iPhone & iPod Touch apps

[Keybored]

Do any of you use Black Mana's two iPhone/iPod (and eventually iPad, I take it) apps, Manuscript & Screenplay? Manuscript makes prose and will store @ Google Docs; Screenplay reads/writes FCP 8. Which means, one could RTF in/out of Storyist to Google Docs, then down to iPhone, and have a portable Storyist (and screenplay writers could in/out FCP from iPhone to Storyist). If the translations didn't get too wonky, could be a sweet set-up if you're on the go but sometimes are inspired to write a scene or section or whatever. Reviews look good, board discussions show flaws getting fixed, new versions @ app store seem to make everything smooth.

 

Anybody use these? If they're as good as they seem, could be a whoa Nellie! moment shaping up here. Especially on my new (it's not here yet) iPad that looks like THE portable i've tried to buy several times already, only to discover it hasn't passed the Jobs test. (insert endless, and endless tiresome, encomiums here)

 

Anybody? Anybody at all? Bueller?

[orrenm]

I'd rather just see an iPad version of Storyist.

 

Personally, I don't like Google Docs as an interim file format/storage location. I like my own drive hierarchies, either in the cloud or on my own physical drives. I don't like having to navigate to Google for Google Docs, and having everything else stored somewhere else.

 

FWIW, I keep all my novels on a JungleDisk drive (www.jungledisk.com) so I can access them from any of my 3 Macs, in any location w/wi-fi. If I were to get an iPad, I'd love a version of Storyist to be able to access that.

 

Orren

[Keybored]

I'd rather just see an iPad version of Storyist.

Well, um, like, duh. I would like a Storyist brain implant; so, Steve, how about it? Imagine the difficulties that would solve.

 

I have been assuming that the economics of developing for Apple's app store did not bode well for something as intricate as Storyist migrating there. I thought there might be somebody out there using these guys already, which I just discovered tonight, to give some guidance on whether they were better than sketching work on a notepad app and wrestling it into Storyist that way.

 

But, come to think of it, do you know what is really amazing about these things? There are people out there writing novels and screenplays on the iPhone platform. What happens to their thumbs on page 235? How do they remember what they're going to say while they're waiting for their blurried racing thumbs to catch up with their lightning-fast inspiration? I mean, once you've slit open the chicken for the muses, you gotta type fast while the little voices are going off in your bicameral mind, right?

 

So here I am, waiting around for the Deus ex iPadica. (It's just possible I'm poorly remembering my Latin. O, wait, I never took Latin.)

[thealtruismsociety]

Storyist for iPad please, thanks!

[marguerite]

Storyist for iPad please, thanks!

Yes, Storyist for iPad, please! There may be some challenges posed by the amount of screen real estate (even on my 12" Powerbook, the screen gets kind of cramped), but the touch screen should open up some really interesting possibilities, too.

 

On the question Keybored asked initially, I haven't used the apps he mentions (don't have an iPhone, although I'm seriously tempted by the iPad), but I have had trouble with Google Docs in other contexts because it strips the styling out of documents, which could cause a lot of frustration as you move back and forth from one program to another.

 

Better would be to export Storyist files to RTF and set up a template in the new Pages for iPad that matches the styles in the original document (Section Text, Section Separator, Chapter Title): Steve described how to do that elsewhere in the forums. I've done that in Word for ages, and it works great. I'm not that familiar with Pages yet, but in Word I have a file set up for my novel, and when I have to send it to critique partners, say, I open that document, hit Command-A to select all, then use Import > File to overwrite what's there with the latest version. That way, the headers, etc., remain in place and the text comes in already styled.

 

I also keep multiple export workflows in Storyist itself for different tasks. So for Word, I keep all the fancy typographic options (curly quotes, etc.) and just export the file as is, but for Stanza I convert everything (straight quotes, double hyphens, and three dots—underlining/italics never seems to take no matter what). Stanza then converts them back instead of dumping weird characters in their place. That might be another way to avoid the shortcomings of Google Docs.

Best,

M

[thealtruismsociety]

Yes, Storyist for iPad, please! There may be some challenges posed by the amount of screen real estate (even on my 12" Powerbook, the screen gets kind of cramped), but the touch screen should open up some really interesting possibilities, too.

 

On the question Keybored asked initially, I haven't used the apps he mentions (don't have an iPhone, although I'm seriously tempted by the iPad), but I have had trouble with Google Docs in other contexts because it strips the styling out of documents, which could cause a lot of frustration as you move back and forth from one program to another.

 

Better would be to export Storyist files to RTF and set up a template in the new Pages for iPad that matches the styles in the original document (Section Text, Section Separator, Chapter Title): Steve described how to do that elsewhere in the forums. I've done that in Word for ages, and it works great. I'm not that familiar with Pages yet, but in Word I have a file set up for my novel, and when I have to send it to critique partners, say, I open that document, hit Command-A to select all, then use Import > File to overwrite what's there with the latest version. That way, the headers, etc., remain in place and the text comes in already styled.

 

I also keep multiple export workflows in Storyist itself for different tasks. So for Word, I keep all the fancy typographic options (curly quotes, etc.) and just export the file as is, but for Stanza I convert everything (straight quotes, double hyphens, and three dots—underlining/italics never seems to take no matter what). Stanza then converts them back instead of dumping weird characters in their place. That might be another way to avoid the shortcomings of Google Docs.

Best,

M

 

So far trying to get a proper manuscript set up in Pages is making me a sad Panda, can't do it, even Steve couldn't get it like how Storyist does it.

[codemer]

So far trying to get a proper manuscript set up in Pages is making me a sad Panda, can't do it, even Steve couldn't get it like how Storyist does it.

 

Since both Storyist and Pages store the documents in XML, I wonder if someone could just write an XSLT file to translate them.

 

IF

[thealtruismsociety]

Here's what Steve tried already.

 

http://storyist.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=1024