Jump to content
Storyist Forums

How I use Storyist OS X


orrenm

Recommended Posts

Hello Orren

 

Good article.

 

Looking at your screen shots I have to assume that you are using something larger than the 13" Macbook AIR that I use. One thing that plagues me when I get lots of things in the story is I end up scrolling up and down looking for things. Any suggestions.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good article.

Thanks!

 

Looking at your screen shots I have to assume that you are using something larger than the 13" Macbook AIR that I use.

Quite a bit larger. Those screenshots are from a 27" iMac (2650x1140 resolution). My iMac is the non-retina 2011 version; I'm salivating over the new 5k retina models!

 

One thing that plagues me when I get lots of things in the story is I end up scrolling up and down looking for things.

Sadly, that is inevitable with a small screen. Even with my iMac, if you look at the screenshots you'll notice that if I have enough Project folder triangles disclosed I'll end up scrolling, and that I have more plot points than fit in the second workspace. The MacBook Air you have has slightly more than half the pixels of my iMac, so you can't expect to get nearly as much on the screen.

 

That is the price of mobility. I have a 13" MacBook Pro, as well as an iPad, but I do all my "heavy lifting" from my desktop machine, because it has the most screen real estate, which makes long-form writing that much easier and quicker. I use my laptop only when I can't be at the desktop for long periods.

 

Any suggestions.

The best suggestion I can give you, if you have some money and work at a regular desk space, is to get yourself a second monitor. You can open multiple windows in Storyist, so you could dedicate your manuscript to your 13" MacBook Air monitor, and then story sheets or other documents to your second monitor, or vis versa.

 

Otherwise, the best advise I can give you is to use the vertical split, rather than the horizontal split. When I do this on my laptop, I dedicate the top workspace to my manuscript, and then open a thinner workspace underneath for my plot index points. See the attached screenshot.

 

You also may find, in a limited screenspace situation, that it is not desirable to have an entire "story bible" in Storyist. I mentioned in my article that I'm playing with using Microsoft OneNote for my bible; this is because on my laptop, I find it's faster/more convenient to actually command+tab to a new application entirely (that takes the full screen) than to switch out the plot sheets from the bottom workspace. So that might be another option.

 

Anyway, hope that helps!

 

Orren

 

post-625-0-44306900-1414824034_thumb.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Orren

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Have been trying the split screen while setting up for the NaNo this year.

 

Will give thought to the extra monitor when we get home in the spring. Not sure how much help it will be because I seem to move around for writing. If the weather is nice I write on the patio, if it is not so nice then I am at my desk.

 

In the winter we live in a small motorhome in which space is at a premium so the AIR works perfectly and does not get in the way. Same thing applies about writing in different places either at the table or outside on a tiny table depending on how warm it is.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And here, somewhat belatedly, is my ode to Storyist 3: http://blog.cplesley.com/2014/11/the-technology-of-writing.html. :)

M

 

Hello M

 

Very interesting article.

 

Like the screen shots to help understand how things are done by others in their usage of Storyist.

 

I assume that you are using a large sized monitor like Orren.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Phil, Orren, and Thewitt!

 

Phil, I have an 21" iMac, so yes, a pretty big screen. I actually do use a setup like the first screen shot (Project View, text, characters as storyboard) almost all the time. I know it's more difficult to manage that on a small screen. But since the point of the post was to show what Storyist can do, it seemed important to make the difference between it and a word processor visible.

 

And the middle screen shot, with the double storyboard, would not be difficult to achieve even on a small screen.

Best,

M

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...