Printing or Saving Your Stories

/ By / In Basics, Help

We’ve added a new option to make it easy to print or download the stories you’ve written.

  1. Sign into Retrospect, pull down the menu from your name at the top right, and click My Profile.
  2. Along with your profile information and choices, you’ll see a purple button called Print My Stories. Click the button.
  3. Retrospect will compile up to ten of your stories into a web page.
  4. From your browser menu, select File > Print.
  5. To print your stories, click Print.
  6. To download your stories as a PDF file, use your browser’s Print or Save to PDF option. In the Print dialog box, it might look something like this:Save as PDF option
  7. If you have more than ten stories, scroll to the bottom and click Older Posts. Lather, rinse, and repeat as needed.

If you save to PDF, you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader (or equivalent program) to view the file.

How to Get Started

/ By / In Basics

It’s pretty simple, actually. Create an account. Read a few stories (from the Home page) to see what others are posting. Then, jump in and start writing!

Home
Our Home page highlights the latest prompt, along with stories that have already been written and shared. You’ll also find other stories from recent prompts and a list of upcoming prompts.

Menus
The most important menu is at the top of the page. Here, you’ll find items such as Read Stories, Write Stories, My Stories, and Help. Dropdown menus will take you where you want to go.

Help
If you have questions, select Help from the top menu. You can also contact support, report issues, and send us suggestions by clicking Contact from the bottom menu, or by emailing us at support@myretrospect.com.

Writing Your First Story
It’s easier if you write your first story in response to the current prompt—just click Start Writing on the Home page. If you’re stuck for an idea, pull down the Write Stories menu look at previous prompts, or write about your own topic.

For your first story, try writing a Quick Take—just a paragraph or two, perhaps adding a photo from your archives or the Internet. (Feel free to post material you’ve written previously.) The interface is similar to a word processing program.

Add Story_annotated

Once you’ve finished writing, use the Publish box to preview, save, and share your work.

Publish story_annotatedYou can also add a Featured Image if you have one. Enjoy Retrospect and happy storytelling!

Setting Your Profile Options
You can find your profile under your name in the top right corner of the website. Here you can complete your user profile, change your password, read messages, and see writers you’re following or who are are following you. You can also specify email settings for how often you want to be contacted.

Member Profiles

/ By / In Basics, Help

If you’re curious about other Retrospect members after reading their stories, you can check their profile for biographical information they may have shared. To do so, click their name anywhere you see it on the site and, on the list of stories that appears, click the link at the top to view their profile.
Julius Caesar profile_portrait
If you’d like to enter and share your own information, sign into Retrospect, pull down the menu from your name at the top right, and click My Profile. You’ll see your public information along with a set of tabs.

Profile tabs
Click Edit, fill in any fields you want to share, and click Save Changes when you’re done. You can also add or change your profile photo. Your bio and your photo, if you have them, will appear at the bottom of all of your stories.

Elsewhere in your profile, you can change your email settings (which notifications you receive from Retrospect and how often), check your messages, and manage the lists of members you follow and who follow you.

 

Read Us on Mobile

/ By / In Reading Stories

If you only use Retrospect on a desktop or laptop computer, we want you to know that it works on mobile devices as well. A smartphone is especially convenient for reading stories. There are now hundreds stories on Retrospect— and soon, we hope, thousands—and most are short enough to read easily while waiting in line, on a plane or Uber, in a waiting room, or whenever you have a few minutes to spare.

mobilessSo try us on your smartphone or tablet! Just go to myretrospect.com on your mobile browser. You’ll find the interface very similar to your desktop computer. You can access the top menu by tapping the icon with three horizontal lines. A good way to browse is to choose Read Stories > Surprise Me, which displays them in random order. While reading any story, you can tap the author’s name to read more by him or her. At the bottom, you can access more stories on the same prompt.

Let us know how this works for you, and whether you’d like to see a Retrospect mobile app that makes it even easier to read stories on your phone or tablet. You can post a comment on this blog post, email us at team@myretrospect.com, or use the Contact link at the bottom of the screen.