Importing from Word

[Eric]

I'm excited about my new Storyist software, but I’ve had some trouble getting off the ground with the program. Even after reading through the user guide and forum posts, I was stumped for a time by some beginning steps—understanding the naming convention at the top of the manuscript, for example (Manuscript Name – Project Name). Working with a manuscript imported from Word has been a more vexing problem.

 

What’s the best way to import the manuscript to match the formatting and styles of Storyist? My documents import formatted like the word documents they come from, including the Styles list. I’ve had to cut text segments and paste to match in the Storyist introductory text—cumbersome when dealing with a novel. Is it best to create all these styles in Word first, as I saw in one post?

 

Any tips you have for whipping a manuscript into shape once it's in Storyist would be helpful. I'm afraid I won't last long if I’m facing hours and hours of formatting chapter titles and inserting #'s for section breaks and so on. Once I have the formatting and styles, what’s the most efficient way to take a rather disorganized document from Word and set up section sheets and plot points and all the other cool stuff?

 

My goals are pretty simple: Import documents (dozens, some quite big) from Word into Storyist. Import them into the right place (as a new project, usually) with Storyist styles and formatting. Organize the documents with section, plot, character, and notes sheets.

 

Thank you,

Eric

[marguerite]

Hi, Eric:

As mentioned elsewhere, if you want to import a file from Word with your italics, underlining, whatever intact, you do need to make a few adjustments in Word to simplify that process. If you just want to import plain text and handle it later, then you don't.

 

I have attached a Word document with preformatted styles and instructions for how to apply those styles so that Storyist will recognize them. This assumes you want your text in Times New Roman 12 point. If not, you can edit the three styles you will need: Section Text, Chapter Title, and Section Separator in Word. Just click on the style name in the Styles list, click on the arrow, and choose Modify Style. I will also post this template in the Sharing section.

 

You do need to insert # on a line by itself wherever you want Storyist to insert a section break. You can do that before importing or after: it's up to you. You can add and delete section breaks as you write by typing or backspacing over the #. But you cannot have a section break without the #, because that's the identifier Storyist uses.

 

Once you have your manuscript, you can add section, character, plot, etc., sheets by clicking on the appropriate all caps heading in the Project View and choosing the right option from the gear menu at the bottom (Add > X Sheet or Add > Text file). Once you add one character sheet, say, you can add another by clicking the + sign at the bottom of the window. You may want to check out some of Steve's tutorial videos at Storyist.com. There are also online help files and a downloadable manual that explain the process pretty clearly.

Best,

Marguerite

[Eric]

Thanks very much, Marguerite. This will help me get oriented.

Eric