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An Unrequest and three requests


Steakpirate

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1. Harder to delete sections

 

I call this a feature unrequest, because normally the ability to delete a section by selecting it and hitting the delete key would be considered a feature.

 

However, this ease of deletion causes me much grief as I often navigate using the sections when I'm revising, and sometimes I don't realize I've deleted a major organ until it's too late for CMD-Z to help me. As a result I have on multiple occasions had to go digging into backup files and rewrite segments.

 

Could we get some sort of child safety lock for us more trigger-happy writers? Perhaps requiring right clicking of a section to delete, or at the very least, a prompt asking for verification.

 

 

2. Extended Save Reversion Options:

 

One thing that I think would be very cool to have, is the ability to view side-by-side, the current data of your storyist file, with what it would be if you reverted it.

 

3. Clean Export

 

A way to export a document without the manuscript style chapter titles and section marks (Blue linky-text)

 

4. Lazy Man's Autosave patch

 

I noticed that Storyist has an autosave feature, which is very cool. However I like to leave Storyist open so that I'll have an incentive to write (That incentive being the presence of the window and nothing better to do.)

 

That being said, I'd prefer to have a "Date Modified" stamp on my storyist file that accurately reflects the last time I edited my file. Would it be too much trouble to build a small mechanism that only auto-saves if you've made any changes in a reasonably recent amount of time?

 

5. Back up to server

The ability to back up to an FTP server when Storyist makes local backups.

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Hi Steakpirate. Welcome to the forum.

 

1. Harder to delete sections

I know what you mean. I wouldn't mind an optional "You sure you wanna do that, Bub?" popup before I attempt to do something stupid. Seconded.

 

2. Extended Save Reversion Options:

An easy to set-up side-by-side view would be useful even in the same document. Seconded.

 

3. Clean Export A way to export a document without the manuscript style chapter titles and section marks (Blue linky-text)

Have you tried Format>Manuscript>Hide Section Titles to hide the Blue linkies?

 

4. Lazy Man's Autosave patch

You could reset the auto save. Nah. Too much work. Seconded.

 

5. Back up to server The ability to back up to an FTP server when Storyist makes local backups.

I don't need it but what the heck. Seconded.

 

You could have been working on my bookmarks, Steve.

-Thoth.

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Hi Steakpirate,

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Comments below:

 

1. Harder to delete sections

 

I call this a feature unrequest, because normally the ability to delete a section by selecting it and hitting the delete key would be considered a feature.

 

However, this ease of deletion causes me much grief as I often navigate using the sections when I'm revising, and sometimes I don't realize I've deleted a major organ until it's too late for CMD-Z to help me. As a result I have on multiple occasions had to go digging into backup files and rewrite segments.

 

Could we get some sort of child safety lock for us more trigger-happy writers? Perhaps requiring right clicking of a section to delete, or at the very least, a prompt asking for verification.

 

Making it harder to unintentionally delete sections is a probably a good thing. This could be done either by prompting you when delete (with a "don't ask me again option") or by exposing the project "trash", which would require confirmation before emptying. I'll think about this some.

 

2. Extended Save Reversion Options:

 

One thing that I think would be very cool to have, is the ability to view side-by-side, the current data of your storyist file, with what it would be if you reverted it.

 

Yes, this would be very cool. You'd also want to be able to compare against previous backups or other files as well. This would be a major feature.

 

3. Clean Export

 

A way to export a document without the manuscript style chapter titles and section marks (Blue linky-text)

 

This could probably be implemented a step in the export assistant. In the mean time, though, you can use the Format > Manuscript > Hide Section Titles command before exporting to temporarily remove the linky text before exporting.

 

4. Lazy Man's Autosave patch

 

I noticed that Storyist has an autosave feature, which is very cool. However I like to leave Storyist open so that I'll have an incentive to write (That incentive being the presence of the window and nothing better to do.)

 

That being said, I'd prefer to have a "Date Modified" stamp on my storyist file that accurately reflects the last time I edited my file. Would it be too much trouble to build a small mechanism that only auto-saves if you've made any changes in a reasonably recent amount of time?

 

I'm not sure I understand the request. When Storyist autosaves a document (which it does only if there are changes), it saves in a separate file in the same directory with "(Autosaved)" appended to the filename. I believe the timestamp of the original file isn't updated until you actually save the document yourself.

 

5. Back up to server

The ability to back up to an FTP server when Storyist makes local backups.

 

Agreed. There have been several discussions here about possible backup enhancements, including:

 

* The ability to specify a different local backup directory.

* The ability to backup to a WebDav server, like MobilMe

* The ability to backup via FTP

 

All would be great additions.

 

-Steve

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I'm not sure I understand the request. When Storyist autosaves a document (which it does only if there are changes), it saves in a separate file in the same directory with "(Autosaved)" appended to the filename. I believe the timestamp of the original file isn't updated until you actually save the document yourself.

 

Ah thanks for the clarification. I just assumed that the autosaves overwrote the working file, but the current design makes much more sense.

 

As far as accidental deletion goes, I think that a trash can might be the best way to go, so long as it's manually emptied and doesn't change the format of any sections that go in there (so that they could easily be dragged back.) It would also be cool if trashed files could remember where they were pre-trashing.

 

 

 

Yes, this would be very cool. You'd also want to be able to compare against previous backups or other files as well. This would be a major feature.

I hadn't given it that much thought, but the ability to compare to other files would be cool. (Exporting your file as a PDF and having someone send you back a marked up one for revision.) While the same thing could be accomplished with a Preview window, it wouldn't be anywhere near as much effort for you.

 

^_-

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