Additional support for non-storyist files

[ross_h]

Firstly, let me add my thanks for a great v2.0 update. I love the new project navigator and the slide to reveal/hide functionality. The versioning was something I was interested in having but the auto-30 day backup sounds like something that will give users a lot of peace of mind.

 

Anyway, my suggestions for additional features are of use to those of us who don't plan on using native Storyist projects. I'm a little wary of proprietary file formats/XML that if something goes awry you need to dig in to rescue your work. I'm willing to sacrifice data clarity for ease of use, but my ideal workflow would allow me to work on either my desktop or my iPad via the elegant Dropbox sync workflow.

 

But as a non-MAC user, .storyist files are not a format I can edit on my home computer as there is no Storyist for Windows. Importing files into a storyist project seems to convert them to a storyist file, and while you can export the file out and back in again there is some conversion going on during the process. Fountain files I don't think can be handled this way.

 

Now I can choose to work in .rtf, or import either a plain text, .fountain or .fbx instead which is great but I can foresee my project view being filled up quickly with individual files (chapters in a book and for instance) rather than collections of related files.

 

Here are my suggestions of features I would like to see to improve the non-storyist workflow:

 

1. While its easy to import plain text, fountain or final draft files into Storyist, why not add the option to create a blank file of each format (like you can with .rtf text files) from the project view.

 

2. Non-Storyist 'projects'. The current file hierarchy is flat, which is not an issue with .storyist files as they can have nestled folders inside them. So while the Storyist project is really a single file on disk, it acts like a normal file structure.

Would it be possible to create a non-storyist project, that is a blank folder at the project level. Additional levels of nestled folders would be great but not essential by any means. This would allow us to keep collections of files together similar to how a Storyist project works. I still see wanting to sync individual files in the folder as if they were at the project level; maybe all the files within the project folder could be synced together if you select the folder at the project level.

 

Of course, I need to do a lot more writing with Storyist before I have to really worry about a cluttered project view making it hard for me to locate files, but I'd still like to see all files at the project level being handled as project containers rather than projects and loose files.

 

Anyway, just wanted to finish up by saying how much I love Storyist. Anyone who actually puts cursor keys on an iOS text editor understands how people really type. That feature right there is enough to make me want to use Storyist!

[ross_h]

Hmmm, so I've done a few more tests with .fdx and .fountain files. Seems like you can import these files into a .storyist project and they stay as those file types, as long as you import them into the root level of the project.

 

Importing them into a folder within the project and they lose their original properties and cannot be saved back out as the same file type.

 

You also have to manually export and import files with Dropbox (although you can just sync the project easily enough), but it at least gives you some flexibility. I guess you could always keep the files loose at the project level and then copy them into .storyist projects once they are pretty much done editing. That way you don't end up with the project view full of loose text files.