A Storyist project contains your manuscript or script, story sheets, and notebook entries.
When you launch Storyist or create a new project using the File > New Project command, the template chooser appears, allowing you to select a document template. Project templates provide style sheets (formatting information), placeholder manuscripts and story elements, and introductory text for various project types.
Storyist comes with several built-in templates that you can use as starting points for a new project: Novel, Screenplay, Stage Play, and Blank.
The Novel Template—This template provides a starting point for a novel manuscript and includes:
Style definitions that make it easy to format your manuscript in a standard format.
A brief introduction to manuscript formatting to give you a sense of what the formatting looks like.
Several example story elements (plot points and characters) that you can use or replace as needed.
A title page to include with your manuscript submissions.
If you want to write a novel and aren’t sure which template to use, select the Novel template.
The Screenplay Template—This template provides a starting point for a feature-length screenplay, and can be modified for playwriting. It includes:
Style definitions that make it easy to format your screenplay in a standard format.
A brief introduction to screenplay formatting to give you a sense of what the formatting looks like.
A title page to include with your submissions.
If you want to write a script or screenplay and aren’t sure which template to use, choose this one.
The Stage Play Template—This template provides a starting point for a stage play. It includes:
Style definitions that make it easy to format your stage play in a standard format.
A brief introduction to stage play formatting to give you a sense of what the formatting looks like.
A title page to include with your script submissions.
Example front matter to include with your script submissions.
The Blank Template—This template provides a starting point for a project of any type.
You might want to designate a particular template to be used every time you create a new document. To set a default template:
Open the Preferences window by choosing Storyist > Preferences.
Click the General preference pane, if it is not already selected.
Click the Choose button and click the template you want to set as the default.
Opening an Existing Project
Storyist project files are created with the “.story” extension. To open a project:
From the main menu, choose File > Open.
Select the project you want to open.
Importing a File
Storyist can import files written in other word processors if the files are stored in one of the following formats:
Rich Text Format (.rtf)—Storyist can import text, formatting information, headers, footers, and style sheets. Use this format if possible.
Microsoft Word (.doc)—Storyist can import text and formatting information.
HTML (.html)—Storyist can import text and formatting information.
Text Only (.txt)—Storyist can import text information.
Final Draft Converter Format (.fcf)—This format is used by Final Draft®, a screenplay formatter published by Final Draft, Inc. Storyist can import text and screenplay element information.
Final Draft XML Format (.fdx)—This format is the default file format for Final Draft version 8. Storyist can import script text, script notes, a screenplay element information
On Leopard, Storyist can import the following additional formats:
Microsoft Word (.docx)—Storyist can import text and formatting information.
Open Document Text (.odt)—Storyist can import text and formatting information.
Note: While some word processors do not store their files natively in the above formats, most do allow you to export your file into them. Refer to the word processor’s manual for details.
To import a manuscript or script into a new project:
Choose File > Open.
Select a file.
If you select a file stored in one of the formats listed above, a message appears to inform you that Storyist can create a new project and import the file for you.
If you want to run the Import Assistant on the selected file (see below), click the checkbox for “Run the Import Assistant after importing.”
Click OK.
To import a file into an existing project:
Choose File > Import.
Select a file.
Click the Import button.
Using the Import Assistant
When you import a text file, you can have Storyist run the Import Assistant to perform common tasks like converting smart quotes to straight quotes and reformatting imported text to match the styles you are using in the project. The Import Assistant can either create a custom workflow (list of tasks) for your import file, or use a previously created workflow.
To run the Import Assistant:
Select a file to import as described in “Importing a File.” Be sure to click the checkbox for “Run the Import Assistant after importing.”
Select either “Create a workflow for me” or “Use the following workflow,” and select the workflow you want to run.
Optionally, click the checkbox for “Guide me through the workflow steps.” If you select this option, the Import Assistant will present each step in the workflow in order, describe each operation, and give you a chance to change the settings for the step.
Click Import (or Next, if you clicked the checkbox in the previous step).
About the Custom Workflows
The tasks in a custom Import Workflow vary depending on whether or not the import file contains style information.
If the import file contains style information, the steps of the workflow are:
Replace Styles—Lets you replace styles in the import file with styles from the project style sheet.
Change Typography—Converts between common typographical representations for quotation marks, emphasis, em dashes, and ellipses.
If the import file does not contain style information, the steps of the workflow are:
Apply Styles by Matching Text—Applies the styles you specify to paragraphs by matching text at the beginning of a paragraph.
Change Typography—Converts between common typographical representations for quotation marks, emphasis, em dashes, and ellipses.
Files that do not contain style information include Text Only files and files imported using the OS X Importer.
If you click the checkbox for “Guide me through the steps,” the last step lets you save the parameters you selected as a workflow to use the next time you import a file. In order for the parameters to be available in the “Run workflow” pop-up menu, the workflow must be saved in ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Storyist/Workflows/Import.
Getting Around
Your manuscript (or script) and notes are available from the Project view located at the left of the main window. To view an item listed in the Project view, simply click it.
Much like a Web browser, Storyist remembers which pages you have viewed and in what order. You can navigate through them using any of these methods:
Click the Forward or Back button in the Navigation bar in the Main view until you see the page you are looking for.
Click the Navigation bar pop-up menu and select the page you are looking for.
Choose View > Go Forward or View > Go Back until you see the page you are looking for.
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