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Tracking Project Writing Goals

Storyist lets you set word count goals for both your daily writing sessions and your entire project and helps you track your progress over time.

Setting Word Count Goals

To set word count goals:

  1. Click the Goals button in the toolbar.
  2. If the goals editor isn't visible, click the Action (gear) button in the Goals popover and choose Edit Goals.
  3. Enter a target word count for the project in the Project Goal field.
  4. Enter a daily word count target in the Daily Goal field.
  5. Select the text file(s) you want to track.

The result will look something like this:

Word Count Goals

You can also edit your word count goals by clicking the Project item in the Project view and opening the File Info inspector.

Tracking Your Progress

After setting up your writing goals for the project, you can track your progress in several ways.

Using the Calendar View

The calendar view displays your word count progress in calendar form. Days on which you've achieved your goal are shown in green. Days on which you've achieved at least fifty percent of your goal are shown in yellow. Days on which you've written something but achieved less than fifty percent of your goal are shown in red.

To see the calendar view, click the Goals button in the toolbar, click the Action button, and choose Show Calendar.

Word Count Goals

You can browse results from earlier sessions by clicking a date. Clicking the left arrow shows the previous month. Clicking the next arrow shows the following month. Clicking the dot next to the left or right arrows resets the calendar to the current date.

Using the Graph View

The graph view shows your word count progress in graph form. You can choose the range of dates you want to see, and you can browse through past writing sessions using the arrow keys.

To see the graph view, click the Goals button in the toolbar, click the Action button, and choose Show Graph.

Word Count Graph

Using the Summary View

The summary view shows you summaries of your word count progress. The stats include:

  • The average number of words written each day.
  • The number of words written on the best day.
  • The number of days you've written something.
  • The number of times you reached your goal.

As with the graph view, you can choose the range of dates you want to see.

To see the summary view, click the Goals button in the toolbar, click the Action button, and choose Show Summary.

Word Count Graph

Using the Status Bar

You can also configure the Status Bar to show your total project word count and your progress toward that goal.

To do so:

  1. Choose View > Customize Status Bar. A customization window appears, allowing you to select which items you want to be visible in the status view. Note: Option+Clicking the Status Bar also causes this customization window to appear.
  2. Click the location in the Status Bars in the customization window that you want to change. A pop-up menu containing the customization choices appears.
  3. Choose Project Progress to show a progress bar that indicates how close you are to your goal. Choose Project Word Count to show the total number of words you've written.