Ulysses App Mac Review



Jul 30, 2020 Download the latest version of Ulysses for Mac - Your one-stop writing environment. Read 146 user reviews of Ulysses on MacUpdate. Oct 23, 2017 Mac is very popular for its hardware, design and app ecosystem. If you are looking for a smooth writing app for Mac, then you must consider Ulysses. The Ulysses app is perfectly designed for Authors, Bloggers, Journalists, and Scriptwriters. If you come under these categories or similar profession which has a lot of writing tasks, Ulysses will.

Ulysses vs Scrivener,how do you decide what’s the right book writing software for you?

For years, writers and authors have beencreating apps, programs, software, and other innovations to help with theprocess of writing and publishing all typesof books.

Writing a novel isa huge commitment that requires a lot of time, effort, creativity,organization, and hard work. It isn’t easy to write and finish a novel withoutseeking help from writing software and tools.

There are several book writing software available to choose from such as Ulysses and Scrivener.

When it comes to a great word processor,you certainly have a few options. With Ulysses vs. Scrivener both are popularand comprehensive programs, it gets a bit hard to make the right choice.

I have covered the two toolsside-by-side in this article. You will find full comparison of Ulysses vs.Scrivener with features, pros, and cons.

Let’s get started.

Ulysses vs Scrivener: What They Have in Common

The Ulysses vs Scrivener debate can be a hot topicsometimes, as users of each are passionate in support of their favoritesoftware. They are both created with similar goals in mind, which means theyhave quite a few things in common.

Auto Save

A simple yetimportant feature. Both programs willautosave your progress as you go so you don’t have to worry.

Version History

If you areediting your work and changing things up, you may decide that you actuallyliked it better the first time around. Both of them keep backups if you wish torestore an old version of anysection.

Writing Goals and Statistics

Sometimes,finding the motivation to write can be the hardest part. Setting goals andcommitting yourself to sticking with them can be extremely beneficial andimprove your productivity to a great extent.

App

BothScrivener and Ulysses offer tools to setwriting goals. Goals canbe for whatever you want – a day, a session, a week, or even a word count goalfor an entire manuscript.

Once you getstarted, both programs keep track of a few statistics so you can see yourprogress as its happening. Goals and statistics are small and simple features,but they are essential to a successful writing process.

Notes and Images

BothScrivener and Ulysses come with support for both note taking and image inclusion. Both of them have theoption to import notes from other places, and both offer features to take noteswithin the project itself.

Notes andreferences can be saved in a few different locations. In both programs, you cancreate separate folders and documents for anything you want – and this includesnotes.

Each of themalso includes an optional secondary sidebar. This is in addition to the regularsidebar and appears on the right side of the screen. If you don’t wish to usethis option, or you want to hide it temporarily, you can easily bring it up andput it away again.

Thissecondary sidebar is a fantastic way to add notes, references, links, quotes,or anything else to a specific chapter. Stick them in the sidebar, and put itaway for later. When you want to go back, bring it up again with a single clickand you will be able to view the notes you made alongside the chapter as youare writing.

Images canalso be of great help at times. They give you a reference for the appearance ofyour characters and/or settings. They can provide inspiration and help youcraft your unique world.

Scrivener andUlysses both offer you the option to import and include images in your project.

Distraction Free Writing

Scrivener andUlysses both have a distraction-free mode that can come in veryhandy.

Perhaps youhave a critical deadline to hit, or you’re just in the zone and you want tostay super focused. Whatever the reason may be for needing to godistraction-free, it is an essential feature that both programs offer.

The specificdetails of the feature differ between the two, but the basic idea is the same.Distraction free mode removes everything so the only thing you can do is write.Toolbars, sidebars, documents, files, everything is still there buthidden.

Both of themoffer customization within the distraction free mode as well. You can changeits features:

  1. Color scheme
  2. Background
  3. Size of the writing area
  4. Font

This allows apersonalized experience that will help you maximize your focus.

Dropbox Integration

Dropbox is a popular tool thatpeople use to store documents in a way that allows them to be easily shared andaccessed across multiple devices. For those who use Dropbox frequently and relyon it day-to-day, having their writing projects available is essential.

Ulysses and Scrivenerboth have Dropbox integration options.

EBook Export

If you wantto publish your work, which I am sure you do,you can easily createan eBook version via both the tools. Having the option to create an eBook from your projectfile is very important.

While bothprograms offer slightly different options, both have the ability to export yourwork into an eBook format.

Ulysses vs Scrivener: Where Scrivener Shines

What Is Ulysses App

WhileScrivener and Ulysses are equal in many important and essential features, thereare some areas where Scrivner is stronger.

The strongand powerful features of Scrivener are discussed below.

Cork Board

The corkboard is one of Scriveners best and most powerful features.

Aestheticallyreminiscent of a real-life cork board, this section can be used for a number ofdifferent things. It essentially allows you to “pin” small, virtual note cardson a corkboard.

It can be agreat tool for outlining your story. You can create a notecard for each chapter you plan towrite, and jotdown some notes and/or a synopsis of each chapter.

The cards aresmall, which allow them to be laid out at once, but each one does have theability to scroll so you can include as much or as little information as youwant. Cards can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping.

This is alsoa great place to do some storyboarding if that’s something you’re into. It’s avery straightforward and linear way to plot your story’s main events andturning points.

Templates

Templates are another powerfulfeature that makes it extremely versatile.

Scrivenercomes with a few basictemplates in a numberof categories to get you started. If you are a fiction writer, you can choose relevant templatesfor novel writing and short stories.

Additionaltemplates include:

  1. Essays
  2. Screenplays
  3. Lectures
  4. Recipe collections
  5. Comic books

You can alsoimport templates if you want. This allows for endless creative opportunities. Youcan choose from thousands of templates and add them to your account with ease.

You candownload templates for extensiveoutlining, fordetailed and structured novel writing, and even for scientificresearch papers.

With so manyoptions, Scrivener really shines when it comes to versatility and variety ofuses.

Better Research Support

Most goodstories require some level of research. Scrivener reallyencourages the research process and has a lot of options to support it.

The mostimportant feature is its “research” tab that is automatically included in everyproject. You can hide or delete it if you really want to, but it’s anincredibly useful tool.

Using boththe documents and corkboard, you can store anything and everything in thisresearch tab. It is readily available as a heading in your binder, but it isneatly tucked away at the same time. You can access it with a single click andtoggle back and forth to your draft with ease – but it doesn’t get in the way.

More Complex Compiling

When gettingyour draft ready to transform into a published eBook, it is important to ensureeverything is perfect.

BothScrivener and Ulysses can help you with compiling, but Scrivener gives you morecontrol.

The user-interfaceis simple on Ulysses, but it is not as thorough and extensive. Scrivener’scompiling process allows you control over every single detail.

Windows Version

This is anarea where Scrivener has a huge one-up onUlysses. Ulysses is available exclusively on mac products.

Originally, Scrivener was a software for mac as well. A version for Windows has been available for several years now, though. While updates to the Windows version are often slower to be released than mac, it is still available.

There areslight advantages to the software when used on a mac, but the Windows versionof the book writing software is just as thorough, comprehensive, andpowerful.

If you are aWindows user, Ulysses is not even an option for you.

One Time Fee

With Ulyssesvs. Scrivener, Scrivener is available for a one-timeprice of $40 or $45, depending on which system you are using. This gives you alifetime license to use the book writing software.

Major updatesin the future may cost a small upgrade fee, but it will not be mandatory. Whenyou purchase Scrivener, you have it for life.

Ulysses, on the other hand,requires a subscription to maintain access. You can pay $4.99 USD per month, or$39.99 USD per year.

The monthlyfee may sound small, but it will begin to add up quickly. A few years down theroad, Ulysses will end up costing you much more. They do have the advantage ofbeing available across all devices, but it is still costly.

Ulysses vs Scrivener: Where Ulysses Shines

Scrivenerdoes have some advantages over Ulysses, but Ulysses has its strengths too!There are several areas where it outperforms Scrivener.

Simplicity

Whencomparing Ulysses vs Scrivener, it’s important to note that Ulysses has aninterface that’s easy to interact with while also have a way to set your goals.

If you’relooking to focus, it’s much easier to do here than in Scrivener.

iCloud Sync

For Macusers, this is a huge advantage. Ulysses can sync all your documents to iCloud,whereas Scrivener cannot.

More Exporting Options

WhileScrivener does offer exporting, Ulysses has more options. There are a varietyof choices available to choose from, but you also have access to the Ulysses Style Exchange. This is a space where youcan find and download lots of different export styles that are created by thecommunity.

It also has abuilt-in live preview so you can see exactly what it will look like.

Share Options

Ulysses gives you the ability toshare your work in several different ways.

Easily attacha manuscript to an email, or share it to third-party apps. This is a simplefeature, but it is a great way to quickly and easily send work to editors oreven friends who have been recruited to help.

WordPress and Medium

In additionto sharing your work via email or other apps, they have included seamlessintegration with both WordPress and Medium.

This isfantastic news for frequent bloggers. Draft and write your posts withinUlysses, taking advantage of all organization and productivity tools. When youare finished, publish to WordPress and/or Medium with a simple push of abutton.

If you writemultiple pieces at once, you can even set up post scheduling so your work ispublished exactly when you want.

Split and Merge Documents

This is a greatfeature that allows you to manage and rearrange chapters and other documenttypes with incredible ease.

With a simplecommand, you can split or merge your documents. If youhave a chapter that is running a little too long – simply split it in two.

Alternately,you can easily merge two shorter documents into one longer chapter. This makesthe editing process much easier.

Keyboard Control

Ulysses hascreated an incredible way to save you both time and effort while writing.Everything has a keyboard command. You can use each featurein Ulysses without reaching for your mouse even once.

Ulysses vs Scrivener: The Verdict

When decidingwhich book writingsoftware to use, itultimately comes down to what you are trying to accomplish.

Both thesewriting software have all the basics covered, and both possess powerful andintuitive features that help the writing process greatly. Each shines in adifferent way.

Longform Writing

Ulysses App Mac Review Cnet

With itsunmatched outlining, research, and organization abilities, Scrivener is probably your best betwhen it comes to longer pieces of writing.

Novels, nonfiction books, screenplays, or even anthologies areworks that will greatly benefit from the powerful features offered byScrivener.

Blogs and Shareable Content

If you are anavid blogger who utilizes WordPress and/or Medium on a regular basis, youdefinitely want to go with Ulysses. The integration with both platforms isincredibly convenient and will make your sharing and publishing process mucheasier.

Additionally,if you are frequently writing smaller pieces of sharable content like emailcampaigns or professional advertisements, Ulysses is a great tool for you. Withthird-party sharing capabilities, you can have your work out there with speedand ease.

An Alternate Option

Scrivener andUlysses are both great programs in their own ways. They are powerful,comprehensive, and have a great capacity to improve productivity. Thesecharacteristics come with a lot of complexity, however, and that may not workfor everyone.

If you arelooking for a simpler, more streamline book writing software to assist you inwriting your next book, Squibler may be a good choice.

Squibler isdesigned to help you finish your book as efficiently as possible – it suggestsa goal of about 30 days. It is done by providing a section for everything youneed to craft your story:

  1. Outlining
  2. Summaries
  3. Note boards (characters, locations, etc.)
  4. Research
  5. Scene setting

Each sectionis available on the left-hand side in an easy-to-navigate window. The researchand notes sections have options to include images and links for quickreference.

Much likeScrivener and Ulysses, Squibler also offers several options to help you publishyour work once you have completed it.

If you really can’t decide which writing software is right for you – try using two or more at the same time! You may find that different programs can be useful in different areas of your writing that highlight their respective strengths.

Writing and blogging tools have come a long way since I first started using iA Writer, one of the simplest writing tools I could find to publish on WordPress or Medium. Today, there seem to be three writing apps of varying degrees of complexity from left to right that has risen to the top — iA Writer, Ulysses, and Scrivener.

After some debate, and a few years of using iA Writer, I switched to Ulysses recently since it feels like a grown-up version of iA Writer. It takes the craft of writing seriously, provides an accountability better than any other writing platform and seems to make the inscrutable keyboard-friendly plain text formatting syntax — Markdown just as simple as needed. So, without further ado, here are the five reasons I decided to “upgrade” to Ulysses from iA Writer.

Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.

Franz Kafka, born on July 3rd and my greatest inspiration to overcoming writer’s block

Five Reasons to Switch to Ulysses!

  • Better Organization: There’s a story to be told about story-writing platforms like iA Writer and Scrivener but Ulysses organizes itself best from the eyes of a writer
    • The Writer’s Journey: The way the app is organized — from personal notes to blogging to writing a book; all the while allowing for random thoughts to permeate an “Inbox” is a terrific way to organize the writing process, regardless of your stage of writing interest.
    • Markdown Onboarding: The challenge at times (for me) with iA Writer was that the organization was rather nebulous around Markdown; 1 that seemingly is a feature, not a bug. Ulysses on the other hand does a pretty good job of educating you on Markdown and distills it down to core features that every writer needs – whether it is adding images, videos, or footnotes (all three of which I had desperately sought to add on iA Writer but constantly lost and finding myself scouring the web for Markdown syntax). Not only does Ulysses guide you while you type in markdown commands but it eases the confusion should you forget the syntax; like when you try to add a URL with the basic syntax, it automatically pops up the URL title bar and you take it from there vs. not knowing if what you did was right.

I get a distinct feeling, there’s a lot more onboarding magic waiting to happen within Ulysses as I continue to use it, and with the determination to get back into the daily writing game, it was crucial that I had a product that allowed me to see progress being made and that held me accountable.

  • Progress Bar: I love the goal-setting feature which pops up when you hit attachments in the main-screen that allows you to not only tag (which makes for the easiest organization; something that iA Writer was strangely lacking) but also lets you add images (yet another feature that I found missing in iA Writer because previews were almost impossible to do); but most importantly, it allows for goal setting (both in number of characters, but more importantly with a due date for your writing). Believe it or not, the past week has seen me draft over three posts, and being intentional about setting a date/time to start blogging and completing the process truly helps beat back writer’s block.
  • Backup & Version Control: Oddly enough, losing a well-written draft on iA Writer was the trigger that led to my switching apps and one that early users of Microsoft Word might recall. I still can’t find that iA doc which was lost while transferring it across folders on iCloud. And just the fact that Ulysses backs up all its documents with version control was enough for me to switch. Just syncing across devices within iOS isn’t enough (maybe if you’re a real amateur) but it’s the ability to hold the documents in place, for perpetuity that gives a writing app the distinction it deserves.
    It’s like one of my favorite moments from Seinfeld, where Jerry and Elaine mock the reservationist for taking their reservations but not holding it.

    See, you know how to take the reservation; you just don’t know how to hold the reservation. And that’s really the most important part of the reservation – the holding!

    Anybody can just take em.

  • Multimedia: Speaking of embedding YouTube videos, the only reason I briefly switched to Medium (more on this later) was their exceptional web editor that allows you to preview any multimedia link (from images to YouTube videos to tweets) right there on the page as will be seen on your published page. That’s a terrific feature and one that iA Writer could care less about (remember, they are the markdown writer — plain text writer) but frankly, most of my posts are social in that they connect to a bunch of images, videos, and tweets as jumping off points for conversations. Ulysses is helpful in embedding / previewing pics, embedding videos (not previewing) and are yet to allow for either on tweets. Regardless, this is a considerable upgrade from the iA Writer interface whose primary goal was not moving from your keyboard but made previewing quite the pain.
  • Quality Pays: Finally, the pricing. The fact is there’s a reason one pays for a Mac vs. a lesser priced PC and that argument has been made before. While iA Writer charges $29.99 for the Mac version, and $4.99 for the iOS Version and I haven’t paid a penny more since I purchased it years ago.
    Ulysses goes a different model — subscriptions! And while I’m not a fan (I frankly don’t have a clue how many apps I have subscribed for that I don’t use!) this is an app I plan to use on a regular basis. And on a feature-by-feature comparison, it wins. Frankly, it wins on their document organization, keywords, and backups, because — words matter. When you pay for quality, it shows. And $39.99 a year, ain’t too bad a price to pay for that.

What’d make it even better

Medium’s web-based editor is most definitely the best WYSIWYG editor on a blogging platform out there. It’s miles ahead of WordPress and that’s their secret sauce. I just wish something as simple as Ulysses or iA Writer will allow Twitter, YouTube and Image embeds (Ulysses allows image and video embeds — but (vid) embeds doesn’t translate to WordPress and it’s not as good as it can get, auto-play can be)

It’s about getting better at getting better.

— Coach Quotes (@CoachMotto) July 4, 2019

Regardless, I have to stress that writing on iA Writer is a terrific way to get into the habit of writing or getting back in the game. And you can always upgrade to Ulysses later. Love both these writing apps!

Tweet-Roll: Further Reading // Writers to Follow

Thanks to the following writers for their work that I reference and include above. But more importantly, this is a mini-version of blog-roll that used to be a great way to find a community of similar writers. When I started my blogging experience, I found a community of early bloggers who were included in my first blog-roll including @jowyang, @annhandley, @chrisbrogan, and of course, the incomparable @guykawasaki. Further reading and cast for this post, below:

  • The Sweet Setup // @thesweetsetup & @shawnblanc , recommending Ulysses as the Best Writing App
  • The Writing Cooperative // @writingcoop, with their detailed review of Scrivener, the writing apps for novelists, authors, etc.
  • YouTube video from 9To5Mac // @9to5mac, on the top 5 iOS non-subscription tools (so minus Ulysses, pick iA Writer)
  • Marius Masalar // @MostlyMarius, with the most comprehensive review of iA Writer vs. Ulysses also picks Ulysses
  • iA Writer // @iA and @iAwriter
    • Founder: Oliver Reichenstein // @reichenstein
  • Ulysses // @UlyssesApp
    • Founders: Marcus Fehn and Max Seelemann // @thesoulmen
  • Scrivener //@ScrivenerApp
    • Founders: Keith Blount
  • Bear // @BearNotesApp, Byword // @bywordapp, and Grammarly // @grammarly, are a few other apps and that one grammar tools that you, as a writer, might find useful! Feel free to comment @mariosundar.

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About Me: Thanks for reading. I’m Mario Sundar, Twitter’s 1st Evangelism lead in 2016, also LinkedIn’s 2nd PR guy between 2007 and 2012. I’ve been blogging for over 10 years and these are my thoughts on technology and communications.
If you like my writing, please subscribe, comment or respond here below. Or you can find me @mariosundar on Twitter.

  1. iA Writer aggressively markets itself as a Writer for Markdown and purposefully stays on point, making simple additions like images and videos painful. ↩

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