them sections rather than scenes? Every novel-writing book and every working novelist I know (which is hundreds) calls them scenes. It took me two full days to really get it in my head that a section was a scene. At this point it's not throwing me anymore, but you might want to consider changing this, because I think it will make your app more approachable for novelists. Just a thought. :-)

 

Okay, that is the end of my feedback for now (about time, huh?). I hope you'll take all of this in the friendly spirit it was intended. I wanted to get my thoughts typed up quickly, because I have a feeling that as I get to know the program, most of these annoyances (other than the chapter numbering) will become invisible to me. They are the sorts of things only a new, confused user would notice and be bothered by, but I think that making things easier for new users would shorten the learning curve and probably help convert more trial users to permanent users.

 

My son typed up a few observations and suggestions as well, some of which is developer-to-developer stuff that's way too technical for me to fully understand. I'm going to paste his message below this in case you might find it useful.

 

It is my belief that as Mac novel-writing options go, Storyist is the best I am going to find. So I am crossing my fingers I will (quickly) learn to use it well and comfortably!

 

Thanks for listening!

~Lauren :-)

 

-----------------------------

 

Hello,

 

My name is Brent Royal-Gordon.  I am an independent iPhone and iPad developer with a fairly strong focus on usability.  I am also, like any dutiful computer-literate son, the family "computer guy."

 

While helping my mother move her books from WriteWay into Storyist, I noticed a few usability-related issues I'd like to explain in more detail.  They probably sound quite nit-picky when you just read them briefly described, so I thought it best to explain why I consider them problematic.

 

First of all, I should say that Storyist is an impressive piece of software.  With a little more polish, I think it could dominate the authoring market.  However, I noticed a few usability issues that make Storyist seem much less reliable than it actually is.

 

When starting to use a new piece of software, users construct a "mental model" of how it works.  Deviation from this mental model, especially when the reason for the deviation isn't clear, makes the software seem buggy or confusing.

 

In Storyist, because there is one Project View for two panels, the obvious mental model is that the two panels display different views of the same item, which is whatever is selected in the Project View.  The reality, however, is that the Project View controls only the active pane, and whatever you last clicked in the Project View stays selected, even if you switch active panes or move around in the document.

 

Careful experimentation will reveal that this is the way Storyist works, but for a writer who's just trying to get their work done (rather than a programmer trying to figure out an application that's confusing his mother), the behavior seems random and buggy because it doesn't match their model, and it's not clear that the model is wrong.

 

This actually encompasses three issues, all of which I'd suggest you address to make Storyist more understandable.

 

The Project View's selection should always reflect the current contents of the active pane.  If you switch panes, the selection should change; if you put the insertion point in a different section, the selection should change.  That way, the selection is always meaningful, and it's always possible to select a different part of the document to jump to it.  (Or you could do as iTunes does, and leave the selection intact but mark the current item in some other way.  In any case, though, the Project View needs to have some indication of what's currently being displayed.)

 

It is not obvious enough which pane is active, so it's hard for users to predict what will happen when they select an item in the Project View.  (I know the text turns blue, but that's a fairly subtle change.)  I would suggest that you darken the top "navigation strip" above the active pane, similar to the way OS X indicates active vs. inactive windows.  This is not distracting (like a red dot, which Mom has told me someone else suggested, might be) but still obvious when you're looking for it.

 

When you select an item in the Project View, it's not obvious which panes have actually changed.  The Mac Human Interface Guidelines suggest that tasteful animation can be used to draw the eye to content that's changing, and I think that would be a great fit for this purpose.

 

(Begin geeky details only an Apple programmer could understand…)

 

If it works the same way it does on the iPhone, the CATransition class in the QuartzCore framework makes fading and sliding transitions very easy to program.  (Remember to turn on layer backing for any view you want to animate with Core Animation, though.)

 

(Okay, back to talking like regular human beings.)

 

Additionally, you *may* want to consider having locked panes be the default, because I think it's what users will naïvely expect from Storyist.  However, these three corrections together should make the actual behavior obvious enough that users will quickly understand that the two panes aren't linked, so if you'd prefer they be unlocked by default, that's fine.

 

Another issue is that the pane-locking behavior isn't very obvious. Because each pane has a lock button, users assume that each pane's locking can be turned on independently from the others.  However, as far as I can tell, the reality is that there is one global "locked" variable, and clicking any of the lock buttons toggles that global variable. It should either be possible to lock and unlock panes independently, or there should only be one lock button.

 

A third problem is that it's very easy to accidentally delete large portions of a project (like whole manuscripts)--all you have to do is hit the Delete key, thinking that you're deleting text, while in the Project View.  This is of course recoverable by using Undo or retrieving the item from the (well-hidden) Trash, and my mother did figure this out on her own; nevertheless, thinking you've deleted your entire book is a nerve-wracking event, even if you can easily fix it, so it shouldn't be so easy to do accidentally.  Please think of your poor users' hearts!

 

Mom's immediate suggestion was that it should ask for confirmation before deleting chapters or manuscripts, but the HIG rightly recommends against confirmations for undoable actions, and indeed other Mac apps like the Finder don't do that no matter how much data you're deleting.  Instead, I would simply recommend using a keyboard shortcut that users aren't likely to activate by accident. Specifically, I'd suggest that Cmd-Delete (the same shortcut the Finder uses) be used instead of a plain Delete to delete an item from the Project View.

 

One more thing, and this is a little more marketing-oriented than the last two: the very first thing a new user will do (after playing around a bit) is try to import their manuscript, so the importing experience is very important.

 

I noticed that the import system tends to assume that your manuscript is in a single file.  It doesn't seem to contemplate that you might be switching from a similar program, or even from a one-document-per-chapter setup.  At a minimum, dragging a directory full of importable files into a project ought to import all the files in it into a single manuscript and recreate the directory structure. It would be even better, though, if Storyist could import files from similar applications.

 

(Dense technical details follow…)

 

I know that WriteWay files are basically collections of RTF documents wrapped in straightforward XML; importing from that program shouldn't be that difficult.  Scrivener would be harder, as the binder file is an NSCoding archive of Scrivener's internal model objects, but at least a partial import ought to be doable.  I don't know much about your other competitors' file formats (I only know about WriteWay and Scrivener because I once had to convert the former to the latter), but it might be worth looking into.

 

(We now return to your previously scheduled English text.)

 

Many imported flat files will not have a style that can be used to detect section breaks.  You may want to consider adding an importing option that splits on a text string instead.  This would save Mom tons of work.

 

Finally, sometimes users will have to import files where Storyist simply cannot detect the section breaks at all.  For cases like that, a command to split a section in half at the insertion point would be very useful.  Right now Mom is picking through a 400-page manuscript, manually copying and pasting each scene into a Storyist section; if she could split sections instead, that would dramatically speed up this work.

 

Best of luck with your business, and thanks for writing an app that might finally get my mother to stop complaining about Parallels!

 

Brent Royal-Gordon

Architechies Touch Software

http://architechies.com

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Hi Lauren,

 

Storyist thrives on feedback, and this is great feedback. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

 

I'll post a more detailed reply tomorrow, but I wanted to address some of your points right away:

 

1) Auto-chapter numbering is a frequently-requested feature and is on the list for the next release (2.3).

 

2) You'll be able to change the active/selected view color in a future release (not sure yet if it is 2.3 or not). Blue will probably remain the default as it is the selection highlight color Apple specifies in their interface guidelines, but others have made the same comment and I think it is a fine enhancement request.

 

3) I can easily extend the trial period if you need it.

 

More to follow...

 

-Steve

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Hello Lauren and Brent and WELCOME to the forum.

 

First, let me say that this is the BEST Feature Request post I have ever read (yes, both parts, definitely). I agree with everything in it and that's saying something: the green dot was my idea but yours is better; the obscure trash icon, of which others have complained as well; the disconnect between expected and actual behavior, especially when it comes to the Project View and its synchronization with the insertion point; I too have known the heartbreak of accidental deletion, even though it was recoverable.

 

There is nothing quite like a new Storyist user to see old Storyist problems. As for myself, I think that I've become so comfortable with Storyist over the years that I no longer see its faults. Thank you for giving me fresh eyes. And why does Steve call scenes "Sections"? Because they are the sections of a Chapter? Because he felt that "scene" was somehow limiting? Because it just evolved that way? He uses "Scene" in the screenplay templates. Why not in the novel templates? Why hasn't this occurred to me before?

 

I have written more than a few posts myself but now I think I will be writing them with new eyes.

Thank you.

- Thoth

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1) Auto-chapter numbering is a frequently-requested feature and is on the list for the next release (2.3).

 

YEAY!!! :lol:

 

I can already feel my life getting easier! In fact, I'm revising my urban fantasy novel now (literally, in another window on my MBP), I divided one chapter into two, and now as I revise, I have to renumber every chapter manually.

 

And Lauren, as an aside, I'm sure you'll find as I have that Steve is one of the most responsive developers around. That is another reason I've chosen Storyist. Being able to communicate with "the source" when you have an issue makes you a lot more productive than simply being ticket #0093348 that gets logged in a system and then sent the appropriate form response (I'm looking at you Adobe...)

 

Take care,

Orren

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One more scene to write on my Script Frenzy screenplay, so I can't respond in detail (plus Steve will do a much better job), but a quick comment on import:

 

Usually Storyist can pick up section breaks marked with # on a line by itself even if they aren't styled. It doesn't know what to name the sections, which is understandable (how would it?) but can become a pain if you're importing a large file. It calls them Untitled Section 1, etc. But you might try a page of text using the # separator and see if it works for you. I usually center the #, as that's how Storyist does it. Storyist imports styled RTF better than any other format, but there are other options.

 

I think they are sections versus scenes to separate the novel and screenplay templates, but you are right that writers always call them scenes.

 

Also, aren't .story files zipped collections of RTF, JPG, and XML files? You can unzip one using any unzip utility to see what's inside. (Not a techie, so please forgive any flawed or missing detail in this explanation.)

 

Oh, yes, and one more vote for making the trash icon look like a trash icon. It still throws me every time!

 

OK, back to Script Frenzy.

Marguerite

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YEAY!!! :lol:

 

I can already feel my life getting easier! In fact, I'm revising my urban fantasy novel now (literally, in another window on my MBP), I divided one chapter into two, and now as I revise, I have to renumber every chapter manually.

 

And Lauren, as an aside, I'm sure you'll find as I have that Steve is one of the most responsive developers around. That is another reason I've chosen Storyist. Being able to communicate with "the source" when you have an issue makes you a lot more productive than simply being ticket #0093348 that gets logged in a system and then sent the appropriate form response (I'm looking at you Adobe...)

 

Take care,

Orren

YEAY, indeed. I don't know how many times I have renumbered my chapters, but it's a large number....

M

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1) Auto-chapter numbering is a frequently-requested feature and is on the list for the next release (2.3).

 

Steve: You have just made me very, very, VERY happy!

 

Marguerite: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART for your suggestion to search and replace my scene separators, which have always been "# # #," with a single, plain "#" instead!!!

 

I just tried that and reimported, and--bingo!--I have separate scenes with no cutting and pasting! You have saved me days and days (maybe a couple of weeks!) of tedious, unproductive work. I had started the copy and paste process and was about 1/4 of my way through the first book's scenes…with over 300 scenes left to do for the three books. I think now I can get the scenes renamed and my notes added in a couple of days, so I will very soon be back to actually writing.

 

You cannot imagine what a relief this is to me. Whew! Marguerite, I don't know if you enjoy reading historical romance at all, but I would be happy to mail you a signed book as a teeny-tiny thank you.

 

Thanks to everyone for your reassurances about Storyist and its terrific, responsive developer. I am feeling much better about committing to its use. Steve, I really appreciate the offer to extend my trial period, but now that Marguerite has cut my formatting time so drastically, I'm pretty sure that I'll be up, running, and paid well before it runs out.

 

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to drag a chapter from one book into another book in the same project? Or is it just impossible? I can't seem to figure this out.

 

Thanks!

~Lauren :-)

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Steve: You have just made me very, very, VERY happy!

 

Marguerite: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART for your suggestion to search and replace my scene separators, which have always been "# # #," with a single, plain "#" instead!!!

 

I just tried that and reimported, and--bingo!--I have separate scenes with no cutting and pasting! You have saved me days and days (maybe a couple of weeks!) of tedious, unproductive work. I had started the copy and paste process and was about 1/4 of my way through the first book's scenes…with over 300 scenes left to do for the three books. I think now I can get the scenes renamed and my notes added in a couple of days, so I will very soon be back to actually writing.

 

You cannot imagine what a relief this is to me. Whew! Marguerite, I don't know if you enjoy reading historical romance at all, but I would be happy to mail you a signed book as a teeny-tiny thank you.

 

Thanks to everyone for your reassurances about Storyist and its terrific, responsive developer. I am feeling much better about committing to its use. Steve, I really appreciate the offer to extend my trial period, but now that Marguerite has cut my formatting time so drastically, I'm pretty sure that I'll be up, running, and paid well before it runs out.

 

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to drag a chapter from one book into another book in the same project? Or is it just impossible? I can't seem to figure this out.

 

Thanks!

~Lauren :-)

 

The fact Steve frequents this forum as much as he does is the #1 benefit of Storyist IMO.

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Steve: You have just made me very, very, VERY happy!

 

Marguerite: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART for your suggestion to search and replace my scene separators, which have always been "# # #," with a single, plain "#" instead!!!

 

I just tried that and reimported, and--bingo!--I have separate scenes with no cutting and pasting! You have saved me days and days (maybe a couple of weeks!) of tedious, unproductive work. I had started the copy and paste process and was about 1/4 of my way through the first book's scenes…with over 300 scenes left to do for the three books. I think now I can get the scenes renamed and my notes added in a couple of days, so I will very soon be back to actually writing.

 

You cannot imagine what a relief this is to me. Whew! Marguerite, I don't know if you enjoy reading historical romance at all, but I would be happy to mail you a signed book as a teeny-tiny thank you.

 

Thanks to everyone for your reassurances about Storyist and its terrific, responsive developer. I am feeling much better about committing to its use. Steve, I really appreciate the offer to extend my trial period, but now that Marguerite has cut my formatting time so drastically, I'm pretty sure that I'll be up, running, and paid well before it runs out.

 

Can anyone tell me if there's a way to drag a chapter from one book into another book in the same project? Or is it just impossible? I can't seem to figure this out.

 

Thanks!

~Lauren :-)

You are most welcome! That's what the user forums are for. I began my current book in Storyist, but I had to import its predecessor (endlessly, it seemed at times) from Word, so I spent a lot of time experimenting (not to mention wailing at Steve) with import/export. The section separator trick saved my sanity, so I can imagine how you feel! :)

 

You can't (currently) drag a chapter from one manuscript to another; that's another often-requested feature. You can copy the text of a chapter and paste it into another manuscript in the same project (or a different project, since you can have more than one window open at a time). For a while, Storyist would create section headings for you with the same names. I think that caused problems with linking and may have been discontinued (I haven't tried it for a while: I have a separate manuscript called "Deleted Text," which I use for stashing scenes that I'm not ready to trash). But even if it has been, all you'd need to do is set up a chapter in the new ms., copy and paste your text, and then rename a couple of scenes/sections. Storyist will recognize the section separators and break your scenes where it finds them.

 

Another feature you may want to consider long-term is that you can set up the first novel in your series exactly as you want it, with the characters, settings, etc., and then save it as a template for other books in the series. Of course, you may add and subtract characters, etc., as you go (I keep a whole collection called "Not Used in This Book," so that I don't lose anyone or anywhere). It's perfectly possible to keep three or more manuscripts in the same project, but if you encounter slowdowns or the whole thing becomes unwieldy because of all the variations, the template option is there.

 

And in version 2 we can export characters, settings, etc. (with their images, as of 2.2!), and reimport them. So that horrible day when I deleted my antagonist from book 2 and then decided I needed him after all are gone forever! :)

Best,

Marguerite

 

P.S. Maybe you figured this out already, but Storyist routinely applies the chapter style to anything in the imported file that begins with the word Chapter. And it includes a command in the Format menu (Style > Apply Styles by Matching Text) that will identify both chapters and sections/scenes after the import is complete. If you don't call your chapters "Chapter 1," you can click on the text in the manuscript and style it as "Chapter Title" and bingo, it becomes a chapter right there on the spot.

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Welcome Lauren! (and Brent!)

Your post was wonderful and I whole heartedly agree with (almost) everything you said and have requested the same things in the past. I think you will be a wonderful addition to our merry band of Storyist users!

 

Also, congratulations on having books published and being an established writer! I'm sure more than just myself dream of such an accomplishment!

 

Well, here goes my reply

 

--In WriteWay, I didn't have to number my chapters--the program did it for me. If I moved chapters around or added a new chapter in the middle, the chapters automatically got renumbered. As part of my process it is *very* common for me to take a long chapter and split it into two--in Storyist, as it stands, this will mean having to manually renumber every chapter that comes after it. One suggestion my son had was to allow users to title a chapter something like "Chapter <#>" with the <#> indicating that Storyist should use auto-numbering to fill it in. Apparently Scrivener (his personal app of choice for novels) does something similar. This way when chapters are moved around, or more are added in the middle, the user doesn't have to go through the long process of renumbering over and over (and over!). My novels average 70 chapters, so this is pretty important to me.

 

1) Auto-chapter numbering is a frequently-requested feature and is on the list for the next release (2.3).

 

Hurray!

 

--When I switch to a different Main View area in my workspace, the item selected in the Project View doesn't necessarily change to match. I find this very confusing. After working with Storyist and having my son explain how it works, I now *do* understand it, but this is one of the things that originally led me to worry Storyist isn't stable. Maybe it's just because I've worked with WriteWay for so many years, but it seems intuitive to me that the Project View, which is essentially an outline of my book, should show me which item I am currently working on. The current behavior makes the Project View seem unreliable (i.e. not a safe place to store all the many, many sections of my manuscript with confidence that I can easily navigate to all parts of it).

 

Brent: The Project View's selection should always reflect the current contents of the active pane.  If you switch panes, the selection should change; if you put the insertion point in a different section, the selection should change.  That way, the selection is always meaningful, and it's always possible to select a different part of the document to jump to it.  (Or you could do as iTunes does, and leave the selection intact but mark the current item in some other way.  In any case, though, the Project View needs to have some indication of what's currently being displayed.)

This is one of the things about Storyist I also really dislike. I haven't spent as much time in the program as some others, so I still haven't learned not to count on something that's selected actually being what's shown. I desperately want what is selected in the Project Pane to reflect what is actually shown in the view. I know Steve has a reason why it doesn't, but I've never understood it or liked it. It would make me a lot happier and make my experience of Storyist a lot better if this was implemented. Navigation around Storyist is one of the things I have problems with. If I stay in single view, then I can generally keep it figured out, but split the view and I get lost fairly easily.

 

-- I can see that blue text in the navigation bar indicates which view is active, but it is easy to overlook. In addition, clicking into the Project View does not change the blue text in the Main View navigation bar to black. This leads me to make mistakes, such as…

 

Brent: It is not obvious enough which pane is active, so it's hard for users to predict what will happen when they select an item in the Project View.  (I know the text turns blue, but that's a fairly subtle change.)  I would suggest that you darken the top "navigation strip" above the active pane, similar to the way OS X indicates active vs. inactive windows.  This is not distracting (like a red dot, which Mom has told me someone else suggested, might be) but still obvious when you're looking for it.

Yes Please! I agree. I actually never noticed there was a difference until another recent thread discussed this and usually ended up just getting very frustrated using the "click somewhere else to find out which view is active" method.

 

I really like Brent's idea of darkening the navigation strip. That in combination with a text color that doesn't look like black would make it so much easier to discern which view is active and would help my navigation woes without being distracting.

 

--…deleting whole sections and a couple of times even deleting my whole book! I think a user should need to do more than simply hit the Delete key to delete something as large and important as a section or a whole book. The problem happens when I don't realize I'm in the Project View (see above) and think I'm in the Main View editing text . . . I hit backspace (Delete), and--bam!--my whole book might be gone. Yes, I can find it in the Trash or click "Undo," but recovering from the near heart-attack is not so easy. ;-)

 

Brent: A third problem is that it's very easy to accidentally delete large portions of a project (like whole manuscripts)--all you have to do is hit the Delete key, thinking that you're deleting text, while in the Project View.  This is of course recoverable by using Undo or retrieving the item from the (well-hidden) Trash, and my mother did figure this out on her own; nevertheless, thinking you've deleted your entire book is a nerve-wracking event, even if you can easily fix it, so it shouldn't be so easy to do accidentally.  Please think of your poor users' hearts!

 

Mom's immediate suggestion was that it should ask for confirmation before deleting chapters or manuscripts, but the HIG rightly recommends against confirmations for undoable actions, and indeed other Mac apps like the Finder don't do that no matter how much data you're deleting.  Instead, I would simply recommend using a keyboard shortcut that users aren't likely to activate by accident. Specifically, I'd suggest that Cmd-Delete (the same shortcut the Finder uses) be used instead of a plain Delete to delete an item from the Project View.

I think the Cmd-Delete option is the way to go with this. It is too easy to delete things, yet most people do not want a pop up coming up every time they want to delete something. I often actually press Cmd-Delete because I'm so used to using that, only to have it do nothing. I'd really like that addition and it could always be an option in the preferences to turn it on or off.

 

--My preferred workspace setup is the Project View on the left, with the Main View split into three parts--text in the middle, plus a third column split horizontally with the notecard for the text displayed in the top half (linked to the text so it automatically switches when I switch sections), and whatever bit of research I want at the moment (setting, character, historical stuff) displayed in the bottom half. This, however, is very hard to accomplish, because if I link the text and notecard views, the text shows up again in the bottom half of the third column. The only way to get my research there is to unlink, but that means the next time I switch sections, the notecard won't change to match. If you could make it so that each of the third column views locks to the text separately (so I can leave one locked and one unlocked), the whole system would be much better for me personally as well as more versatile for everyone else.

 

Brent: Additionally, you *may* want to consider having locked panes be the default, because I think it's what users will naïvely expect from Storyist.  However, these three corrections together should make the actual behavior obvious enough that users will quickly understand that the two panes aren't linked, so if you'd prefer they be unlocked by default, that's fine.

 

Another issue is that the pane-locking behavior isn't very obvious. Because each pane has a lock button, users assume that each pane's locking can be turned on independently from the others.  However, as far as I can tell, the reality is that there is one global "locked" variable, and clicking any of the lock buttons toggles that global variable. It should either be possible to lock and unlock panes independently, or there should only be one lock button.

Yes. I would like a per pane linking feature or one link button. I want to set up the exact view Lauren is talking about, but as she mentioned it can't be done with a global linking feature. As Brent mentioned, I had assumed that panes could be linked individually since each one would get it's own linking button.

 

The argument may be made against the per pane linking because how would one know what pane is to be linked with what. I would suggest that any pane that has it's links activated be linked with each other and any pane that isn't linked be separate from those that are linked. For example, if you have four separate panes, and three out of four are linked, they would navigate together, but the fourth would remain on what ever had been set to display there. That way, I could have text displayed in one view, and have the outline and note card/collage view for that text displayed in two other views, and still have a view for a character sheet or research note.

 

[continued]

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--I find the Trash icon confusing. I managed to find the Trash early on, then forgot where it was and had to hunt all over again. I've got it memorized now, but I think if you put a little picture of a trash can in place of the panel slide-up icon, that would be very helpful for new users.

Yes!! M & I are definitely of this opinion as well. It took me ages (and probably one "using storyist") to figure out where the trash was. I'd love a tiny little trashcan instead of the envelope arrow thing.

 

--Why do you call them sections rather than scenes? Every novel-writing book and every working novelist I know (which is hundreds) calls them scenes. It took me two full days to really get it in my head that a section was a scene. At this point it's not throwing me anymore, but you might want to consider changing this, because I think it will make your app more approachable for novelists. Just a thought. :-)

This is the one thing I disagree with you and M about. I never thought of them as scenes. I'm not an established writer or anything, so I'm not familiar with any industry standard that might play a part in this, but I think of a scene more of the way a movie scene is. I think of a scene as short and generally in one location with one group of characters, say Bob outside talking with Billy and Jane. If they then walked inside and continued talking and Jack joined the conversation, I would consider that a separate scene, but I wouldn't make it a separate section. I generally only make a separate section when time passes, the POV character changes, or some such thing happens. Perhaps that's just me, but that's how I thought it was used in a lot of the books I've read. So, in my mind a section contains more than one scene. I've always enjoyed them being called Sections.

 

If you would rather them be called scenes though, I think it is easy enough to change. All one would have to do is to rename the collection "SECTION SHEETS" to "SCENE SHEETS" and then edit the styles "Section Separator" & "Section Text" to "Scene Separator" & "Scene Text". You can even make a template for this. I will make one when I'm finished posting here and put it up in the Sharing section of the forum.

 

Okay, that is the end of my feedback for now (about time, huh?). I hope you'll take all of this in the friendly spirit it was intended. I wanted to get my thoughts typed up quickly, because I have a feeling that as I get to know the program, most of these annoyances (other than the chapter numbering) will become invisible to me. They are the sorts of things only a new, confused user would notice and be bothered by, but I think that making things easier for new users would shorten the learning curve and probably help convert more trial users to permanent users.

Of course we will and we all appreciate your input! As Thoth pointed out, it's nice to have a new user point out things that we've all come across, but have become accustomed to.

 

First of all, I should say that Storyist is an impressive piece of software.  With a little more polish, I think it could dominate the authoring market.  

I think so too. I'm not sure we tell that to Steve enough. :)

 

When you select an item in the Project View, it's not obvious which panes have actually changed.  The Mac Human Interface Guidelines suggest that tasteful animation can be used to draw the eye to content that's changing, and I think that would be a great fit for this purpose.

 

(Begin geeky details only an Apple programmer could understand…)

 

If it works the same way it does on the iPhone, the CATransition class in the QuartzCore framework makes fading and sliding transitions very easy to program.  (Remember to turn on layer backing for any view you want to animate with Core Animation, though.)

 

(Okay, back to talking like regular human beings.)

I agree! Unless you're changing the view type (outline to cards to text), your right, it isn't obvious what has changed and while I have no idea what the Quartz Cored Cat is, I really like the idea of some sort of fading transition. I think that there should be the option to turn it off in the preferences though, because many people don't like any "dancing monkeys".

 

One more thing, and this is a little more marketing-oriented than the last two: the very first thing a new user will do (after playing around a bit) is try to import their manuscript, so the importing experience is very important.

 

I noticed that the import system tends to assume that your manuscript is in a single file.  It doesn't seem to contemplate that you might be switching from a similar program, or even from a one-document-per-chapter setup.  At a minimum, dragging a directory full of importable files into a project ought to import all the files in it into a single manuscript and recreate the directory structure. It would be even better, though, if Storyist could import files from similar applications.

 

(Dense technical details follow…)

 

I know that WriteWay files are basically collections of RTF documents wrapped in straightforward XML; importing from that program shouldn't be that difficult.  Scrivener would be harder, as the binder file is an NSCoding archive of Scrivener's internal model objects, but at least a partial import ought to be doable.  I don't know much about your other competitors' file formats (I only know about WriteWay and Scrivener because I once had to convert the former to the latter), but it might be worth looking into.

 

(We now return to your previously scheduled English text.)

 

Many imported flat files will not have a style that can be used to detect section breaks.  You may want to consider adding an importing option that splits on a text string instead.  This would save Mom tons of work.

 

Finally, sometimes users will have to import files where Storyist simply cannot detect the section breaks at all.  For cases like that, a command to split a section in half at the insertion point would be very useful.  Right now Mom is picking through a 400-page manuscript, manually copying and pasting each scene into a Storyist section; if she could split sections instead, that would dramatically speed up this work.

I didn't understand all of that, but from what I did understand it seems like a good idea.

 

 

2) You'll be able to change the active/selected view color in a future release (not sure yet if it is 2.3 or not). Blue will probably remain the default as it is the selection highlight color Apple specifies in their interface guidelines, but others have made the same comment and I think it is a fine enhancement request.

YAY!!! I'm excited for this. I assume you mean the text color in the navigation bar though. I think this in combination with the darkening of the active bar would solve the issue completely.

 

 

The fact Steve frequents this forum as much as he does is the #1 benefit of Storyist IMO.

Yup! This community, not only Steve, is a big part in why I chose/use Storyist.

 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Lengthy Post Fan

- Jools

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Hi Lauren,

 

Thanks again for the detailed feedback. Additional comments below:

 

1. Chapter Numbering

 

I agree wholeheartedly. The feature is on the list for 2.3.

 

2. Project View Navigation

 

The Project view selection shows only the last choice you made in the Project view by design.

 

If the Project view selection were to follow the individual selections in the text views, you would very quickly get to the point where more folders were open than would fit in the Project view without scrolling. Further selections would cause the Project view to scroll automatically, which would make answering the "where am I?" question harder, not easier. That is, you'd make a selection in the Project view, go off and work in the text view, and when you came back to the Project view, you'd likely see different content than when you left it.

 

(Following Brent's conventions, begin geeky details only an Apple programmer could understand…)

 

The Project view is a source list--the "master" component of the "master-detail" view model. You see this model in many Mac applications, including Mail, Calendar, and iTunes, and it is described in detail in Apple's User Interface Guidelines.

 

It is unusual for a detail view to change the selection in master view, at least on Mac. A circular relationship such as this would be even more confusing to new users. Note that the Xcode project selection view behaves exactly as Storyist does in this regard.

 

(Okay, back to talking like regular human beings.)

 

This is actually an interesting UI problem.

 

One way to address your concern would be to remove the chapter outline from the Project view, and show only the manuscript. This would reduce the number of items in the Project view considerably, and put more focus on the navigation bar, which always reflects the current text selection in the view. I suspect that Storyist users would howl if I did this, though, because this is a feature that many users love.

 

In general, split views are a mixed bag. They bring more power and flexibility, but also more complexity.

 

BTW, if you're worried about reliability, please check out the auto-save and auto-backup features.

 

3. Active Split View Indication

 

Brent's suggestion is an interesting one, though finding a solution that works with Snow Leopard and Tiger, which has a much lighter design esthetic, might be a challenge.

 

Note that Apple had the same issues with active Window indication. You probably didn't notice, but the OS X active window indication changed from Tiger -> Leopard -> Snow Leopard.

 

4. Workspaces

 

I understand what you're asking for: A way to link the selection in some split views, but leave others unlinked. As you point out, the current behavior is to link the selection in all split views. For two split views (the common case), this isn't an issue. For 3 or more split views (advanced cases), what you're asking for would require a mechanism in the user interface to select which views are linked, and some indication (as with active split views) as to which views are linked. It isn't clear to me how to accomplish this without making it more confusing for new users, but I'll give it some thought.

 

Note that you can open a second window for the project. To do this, choose a project item and select "Open in New Window" from the action or context menu. For your desired setup, you could have one window with your manuscript and linked notecards, and another with whatever bits of research you want at the moment.

 

5. Trash Icon

 

The icon size is 14x14. Perhaps Jules would like to take a crack at designing a suitable representation of a trash can. :-)

 

That said, your real issue is one of discovery, and it probably also makes sense to add an item to the View menu to show/hide the trash. That would make it more easily discoverable through the search field in the Help menu.

 

6. Sections vs. Scenes

 

Actually, both terms are in use. For example, Jack Bickham's Scene and Sequel from Writers Digest uses "scene." Evan Marshall's The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing uses "section." BookSurge's Glossary of Book Publishing Industry Terms defines section break as "A break within a chapter of a book that may have a decorative fleuron or not."

 

I don't have a strong preference. I chose "section" because it is more general. I'm actually thinking of changing it in 3.0 for a more practical reason: in word processing lingo, "section" refers to a block of text with the same header and layout properties. Adding section support to 3.0 would mean overloading the term.

 

-Steve

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I see that no one has spoken explicitly to Lauren's stability concerns, so I'll do that here.

 

Lauren:

Storyist, in my experience, is actually remarkably stable. I have never lost anything in one of the release versions, although an occasional wild beta has been seen heading back to the woods with my file struggling in its jaws (Steve always manages to retrieve them). Unlike a certain ubiquitous word-processing program that has been known to go down three times a day, taking my files with it, Storyist rarely crashes and, when it does, serious damage is even more rare.

 

There are small glitches that crop up once in a while. If you type very fast for a long time, the program may lag in putting letters on the screen (stab the cursor key and they will appear). The "which window is active?" problem does sometimes make it look as if nothing is happening (I like your son's idea of darkening the window bar). Usually that is a user perception error rather than a reality. It's possible to delete something by accident (although you can always get it back). Command-Delete might help with the last, although I don't know: I think any key combination that becomes familiar is liable to be invoked at the wrong time.

 

I use the auto backup feature, make additional backups before revising anything major, and keep additional copies of my files because, well, I'm paranoid. And a beta tester. I also avoid leaving my file open overnight because, for reasons that probably make sense to Brent and Steve, the operating system has been known to stroll by and gobble down a note or image that it believes you no longer need. (Steve does a good job of staying ahead of that tendency, but Apple loves to change things.) Again, you can reimport them, but see heart attack, above.

 

So I think stability itself is not a big problem. You've identified a number of areas in the user interface that could stand improvement, but your files are probably safe.

Best,

Marguerite

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Dear Storyist users~

 

You have all been so kind to me with your support and many suggestions, so I didn't want to just disappear without saying anything. But I've (sadly) come to the conclusion that I'm not going to get to the point with Storyist where I truly feel comfortable with it.

 

As Julia put it, my dealbreaker problem is this:

 

I desperately want what is selected in the Project Pane to reflect what is actually shown in the view. I know Steve has a reason why it doesn't, but I've never understood it or liked it. It would make me a lot happier and make my experience of Storyist a lot better if this was implemented. Navigation around Storyist is one of the things I have problems with. If I stay in single view, then I can generally keep it figured out, but split the view and I get lost fairly easily.

 

I've played with Storyist enough now to be certain I can't deal with this on an ongoing basis. I'm really sorry, because I want desperately to love Storyist. I love "pretty" apps, and Storyist is so pretty that it makes me want to spend more time writing! But I find it too frustrating that the Project View doesn't act the way I want it to.

 

This is my failing, not the program's. I thought I could get used to it, but I can't. We just don't seem to be a fit.

 

My other significant problem is that I keep losing parts of my manuscript and my whole manuscript, and although it's usually recoverable (not always--once I had to reimport it), it upsets my writing rhythm too much. I need a program whose workings can be invisible for me--just do what it's supposed to do and get out of the way. Again, this is most likely my failing. I just can't seem to "get" how it works enough to avoid these repeated mistakes.

 

Thanks so much to everyone for all of your help and enthusiasm. I will be checking back from time to time, in hopes that Storyist will someday be closer to what I'm looking for.

 

This is obviously a really nice group, and I'm sad I won't be a part of it. If anyone has any more writing questions, feel free to contact me at lauren@laurenroyal.com.

 

Happy writing, everyone!

 

~Lauren :-)

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Thanks so much to everyone for all of your help and enthusiasm. I will be checking back from time to time, in hopes that Storyist will someday be closer to what I'm looking for.

 

Very welcome, and thanks for sharing your perspectives on writing! :P Hopefully Storyist will be what you're looking for one day.

 

All the best,

Orren

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Hi Lauren.

 

You have been a wonderful forum member in the short time you have been here and I have very much enjoyed your insights.

 

I am confidant that Steve will give serious consideration to your suggestions and will make Storyist an even better product in the months and years to come. (He'd better. The competition isn't standing still.)

 

I will be anticipating your popping back from time to time.

Cordially yours,

- Thoth

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