Copy & Paste For Sheets

[Steve E]

Many characters and settings are very similar. And after spending time adding descriptive text and custom attributes to (for example) Character Sheets it seems like a waste of time to have to replicate them for each similar character (as easy as that may be).

 

Also, several people have expressed a desire for series support. So, perhaps, it's time to think about how things might work across story files. (Steve?)

 

With all this in mind I would like to propose two new functions for Sheets. Along with Add, Delete, Rename and Open (what does Open do for a Sheet anyway? It isn't even highlighted unless a Sheet is already open.) I would like to propose Copy Sheet and Paste Sheet. If you can copy and paste a Sheet you can replicate an entire Sheet in one click (and then modify it). If you can paste Sheets between Storyist files (while the program is active) you don't have to re-type the entire Sheet for a new story. To avoid confusion the name of the Sheet could have "-Copy" appended to it. (E.g., Copy "John", Paste "John-Copy".)

 

Good idea? Bad? What do you think?

 

Thoughtful Thoth.

[Steve]

Many characters and settings are very similar. And after spending time adding descriptive text and custom attributes to (for example) Character Sheets it seems like a waste of time to have to replicate them for each similar character (as easy as that may be).

 

Also, several people have expressed a desire for series support. So, perhaps, it's time to think about how things might work across story files. (Steve?)

 

With all this in mind I would like to propose two new functions for Sheets. Along with Add, Delete, Rename and Open (what does Open do for a Sheet anyway? It isn't even highlighted unless a Sheet is already open.) I would like to propose Copy Sheet and Paste Sheet. If you can copy and paste a Sheet you can replicate an entire Sheet in one click (and then modify it). If you can paste Sheets between Storyist files (while the program is active) you don't have to re-type the entire Sheet for a new story. To avoid confusion the name of the Sheet could have "-Copy" appended to it. (E.g., Copy "John", Paste "John-Copy".)

 

Good idea? Bad? What do you think?

 

Thoughtful Thoth.

 

Good idea.

 

The "Copy" feature is on the list; it'll probably be named "Duplicate" and function more or less like the duplicate function in the Finder. I view this as distinct from copy/paste. BTW, I also plan to add a command to allow you to merge sheets.

 

On the "Open" issue: that is a hold-over from pre-1.0 versions where a single click selected--but did not navigate to--the item. Now that navigation occurs with a single mouse click, it is really unnecessary. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

The "Copy" feature is on the list; it'll probably be named "Duplicate" and function more or less like the duplicate function in the Finder. I view this as distinct from copy/paste. BTW, I also plan to add a command to allow you to merge sheets.

 

Thanks Steve. But why would anyone want to merge two Sheets together?

 

On the "Open" issue: that is a hold-over from pre-1.0 versions where a single click selected--but did not navigate to--the item. Now that navigation occurs with a single mouse click, it is really unnecessary. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

You're welcome. (Hey, even humans have an appendix and leftover junk genes.)

 

Thoughtful Thoth.

[Steve]

Thanks Steve. But why would anyone want to merge two Sheets together?

 

You might decide that the story doesn't support two minor characters and want to combine them in the second draft. If you've already got links to both of them, it would be tedious to copy and paste the relevant bits and update the links by hand.

 

-Steve

[Steve E]

You might decide that the story doesn't support two minor characters and want to combine them in the second draft. If you've already got links to both of them, it would be tedious to copy and paste the relevant bits and update the links by hand.

 

I didn't think of that. Nice to see that at least one of us is on the ball.

[NineDarkClouds]

Duplicate Story Sheets. Glad to see this topic already exists. Very sad to see that it is dated from 2007 and still has not been added. There must be a technical issue that is making this feature difficult that I am not following. I am adding to this post in the hope that it will bring attention to this feature again. This is the one most important feature for me. Because, as of right now, I am not using the Story Sheets at all. What I am doing now is creating a General Text file and listing all the custom options I need for what should be my Story Sheet, then copying the text and creating a new General Text file and pasting, then making changes. I am using the General Text file because I can select all in a single copy. If I try to do this with a Story Sheet I can only copy one field at a time and have to go back and forth multiple times to get everything, that might not be that bad on the Mac version of Storyist but it is on the iPad version.

 

I hope the Duplicate feature is added for both Mac and iPad as it has formatting that is easier on the eyes, making it quick to pick out the information I am looking for. Also, it is disappointing to have the feature of Story Sheets already in the program and to not be using them because they can't be customized for my needs in the iPad version of Storyist, and they have to be manually changed for each Story Sheet in each story every time a new one is created in both the Mac and iPad versions of Storyist.