Homescreen heroes
That is a part of a daily sequence of articles exploring the apps that we could not stay with out. Learn all of them right here.
Should you’re a author of any sort – a blogger, a copywriter, an aspiring novelist or some other form of phrase wrangler – you will know the way essential your writing instruments may be. Within the analogue world I will solely write significantly with a very nice pen and creamy paper. And within the digital realm, I write completely in Ulysses.
What’s Ulysses and the way a lot does it value?
Ulysses lets you get phrases out of your mind and onto the web page exceptionally rapidly and simply, and contains a distraction-free interface that hides all of the stuff you do not want so you’ll be able to focus in your phrases.
It is blazingly quick. And it lets you handle even very massive tasks. I am at the moment writing one other e book with it, and I take advantage of it each day for business copywriting, information reporting and little snippets like writing writer bios, questions for occasions I am internet hosting and logging issues I need to bear in mind later.
It is sensible on the Mac and on an iPad with an exterior keyboard, and there is additionally an iPhone model so you’ll be able to entry, edit and scribble concepts on the go.
Ulysses is not free, however it’s fairly low-cost: $39.99 / £39.99 (round AU$60) for an annual plan or £5.99 / $5.99 monthly (about AU$9 p/month). College students may also decide it up for $10.99 / £9.99 (or round AU$17) for six months at the moment.
Why that is my Homescreen Hero
Ulysses is a write-once, publish-anywhere app. It makes use of Markdown, a type of plain textual content with easy shortcuts for rapidly formatting, linking and structuring paperwork. Markdown was additionally designed with pace in thoughts.
As a result of the commonest shortcuts are all keyboard based mostly – one hash image to make textual content into an H1 heading, two for H2, Command-B for daring and so forth – it means I am not always shifting to the mouse, which my RSI-addled arms are very glad about.
As a result of Markdown is apparent textual content there’s little or no drain in your system, so Ulysses is blazingly quick on even previous Macs. Looking out even huge folders is immediate, and people plain textual content recordsdata may be opened in just about any textual content app in addition to from inside Ulysses.
As soon as you’ve got written your phrases you’ll be able to export them to just about something in a few clicks: to running a blog and e-newsletter platforms corresponding to WordPress, Ghost, Substack and Medium; to the clipboard as plain or wealthy textual content; to Microsoft’s DOCX format; in plain, wealthy textual content or Markdown format; in HTML format; as a PDF; or as an ePub.
There are many templates you need to use to format these file varieties, so for instance if I am exporting to DOCX I can go for a easy, plain template; a movie script; a newspaper-style column structure and far more. And there are many themes you need to use to customise the best way Ulysses seems to be. You can too tweak the interface for gentle mode, darkish mode or a mixture of each: I prefer to have my sidebars darkish and my modifying window gentle.
How I take advantage of Ulysses
Three different writing apps for critical stuff
Scrivener (Mac/PC/iOS)
I’ve used Scrivener for some actually heavyweight tasks together with self-publishing a novel. It is overkill for on a regular basis writing, I believe, however it’s a powerhouse app for e book manufacturing.
Highland 2 (Mac)
It is a great and really handsome Mac app for screenwriting and script writing, and it was created by Massive Fish and Frankenweenie author John August.
IA Author (Mac/PC/iOS)
Like Ulysses, IA Author is a distraction-free, Markdown-based writing surroundings. It is much more minimalist than Ulysses and gives visible writing and magnificence suggestions.
The principle interface is made up of a primary modifying window and three sidebars that you would be able to cover or unhide. The very left-hand sidebar is the place I manage my tasks and folders – so, for instance, I am penning this in my ‘Mags And many others > TechRadar’ folder. It is slightly factor, I do know, however I really like that I may also customise the sidebar icons and colours.
You can too use folders to interrupt up tasks. For instance, in case you’re engaged on a e book you might need separate folders to retailer your analysis, your characters’ backstories and inspirations, or pictures of doable places, plus the precise chapters you are writing. You can too hyperlink to exterior folders in your machine or within the cloud.
To the suitable of the primary sidebar there are previews of all the opposite paperwork within the present folder, so I can see (and kind or filter) all my different latest TechRadar items. The principle window reveals my phrases and the present phrase depend, as a result of that is all I want for many writing jobs.
And the sidebar on the suitable reveals me extra stats, and may be switched to point out progress in direction of a phrase depend or deadline, the define of my present doc, the photographs I am utilizing within the doc or the hyperlinks I’ve added.
Why I am recommending Ulysses
To borrow Apple’s slogan: it ‘simply works’ (albeit slightly bit slowly on the subject of syncing on my iPad and iPhone).
I’ve tried loads of writing apps – going means again to the times of WordStar and WordPerfect – and Ulysses is the one which feels prefer it was made only for me. Not too easy, not too complicated, not too demanding and never more likely to trash tens of hundreds of phrases and make them unrecoverable, in contrast to a sure app that rhymes with ‘Nicrosoft Hen’ as soon as did.
The one actual draw back of utilizing Ulysses for work paperwork is that a few of my work entails coping with tracked feedback and adjustments, and Ulysses is not designed to do this with third events: you’ll be able to remark in your paperwork and tasks simply sufficient, however I have never discovered a means to usher in, say, a consumer’s closely amended Phrase doc.
So I nonetheless make a copy of Phrase kicking round – however Ulysses is the app I take advantage of 99% of the time for fiction, non-fiction, business and company work.
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