Overview

Storyspace is a tool for creating documents containing linked information. These can be basic hypertext, similar to the Web, or collections of organized snippets of information, or a richly interconnected document of data, images, and relationships. Storyspace is used in diverse areas, such as writing, research, teaching, and business. Authors link items organized in containers called "writing spaces," creating complex relationships. Unlike the Web, links can have more than one destination, be active only after another link has been visited, and be bidirectional. The authoring environment allows multiple types of views of these linked writing spaces, each view allowing direct manipulation of the writing spaces and their relationships. Hypertext creations can be distributed in a self-running format, exported to text, or exported to HTML for viewing with a regular Web browser.

Overall, Storyspace is a very good hypertext-document creation tool. Compared with other similar hypertext tools available for the Macintosh platform, such as HyperCard or Web-site creation programs, Storyspace performs better when managing, creating, and publishing complex hypertext documents. If you're looking for a way to manage, visualize, and publish complex interlinked information, Storyspace can help you.

How Long Did It Take to Learn to Use It Productively?

It took me a few hours to read the manual and learn interactively how the program expects hypertext to be created. After a few more hours, I was able to produce a simple hypertext document containing many writing spaces, guard links (explained in Useful Features), and a movie. I was also able to do simple exports to text and HTML. Anyone with a decent understanding of hypertext (practically anyone who surfs the Web) could start to work on a fairly complex hypertext document after a few hours of studying the manual and program. Such a person would also need only a day or two more to begin increasing the sophistication of the document.

Considering the conceptual complexity of hypertext and the implementation of this tool, the program is fairly intuitive. As I learned how to create hypertext (with some help from the manual), it became simpler and more intuitive to use. For the most part, I did not question why things were where they were or acted as they did, with a few minor exceptions. For example, when exporting text or HTML, an "open file" dialog box appears without any instructions. It is actually meant to allow the user to select which template to use for exporting - I needed the manual to figure this one out.

Product Quality

Customizability

The program can be customized to a small degree. A preferences section allows you to set some of the text-formatting characteristics, the hypertext-link formatting, and writing space and background color. The preferences can be set for a specific document or for the whole program.

Ability to Program in Scripts, Add Extension Modules, etc.

A single AppleScript can be associated with any writing space simply by dragging the script onto the writing space's script menu icon. When the writing space is opened, the script is run. No other extensions can be added to the program.

Ability to Import and Export in Different File Formats

Import

Text can be imported via cut and paste or drag and drop. The standard Macintosh styles are adhered to (as long as the source program uses standard Macintosh styling) to a certain extent (more on styling in Limitations section).

Any sound or image that can be imported to the Macintosh scrapbook can be imported into a writing space.

QuickTime movies are not imported. The movie is played from within the writing space, but resides outside the Storyspace file. Storyspace makes clever use of the Mac OS file system to keep track of the location of the file.

Export

Storyspace can save the document as a Reader file, to be distributed and read along with a free Storyspace Reader application.

Storyspace can also export all of the writing spaces, or just a group of them, from a file to a text file or an HTML file. Both methods use templates to guide the final format of the exported file. For example, an author could use Storyspace to collect information and organize a manuscript and then export the manuscript to text (or HTML) using a template to specify the structure. This is an interesting and powerful publication feature.

When outputting to text, the text files lose all the hypertext features (and styling and pictures). But when mapping a Storyspace file into HTML, only a few hypertext features are lost, such as guard fields and single links to multiple spaces.

Useful or Unusual Features

The Writing Space

The basic element in a Storyspace document is the writing space. This is where the content goes. You can place text, images, movies, or other writing spaces here, or you can connect an AppleScript to a writing space, which will run whenever the space is opened. Additionally, you can associate keywords with writing spaces for searching and sorting.

Linking

Since creating links is at the heart of a hypertext-document creation tool, Storyspace makes it very easy to create, modify, and manage links. As with many commands in Storyspace, you can use the Create Link menu item (from the menu bar or from the pop-up contextual menu), use a key command, or click on the Create Link graphic on the toolbar. Links can originate from and terminate at a writing space, a stretch of text, a word, or an embedded image. Links that go to more than one destination display a list of destinations for the reader to choose from. Change the color and underlining of linked elements in the preferences. Alternatively, reveal linked elements by pressing the command amd option keys simultaneously.

The Tunnel

A nice feature for creating links is the tunnel. If you need to make a link between two elements that are not easily linked, for example, from one writing space to another, embedded writing space, you can save the source of your link in the tunnel, go and find your link destination, and then drop your source link from the tunnel onto the link destination.

Guard Fields

Storyspace also has an interesting link feature called the guard field. Guard fields control whether or not a link is active, which can depend on whether another writing space has been visited. This feature is useful when you don't want to show something until another item is seen. For example, a link to a protocol might become active only after the safety-precautions writing space has been visited.

Viewing the Architecture

As part of the link-creation process, Storyspace offers four different ways to view the relationships between writing spaces. Each view allows you to manipulate the hierarchy and the links to a certain degree. Also, you can open up many different views, even at different levels of detail. All the views are interrelated and update the other views.

Publishing

Storyspace does a decent job of publishing into other formats. Hypertext creations can be distributed in three formats - as a Reader file, as text, or as HTML.

Limitations

As with any program, there are a few missing features. While I did not find the program defective or see anything that would render the program unusable, it has some annoying minor deficiencies that detract from the purpose of the program.

No Spell-Checker

Because Storyspace is a program for creating hyperlinked documents, which most likely will be heavily text based, it is surprising that there is no spell-checker. I suppose I would either have to import verified text, which defeats the freedom of writing on the fly, or buy an external spell-checker, which would only be used in this program, since all my other word-processing programs have their own spell-checkers. I rate this lack of a spell-checker as a serious annoyance.

Simple Formatting

The formatting options for text are simple. Indeed, they are almost as simple as those offered by the SimpleText program that comes with all Macintoshes. For example, text within a single writing space cannot be justified separately. All the text in a writing space has to be either center, left, or right justified. There is no mixing of justification. Once again, like the spell-checker, these and other formatting limitations suggest that Storyspace is not really meant for sophisticated text-based publication.

Out of Style

Despite being out of style it still works well with early 21st century Macintoshes. That's a credit to the program as well as to Apple technologies. Although not part of this review, the Windows version feels even more retro. I know it might not be fair to comment on this, but it makes me feel that the program is already falling behind technologically before it even is started up for the first time. Nonetheless, the program does its job well, which might suggest that its ease of use makes it seem old fashioned and that a modern program should be more complex.

Comparisons with Similar Software

In the course of this review, I began to evaluate the Windows version of Storyspace. Unfortunately, the Windows version still needs some more work. I suggest users stick to the Macintosh version.

I have used HTML Web site authoring programs, such as Claris HomePage, to create hypertextually linked information. Such programs work well for static information, unless the pages are placed on a server that allows more dynamic content to be used. I think that Storyspace overlaps with the Web, but is closer to a publishing model. For the most part, the Web doesn't lend itself to distribution of dynamic content other than via a Web server.

I also used to use the venerable hypertext program HyperCard (from Apple). I think here, too, there is overlap with Storyspace. Each program has features that the other doesn't have. For example, HyperCard has a phenomenal scripting environment that allows you to control elements within a document (called a stack). Storyspace has better tools for managing the complexity of a hyperlinked document, such as graphical views of the relationship between lined writing spaces. I'd say that the two are running neck and neck. Also, both seem to be anachronistic - HyperCard, because Apple stopped enhancing it many years ago, and Storyspace, despite being released in the spring of 2001, in the overall feel of its interface (see Limitations).

Technical Support and Documentation

Besides being entertaining, the manual is very good, making the program easy to use. Without the manual, the whole program seems quite complex. It is a must read.

There is no online support site, although the Eastgate site is a good resource on hypertext issues and news. I also suggest reading the many case studies on how people in different fields use Storyspace.

Telephone and email support are available free of charge.

Target Users

Storyspace is good for anyone who needs a tool to easily store, organize, and express complex interrelated information in textual or hypertextual formats. Eastgate has a long list of examples of uses for Storyspace, contributed by users.