Some examples of how I use Storyist to help with TV editing on my blog

[robertsalsbury]

Hey everybody -

 

I have a blog which has mostly been focussed on how to use an iPad to help out doing video post-production and editing. Since last summer when Storyist shipped for iPad, I've been using it to help with shows I've edited, including a couple episodes of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and "After the First 48". I tried to show how & why I use Storyist in a real world situation.

 

http://blog.robertsa...-post-storyist/

 

I hope it's helpful to anyone wondering about how Storyist works.

 

-Robert Salsbury

[marguerite]

Great post, Robert!

 

May I just mention that you CAN, in fact, import entire Word documents into Storyist, both for Mac and for iPad—although the process is a bit more intuitive on the Mac? I go back and forth all the time, so I have become quite adept at it.

 

Basic method (I am a novelist, but it should work for screenplays, too).

1. Set up basic styles in Word for Section Text, Section Separator, Chapter Title (Action, Character, Dialogue, etc.). These styles need not match your Storyist formatting exactly. The point is to have them and assign them. Assign the styles as you would like them to appear in Storyist. Make sure scenes/sections are separated with # on a line by itself. Start chapters (for a novel) with the word Chapter and/or give them the Chapter Title style.

2. Save the Word file as RTF. Storyist will import .doc files, but it does better with RTF.

3. In Storyist, choose File > Import. Navigate to your RTF file and choose it.

4. At this point, Storyist should import your file with the styles intact. Out of pure paranoia, I usually click the Show Import Assistant box in step 3 and manually assign the Word styles to Storyist styles, but it is not really necessary. It will recognize # as indicating a section break and Chapter as starting a new chapter.

 

All the Section Text, e.g., will now have the formatting you defined for it in Storyist, plus any italics, etc. Make any adjustments and get on with your life.

 

The same process works in reverse. Keep a template with styles that match the names of the Storyist styles, export the Storyist file to RTF, import that file to Word, fix the fonts if necessary (Word has its own list of fonts). Note that the import/export does NOT work as well with TextEdit or Pages, which do not respect RTF styles as Word does. The text transfers, but everything converts to Default Style, so it's more of a headache to fix.

 

On the iPad, you need to copy the RTF file to iTunes or Dropbox, set up the project in iPad Storyist, move to the Manuscripts folder, then tap the import button and choose Copy from Dropbox or Copy from iTunes. When the file appears, tap on it, and you can edit from there.

Best,

Marguerite

[marguerite]

P.S. You can find a full description of using styles to import/export between Word and Storyist pinned at the top of this "Using Storyist" forum.

[Steve]

Hi Robert,

 

Great article. Thanks for posting it!

 

-Steve

[robertsalsbury]

Oh wow, thanks for the clarification on the document import. That's much easier than I realized.

 

It's funny, there are only 4 buttons on the screen and I misunderstood what one of them was for!

 

I guess I thought that button was to be used in place of the syncing done from the top level of the app. Glad to be proven wrong.

 

-Robert