Storyist
Story development tool for novelists & screenwriters.
Version: 2.1
Beautiful, Amazing, Impossible.
Feedback Type: Review
Contributed by: thestuntman Thursday, August 20 2009 @ 12:56 AM PDT
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Less than a month
Recommend Product: NO
I was surprised to see that Storyist 2 has reached 2.0.2 and no one has yet reviewed or commented on it, because it is a beautiful and elaborate program that has so much promise for organizing and creating great work. I was very excited to see the interface on my first run in demo mode, I almost paid for it then and there. But I held off to give it a true spin since I already own most every writing tool out there -- just in case I decide to LOVE one of them. Well, first off I decided to import a short, six chaptered children's book into Storyist and everything looked great at a glance. However, looking closer, three of the six chapters didn't start on a new page. So I tried to fix one and it suddenly stopped being a chapter. No big deal, I'll just format it as a chapter and everything will be a-okay. So go to make it a "chapter" again and... wow. Just wow. An hour later, after reading the template walk-through over and over, after perusing the Getting Started Guide in the program itself, and of course reading "Adding Chapters" chapters in both locations, trying this, trying that, I just walked away. A pretty icon, wonderful GUI, great feature set, but when a user can't even add a chapter in a novel writing program? Oh, I'm sure I can do it, but the fact that I actually put effort into it and can't figure out one of the most basic things someone would try to do with this program, it was... shocking, frankly. So back to Scrivener and StoryMill and Jer's Novel Writer and Ulysses I go -- still trying to LOVE one of them. Sigh.
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Comments
Beautiful, Amazing, Impossible. - steveshepard
Hi thestuntsman,I'm the developer of Storyist. Thanks for your kind words on the interface and the features. I wish you had stopped by the forums or contacted support because what you were trying to accomplish was quite straightforward.
To have a chapter start on a new page, just apply a style that has "Paragraph starts on a new page" checked. The novel template has a style called "Chapter Title" for this purpose, and you can easily create your own styles if this doesn't work for you.
And to add a new chapter, select the place in the outline where you want it to go and choose Project > Add to Manuscript > Chapter (or use the equivalent shortcut).
Good luck with your children's book.
-Steve
Monday, October 19 2009 @ 09:41 AM PDT
RE: Beautiful, Amazing, Impossible. - thestuntman
Love achieved -- Scrivener is the winner! I strongly encourage you to watch the screencast tutorial first. Once I did that, I dove in more responsibly and am very pleased with Scrivener.Reply to This
Wednesday, September 16 2009 @ 04:23 PM PDT