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Comment on John Martellaro's Review of Storyist


Steve E

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Steve made this post in Announcements today. Since I can't respond to it there I'll respond here.

 

John Martellaro at the Mac Observer has published a thoughtful and thorough review of Storyist 2:

 

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/review/stor...e_story_teller/

 

I'm especially proud of this one as John is a long-time Mac user and has carefully reviewed the other novel writing apps.

 

-Steve

 

Terrific review! Four-and-a-half Power Buttons with no Cons except "High level of mastery required". Do the rest of you think a high level of mastery is required to use Storyists?

 

- Thoth.

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I don't think a high level of mastery is required. I think some adapting is slightly needed.

 

4.5 review. Doesn't that beat all of the others reviewed so far?

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I don't think a high level of mastery is required. I think some adapting is slightly needed.

Some. I agree.

 

4.5 review. Doesn't that beat all of the others reviewed so far?

Yes:

Storyist 4.5 Power Buttons;

StoryMill 4.0 Power Buttons;

Scrivener 4.0 Power Buttons;

Jer's Novel Writer 3.5 Power Buttons;

CopyWrite 3.0 Power Buttons;

Ulysses 2.5 Power Buttons.

 

Click here for more.

- Thoth.

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I was saddened to see that Ulysses only got a 2.5. I understand that Ulysses does take a high level of mastery to use, but it is one of the main pioneers (I also think it has the best full-screen writing experience so far as well).

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I was saddened to see that Ulysses only got a 2.5. I understand that Ulysses does take a high level of mastery to use, but it is one of the main pioneers (I also think it has the best full-screen writing experience so far as well).

I was delighted to see Storyist beat out Scrivener, which I tend to see as Storyist's main competition even though they approach the novel writing experience differently.

 

I have to wonder, though, how Storyist would compare to Word (*shudder*) or some other workhorse program strictly in the novel-writing arena.

 

Could Storyist have envelope generating templates? A mail merge feature? Sure. But that takes the program in a very different direction. So, yeah, I'd love to see Storyist take on the big boys doing what Storyist does best.

- Thoth.

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Terrific review! Four-and-a-half Power Buttons with no Cons except "High level of mastery required". Do the rest of you think a high level of mastery is required to use Storyist?

- Thoth.

I think it takes a fairly high level of mastery to take advantage of everything Storyist has to offer. I know I worked with the program for several months before I felt that I was making effective use of the various kinds of sheets, and then I had to learn a whole new way of working with version 2. Things like file import can also be a bit of bear for newbies (see iKlaatu's and JuliaGrace's initial difficulties). Even then, I found it easier to make sense of than Scrivener.

 

Still, it's certainly possible to plunge in and start writing without a high level of mastery. The basic program seems very fast and intuitive to me. And although I don't have a printed manual, being a beta tester, I love the idea that you can order one. I know many software developers prefer putting help files online, which is fine, but I actually read printed manuals when I have them. (I know, I seriously need a life. :lol: ) And I find it much easier to find stuff in a manual than to figure out what a computer program has decided to file something under—yes, even Storyist.

 

Terrific review, indeed, and well earned!

M

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I have to wonder, though, how Storyist would compare to Word (*shudder*) or some other workhorse program strictly in the novel-writing arena.

- Thoth.

Well, my copy of Word crashes once a day. If I'm lucky, I can predict when it's about to lose its marbles and save and close the file. If I'm not, I'm left scratching my head wondering what I just lost. :lol:

 

Not much competition for Storyist there! :D

M

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I was delighted to see Storyist beat out Scrivener, which I tend to see as Storyist's main competition even though they approach the novel writing experience differently.

 

I have to wonder, though, how Storyist would compare to Word (*shudder*) or some other workhorse program strictly in the novel-writing arena.

 

Could Storyist have envelope generating templates? A mail merge feature? Sure. But that takes the program in a very different direction. So, yeah, I'd love to see Storyist take on the big boys doing what Storyist does best.

- Thoth.

 

If it starts to implement all of those other features (like word), then it might defeat the purpose of the application. A send to Mail.app as PDF/DOC/RTF would be neat.

 

I was ecstatic that it beat Scrivener, but I think that's because Scrivener trusts the user with most of the work and there's much more to manage.

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  • 3 weeks later...
A send to Mail.app as PDF/DOC/RTF would be neat.

 

Thanks everyone for the support! I was thrilled with this review because the reviewer spent quite a bit of time with all of the apps and wrote very thoughtful reviews of all.

 

emoKid, you can mail a PDF as follows:

 

1) Choose File > Print.

 

2) When the print dialog appears, click the PDF button and choose Mail PDF from the pop-up menu.

 

Tip: This works in most OS X applications that are based on Cocoa.

 

-Steve

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  • 6 months later...

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