Auteureist™ Blog

Mar 22

Minor Tweak Coming

The next release will be submitted this weekend. It contains a minor graphics fix for the new iPad's retina display. In addition there is early support for essays (including a beat sheet). This was a request.

In other news here is an early look at the Version 3 Script Project Editor. Still not final.

Version 3 is progressing nicely. But, there's lots left to do.

Yes I will be, once again, participating in ScriptFrenzy in April. No, version 3 isn't quite ready for it.

Filed under // Auteureist scriptfrenzy writing

Mar 11

New IPad

This is going to be a quick update.

Apple, as you know, has announced the new iPad. If you are wondering, Auteureist works and looks good on it, although I'll probably update some of the graphics once I get mine. The emulator isn't exactly like the device.
The version 2 to 3 migration code is pretty much done and in testing. I'm trying to figure out the best way to roll it out. The migration will have to occur as part of version 2 BEFORE you install 3. Doing it otherwise would require carrying forward lots of version 2 code that only gets used once.

I'm still working on the version 3 UI and it's looking really good. I've started on the iCloud sync code. There is still a ton left to do and 3.0 is no where near release yet, but compared to 2 it's a vast improvement. I've learned a lot and this isn't just a big upgrade; it's a total rewrite, from scratch, taking into account all the new things Apple has released, and all I've learned from in the first two versions.

That's it for now. More next time.

Sent from Auteureist™ on iPad - http://auteureist.com/

Filed under // auteureist blog finaldraft journal script writing

Feb 24

Support For Short Stories

Welcome back!

I'll be submitting Version 2.270 early next week. This next release will introduce a new feature--support for short stories. This will be useful for people who don't write full novels. Short stories have their own section as in this screen shot:

The short story has a default target length of 3000 words (changeable). In addition, you also get a new optional short story beat sheet (a beat sheet is a structure template). When selected, the short story is pre-populated with the following sections:

The other new feature is an optional beat sheet for novels. I won't reproduce it here since it's fairly long and involved. If you have problems getting your novel started, the beat sheet can often help.

That's it for 2.270.

Last time I promised a peek at the new stream view for version 3.0. I'm not quite happy with it at this point, so instead I'm going to preview some updated screens and features.

First, version 3.0 will support non-fiction writing, and support citations and footnotes. Citations were a feature request I'm finally getting around to. This is how it will work:

Here is an updated look at the main screen:

A couple of things to note here. First, the Fast Entry popup will allow you to quickly post to Twitter, Facebook, and check in to Foursquare. These events will also be posted to your default journal if you have one. Additionally you can create a quick entry to your default journal.

Second, you'll be able to create your own project types. The current ones (novels, journals, blogs, etc.) will be standard and always there, but you can create your own project type as a separate category.

The UI is coming along nicely and I've made a lot of progress on it. Some of it is bound to change, but the screen shots give you the basic idea. More next time.

Filed under // auteureist short stories writing

Feb 17

Auteureist Now Posts To Penzu

Welcome to another week, and another progress report. I have two things to share this week.

First, version 2.260 has been submitted. This is an interesting release because there have been no new bug or crash reports, and all known issues have been resolved as of 2.250. I think I'll celebrate with some orange juice! So, what does 2.260 have if not bug fixes? It has a new feature, one that should be welcomed to those of you who use Penzu (http://www.penzu.com). Auteureist can now post to Penzu journals via email. This, however, requires that you have a Penzu Pro account. You need to set up your Penzu Post email in the Auteureist: settings:

You can then post using the action button on the writing screen. This is what it looks like on Penzu:

Note as you can see in the above post (the keyboard photo), you can also attach photos and other Auteureist™ research items.

The other change in 2.260 is that posting is faster (much faster for journal entries).

That's it for 2.260.

On to Auteureist™ 3.00. In the past few posts here I've previewed some new screens designs. This post will be no different.

In the last post, I showed an early version of the text editing screen with rich text, page flipping, etc. This time, I'm previewing the journal entry screen.

This is the basic screen:

Tapping the (+) button, creates a new journal entry with all of the rich text capabilities.

In the current version, I have a "life stream" feature that is part of the Journal mode. In version 3.+ this will be come a "life" and a real "stream".

The heart button gets you to "Life".

Note, the new version allows you to quickly check into Foursquare (a new feature). The "Life" screen allows you to track where you are and how you're feeling. This is attached to your journal entries and starting with 3.0, can be independent of entries for those of you who want to keep track of such things, without having to write a full journal entry. The other enhancement over the current version, is that I've broken the "feeling slider" into three separate sliders, which provides you with a better breakdown of how you're feeling. And as in the current version, you don't have to use the "life" view to track all of this stuff if you don't want to. But, if you like keeping track of such things, you have more flexibility now.

That's enough for this update. Next time I should preview the new "stream" view, which will let you see your writing in a different way.

Filed under // auteureist final draft journal penzu script writing

Feb 8

Status Update

Time for a status update. Last time, I gave you an peek at an early version of the new project browser. I promised a look at the new writing interface. The goal is to let you write without getting in your way; I think I'm almost there.

So, as promised, here is a look at an early version of the new Auteureist™ writing view.

The first thing you'll probably notice is that the new version support full rich-text editing. That means, the version lets you use different, fonts, styles, sizes, etc. The next thing you'll see is there is very little clutter. The old toolbars are gone. There are a couple of things however, the yellow bar at the top is the color-coded progress indicator. So you always see how close (or far) you are to your writing goal.

Here's the next thing.

You'll be able to page through your writing. Specifically paging will move you back and forward between chapters/elements. No more having to use a list to select the chapter you want to work on (although you'll still be able to if you want to).

One thing people like about the current version is the ability to manage characters, locations, research, etc. The current version uses a toolbar. The new version lets you swipe up from the bottom of the writing view. When you do so, you get a nice animation to this view:

Tapping one of the tabs on the bottom will open up the corresponding information management view. A double tap on a tab will hide the tabs. So the control interface stays out of your way until you actually need it.

I've managed to get a lot done. There's still a ton left to do. Right now, I'm just focusing on the new user interface. I've been playing with the new interface as I go along, and it feels right.

That's it for this update. More next time.

Filed under // auteureist novel script writing

Jan 24

Time For An Update

Time for an update and progress report.

The next release will be another stability release. It fixes a few issues and speeds up launch times dramatically. There is one new enhancement which deals with the keyboard accessory bars. They were a bit kludgey to use and required copying text in order to use the bars. The enhancement only requires that you select the text you want to use. This is more intuitive and more efficient.

I haven't been adding any new functionality to the app recently in order to stabilize and fix outstanding issues. That doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I've been working on 3.0 for the iPad which will have a brand new UI and iCloud support. Its far from done but I have a very good start and am pleased with the new UI so far. It's not perfect, but its more "iPad-like" and less confusing than the current one seems to be. The main goal is to provide all the power of the existing version in terms of being able to manage lots of aspects of writing, while reworking the actual editing interface so that it doesn't get in your way.

Here are some early screen shots. These will probably change, but give you the core ideas.

Preferences are now organized better and the interface is more streamlined. As you can see from this screen shot. iCloud support will be included, and tooltips will be available throughout to help new users.

The main screen is now more intuitive and flexible. It has nice animation effects and shows relationships between your writing and contents.

You can swipe through the carousels, and they all update automatically. The one thing these screenshots don't show, is that you will be able to swipe up and down to drill in and out of the various layers.

This shot shows the project types and the projects within a type. You can select all types or filter by a specific type, such as blogs.

Selecting a specific project (or swiping up) displays the next view:

This layer displays the items within the specific project, elements (chapters, etc), characters, etc. Selecting one of these will drill down into the specific item. That's the basic idea.

The app will remember where you are so you won't have to do much, if any, swiping and tapping between sessions.

That's enough for now. Next time, I'll talk about the new version of the most important screen, the writing interface.

Filed under // auteureist final draft novel writing

Dec 22

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays to all!

The next update will be submitted this week. This is mainly a set of internal changes and simplifications leading up to iCloud support. There are a couple of bug fixes and graphics cleanups as well. Most of the changes aren't visible but are needed in order to rebuild the app's UI and to provide synching via iCloud. Again, this version requires iOS 5.x.

I'm not rushing iOS 5 functionality. Rushing releases caused lots of issues earlier this year and I don't want to repeat those problems by rolling out something that breaks and causes more problems than it solves. The good news is that the app is very stable at this and the bug reports coming in are almost none existent. The ones that are coming in I'm fixing and testing with each new version. Additionally, I'm taking my time with the new UI that will be released next year sometime. Enjoy the holidays. Next year will be a good one.

Sent from Auteureist™ on iPad - http://auteureist.com/

Filed under // auteureist blog finaldraft journal script writing

Nov 26

Version 2.21 Information

I hope everyone had a good holiday and finishing up writing your novels for NaNoWriMo.

I'm going to be releasing another update in the next week or so. This will be version 2.21. This one has the usual bug fixes and some enhancements. This will be a required upgrade going forward in that it will require iOS 5 or later--I am dropping support for earlier versions . So if you don't plan on upgrading to 5, you should not install this version. This move makes it easier to incorporate new iOS 5 features.

This version fixes a couple of weird crashes, and the preferences not being saved. Also I've fixed the bug where the default font was invisible if you created a new database.

The new enhancements include the character backstory (introduced in the last version) is now exported properly, and the journal keyboard bar now has buttons for posting to Twitter and Facebook. A major new feature is that the app now supports the iPhone's Twitter integration. You now configure Twitter accounts using the standard Settings app Twitter section.

The next version should be 2.3. This will include a new database structure and will be a major internal change; this wasn't ready for this release. This will allow for iCloud synching.

Sent from Auteureist™ on iPad - http://auteureist.com/

Filed under // NaNoWriMo auteureist blog finaldraft journal script writing

Nov 6

Version 2.20 Information

Another update is coming. Version 2.20 has the usual bug fixes. In addition there are a few "tweaks". The most obvious one is the redesign and simplification of the password screen. This doesn't seem like a big deal but this along with the more consistent and simplified text editing UI (not as obvious a change) is laying the groundwork for a revamped iPad UI and incorporating iOS 5 features such as iCloud. Most of the changes are internal, and the simplified UI is a result. The other visible change is in the text editing progress bar. I felt it needed more feedback so I have added additional color codes to indicate how close to your writing goal. Before version 2.20. It was either red (not done) and green (goal achieved). Starrting in this version there are more colors:

Red - starting on the goal
Orange - you have hit 25% of your goal Yellow.- you have hit 50% of your goal
Blue - you have hit 75% of your goal
Green - you have achieved your writing goal.

Using this, I've noticed I tend to write more, faster and I spend less time looking at the actual word counts.

That's what is in this version. Now on to the next.
The next version will be a major one in terms of internal changes. Most of the changes will deal with migrating the way your writing is stored. This will not only speed up some certain functions, but it will bring things into line with working with iCloud. ICloud support will show up in the following version. I want to take things a step at a time to make sure things are relatively stable.
Having said that, the next release will drop support for pre-iOS 5 devices. So if you aren't upgrading to 5 you shouldn't upgrade the app. You won't be able to go back if you do.
That's it for now. Version 2.20 will be submitted sometime this coming week. 2.20 is a recommended upgrade for all.

Sent from Auteureist™ on iPad - http://auteureist.com/

Filed under // auteureist blog finaldraft journal script writing

Oct 26

Version 2.19 Information

It's time for another update. Version 2.19 is about to be submitted to the App Store. This version has a lot of bug fixes and a couple of new enhancements.

First of all this new version fixes a few outstanding graphics glitches and items which caused the app to crash. In addition this version introduces the use of the keychain to store your password providing for more security within the app.

Please note that if you are upgrading to this new version you will have to reset your password from within the preferences screen in the app.

Also Siri can be used to dictate to the app on your iPhone. This entire blog post was dictated using Siri.

This latest version should be submitted to the Apple App Store this weekend sometime. Sent from Auteureist™ - http://auteureist.com/

Filed under // auteureist blog finaldraft journal script writing

About