Ulysses – The Ultimate Writing App App Reviews

Not every Mac user owns an iPhone, or iPad. 80% of the smartphone/ tablet market doesnt run iOS. iCloud only syncing means my data is locked-in to one vendor. I prefer open-standards and non-vendor lock-in solutions.

As an academic, Ulysses has become a critical part of my workflow (Ulysses > RMarkdown/RStudio > BibTex > LaTex|PDF|DOCX|HTML). It stays out of my way, rather than trying to do too much. Starting a new project means creating a group to collect short notes which then get edited into the methods section. As things get more settled, I drop in small code snippets in sheets to generate tables and graphs. Filters help me identify the sections that still need work. Afterwards, I output Markdown to the clipboard to paste into a configured RMarkdown document that then compiles with the graphics, tables, and updated data using knitr and RStudio/pandoc. External folders in Dropbox allow me to collaborate with colleagues and always have the latest versions of text - even if my collaborators are using different tools. It has allowed me to move faster, update entire documents with new data, and produce multiple formats - all while keeping my engineering tools, citation tools and writing tools separate. It’s very very simple. I do have a few wishes 1) filters which can exclude keywords (“does _not_ match keyword ‘table’”) so I can make my environment a little more distraction free. 2) filters for writing goals - so I know what else I need to write. 3) a live preview pane that slides out like the attachments pane (instead of as a separate window). 4) a simple keyboard shortcut that exports based on last settings to the last location/application/automator action (like a cmd-e to compliment cmd-p for printing). 5) allow us to change filename extension of exported documents (for example from .md to .rmd, etc). and finally 6) multiline raw blocks that don’t add to the beginning of every line in the block (ie: /* */ in html). Nonetheless - it has become indispensable for me.

Please add an option to automatically delete empty notes

Along with its iPad companion app (or vice versa - depending on how you look at it), this is the best writing program combination there is! Well, now iPhone as well as iPad Pro. What more can I ask for?

I’ve been using a combination of Simplenote and a few different Markdown editors for at least five years, probably longer. So it’s rare I find a new app that can replace an existing workflow like that. Ulysses is that app. It’s fantastic— the library organization and Markdown features solve all the annoyances of my old system, and Ulysses does more than the apps I was using before. Switching was a tough decision because I liked using Dropbox for sync and having a few different options for which Markdown editor to use. But so far, no regrets. Ulysses’ iCloud sync has worked perfectly, and it’s clear whats happening when using the app. Combined with some great backup features Im very confident in it. And Ulysses is a better editor for me than any of my other apps on my Mac or iOS devices. So yeah, Im very happy. If writing is important to you, and your existing system is anything short of perfect, I cant recommend Ulysses enough.

The smoothest, most full-featured writing experience to be found anywhere. I love this company. The ability to customize and pick a theme of your choosing is so great. Integrates with Drafts on iOS, so you can send actions directly into your Ulysses inbox…or you could just use Ulysses excellent iOS app. This app replaced DayOne for me. Why have a specific journal app when you can have nicer looking writing experience in Ulysses? Just create a Journal group and there is your journal. You can mold Ulysses into what you want. Want to write a book? Simply create a group for that book and you’re good to go.

update #3: Yippee….Ulysses is now available on the iPhone. I can work on a project on whatever device now. This is fabulous, since I am rarely at home and am always tapping away on the iphone or the iPad in the car or in a meeting, and wherever else. Its iCloud, which now seems to work in a flawless manner, is of great need for me. I use Ulysses for first drafts, for working things out, and for mapping and laying out chapters of books and seeing how they flow before shipping them off to storyist or ibooks author. While not a great fan of markdown, I can live with it. If Ulysses had the same formatting options as, say Storyist or Scrivener, this would be my only writing program for long projects. I have two of them going on Ulysses now. Anyway, thanks for that update on the iphone. It’s real nice and great to be able to tap away on that while in the woods or on the water. Great fun:) Update #2: This Ulysses program started off fabulous. I was happy when it came out. I use Ulysses quite a bit and to have the same program across all op systems was divine. Then, somehow the new Ulysses lost everything I had on it on the new ipad/desktop/laptop version. It is all a blank now. I have had to return to the old form of dadealus/ulysses. Despite it not no longer syncing, it now seems to sync — at least on my computers. I do not know what it is. Customer support has been right there; they cannot figure it out either. I am back to the old way. I guess it is a take your chances kind of program. Update: Dadealus Touch and Ulysseus no longer sync in Mac’s Yosemite operating system. I do not have much experience with this upgrade, so it is difficult to criticize or praise it. I use Ulysseus as a drafting program, importing the final version to Pages before sending the piece off. I also use Daedelus Touch more than the Ulysseus program since I am never able to be at the desktop long enough to get much done on it. These upgraded features are, sadly, lacking in Daedalus. I wish the soulmen would update Daedalus to match Ulysseus. It is probably going to remain as a wish, though:( This said, both programs are a godsend for the mobile writer. The icloud works flawlessly; the exporting to other programs, even scrivener, is great. The sheets idea is nice. Though not a general fan of Markdown, Ulysseus makes it easy to understand anyway so I do not worry about it. I wish that the soul men would advance this program and its ipad sibling, Daedalus, to include supports for table of contents for longer projects, bibliographies, glosseries, and so on. Then it would be the only writing program I would ever use. I hope they keep going. They’ve got a gem now, which could only be better if they want it to be.

I started using this app in 2.4 for my Master’s degree schoolwork. I’ve been using it for short (400-500 word) essays and longer papers (2k - 4k words) and it’s handled both well. For my longer papers, the attachments have been fantastic for notes. I love the “goal” support for single documents and groups, and I love the variety of export themes. 2.5 added support for iPad with multitasking and iPhone so I can work on the go. As someone who was already a big fan of markdown, this app makes writing my papers that much easier. I look forward to using Ulysses for writing for a long time to come. A fantastic update to a fantastic app; highly recommended.

Finally, my writing solution is here. I’ve tried them all and Ulysses is the best. I left Scrivener after waiting YEARS for their fabled iOS app and went back to Word for the sake of an iOS app. That didn’t really work because I still hated Word. I went to plain text editors for awhile, so I could write across multiple platforms. That was okay, but mostly dumb. I found Storyist and I loved it! After awhile, though, I found myself itching for something more… I downloaded the trial of Ulysses, (again) but this time I put in the effort to understand it, rather than dismiss it immediately. The more I used it and began to grasp it’s functionality and power, the more I loved it. Plus, it was hard to ignore the fact that I hadn’t (and still haven’t) stopped writing since the day I downloaded it. It’s interface is beutifully simplistic with a 1000 horsepower under the hood. Their iOS version is the ONLY serious writing software out there, too. There’s others, but they’re dumbed down. With Ulysses, you almost have the same power on your freakin’ iPhone or iPad as you do on your Mac. I don’t know, I just love this software...

Elegant, simple, & powerful. The best app for writing I’ve ever seen. Just remarkable. Makes it easy to think, easy to compose, easy to revise, and easy to publish. And it gives you access to all your work, all the tme, from any of your Apple devces (I have Mac, iPad, and iPhone). The most recent IOS version adds iPhone and gives remarkable power and flexibility. Easy to move from device to device. And then everything is synced. Great to work on a Mac, but also gives stunning power as well on iPad or iPhone. You can now write and edit in ways and in places you couldn’t before. As a practical matter, it lowers the barriers for writing in ways nothing else ever has. If you don’t start, you can’t get anything done. And Ulysses makes it so so easy to start (and then continue). After a while, you just think and work, and you hardly notice it’s there. The longer I used it, the better it got. As final bonus, newest version adds flawless import (for me) of docx documents. This is the future now.

Ulysses is a breath of fresh air. It offers a streamlined, distraction-free writing pipeline that is somehow both simple and feature-packed. It does everything in its power to help you write effectively. If you’re looking for a great semantic editor, your search is done (unless you’d prefer/need LaTeX over a flavor of Markdown). The price point is a sore spot — the OS X package costs $50 and the iOS version will set you back $25, if you need it. Added up it’s more than Sublime Text + Coda, both of which offer Markdown syntax modes, and it’s _much_ more than OS X / iOS Notes. But after exploring the workflow, export options, and user-focused design on offer in Ulysses, I believe the purchase is worth it for the focused writer. Ulysses gets out of the way when you want it to but is easily called back when you need something. It’s very good at maintaining the separation of concerns between content and presentation, and I never realized how sick I was of messing around with formatting options until now. Just relax, do some great writing, and worry about all that stuff later. Or don’t, because Ulysses will take care of that for you, too.

The spelling checker is aggravating. I type in both English and Italian. Despite having both languages selected in my System Preferences, Ulysses cannot distinguish Italian when it occurs and automatically corrects Italian words to English. Selecting an Italian keyboard is no help either. The only solution I’ve found is to turn off spell check altogether and turn off autocorrect. Yet doing so reduces the functionality of the app. In addition, I find the markup distracting, which is exactly the opposite of the “distraction-free” intention. Also, when you put it in full-screen mode, the font becomes huge. Why isn’t there a way to keep the font a reasonable size even in full-screen mode? I like the idea of “sheets” (and in this respect it is more useful than Scrivener), but there are too many other things that I find distracting about this app. Maybe with time some improvements will be made.

I am frustrated by feature-rich word processors that don’t invest time in the writing experience. Although Ulysses lacks a few features that would be handy for me—a built-in timer, a syntax editor (highlighting passive constructions, adverbs, and sentence length), it is hands down the best writing experience I have ever had. I write and teach writing, have tried 3 writing apps per year for the last four years, and nothing has sold me as completely as Ulysses. I write more and I write better in this app than I have in anything else.

I love this app. It syncs with all of my devices - Mac, iPad, and iPhone. it’s easy to use and actually makes you want to write. I read other reviews that said Ulysses makes them want to write and I thought “That’s crazy. They’re just saying that.” But it’s true. The feature I love the most is the functionality across all devices. Sometimes I’ll get an idea or inspiration when I’m out and about. I simply open the app on my iPhone and tap away. When I get home, my thoughts and ideas are ready to be cleaned up and explored. This is the single best writing app I’ve used. Better than Word, Pages, and even Scrivener. If you write, you need to look at this app.

Occasionally I come across a well-designed tool that obsoletes and replaces a whole collection of other tools. Ulysses is one of these. I’ve been moving toward doing more with fewer tools. A calendar for anything set in time. A list keeper for anything that is a list. A spreadsheet for calculations. And Ulysses for any and all writing. If it involves sentences strung together, I’m doing it in Ulysses. I’ll compose emails there. Flesh out courses. Take down ideas to work on later. Write articles and books. Notes on my clients. Everything.

Ulysses is a beautiful, intuitive and non-distracting writing environment. I consider it the “home base” for almost* all the creative writing I do, from brainstorming all the way through final versions. The design that looks and feels simple and intuitive on the surface, but packs a lot of well thought-out features that stay out of your way until you need them. All of your files are in plain text, so you’re not locked into Ulysses forever. iCloud syncing is still problematic sometimes (I have occasional glitches that render Ulysses unable to read *any* of my work until I reset iCloud by logging out and back in. But that may well be an iCloud issue — and you can always choose to sync via Dropbox (or nothing at all) if you prefer. * If Ulysses supported Fountain screenwriting syntax (which is plain text-based), I’d use it for screenplays as well. Hopefully they’ll get around to that at some point.

I dont use Ulysses for its intended purpose. I think of it as an IDE for notes. I manage a team of developers and I use Ulysses for my daily work log, meeting notes and production issue post-mortems. Basically, Ulysses is a better version of Evernote for me. It helps that I already think in Markdown format. :) I love using Ulysses! It keeps me focused on the notes because the UI stays out of my way.

Ulysses is a beautiful app with a focus on one thing: getting out of your way so you can write. Before I started using Ulysses, I used Microsoft Word for my manuscript. It was one gargantuan file, with lots of details like formatting, page breaks, etc. Switching to Ulysses revolutionized and recharged my writing in at least five major ways: 1. Thinking in “sheets” breaks the work down into manageable chunks, and allows me to reorder as easily as dragging and dropping to the order I want. 2. I no longer got distracted by insignificant details like font, page breaks, and squiggly green grammar “corrections” that didn’t actually correct. 3. The design of Ulysses is clean and uncluttered, putting a focus on my words. It inspires me to make those words count. 4. The iCloud syncing means that I don’t have to worry about losing my work: it’s backed up automatically. 5. Since Ulysses has an iOS app as well, I can write anywhere and everywhere. I write on the subway, on my way into work. I write on my lunch break. I write…well, anywhere. If you’re ready to get serious about your writing project(s), be they big or small, you should strongly consider switching to Ulysses.

Wrting environment is perfect for my needs. I can use iCloud or Dropbox to store and sync files. I like the fact Ulysses doesn’t force me to use it for all my writing. It is my preferred app but sometimes I like to use other apps for a change. The abilty to export markdown to other formats has been strong, issues are usually my fault. Highly recommend Ulysses.

Great writing app with an active team behind it. I’m not a Markdown user so I’m adjusting to the, but the app is solid overall. The one feature I would love is the ability to set goals for a whole stack, like ‘for each new sheer, set goal to x number of words’.