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marguerite

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Everything posted by marguerite

  1. It was there in earlier versions: you could get a corkboard background in grid mode, for example, which I loved. Apple did something that cause Steve to change it, but to be honest, I still miss that feature.
  2. I agree that it would be great to have a more elegant way of copying files between projects. Notes can be exported and re-imported, but sheets require a lot of copying and pasting to make them usable again. In the interim, what I do (because I'm in the midst of a whole series with repeating characters, some of whom first appeared in an earlier series, now complete) is simply to duplicate the most complete version of Novel X and save that as Novel X+1, so that the only thing I need to replace is the manuscript for the new book, plus add any new characters or settings or research that I didn't need before. Of course, that doesn't allow the two files to stay in sync, in the sense that an update to one book is automatically reflected in the other book. But it's a lot easier to go through the character sheets, say, and update ages and other changing information than to read everything in from scratch. And the notes and research remain in place. The other thing I do is keep an "Unused in This Book" folder where I can stash character and other info that I don't need now but may want later. That is, I don't throw any sheets/notes out unless I'm absolutely sure I will never need them again. Hope that helps. Marguerite
  3. Hi, Jude L, and welcome to the forums. Storyist doesn't have a footnoting feature: it's primarily for fiction writers. You could enter author-date citations and run a list of references at the end. Best, Marguerite
  4. Two things. As protection, if you drag sections about a lot, ensure that each one ends with # on a line by itself, even if it's the end of a chapter. That clues Storyist in to the idea that you don't want merging (because the # marks the end of the section). I thought the program actually added the # before dragging, but your experience suggests I may be wrong about that. Also (and this is a Mac thing, not a Storyist thing), if you drag a chapter, watch the line that shows you where the program thinks you want to drop it: if it's indented under another chapter, then the Mac assumes you want it made subordinate. If the line is full length, it should end up at the same level as the other chapters. And if it gets in the wrong place, dragging it right above or below where you want it but making sure the line is full length should get it back to the right level. You can then move it into place. Best, Marguerite
  5. There are rulers in Storyist too. Choose "Show rulers" from the View menu. You can also click on the circled i at the top right to open the Inspector and adjust indents from there. In general, Storyist depends heavily on styles—which it exports to RTF and can thus be retained in Word if you set up the Word file properly. There are instructions for that in the user threads on this site. I set up a "1st paragraph" style that includes no first line indent and apply it as needed to the text. Storyist also has a Book feature (Choose New, then Book, from the File menu). I believe that there's a way to get a drop cap from that. I haven't used the Book feature much, though, because I typeset in InDesign, so I can't tell you how to access the drop cap. Best, and welcome to the forums, Marguerite
  6. I don't have an answer for the problem, except to say that I'm not encountering it under High Sierra, so it may be an OS issue. I will say that Storyist Support (i.e., Steve Shepard, the developer) is usually very quick to respond, both here and especially via e-mail. So there must be some reason for the delay, although I have no idea what that is. Best, Marguerite
  7. Hi, TLC, I don't know exactly, but I have seen the difference. In my case, it's because I have the Mac version set to prevent widows and orphans, and the iPad version doesn't support that (as far as I know). So the page breaks change whenever there is a single line at the end or beginning of a paragraph. You can reset the formatting, in that case, on the Mac by choosing View > Layout > Draft, then View > Layout > Page Layout. That forces the Mac version to respect the widows/orphans setting again. I'm a novelist, and I write mostly on the Mac, so it's not a big issue for me. There may be additional Screenplay issues with formatting that I don't know about, but I'd start with the widows/orphans and perhaps "keep with next paragraph" settings in your styles. You can see them by going to the Format menu, choosing Style, then Edit Current Style. Best, Marguerite
  8. I am not quite sure I understand, but as a long-time Storyist user and beta tester, let me give it a try. I don't indent the first paragraph of a chapter. I can do that because I selected a paragraph, clicked on the Inspector, chose not to indent the first line, then, with the paragraph still selected, chose Create New Style from Current Selection from the Style menu inside the Format menu. That adds a style that I can select as needed. if that doesn't answer your question, please write again. Note that even if you do that, the line will still show up as indented in an e-book. But if you export to RTF and open in Word, it will be flush left. Best, Marguerite
  9. Hi, Neil, I think you misunderstood the manual. As I read it, "You can export text files" is a general statement. It doesn't necessarily mean you can export more than one file with a single click. You can export multiple files from a Storyist project at one time on the Mac, but in iOS you need to send one at a time. That's why the "Send" icon grays out as soon as you select more than one file. Best, Marguerite
  10. Understood. Sorry I can't help with that, as I use the iPad version mostly for editing and that not so often. I do almost all my writing on the Mac. Try posting the question again in the iPad section, and probably someone (maybe Steve, the developer) will respond. Good luck! M
  11. The easiest setup for import is to use File > Save As in Word and save the file to RTF format. You can also find a lot of information about going back and forth between Storyist and Word in this thread: Copying/pasting out of Storyist is determined by the app you're copying into (Dan), but if you click in your manuscript and choose File > Export > then choose RTF, you can open that file in Word and have all the italics, etc. preserved. Save it as a Word .docx file, and you can attach it to an e-mail for agents or cut/paste from there if the agents refuse to accept attachments, as some do. One caveat: do not redefine your Section Text style in Word after importing the file from Storyist, or Word will impose the new definition on every paragraph that contains only italics, wiping them out in the process (in-paragraph italics will be maintained). That's a Word feature, not a Storyist feature. In Storyist, the main thing to watch out for is that before you change styles, make sure you are in a line or a part of a line that is neither italic or bold. In that case, Storyist will retain the special formatting. Good luck! Marguerite
  12. Hi, William, It sounds like a mixup. I'm sure the developer will help you. Try sending an e-mail to support at storyist dot com. You'll probably get an individual reply more quickly than posting here. Best, Marguerite
  13. Hi, James011, Did you try altering the text size in the Appearance Panel? Go to Storyist, Preferences, Appearance, then click on Outline View Heading Font and/or Outline View Summary Font and adjust the size by clicking the T button at bottom right. Best, Marguerite
  14. Hi, Dan, and welcome to the forums, Font overrides (bold, italic, etc.) can be tricky when cut and pasted. Are you trying to paste from Storyist to another program: Word, say? Or something else? There are often ways to get around the tendency for programs to nuke the italics, but before I go into details, it would be helpful to know exactly what you're trying to do. Best, Marguerite
  15. Hi, Robin, If you go up to the message where Callista originally posted the icon, then Control-click (right-click) on the image itself, the forums will give you the option to download it (assuming you're on a Mac—not sure if the same process works on an iPad or phone). Welcome to the forums! Marguerite
  16. Hi, Lawrence, I have seen pagination change from the Mac to the iOS versions, but I use the iOS app only for correcting text after I've shut down my computer, so I can't help. For me it's not a problem because it goes back when I reopen the file on the Mac. Have you tried adjusting margins? Or checking to see if Widow/Orphan protection is included in the latest iOS version? I think those are the most likely culprits for what's causing the discrepancy. Steve will probably be around soon to respond. Best, Marguerite
  17. GMC is hard to find in print, but it's available for Kindle.
  18. Nice. Thanks for posting. I love The Anatomy of Story. It and Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation, and Conflict are at the absolute top of my list of writing books. Truby was the one who finally got the idea of story structure through my head.... Best, M
  19. Good to know. If there's one thing you can say about computer programmers, it's that they LOVE to change things. And that goes double for Apple.
  20. I'm a big supporter of this feature request. Just as a workaround, though, let me note that I find it easier to add a chapter at the end and drag scenes from one chapter to the next than to renumber each chapter manually. Best, M
  21. You can do all those things. I mostly rely on backups (that is, I have Storyist set up to create automatic backups, but I also create a manual backup before I wreak havoc on some cherished piece of prose—in part because the File > Back Up feature lets me enter a comment to remind myself which version this is). The advantage of this method is that I can access the backups directly through the manuscript I'm working on. At the end of each day, I duplicate my file and call it Manuscript_Backup.story. I stash that file in a separate location. And because I am paranoid, I have copies on my iPad, my iPod, and Dropbox. I may lose my job-related files (joke: I back those up, too), but it would take a major catastrophe to wipe out my novel-in-progress. At the end of a draft, I copy my file and leave it in a backup folder in its relatively pristine state before beginning a new version. Eventually I wipe out the old ones, because I never really revert completely to an old version. But I do that only in the final stages of a project, because I never know when I will decide to resurrect a scene. You can't open one manuscript in two different versions in a split screen unless you keep both manuscripts in the same project, which is another option (I keep a manuscript called Saved Text, for stashing paragraphs or sections I may want back one day, so they don't lose their formatting). But you can open two manuscripts side by side, look at them both by adjusting the sizes of their windows, and copy/paste from one to the other. Best, M
  22. Hi, Eugenia: You can have Storyist match styles for you on import or later, but exactly how that works depends on what you're importing from. With Word, the best option is to set up corresponding styles in Word (the formatting need not match) for Section Text, Section Separator, and Chapter Title, then save the file to RTF. That post that's pinned at the top there describes how to do that. To speed up applying styles in Word, just select everything and apply Section Text. Then run a search for # and apply Section Separator in the Replace field. Then apply the Chapter Title style manually or by searching for the word Chapter. Storyist will then substitute its own named styles for the same styles when you import. You can check what it's doing by clicking on the "Show Import Options" box after selecting File > Import. Make sure that "Preserve style overrides" is checked. (I'm typing this from memory, so the wording may not be exact, but it's pretty obvious). There is also an "Apply styles by matching text" option in the Format Menu in Storyist that simplifies the process a bit. But Word and the importer preserve style overrides (italics, etc.) better than the Apply styles option does. If you don't use Word or Open Office, it becomes more difficult because Pages, say, does not save styles with RTF export. If that's the issue, write again and we'll discuss the other options. There's no key combo that I know of to create section separators as you suggest, but typing # on a line by itself starts a new section. The centering is just for the aesthetics. Best, M
  23. Eugenia, you can save styles by using the Save as Template option in the File menu. Then you can start a new project using those styles even if you delete the one you are working on. (That is, in essence, how Steve created the Novel and Screenplay and other templates that ship with Storyist.) Templates are just .story files that are stored in Application Support/Storyist/Templates within your user Library. Apple, in its infinite wisdom (cough), started hiding the user library in 10.7. But you can find it in the Go menu, using Go to > Library. And once you are in it, you can drag the icon to your sidebar and it will stay there. The reason you may want to do this is that it makes your life so much easier. You can drag or Option-drag (to copy) files into and out of the Templates folder as needed. Best, M
  24. Hi, Shandor, and welcome to the forums! There is currently no way to get automatic footnote creation or numbering or automatic chapter numbering in any version of Storyist. Both feature requests have been made before, and automatic chapter numbering has been an ongoing request for quite a while (you can search for the previous discussions—I don't have time at the moment to track them down). I agree that it would be useful. Automatic footnote creation would certainly expand the reach of Storyist, which would be a good thing, in my view. Although I use Storyist mostly for fiction, its ePub/MOBI creation is so superior to that of InDesign or Pages that I would love footnote support just so I could import academic files and create ePub versions from them. Not sure when either feature will appear, however. Only Steve can answer that one! Best, Marguerite
  25. If you'd like to fine-tune your ePub control, you might check out Folium Book Studio, which will also sell you an ISBN for your e-book for $10 if you purchase a project ($30). A free signup will get you two short-term projects for free; unlike the paid ones, they expire after three weeks and don't have the ISBN option, but they are also reusable. When one expires, you can start another in its place. For Storyist users, the free projects mostly offer an opportunity to test the FBS software without committing any cash. The service isn't flawless. I don't like the size of their covers (you can upload your own, but they have to fit in a 600x900 pixel box). The documentation needs work, and some of the instructions are confusing. If you buy an ISBN, for example, you are actually purchasing a credit, which you have to convert to a true ISBN before export by clicking on a button that says,"Do I need an ISBN?" Since I knew I needed an ISBN, I didn't do that the first time and managed to lock myself out. The company handling support then sent my pleas for assistance into a black hole, and I had to call FBS directly before I connected with their version of Steve, who fixed the problem in five minutes flat. (Steve, I have never appreciated you more than when I was fielding automated messages from this goofy support service! ) Still, it's a nice program once you get the hang of it, and it lets you specify line spacing, margins, and special treatment of first lines; set off block quotations; import and caption images, and so on. The fleurons are pretty, but they all convert to * * * on export, so I'd bother with them only if I enjoyed looking at them on screen. And the $10 for an ISBN that you can use for the Kindle, nook, and iBook stores (because it's the same edition uploaded to all three—Kindlegen converts the ePub for you) is a good deal. Best, M
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