Storyist User’s Guide

  1. Welcome to Storyist
    1. Product Overview
    2. Installing Storyist
  2. Understanding the User Interface
    1. Project View
    2. Toolbar
    3. Template Chooser
    4. Workspaces Window
    5. Inspector Window
    6. Backups Window
    7. Fonts Window
    8. Colors Window
    9. Preferences Window
    10. Keyboard Shortcuts and Shortcut Menus
  3. Getting Started
    1. Creating a New Project from a Template
    2. Opening an Existing Project
    3. Importing a File
    4. Getting Around
  4. Working with Text
    1. Editing and Formatting Text
    2. Creating and Applying Styles
    3. Working with Links
    4. Adding Elements to the Outline
    5. Inserting and Resizing Images
    6. Adding and Displaying Comments
    7. Bookmarking Frequently Viewed Text Locations
  5. Working with Story Sheets
    1. About Story Sheets
    2. Customizing Story Sheet Fields
    3. Adding Images to Story Sheets
  6. Working with Outlines
    1. Adding Outline Elements
    2. Moving Outline Elements
    3. Editing Outline Level Properties
  7. Working with Storyboards
    1. Adding Items to a Corkboard
    2. Specifying the Layout of Corkboard Items
    3. Adding Items to a Collage
    4. Adding Section and Scene Sheets to a Collage
    5. Resizing Storyboard Items
    6. Changing the Representation of Storyboard Items
    7. Color Coding Index Cards
  8. Working with the Project View
    1. Adding Items to the Project
    2. Adding Outline Elements to Project Items
    3. Grouping Project Items
    4. Deleting Project Items
    5. Editing Project Item Preferences
    6. Searching the Project
  9. Working with Workspaces
    1. Splitting Views
    2. Changing the Orientation of Split Views
    3. Opening a New Project Window
    4. Creating a New Workspace
    5. Managing Workspaces
  10. Tracking Word Count and Writing Time Goals
    1. Setting Project Goals
    2. Setting Session Goals
  11. Saving and Backing Up Your Work
    1. Configuring Storyist to Save Your Work Automatically
    2. Configuring Storyist to Back Up Your Work Automatically
    3. Manually Backing Up Your Work
    4. Reverting to a Backup
  12. Exporting and Sharing Your Work
    1. Exporting Project Items
    2. Exporting Project Items as Text and Image Files
    3. Exporting Project Items as a Single eBook
    4. Creating and Using Export Presets
    5. Sharing Project Items Over a Local Network
  13. Glossary

Working with the Project View

A Storyist project contains your manuscripts and scripts, and your story sheets for plot, character, and setting.

It can also hold many types of ancillary information in the form of notebook entries. For example, you might use it to store the following:

  • Dialog—Have a great bit of dialog but aren’t sure yet exactly where to put it? Put it in the Notebook so you don’t forget it.
  • Clippings—You might remove some text while you’re editing your work, but you’re not quite ready to throw it away. Stash it in the Notebook so you can retrieve it later if you want to.
  • Images of Locations—Assemble a collection of photos of the locations you are considering for your project.
  • Research—All kinds of information can be stored here. You can drag the address of a Web page from your browser onto a Notebook sheet, creating a link; you can create a Notebook file that is a list of useful links.
  • Title Page—The Notebook is a good place to store your title page.
  • Glossary—Keep track of terms that are unique to your manuscript.
  • Citations and Quotations—For future reference.
  • Contact history—Keep track of the people you’ve interviewed or consulted in relation to your work. Keep copies of letters you’ve written in relation to your project.

The Project View—located to the left of the main window—helps you organize and access these project items quickly.

Adding Items to the Project

There are several ways to add items to your project:

  • Via the Project Menu.
  • Via the Project button in the Toolbar.
  • Via the Action (gear) menu in the Project view control bar.
  • Via the Add (+) button in the Project view control bar.

To add items to the project using the Project Menu:

  1. Choose Project > Add to Project.
  2. Select from the list of available items. The options are: Novel Manuscript, Film Script, Notebook Entry, Section Sheet, Scene Sheet, Plot, Character, Setting, Group, and Collection.

To add items to the project using the Toolbar:

  1. Click the Project button in the Toolbar.
  2. Choose the item you’d like to add to the project from the drop down list.

To add items to the project using the Action menu in Project view control bar:

  1. Make sure that nothing is selected in the Project view.
  2. Click the Action button in the Project view.
  3. Choose Add to Project.
  4. Select from the list of available items.

Note: If an item is selected in the Project view when you add a new item, Storyist will add the new item after the selected item if possible.

If nothing is selected in the Project view, Storyist will add new items to the default collection for the item type.

To add items to the project using the Add button in the Project view control bar:

  1. Select an item in the Project view.
  2. Click the Add (+) button.

A new item of the same type as the selected item is created.

Adding Outline Elements to Project Items

In addition to using the Project view to add project items to the project, you can use it to add outline elements (for example, chapters, sections, and scenes) to manuscript or script project items.

To add an outline element to a project item:

  1. Select a text outline item (manuscript or script) in the Project view.
  2. Choose Project > Add to “<item name>”, where is the name of the text project item you’ve selected.
  3. Select the outline element you want to add from the menu.

Note: Storyist determines whether or not to display a text item’s outline in the Project view by examining the item’s preferences. By default, the Project view displays outlines for manuscripts and scripts but not for notebook entries. You can modify the default behavior by editing the preferences.

Also, the list of outline elements displayed in the menu is generated from the default outline element list.

See the section titled “Editing Project Item Preferences” for more details.

Grouping Project Items

As your page count grows, so does your collection of notes about the story. You can use groups to help keep the collection organized.

To create a group:

  1. Click the Action (gear) button in the control bar at the bottom of the Project View.
  2. Choose Add from the pop-up menu,
  3. Choose Group from the submenu.

A new group is added to the project. To customize the group label, start typing. To add project items to the group, select them and drag them to the group.

Deleting Project Items

To delete items from the project:

  1. Select the items you want to delete in the Project View.
  2. Click the Action (gear) button in the control bar at the bottom of the Project View.
  3. Choose Delete from the pop-up menu.

The items you selected are deleted from the project and moved to the project Trash.

To view the contents of the project trash, click the Trash button in the control bar at the bottom of the Project View.

To Empty the Trash, click the Empty button. Note that you can’t undo this operation.

Editing Project Item Preferences

Storyist provides default settings for project items, but you can edit the settings to specify things like editor behavior and preferred contents of a particular collection.

To edit the preferences for a project item:

  1. Select the item in the Project view.
  2. Choose Project > Edit "<Item Name>" Preferences.

The preferences available for editing vary according to the type of item selected. These preferences are detailed below.

Text File Preferences

Editing mode—A pop-up menu specifying the editor features enabled for the file. Available values are:

  • Screenplay—Used for screenplays and stage plays. When selected, this mode enables context-sensitive completion of screenplay elements like scene intros, locations, times, characters, extensions, and transitions. If you choose Screenplay mode, you can edit the available completions by clicking the Edit Completions button.
  • General—Used for novels, short stories, and other prose. Context-sensitive completion of screenplay elements is disabled, but the standard completions (invoked using the ESC key) are still available.

Show outline in Project and Outline views—Clicking this checkbox causes the file's outline elements (that is, the chapters and sections or scenes that make up the file) to appear in the Project and Outline views. This checkbox is checked by default for manuscripts and scripts, but disabled for notebook entries.

Show outline in Navigation bar—Clicking this checkbox causes the file's outline elements to appear in the navigation bar in the Text view. This checkbox is checked by default for manuscripts and scripts, but disabled for notebook entries.

Edit Outline Elements—Clicking this button brings up a dialog that lets you edit the outline level labels and styles for the file.

Create sheets automatically—Clicking this causes Storyist to create a section or scene sheet when new sections or scenes are created.

Style shortcuts—You can specify whether or not Storyist enables Tab and Return shortcut processing in the file. If you choose "Use the application preferences", Storyist will use the settings you specify in the application preferences (accessed from the Storyist > Preferences window).

Collection Preferences

Contents—Specifies the preferred contents for the collection. Storyist uses this value to provide keyboard shortcuts (Command-Return and Command-Slash) for the Project view and Outline view.

Sheet Preferences

Attached to—While not editable, the "Attached to" field shows what the section or scene sheet is attached to. If the sheet is not attached to a section or scene, this field reads "Nothing (Freestanding)"

Note: Preferences for some kinds of project items (for example, bookmarks and groups) are not editable in this release. For these items, choosing Edit simply displays a dialog showing the item title and kind.

Searching the Project

One of the benefits of having all your project-related writing in one place is that the contents are instantly searchable.

To search for text in your project:

  1. Click in the Search field in the Toolbar
  2. Type the text you are looking for.

A view containing your search results, organized by the groups you have defined in the Project View, appear in the Main view. To navigate to the file or story element that contains the search text, simply click a search result.

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