Need Keyboard Shortcut for Adding Plot Sheet

[circlecrystal]

A keyboard shortcut for adding new plot sheet is so badly needed, so that I can add new plot sheet just like how I use "cmd+return" to add new note entry.

Without this keyboard, my flow of thoughts breaks frequently that I have to go through the entire menu and multiple visual retrieval and clicks to add just one single plot sheet, then repeat the whole process again for the next one, and so on...

[marguerite]

Hi, circlecrystal, and welcome to the forums—

 

You can add a plot sheet by typing command-return. It works for any type of sheet—for text sections too.

 

Click Plot Points, click +, choose New Plot Sheet to get the first one. Then hit command-return each time you want a new one.

 

Best,

Marguerite

[circlecrystal]

Hi!

Really appreciate your reply!

 

But strangely, when I did that (and I tried it for several times), all the software added for me are Note Entries.

 

I failed to add a single plot sheet by following what you suggested:

1) Use + to add the first Plot Sheet

2) Cmd+Return

 

At first I tried it couple times in Plot folder, then I tried it couple times in custom folder.

But neither works.

 

Updated:

Tried it in a brand new project as well. Still doesn`t work.

 

Updated2:

BTW, I think I may have miss something.

Would you please tell me what do you mean by saying "Click Plot Points"? Because I failed to do this step.

[marguerite]

Click the folder named Plot. My plot folder happens to be called Plot Points (which used to be the default, but I've been using Storyist for a long time, so sorry if I misled you).

 

But I see now what the problem is. Here's the trick. Once you have the first plot point (Add > New Story Sheet > Plot Point), click on it to select it, then hold down the Option key and click the plus sign at the bottom left. Storyist will add a new whatever of the same kind right under the one you selected.

Best,

M

[circlecrystal]

A very helpful solution.

 

But still I wish that key stroke like "cmd+." can easily add one more plot sheet next to the selected file.

 

Thank you for you kind help.

[marguerite]

It was in earlier versions of the software. I actually just asked that it be restored, as it was very useful. I think it confused people coming from Scrivener, though.

 

Meanwhile, if you haven't gotten too far into your manuscript (and you are not working on a file imported from Scrivener), you could try searching the Sharing thread for any template from version 2. For example, this one: http://storyist.invisionzone.com/index.php/topic/2314-novel-template-in-helvetica-instead-of-courier/. It should do that automatically.

 

You can change Helvetica to any other font you like within the program.

 

But I hereby formally second this request.

Best,

M

[circlecrystal]

Oh, one more thing:

 

Please allow us to mass assign selected plot sheets (in any split window) to some single section.

 

E.g. Keyboard holds 'Shift' + mouse click to select 8 plot sheets -> right click on one of these sheets -> choose assign to some section -> done.

 

This will be so so helpful.

 

Otherwise, plot sheets are generally too cumbersome to be manually assigned.

 

Best regards.

[Fitch]

Oh, one more thing:

 

Please allow us to mass assign selected plot sheets (in any split window) to some single section.

 

E.g. Keyboard holds 'Shift' + mouse click to select 8 plot sheets -> right click on one of these sheets -> choose assign to some section -> done.

 

This will be so so helpful.

 

Otherwise, plot sheets are generally too cumbersome to be manually assigned.

 

Best regards.

Hi circlecrystal,

 

I like your suggestion, a lot. As I understand it, (I'm brand new to this software) the only way to assign a story sheet of any type to a section is to drag it to the section collage. I'd really like a keyboard alternative to dragging. If the plot sheet, and other assigned sheets, appeared in the outline under the assigned section so I could double click to open it in the outline window that would be very handy.

 

Fitch

[Steve]

Hi circlecrystal,

 

To add to what Marguerite said: The Command+Return shortcut adds the a project item of the preferred contents for that folder.

 

Try this:

1. Create a new project from the Novel template.
2. Select a character in the Characters folder.
3. Type Command+Return.

This gives you a new character sheet as shown in this screenshot:

 

 

If you repeat the above steps in the Settings folder, you'll get a new setting sheet.

 

The templates are set up with preferred contents for the folders in the template, but you can easily set up your own. To do so

1. Select a folder in the Project view.
2. Open the File Info inspector (View > Inspector > File Info)
3. Set the Contents popup to the preferred contents.

 

Also, OS X has a built-in shortcuts editor that lets you define your own per-app shortcuts for most menu operations. See the Defining Your Own Shortcut Key Combinations thread for more info.

 

-Steve

 

[circlecrystal]

This is tremendously helpful! Really appreciate that!

[circlecrystal]

BTW, can we please assign multiple plot sheets to section at once?

 

And also, when viewing index cards, Zoom Bar in Storyboard disappears frequently, I think there might be some bug here. Is there any method we can manually show it again?

[Steve]

Hi circlecrystal,

 

Yes, you should be able to drag multiple plot sheets at once. You'll probably need to split the view so that you don't navigate away from the collage when selecting the plot point to drag. Adding another method to assign plot points (e.g. a "picker") is on the list for a future release.

 

The floating zoom bar does hide when you scroll the page. This is by design. It should reappear when you stop scrolling however. Is that not what you're seeing?

 

-Steve

[Fitch]

Thank you all. This has been a very helpful thread.

 

Fitch

[circlecrystal]

Hi circlecrystal,

 

Yes, you should be able to drag multiple plot sheets at once. You'll probably need to split the view so that you don't navigate away from the collage when selecting the plot point to drag. Adding another method to assign plot points (e.g. a "picker") is on the list for a future release.

 

The floating zoom bar does hide when you scroll the page. This is by design. It should reappear when you stop scrolling however. Is that not what you're seeing?

 

-Steve

Many thanks to your kind & useful information again!

And yes, the floating zoom bar does disappear and never come back quite many times.

I try to fix this problem by manually switching back & forth the view modes, from Storyboard view to Page view.

(And lots of times, I have to repeat this process a couple times to make the zoom bar show up.)

Despite the cumbersome manual solution, I hope there can be some fix to this bug.

[circlecrystal]

I just found what seems to be the reason of the bug:

As you can see, the zoom bar should be positioned slightly above the bottom (black part, which is the bottom of my screen).

However, in screen shot it was positioned very close to it.

Additionally, I even came across several situations where this zoom bar was ill-positioned below the bottom, and less than half of it remained visible.

So the zoom bar disappearance problem I reported before, seems to be caused by this zoom bar ill-positioning.

Best regards.

[Steve]

Hi circlecrystal,

 

Thanks for the screenshot. I'll try to reproduce this. What version of OS X are you running?

 

-Steve

[circlecrystal]

The latest one, 10.10.

 

Updated: 10.10.3

[Steve]

So that would be 10.10.0, 10.10.1, 10.10.2, 10.10.3, or 10.10.4 beta? :-)

[circlecrystal]

10.10.3