Basic Measurements For Storyist

[Steve E]

It occurs to me that Storyist is missing a lot of analytical information.

 

Basic things like the the sizes of story, chapters and sections, measured in pages, paragraphs, sentences, words and characters, should not have to be hand calculated or estimated.

 

Yes, story length, measured in words, is always available and that's pretty basic. And you can always scroll down to the last header (I'm not a linear writer) to find out the total page count. But I'm a greedy user and want it all at once. It would make it easier for me to balance chapters and gauge my relative progress in different chapters.

 

I think this is pretty basic and would fit nicely in the Inspector (or elsewhere) as a grid with the story structure (chapters and sections, or what have you) down one side and measurements across (columns for pages, words and characters, at minimum). Totals are a must. Running totals added would be nice.

 

Why haven't we thought about this before?

-Thoth.

[Steve]

It occurs to me that Storyist is missing a lot of analytical information.

 

Basic things like the the sizes of story, chapters and sections, measured in pages, paragraphs, sentences, words and characters, should not have to be hand calculated or estimated.

 

Yes, story length, measured in words, is always available and that's pretty basic. And you can always scroll down to the last header (I'm not a linear writer) to find out the total page count. But I'm a greedy user and want it all at once. It would make it easier for me to balance chapters and gauge my relative progress in different chapters.

 

I think this is pretty basic and would fit nicely in the Inspector (or elsewhere) as a grid with the story structure (chapters and sections, or what have you) down one side and measurements across (columns for pages, words and characters, at minimum). Totals are a must. Running totals added would be nice.

 

Why haven't we thought about this before?

-Thoth.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure that this has come up before. Page counts instead of/in addition to the word count stats are on the list already (you really want pages instead of words if you're writing a screenplay).

 

You can, of course, already get the section/scene word count breakdowns in the outline.

 

As for paragraph and character counts: certainly possible, but does anyone REALLY want this information? I have my doubts, but am willing to be persuaded.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that this has come up before.

Me too, actually.

 

Page counts instead of/in addition to the word count stats are on the list already (you really want pages instead of words if you're writing a screenplay).

Page counts in addition to word counts. Obviously, we need word counts. (Are you attempting snarkiness?)

 

You can, of course, already get the section/scene word count breakdowns in the outline.

In the Storyboard, yes, there's a word count column option for Sections but not Chapters. And would it be too hard to include a Page count column option as well (for Sections and Chapters).

 

As for paragraph and character counts: certainly possible, but does anyone REALLY want this information? I have my doubts, but am willing to be persuaded.

Paragraph counts, sentence counts and character counts are just my attempt at being thorough. Darth Processor includes characters totals with spaces and without spaces. Why? Haven't a clue. But I assume someone needed it for something. DP's statistics also includes the number of lines. This actually is useful since some poetry publishers (**shudder**) have line total requirements.

 

But since page counts are already on the list this request is moot until we see what that looks like. Then I'll nag you about including page counts for chapters. (Why should I have to do the math?)

-Thoth

 

BTW: Did you have a chance to look at the Insertion Point Page Number Display request?

[Steve]

Page counts in addition to word counts. Obviously, we need word counts. (Are you attempting snarkiness?)

 

You'll be able to configure what is in the status at the bottom of the page. If you're writing a screenplay, you really don't care about word count, though, so you probably won't configure words, you'll configure pages.

 

In the Storyboard, yes, there's a word count column option for Sections but not Chapters. And would it be too hard to include a Page count column option as well (for Sections and Chapters).

 

Paragraph counts, sentence counts and character counts are just my attempt at being thorough. Darth Processor includes characters totals with spaces and without spaces. Why? Haven't a clue. But I assume someone needed it for something. DP's statistics also includes the number of lines. This actually is useful since some poetry publishers (**shudder**) have line total requirements.

 

But since page counts are already on the list this request is moot until we see what that looks like. Then I'll nag you about including page counts for chapters. (Why should I have to do the math?)

 

I know that other WPs support them, probably for historical reasons. What I don't know is what writers actually use them for. I can imagine that line count was also useful for estimating page count. Perhaps character count was useful for estimating the number of crates of lead you'd have to order to typeset the work?

 

Another way to think of it: is it worth having Storyist be fractionally slower to calculate these for you? The faction is actually very very small, but you get the point.

 

BTW: Did you have a chance to look at the Insertion Point Page Number Display request?

 

Not yet.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

You'll be able to configure what is in the status at the bottom of the page.

 

I know that other WPs support them, probably for historical reasons. What I don't know is what writers actually use them for. I can imagine that line count was also useful for estimating page count. Perhaps character count was useful for estimating the number of crates of lead you'd have to order to typeset the work?

Close. Sort of. Back in the late-70s character count was vital for computerized linotype machines. Later (but not much later) character count (not the parity bit) was used to help verify the accuracy of electronically transmitted material. In the 80s some small (very small) publishers of flyers and pamphlets were actually limited by character count. Now they would just change to a smaller font to fit everything on the page. (If they had a Mac in '84 they could have done it then.) Today? Darned to heck if I know. So you're probably right about "historical reasons".

 

Another way to think of it: is it worth having Storyist be fractionally slower to calculate these for you? The faction is actually very very small, but you get the point.

Yes I do. But only if the fraction is very very very small, would I go for it. For pages, anyway.

 

Another way to think about it: is it worth having a feature that more than a few people think they will need, even if they don't. I think we know why some WPs load up on essentially useless features; they don't want that X on the comparison's table. I'm glad that Storyist isn't that sort of program but I don't think most potential users will be that analytical. I figured that loading up on the statistics would be safe enough, as long as the calculations didn't slow things down too much.

 

Moving very slowly,

-Thoth.

[marguerite]

Close. Sort of. Back in the late-70s character count was vital for computerized linotype machines. Later (but not much later) character count (not the parity bit) was used to help verify the accuracy of electronically transmitted material. In the 80s some small (very small) publishers of flyers and pamphlets were actually limited by character count. Now they would just change to a smaller font to fit everything on the page. (If they had a Mac in '84 they could have done it then.) Today? Darned to heck if I know. So you're probably right about "historical reasons".

 

 

Yes I do. But only if the fraction is very very very small, would I go for it. For pages, anyway.

 

Another way to think about it: is it worth having a feature that more than a few people think they will need, even if they don't. I think we know why some WPs load up on essentially useless features; they don't want that X on the comparison's table. I'm glad that Storyist isn't that sort of program but I don't think most potential users will be that analytical. I figured that loading up on the statistics would be safe enough, as long as the calculations didn't slow things down too much.

 

Moving very slowly,

-Thoth.

Character counts are useful for people who prepare material for press, especially journal issues and other publications that have to fit into a certain number of pages. If I look at an issue and it adds up to 225,000 bytes, I know it will fit a particular template. If the total is 300,000, it won't. Words vary in length, so the word count gives a fuzzier estimate.

 

That said, I don't see why someone would need paragraph counts or character counts for fiction writing--or nonfiction writing that will go to someone else before typesetting. Given the number of different projects for which people use Storyist, I can imagine that it might be helpful to have the capacity to choose word count (novels, short stories), page count (same, plus screenplays), or line count (poetry). It would be nice to see both which page I was on and how many words I had in total, so I'd like to have both displayed at the bottom of the screen. Whether the numbers are there all the time or only when I click on a particular box doesn't matter--whichever affects performance the least--but I'd like to be able to get the information quickly, without having to switch modes or scroll up and down.

 

Do graphic novelists have to count paragraphs, though? If so, perhaps that could be one of the selectable options, not present for everyone all the time but accessible to those who truly need it.

Best,

Marguerite

[astillac]

I have very often (just two minutes ago, actually) wished that Storyist could display page count in the Project Panel. In my imagination, it looks like this:

 

 

I think that's a simple, elegant way to display the needed information. And yes, we do need page counts. It helps with pacing. Doubly so for graphic novelists! <3

 

Photoshop rocks my socks,

but my math really sucks!

- Calli

[Steve E]

In my head, I see the Chapter and Section page totals in the Sections Storyboard. But I agree (Calli) that we shouldn't have to do the math (especially for Chapters).

 

And I agree (M) that we need an easy way to see what page we're on. One that doesn't involve scrolling. It strikes me as pretty basic.

 

So I'd be perfectly happy with the above (Steve) and we can save sentences and characters and lines and paragraphs until we can find compelling reasons for them.

 

Always willing to be talked out of something, or into it.

-Thoth

 

BTW: Bookmarks.