Mariner Software StoryMill for Mac - Manual (Page 57)

Highlight Clichés
The highlight clichés tool does exactly what you would expect it to
do: it highlights potentially cliché phrases in the selected text view.
To use it, make sure that your cursor is in a text view, and choose
Tools→Highlight Clichés. After StoryMill has processed the text,
potential clichés and colloquialisms will be highlighted in red:
When cliché highlighting is on, the menu item will have a
checkmark next to it:
To turn off cliché highlighting, choose Tools→Highlight Clichés a
second time or start typing in the text view. Cliché highlighting will
also turn off automatically if you switch to a new item or view.
Tip:
Highlight Clichés ignores both context
and adjacent text when it looks for clichés
and colloquialisms. For instance, in the
screenshot at left “a few hands on board”
is being highlighted because StoryMill
thinks that “hands on” (as in “Iʼm a hands
on person”) is cliché. In this instance,
however, the phrase is not being used the
way StoryMill thinks.
Additionally, the phrase “great crowd” will
have “eat crow” highlighted like so:
StoryMill doesnʼt care that the phrase is
embedded within other words; it just
notices a text pattern thatʼs defined as
cliché.
Moral of the story: take StoryMillʼs
highlighted clichés with a grain of salt!
The tool is intended to help you find
clichés, but just because it highlights
something doesnʼt mean you necessarily
should revise or delete it.
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