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Software application news

New version of writers app Story Lite 2 out soon – update

Operation Lust - sex and crime novel

Operation Lust - sex and crime novel - no images in Story Lite sorry!

There is a new version Story Lite 2.0 coming out, this has all the features of Story Turbo, but no images. Feedback has been that people want the writing app to continue and adding images makes it a bit of a desktop publishing app, which is a distraction.

Story Lite 2.0 new features are:

  • Snap to grid – line up boxes
  • Group boxes – very useful, can now have a multiple box arrangement and move it about, even clone it
  • 400% zoom – see more
  • More shortcuts for zooming windows
  • Many speedups and improvements

So we are making Story Lite into the main writers app, and Turbo will continue down the writing, DTP, presentations, slide shows, etc path.

We are also adding spell check, text styles and pagination to selected boxes, so Story Lite can be used as you main word processor – this means you don’t have to export from the outline version in Story Lite, you can completely finish a work in it. Obviously you might still want to export to Word etc for more formatting, but you don’t have to.

We also have a new web app coming out, and an iPad version later on, probably next year now. These will be based on Story Lite and also not have images.

For more on text styles, see the blog entry on it, there is a new example file for them.

Story Software upgrade to Story Lite out soon, writers software, writing app

The upgrade of our writers software Story Lite is out soon, this will have many new features and new example and lessons files.

This will not be called Story Lite, it will become Story Software.

It will be for all writers and bloggers, professional, enthusiast, learners, copy writers.

This is due in August or possibly September.

An email will be sent to registered people.

Crowd funding for Story Mobile extended end August

The pitch for Story Software new iPad app Story Mobile has been extended – so please visit Appsfunder Story Software pitch for iPad app now >

Story Mobile crowd funding

Story Mobile crowd funding

Story Mobile, iPad and tablet app with images, text, Instagram social media integration

Story Mobile crowd funding

Story Mobile crowd funding

Last week to invest and get a return in Story Mobile, my iPad and tablet app with images, text, Instagram etc integration.. pls visit:

Story Mobile crowd funding iPad and tablet images, text, Instagram app >

iPad app Story Mobile – crowd fund, invest and get a return

Story Mobile iPad tablet

Story Mobile iPad tablet

Crowd funding is the new way to get projects off the ground, and also get a return on your investment. People power!

We are crowd funding a new Story Mobile image/text editor for the Apple iPad, and later the Android tablet. You can invest and get a return on sales of this very popular app. Story Lite has 40,000 people using it, many have an iPad.

It will have same features as Story Turbo, image and text boxes on a huge canvas, with a zooming interface. Plus some extra features.

Story Software suits the iPad as it does all that zooming and panning.

Please visit to see Story Mobile videos and fund – starts at 2.50 UKP to 100 UKP.

Visit Story Mobile info and videos now on the Appsfunder site >

New writing course online now with free option

We have just launched a new writing membership site. For users of Story Lite, you can use the new online version STORY LIVE.

Visit Writing Course with Story Live site to improve your writing >

The site has two courses in Fiction & Narrative, Movies & Film Script Writing, genres, many extras, forums, competitions, and coming soon, a social media system. More courses are also being added over the next few months.

The courses have top pro tutors who are all published authors and script writers.

We are also publishing an Anthology of New Writing which is a chance to see your name in print!

Story Live has up to 10 boxes which can be dragged about the screen. There is a secure account to save files to, and they can also be exported as usual to your hard drive. The layout can be retained for further use in Story Lite.

You can use Story Live online anywhere, on tablets like the iPad too, so it is a useful notebook for anything.

If you do a course, you can do your exercises online in Story Live and save online. Then save the file and send it on to your Tutor for feedback, essential for any course.

There is a free Silver level and a Gold level with a low price high value monthly sub.

Why not visit Writing Course with Story Live and improve your writing and have some fun too?

Upgrade to Notes Story Board the business and multimedia presentation version of Story Lite

NEWS: Upgrade to Notes Story Board the image and multimedia presentation version of Story Lite.
Extra features are:
Images
Arrows
Slideshow to make presentations a breeze – with multiple orders of slide views (unlike PowerPoint)

Many other features and enhancements.

Get free Notes Story Board now!

QR code scan image for your mobile phone, smartphone, iphone, Android or tablet

qrcode

If you don’t already have one, get a QR scanner download app for free, point it at this, and you can then save off the Storylite.com link.

QR Code is for Quick Response code.

We have a mobile site version for smartphones.

This is also on the right side of all pages now.

Apps and the web – trends

Research shows that app use is now greater than web surfing. This is calculated in minutes spent (consumed, wasted, gained!) on each.

There is a graph here:

Apps versus Web use >

Which I show here small size so you get the general idea.

Apps use versus web use

Apps use versus web use

Wired magazine has announced this as the death of the web. But it is really that people now use apps to do things, play games, read ebooks, magazines, look at stocks, musical games like Biophilia by Bjork, and so on forever; rather than randomly search around the web.

Using an app has an extended and potentially unlimited time frame (Angry Birds, reading, music), unlike surfing which is usually doewn for a specific reason – research item Z – or to fill in ten minutes – have a look at the news, or Ebay, etc.

Web use is moving towards the ‘walled garden’ style of the old days – AOL etc – where people stay in comfort zones, rather than browsing the chaotic web, where all sorts of nasty things lurk, the least of which is viruses. Most time is within Facebook, then some apps, then a short bit of web research to Google a product, say.

So it is a kind of maturation of user habits, and the technology is there in smartphones and tablets. Chicken and egg?

Use of apps is moving away from a standards compliant web, as the apps conform to whichever platform and version they have to run on.

People used to make Macromedia Director games, Flash web modules; now it is a range of apps in many languages, this is a big boon for the developer (more work) but not so good for the company that pays up for them, especially as a lot are free.

With branded TLDs – the new dot coms for brands and also categories, such as .apple, .microsoft, .pizza etc, at high prices (175,000 UKP has been quoted), we are heading towards a ‘safe’ zone and an ‘outside’ for the rabble and the geeks… where all the free and interesting things are.

Incidentally, many of the new apps for the ipad, Android etc look like the 1990s multimedia CDROMs – remember all those DK learning multimedia books, even offbeat Arts Council funded things (yes I was on one called The Hub, with a multimedia game from the Nnn Goes Mobile novel)?

So perhaps the technology has caught up with the multimedia ideas at last.

Floating windows idea from a reader, Story software tips

Screen windows Story Lite

Screen windows Story Lite

We had an interesting idea from Ilan, a reader and user of Story Lite software. He said:

“I think there is one feature that is very critical to me, that’s missing. The ability to float the Story Lite window above other windows. Thus, if I want to copy/paste some text from a web page, a pdf file that I’m reading, some email, or a different source, into Story Lite, I can simply position Story Lite above the maximized web browser (etc.) window.”

Yes that is a good idea, we have automatic copy/paste (so you don’t even need to see the Story software) in the new online version out in the next few weeks.

For v1.1, and all the desktop versions, the Story Lite window is in a standard Windows or Mac window, so we can’t make it act differently, as that is built into the system.

TO FIX THIS
You have to adjust the size and shape of the Story Lite window to suit your screen layout, then you can save a new Template (or just save and open the file) with a new box layout, such as vertical or horizontal.

ONLINE VERSION NEWS
We have a new online version out soon, which is a simple version of Story Lite in a browser window, this will have auto copy/paste into the online box, which can then be saved as Story format, or txt and rtf for Word etc.

This will be useful if you are working online for research or note gathering.

This will be ready soon, I will email everyone about it.

Thanks
Geoff