Academic Workflow: Ulysses > RMarkdown/RStudio > Bibtex

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.

mp707 about Ulysses – The Ultimate Writing App