Today we are excited to tell you about our friends at Ulysses, an app that will interest you if you write a lot — no matter if it is university essays, written pleadings, a personal diary or blog posts.
Ulysses is a writing application for Mac, iPad and iPhone. In 2016, it was awarded with anApple Design Award .
Unlike traditional word processors, the app does not focus on the layout of the final document, but on the writing process itself. Ulysses offers a focused writing environment, powerful document management, a host of exporting and publishing options, as well as fast and comprehensive synchronization. Let's flesh that out a little bit.
A Focused Writing Environment
Let's start with the writing itself. With Ulysses, it is done in plain text. Emphasized words, headings, links, footnotes etc. are marked up with a few memorable tags. The benefit is that you don't have to — and you're not able to — deal with the formatting of your text while you write. You focus on what you want to say, not what it is going to look like. While writing, you see only your text, and your cursor. The optional so-called "typewriter mode" emphasizes the line you're currently in and fixes it on the screen, letting you delve even more into your work.
Powerful Management
But Ulysses is more than a focused writing app — it's actually a fully-fledged writing environment. Thanks to its intelligent system of folders and subfolders — or groups and subgroups, to speak in the app's own termini — it is well-suited for managing writing projects of all kinds and sizes. If you, as an example, write a book, you can create one group that holds all parts or chapters of your book. You can then easily shuffle your parts and chapters within that group, add, remove, reorganize at will. If you're working on various projects — say, cases as a lawyer — you can keep each project in its own dedicated group, and all related content in various subgroups. The hierarchy of groups and subgroups can be as deep as you wish.
What's more, you can add attachments to a text (or a sheet, to speak in Ulysses terms) that belong to a text, but not in the text itself, e.g. notes, keywords, and so-called writing goals. With writing goals you can set a certain word or character limit for a text, and track the progress you make towards your goal while you write.
Export & Publishing Capabilities
One major benefit of plain text editing done the Ulysses way is that your output can easily be transformed to a host of standard file formats. Ulysses can convert a manuscript into a beautifully layout PDF or DOCX file, or an ebook. To determine what your output will look like, you can choose between several built-in styles, or help yourself with additional hundreds of styles available for download on Ulysses' website. Online publishers can also export their texts as HTML, or publish it on their WordPress blogs or Medium accounts with just a few clicks, right from within the app.
Comprehensive Sync
Thanks to the seamless iCloud synchronization, you can access all your texts, at any time, and on any connected Mac, iPad or iPhone. There are no tricky setup procedures involved — it just works. So you can, as an example, use commuting time to polish up your texts, without having to plan on it prior to that. What's more, you can actually do anything you can do with the Mac app when using the iOS app, too — that is, craft a blog post and publish it, keep a diary, or write a book — whatever you fancy.
Sleek, Intuitive Design
If you have always used Microsoft Word (or something like Word) for writing, it may take a little time getting used to Ulysses, because it follows a different philosophy. But then you'll enjoy its sleek design and the intuitive handling. Ulysses offers many options to adapt its interface to your likings, e.g. you can work in dark mode, switch the color palette of the editor, change your writing font, and much more. There are many little details that help making writers' lives easier, e.g. comprehensive text statistics (including even the reading time in several tempi), automatic local backups, or the option to search the entire text library in seconds and instantly open a text for editing.
Conclusion
Ulysses is a pro app for anyone who writes a lot, no matter if it is for work or for their own pleasure.
For further information, visit the app websiteulyssesapp.com
Giveaway
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