StoryProject is a program that helps you write story outlines. It offers the non-linear tools suited to development of story structure, while providing transparent access to the linear product of your work. StoryProject achieves this in three ways: events, threading and spotlighting.
Events are the building blocks of story outlines. They form the beat-by-beat description of what happens, without most of the discoursive flavors that make the finished narrative. In StoryProject you enter events one after another, as you would in a word processor. You can add, insert, cut, copy, paste, delete, move, or edit events. Each event, however, must belong to a thread, even if you only have one thread for the whole outline, like “My story outline”.
Threads enable you to collect events into meaningful parts. For instance, if you wish to gradually convey a character’s background to project your theme, you might have a thread called “Jack’s thoughts of childhood echo his dilemma” and have events belonging to the thread interspersed with other events at appropriate points. But if you want to concentrate on the dramatic effect of events belonging to the thread, you could rename the thread to something like “Jack deftly conceals his childhood murder”. The particular pattern of threading in your story is arbitrary and subjective. There is no “best solution”. Threads are a form of mnemonics to help you work.
The third feature of StoryProject, spotlighting, differs from threading in that any phrase from the events you have created can serve as the key by which events are selected for display. Spotlighting lets you isolate a signifier, such as a character, to work on its consistency and change, while still working directly on your story.
In practice, threading and spotlighting are interchangeable. At one point you might have a keyword spotlight for “Jack”, at another you might need a specific reminder in the form of a thread, like “Jack is a wild and dangerous man” and then create events in which Jack is wild and dangerous. Conversely, you may feel that a thread you have created states the obvious, and will re-assign its events to a more opportune one.
StoryProject frees you from the chapter-by-chapter paradigm of conventional outliners, and it does so without recourse to separate character lists, plot diagrams, questionnaires, etc. It narrows the gap between story outline and finished narrative, making the writing of your novel, play or screenplay more likely to succeed.
User’s Guide
StoryProject window
When StoryProject starts up, it opens the main window. This contains the Events field where your story’s events are displayed, Insertion Bar on the leftmost side of the Events field for inserting events, the Threads field listing the threads in the story, and the Spotlight popup menu listing spotlighting keywords. Only one story at a time can be open in StoryProject.
Dialogs
The main dialogs in StoryProject are Event, Find, Replace, and Preferences. They are movable and can be dismissed by pressing Command-. or Escape. Find, Replace, and Preferences dialogs can be left open, but the Event dialog must be dismissed before returning to the main window.
Bullet
To make your story easier to work with, events are bulleted by default. You can toggle bullets on and off by choosing “Bullet” from the “Edit” menu. (The command requires that events be visible in the Events field.) The bullets do not appear in the Event dialog and are not copied to the clipboard, but do form part of the story: they show when you print or export bulleted text, and are counted as words by the “Information” command.
Preferences
You can set styling, window, and color preferences of StoryProject. The Styling pane lets you set the text font, size and style of text in the Events and Threads fields. There are two settings for the Threads field: Visible Threads and Hidden Threads. The two must have different styling for visual feedback, but share the same font and size. Therefore, their font and size can only be set if you choose Hidden Threads from the Object popup menu, not Visible Threads.
The Window pane lets you resize the StoryProject window, using three settings: Classic, PowerBook, and 13 inch +. Classic is the size that will fit on any Mac display, PowerBook will fit on 640 x 400 PowerBook displays, and 13 inch + is for the 640 x 480 resolution or higher. You can also set the amount of window space the Events versus Threads fields take up.
The Color pane lets you toggle StoryProject color on and off. If you turn color off, you can set the background pattern of the StoryProject window. Click on the pattern in the miniature picture. A dialog will ask you for a pattern number between 1 and 40. StoryProject ships with the pattern set to 17.
Creating Events
Press Return or Enter to add an event. The Event dialog will appear, where you type the event. Press Return or Enter again and the event will appear in the main window. If this is your first event, another dialog will prompt you for a thread name, with the event text as the default entry. Every event must be assigned to a thread.
Threading
As in the main window, there is a Threads field in the Event dialog. It lists only the threads the event you’re editing is assigned to. If this is a new event, then the Event dialog lists the threads that the preceding event is assigned to, if any. To assign the event to a thread, click on the Threads field. This brings up the Assign Threads dialog listing all the threads that exist in the story. The threads that the event is assigned to appear bulleted in the dialog. The dialog also lets you create new threads. Alternatively, you can Shift-click the Threads field to create a new thread, or Option-click a thread in the Threads field to unassign it. Shift-Option click a thread to swap it with another.
In contrast, the Threads field in the main window lets you control which threads are displayed in the Events field: click a thread to toggle its display on and off, Shift-click threads to toggle a number of them, or Option-click a thread to hide all the others. Shift-Option click a thread to rename it. Display of threads can be controlled by menu commands: “Show All Threads” and “Refresh View” in the “Tools” menu. “Refresh View” displays events assigned to hilited threads, including any events you may have hidden. (You can hide events by Option-clicking them.) Selecting “All” from the Spotlight popup menu has the same function as “Show All Threads”.
Spotlighting
To display only events containing a keyword phrase, either Command-click the phrase in the Events field in the main window, choose the “Spotlight…” command from the “Tools” menu, or, if you have already spotlighted events by that keyword, choose the keyword from the Spotlight popup menu. (For the sake of this feature, name characters with a one-word name, and use the name consistently.) To delete a keyword from the Spotlight popup menu, Option-select it. To record all proper names in your story as Spotlight keywords, choose “Record All Names” from the “Tools” menu. (Use this command judiciously: it’s slow on older Macs, and may record many names you wouldn’t care to spotlight.)
Inspiration
If you’re in need of inspiration, click and hold on the Inspiration button (the light bulb icon) in the Event dialog. After a moment, a comprehensive hierarchical menu will appear with sub-menus like “Relation”, “Occupation”, “Venue”, etc. Any spotlighting keywords present in the story are listed in the “My Spotlights” sub-menu. The item that you select will be inserted into the entry field. In addition, if you Option-click the OK button, an event will automatically be written in the entry field. This is the Auto-writer feature. It uses the Inspiration menu items for its output, but ignores the spotlights sub-menu, because it has no way of knowing what the spotlights denote. The Auto-writer is programmed to get the basic grammar right most of the time, otherwise it’s a free-for-all: a sailor can be a woman, and a king can have a boyfriend. See the Advanced Notes file for more details about Inspiration and Auto-writer.
Editing events
Select events in the main window by clicking them, or select one after another by pressing Tab. To select them in reverse, press Shift-Tab. To select a range of events, Shift-click them. Option-click an event to hide it. Double-click an event to edit it. You can select and delete events, or use editing commands to cut, copy, and paste. Pasted text originating outside StoryProject is assigned to the “Pasted Story” thread. Pasted text that had been copied in StoryProject retains its threading information.
Inserting events, files, Note Pad
The narrow blank space on the leftmost side of the Events field serves as the Insertion Bar, rather like the selection bar in Microsoft Word. To move an event, select it, then click at the new location in the Insertion Bar - the event will jump into its new position. To insert a new event, double-click in the Insertion Bar where you want the event inserted. To insert a file, click in the Insertion Bar at the desired location, then choose the “Insert File…” command from the “File” menu. With the exception of StoryProject stories, inserted files are assigned to the “Inserted Text Story” thread. Empty paragraphs are not allowed in the Events field; when inserting files containing them, empty paragraphs are deleted.
If you’re using System 7.5 or greater, you can insert Note Pad contents, or export them into a text file. Note Pad pages are imported as separate threads. This means that you can use Note Pad as a faster, more convenient wordprocessor, and rename the threads after importing. Because Note Pad saves its data when it closes, you must close it before importing or exporting its contents.
Editing and assigning threads
To rename threads, choose “Edit Threads…” from the “Tools” menu. This command also lets you delete whole threads of events. Any events also assigned to another thread are not deleted. To assign an event to another thread, select it and choose the “Assign Threads” command from the “Tools” menu (or Shift-Option-click the event). The dialog that appears also lets you unassign threads and create new ones. The threads the event is assigned to appear bulleted in the Assign Threads dialog. If you have multiple events selected, the threads that some or all of them are assigned to are starred in the dialog.
Ordering threads
As you create threads, they are added to the Threads field in the main window in order of creation. If you need to see them in order of appearance in the story, then choose “Order Threads” from the “Tools” menu.
Finding and replacing text
StoryProject features basic finding and replacing commands. The “Find” command is always case insensitive; but replacing can be case sensitive. You cannot use the “Replace” command to erase text by leaving the Replace field empty. The two commands can be set to search the whole story regardless of whether events are visible or not. The “Find Again” command searches visible events only.
Information
The “Information” command in the “Edit” menu shows useful information about the open story. Most of its items are self-explanatory, but the last one is worth discussing. “Threads containing other threads” shows the number of threads that are entirely contained by another. If this number is at least 1, then the Information dialog features a “More” button. Click it to show the names of affected threads as “Containing thread: contained thread”. You can safely delete the contained thread with the “Edit Threads” command: although the thread will be deleted, none of the events assigned to it will be deleted because they’re all assigned to the containing thread as well.
Printing
The “Print” command in the “File” menu will print visible events, together with a heading listing the threads or the spotlight keyword by which the events are displayed. The printing is instant, presenting no confirmation dialog. Press Command-. quickly to cancel printing.
Scrolling
The “Tools” menu has three commands that help with scrolling the Events field in the main window. To mark the current scroll position, choose “Mark Scroll”. To jump to the marked scroll position, choose “Jump to Marker”, keyboard shortcut Command-J. To jump back from the marked position, press Shift-Command-J. To have the field slowly scroll down in a loop, choose “Scroll Loop”. Any non-scrolling action will stop the scrolling.
Speaking text
If you have text-to-speech system software installed, StoryProject can speak the text in the Events field. Press Command-. or Escape to stop the speech.
Exporting text
The “Export Text” command in the “File” menu lets you export the open story into a plain text file. Use it when you’re ready to start working on the story in a word processor. If you would like to set the file type of the exported text files to that of your favorite word processor, Option-select the “Export Text” command (or the “Export Note Pad” command). A dialog will ask you to select the desired program.
Limitations
File names and location
Do not move or change the name of the program or any of its accompanying files and folders, or StoryProject will not work correctly. The StoryProject Folder itself can be renamed and placed anywhere you like. (Don’t move or rename it while StoryProject is running.)
30K text limit
StoryProject cannot display more than 30K of text in the Events field. Most story outlines will fall well within this limit, so it will not be a problem. If you want to create very long or detailed story outlines, then there are plenty of good reasons for breaking them up into manageable parts.
Speed Issues for 68K Macs
StoryProject is designed to work well and at reasonable speed on all Apple Macs. It is a complex program, however, and users of older models may find some features slow when dealing with long documents.
Here are some tips for speeding up StoryProject and your system generally:
• Turn off AppleTalk in the Chooser.
• Turn off virtual memory, including RAMDoubler, and any other non-essential system extensions.
• Set your Disk Cache in the Memory control panel to 64K-128K.
• If you have enough RAM installed, set StoryProject’s memory partition (in its Get Info dialog in the Finder) to 2500K-3000K.
• If running StoryProject in color, scroll with the keyboard keys rather than the mouse.
• Turn off color in StoryProject. Set your monitor to display no more than 16 colors or shades of grey. Set your hilite and window title bar color to black & white.
• Move events in the Events field with mouse clicks rather than cutting and pasting.
• Use a text editor to create events, then import them into StoryProject when you feel threading and spotlighting would help.
• Assign events to threads by Shift-Option-clicking rather than double-clicking events in the main window (bringing up Assign Threads dialog instead of Event dialog).
Troubleshooting
StoryProject has been tested with all Systems from 7.0 to 8.1, on a range of Apple Macs from an SE to a PowerMac 8600. Your use of the program should be trouble free, but in the unlikely event that you encounter a problem, the following will help you solve it.
Version incompatibility
StoryProject 3.6 can open files created by versions 2-3.5.2, but versions before 3.5 cannot open files created with StoryProject 3.6. It is best to delete older versions of the software from your computer.
Corrupted data
As with any other program, it is conceivable that StoryProject data may become corrupted. (Data can be corrupted when you cancel some of the more time-consuming commands by pressing Command-. while the command is executing. If this happens, a dialog informs you and corrects the damage.) The good news is that the corruption can only be minor and no data is lost. The best way of correcting problems is to choose “Revert to Saved” from the “File” menu. If this would entail the loss of too much work, then save the story under a different name first and try correcting the problem manually: if an event is assigned to no thread, assign it; if there is a strange thread that you had not created, rename it; and so on. In the worst case scenario, export the story into a text file, then import it into a new StoryProject document and re-thread it.
Evaluation expiry
If you let the evaluation period expire before registering StoryProject, you will not be able to save new files or change existing ones. Your existing work will not be lost, however; you will be able to open StoryProject files and export them into text files, provided you make no changes to them in StoryProject.
Error dialogs
If you get seemingly illogical Error dialogs when trying to open, save, insert or export files, then your disk directory files are corrupted. Use a program like Norton Utilities and Disk First Aid to repair your disk. This kind of problem is unlikely to occur, unless you are saving files into the same folder your Web browser uses for disk caching. Web browsers often corrupt disk directory files.
System conflicts
If StoryProject consistently crashes or freezes, the likely cause is a system extension conflict. Follow the usual procedure for locating the errant extension. (Read the Macintosh Guide in the Finder for details on how to do this.)
The twilight zone
If StoryProject will not work on your computer at all, no matter what your System setup, then the only option is to trash it. Regrettably, the program’s author does not have the resources to test and troubleshoot every possible Mac configuration. Ensure that the program works to your satisfaction before registering.
Version History:
3.6:
• Registration payment now handled by Kagi. Some pricing details adjusted to their payment model. Web site improved.
3.5.2:
• Users now have the full evaluation period available, regardless of whether they have used a previous unregistered version of StoryProject or not.
3.5.1:
• Fixed an annoying bug introduced with the new thread renaming mouse shortcut in version 3.5: when Shift-Option clicking a thread in the Threads field in the main window, the Events field was scrolled to the top. The scroll is now not affected when a thread is renamed in this way.
3.5:
• Shift-Option clicking a thread in the Threads field in main window lets you rename the thread.
• Shift-Option clicking a thread in the Threads field in Event dialog lets you swap-assign the event to another thread.
• Text files with a DOS file extension converted automatically when opened or saved.
• Note Pad pages now import as separate threads.
• Some characters, like ±, were previously disallowed - this is no longer the case. Commas are now allowed in threads.
• Evaluation period increased to 31 days.
• StoryProject website created, new email contact details.
• Other minor improvements.
3.0.1:
• Thread creation in Event dialog improved. Maximum length of default thread name increased to 254 characters and ending period deleted if entry not truncated; except commas, other types of punctuation not deleted.
• A mistake regarding contact details corrected in the Registration Form.
3.0:
Changes and new features:
• One “fat” program released for Macs with 680x0 and PowerPC processors.
• Help Mode replaced with Balloon Help support.
• With some exceptions, menu items are now dimmed and activated according to context.
• All dialogs can be dismissed by pressing Command-. and Event, Find, Replace and Preferences also by pressing Escape.
• Bulleting feature added; events bulleted as default.
• After you delete a thread of events, a dialog displays the number of events deleted, and, if applicable, the number not deleted because they’re assigned to other threads.
• In Assign Threads dialog threads already assigned are bulleted if one event selected, or starred if multiple events selected.
• Option-Shift-clicking an event in the main window selects it and brings up Assign Threads dialog.
• Keyboard shortcuts added: Scroll Loop is Command-K, Bullet is Command-B, Revert to Saved is Command-R, Save As is Shift-Command-S (doesn’t appear on the menu), Insert File is Command-\, jumping back to scroll position before the jump to marker is Shift-Command-J.
• Keyboard shortcuts changed: Replace is Command-H.
• Registration reminder at startup and at end of printout during evaluation period, afterwards saving, printing, exporting, copying disabled if unregistered.
• Revamped Inspiration menu in Event dialog, now with fewer categories but more entries.
• Only entries, not categories, of Inspiration menu can be edited by user.
• Auto-writer feature, based on Inspiration menu, added to Event dialog, invoked by Option-clicking OK button. User can set one of its elements or a whole template.
• Option-clicking Inspiration button brings up menu of Inspiration categories only, for setting custom Auto-writer template.
• Command-clicking Inspiration button puts user’s custom Auto-writer template into entry field for repeated action.
• When creating new thread in Event dialog, event entry text now used as default entry for thread name.
• Export Text command writes thread names and spotlights at the top of exported file, followed by events. Option-selecting the command lets you set the export file type.
• Pressing tab key in Preferences dialog flips through the three cards.
• Pressing tab key in Event dialog selects words from cursor position, Shift-tab in reverse.
• Scroll Loop command now stopped by any non-scrolling action.
• Speak Text command: as well as Escape, pressing Command-. stops the speech.
• Cleaner interface with more usable space, larger Event dialog.
• Some tasteless color schemes removed.
• Expanded and re-organized documentation.
• Sample file provided.
• Other minor improvements and changes.
Bug fixes:
• Replacing an existing file with Save As command now works correctly. It’s also no longer possible to replace open story with exported text or Note Pad file.
• Select All now works in dialogs if chosen from menu.
• Exporting Note Pad no longer erases empty paragraphs in resulting text file, which now also has page headings for each exported Note Pad page.
• Information command now accurately calculates threads containing others, regardless of context.
• Assign Threads command no longer beeps if attempting to unassign the last thread a selected event is assigned to; beeping could become excessive is many events selected.
• Record All Names command now doesn’t record “Name;” if “Name;” appears in your text. It records “Name” as it should.
• Double-clicking in empty Events field in the StoryProject window could result in bad entries. Now StoryProject just beeps.
• Other minor bugs fixed.
2.0.1:
• Minor bug fixes.
2.0:
• Designed and programmed with entirely different features, but kept the name. Shareware.
1.2:
• Minor improvements.
1.1:
• Minor improvements.
1.0:
• First release of what was then a freeware brainstorming program for writers.
