What is the crowd's opinion of Ulysses?

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If you're getting lag by using just Word, it's possible your computer needs an upgrade.

Anyway, I've heard a lot of good things about Scrivener, but I use Ulysses (though it's a bit pricy for just a writing app).

> Excellent toolchain!

I'd say more like rather obvious. And yes, it may be quite enough for taking notes. Real publications, on the other hand, demand way more -- like, handy navigation between chapters, side jottings for managing ideas / summaries / settings / characters / you name it. And so on, and so on (take a look at something like Ulysses, for instance).

Here's another issue that warrants a mention. In Ulysses' Blog Post about the move to subscription pricing:

> The previous, single-purchase versions of Ulysses have both been removed from sale. They remain fully functional, of course, and we have even updated both versions for High Sierra and iOS 11 respectively. So, if you decide to keep using the “old” Ulysses, you should not encounter any problem. New features, however, will only be added to the subscription version in the future. >

Now the prompt within the paid app says,

> "If you have just recently purchased Ulysses, we are offering free use periods of up to 18 months to compensate for your investment"

So in 18 months, this app will no longer launch. That's a shitty way to say eff off to your paid customers. I accept the fact that future OS updates will eventually cause the app not to launch but to lock your users out is extremely shitty. They've basically done the opposite of what they communicated in the announcement.

I actually want my money back. They've bricked a paid application that I rely on for long-form writing.

Apple ecosystem here so probably not helpful for OP but perhaps someone else.

I use macdown on desktop. It's clunky but it works and it's free. It shows real time WYSIWYG markdown rendering and has keyboard shortcuts for common formatting such as links, bold, lists, etc.

On mobile, I purchased 1Writer for $5. It is also a WYSIWYG markdown editor though I mainly just use it for editing rather than previewing.

Documents are saved to iCloud drive so syncs instantly across all devices.

Ulysses is probably a much better platform as it supports both mac and ios but I couldn't justify the expense. Even more expensive is that they are now doing monthly service fees.

My blog is hosting on blogspot and their editor supports rich text. When I'm done, copy paste the rendered output into blogspot and copy paste the raw markdown into reddit.

Are you sending the sheet to Ulysses for formatting purposes? Or just as the intermediary to Wordpress? Workflow can integrate directly with the Wordpress app which may do what you want.

If you do require Ulysses you won’t be able to automate the complete workflow - here are their docs which covers what you can do.

This is how I was able to do it. I almost always have my iPad mini within reach. I picked up a Bluetooth keyboard/case for it, and with https://ulyssesapp.com I found I was able to easily write a lot more, because it was easy to just open the iPad, load Ulysses, and start. And because Ulysses is seamlessly syncing cross-platform, it's easy for me later that day, or later in the week, to sit down at my Mac, look at what I wrote, clean it up, etc.

And like others, I have also used Ulysses on my iPhone, and because of the syncing/iCloud stuff, I always have access to most of my writing.

I still use Scrivener for my heavy non-fiction and yes, I know it's cross-platform, but it's not nearly as easy for me to get into at a moment's notice. Plus, the subject matter I use Scrivener for is not something that lends itself to spur-of-the-moment writing anyways.

I was looking over your list and got interested in the Ulysses app. Looks like an upgrade from quiver. But then I saw they went to a subscription model at $4.99/mo or $39.99/year. It looks great, but rather expensive. Also, I couldn't find anything on their page that explains what happens if you unsubscribe. With Jetbrains IDEs, you subscribe, but get a perpetual fallback license.

Anyways, I was curious if you were on an older "buy-once" license or if you are on the subscription license. If the latter, what happens if you cancel? Do you get locked out of all your notes?

Links: Official announcement blog post

and

Devs explain the reasoning behind why they’re doing this

Also should probably point out that the Ulysses devs say that letting your subscription run out just puts the app in a no-edit, read-only mode. Meaning you can still read (and export) your writing, just not edit it. So it's only sort of holding your writing hostage.

That said, I'm not sure myself what I'm going to do: bail, pay, or what.

Ulysses using iCloud, I think would do what you want (iCloud is E2E encrypted)—with the added bonus (aside from how badass it is in every regard) of an additional layer of TouchID security for the app itself, since privacy seems paramount to you. That extra security barrier is on both the macOS & iOS variants.

With Workflow, you can set up an automatic journal entry system as well. Since it's a little pricey, you can try the macOS version free for 30 days here.

Ulysses is a plain text writing app for mac and ios (https://ulyssesapp.com/) that uses markdown for formatting.

As far as I know, Scrivener doesn't have an android app, but you could sync your scrivener file in plain text through drive/dropbox/whatever, edit the .txt files on your android somehow, and the changes should be saved in the original scrivener file on your computer. There's also evernote which is cross-platform and has some nice organizational capabilities.

I think this could work.

https://workflow.is/workflows/2ade4b2fa1b246229e9dad7c9d22d168

But a suggestion if he is writing tell him to buy Ulysses, he will be grateful when try it, because of Markdown which makes your writing easier, and more beautiful with templates, themes and multiple options of sharing, like DOCX, PDF, Wordpress, Text, Medium, Markdown, and surely more in the future, so take a look to the app and the blog.

https://ulyssesapp.com/blog/