Storyist Software, a developer of creative
writing tools for Mac OS X, today announced the
release of Storyist 1.4, an update to their
popular story development tool for novelists and
screenwriters. Storyist 1.4 incorporates many
user-requested features, including a new
formatting inspector window, the ability to read
and write additional formats, enhancements to
import and export functions, and new text tools.

"Our writers are a diverse group," says Steve
Shepard, CEO of Storyist Software. "We listened
carefully to their requests and expanded the
software's capabilities accordingly. The result
is a tool that works even more effectively with a
variety of workflows."

Highlights of the release include:

° The Inspector: A new floating Inspector panel
offers quick access to text, style, and document
formatting properties.

° New File Formats: Storyist now provides
converters for the Microsoft Word .docx and Open
Office .odt file formats (Leopard only) and the
Final Draft .fcf format, in addition to the
previously supported RTF, HTML, DOC, and Text
Only formats.

° Text Processing Tools: New text processing
tools help automate tedious search and replace
operations like converting to and from smart
quotes, changing italics to underlining and back,
and reformatting text.

° Automator Support: The import and export
assistants as well as the new text processing
tools are now integrated with Apple's Automator
technology. Writers can use the Storyist text
tools in Automator workflows, and use Automator
to create workflows for use in Storyist.

° Enhanced RTF Converter: The RTF converter now
imports and exports headers, footers, margins,
date fields, keep with next, and widow and orphan
control settings, and offers improved Unicode
support for compatibility with other programs.

° Word Processing Enhancements: The word
processor now supports widow and orphan control
and can import style sheets from other documents.

° Developer API: Based on Apple's Automator
Action API, the new plug-in API allows developers
to extend the Tools menu and provide additional
format converters and workflow components.

In addition to standard word processing features
such as spelling and grammar checking, Storyist
includes a page layout view with support for
headers, footers, and style sheets. It also
provides unique features such as customizable
Story Sheets to help writers refine story ideas,
a Project Manager that keeps all writing
(manuscript and notes) organized and accessible,
Wiki Links that allow writers to link their notes
together and Project Templates to get writers up
and writing quickly.

Storyist is compatible with Mac OS X v10.4 and
higher. The download-only version is priced at
$59 and a download + CD version is $69. Both are
available through the company's online store
located at www.storyist.com/store