Category: Storyist for Mac

Storyist is Ten!

Storyist turns ten today!

Hard to believe, I know, but it was on January 8th, 2007 that Storyist 1.0 first saw the light of day at MacWorld. I’m feeling nostalgic this morning, so I hope you’ll indulge me in a brief walk down memory lane.

The Apple community was a little different in 2007, and MacWorld really was the center of the world for all things Mac. That year, Apple featured a Developer Pavilion next to their showroom (to call it a booth would be an understatement), and Storyist Software had a kiosk there (to call it a booth would be an overstatement).

Attendance reached 45,572 and being so close to Apple, the kiosk got tons of traffic. We talked to celebrities like the comedian Sinbad, industry insiders like MacWorld magazine editor Jason Snell, and hordes of passionate Mac users.

MacWorld 2007 also marked the start of a pivotal year for Apple. With the introduction of the first iPhone at the show, the company dropped “Computer” from its name and became simply Apple Inc.

Skeuomorphic design was still in vogue, and Storyist’s icon and interface followed the Aqua design guidelines at the time. (Apple introduced Aqua at MacWorld 2000.)

The Storyist 1.0 system requirements seem quaint by today’s standards:

  • Mac OS X version 10.4.4 or later.
  • Macintosh computer with a 500MHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, or Intel Core processor.
  • 15 MB of available disk space
  • 256 MB of RAM
  • 32 MB of video RAM

Oh, and Macs came with devices that read optical media known as Compact Disks (CDs). Here is the jacket design for the Storyist CD that we gave away at the show.

Mobile apps were still a few years away (Storyist for iOS wouldn’t launch until 2011), and iCloud was still called .Mac.

That concludes the stroll. Thanks for your indulgence. Ten years is a long time in the software industry, and I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has used Storyist over the years. It wouldn’t be where it is today without your feedback and support.

So with a tip ‘o the hat to 2007, it’s on to the second decade! 2017 is shaping up to be an amazing year for Storyist. Stay tuned.

-Steve

What’s New in Storyist for Mac 3.4

Happy Holidays everyone!

Storyist for Mac 3.4 is out, and adds support for the Touch Bar on the 2016 MacBook Pros.

Apple describes the Touch Bar as follows:

The Touch Bar replaces the function keys that have long occupied the top of your keyboard with something much more versatile and capable. It changes automatically based on what you’re doing to show you relevant tools you already know how to use — system controls like volume and brightness, interactive ways to adjust or browse through content, intelligent typing features like emoji and predictive text, and more.

Here is the “and more” that Storyist 3.4 brings to the table:

Text Bar

The text bar, active when you’re using the text editor, adds Touch Bar shortcuts for:

  • Choosing styles
  • Setting text color
  • Bold/italic/underline
  • Setting text alignment
  • Managing lists

Outline Bar

The outline bar, active when you’re in outline mode, adds shortcuts for:

  • Adding chapters/sections/scenes
  • Choosing a background color

Storyboard Bar

The storyboard bar, active when you’re in storyboard (index card) mode, adds shortcuts for:

  • Adding chapters/sections/scenes
  • Settings the zoom factor
  • Choosing an index card color

Project View Bar

The project view bar shortcuts for adding files and folders to your project.

Have a new MacBook Pro? Download the trial version and take it for a spin.

What’s New in Storyist for Mac 3.3

NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, and Storyist for Mac 3.3 is out with some new features to help you in your month of noveling!

Updated Goal Inspectors

The updated goal inspectors are now accessible directly from the toolbar and give you more ways to track your writing goals.

You can:

  • Use the calendar view to get a sense of how your writing sessions vary from day to day. Dates are color coded with your progress, and the mouse and cursor keys allow you to select individual dates to view.
  • Use the graph view to show your progress over time. You can get daily, weekly or monthly graphs of your word count data, or even specify a custom date range.
  • Use the summary view to see your average and best days in a given range.
  • Export your writing session data to a .csv file for use with a spreadsheet application like Excel or Numbers.

Support for macOS Sierra

Version 3.3 comes with support for macOS Sierra so you can take advantage of new Sierra features like tabbed windows and Siri.

Other New Features and Bug Fixes

Version 3.3 also includes the following new features, bug fixes and usability enhancements:

  • You can now designate a project or text file template as the default template. The default text file template is now used when creating a new text file from a wiki link or via Command+Return commands.
  • The cork board background now defaults to a solid color rather than the cork texture. If you prefer the cork texture, just open the Appearance tab in the Preferences window and set the storyboard background to the cork pattern.
  • The text view no longer “wobbles” slightly when you scroll after double tapping the trackpad to zoom in.
  • The Command+Up Arrow and Command+Down Arrow shortcuts now take you to the beginning/end of a document as they do in other text applications. Previously, the Command+Up Arrow shortcut took you to the enclosing folder (like in Finder). Now, it only takes you to the enclosing folder if you are already at the start of the file.
  • Changes to the theme’s collage background color now appear immediately.

The Dark Mode Cometh

If you’re running Yosemite, you probably noticed the beautiful new dark controls in the Notification Center and (if you found the “Use dark menu bar and Dock” checkbox in the system preferences) in the menu and dock.

Did you know that the dark mode user interface controls are available to applications too?

Starting in version 3.1, Storyist for Mac can take full advantage of the dark mode controls when running on Yosemite.

Here’s how to set  it up:

  1. Launch Storyist for Mac version 3.1 or later.
  2. Open the Storyist Preferences window.
  3. Select the Appearance pane.
  4. Select the theme you want to modify.
  5. Click the Interface tab.
  6. Check the “Use dark interface elements” checkbox.

That’s it. Whenever you switch to the theme you selected in step 4, you’ll get the dark mode UI shown above.