Tech Tip - Ulysses - A Simple, Yet Powerful Everyday Writing Tool
Microsoft Word, Google’s Docs, or even Apple’s Pages applications usually are the writing applications at the top of the list for everyday writing. So, you may not have heard about the application Ulysses. Ulysses makes writing easier. Yet, it doesn’t sacrifice the necessary power to accomplish real writing projects. That is what sets this piece of software apart from others.
It may not be a common-place name, but Ulysses has been around for several years now and has steadily improved in features and functions during that time. There are plenty of support documents, user groups, and training tools available to help you understand the power behind this uncomplicated piece of software. That simplicity is what I like most about Ulysses.
I suppose this article begins to get a little ‘meta’ from here since I write all of my articles in Ulysses. So as I am describing some of the features, I am using the software at the same time. While I only use Ulysses for writing articles, you can use it for almost any type of writing, including software code. It can also be a good tool for drafting emails, especially longer ones, capturing notes, or organizing multiple pieces of writing into a single place.
Ulysses can be used on any iOS device, it is perfect on the iPad for any type of writing. It may be best to use it with an external keyboard to take full advantage of the excellent keyboard shortcuts offered as well. It also syncs seamlessly with the software on the Mac. There is not currently a version for Windows, but you can easily export your writing from Ulysses into multiple other formats that can be viewed or edited on common Windows software applications.
Let’s take a look at some of the most common features of Ulysses and what I use most. At the end of the article, I will share some additional resources to help you learn more about how Ulysses could be a great tool for your writing.
Organize your writing
One of the best features Ulysses offers over some of the other lightweight writing apps is its support for organizing different entries. It offers multiple options for how you can arrange your documents. You can create tags or keywords as they are referred to help in specific searches and to organize by category. These in conjunction with a folder structure allow the best of both worlds for detail document organization.
The familiar folder structure is visibility along the left-hand navigation pane. This works like many other iOS or Apple applications keeping is consistent for many users. It is easy to navigate and quick move to the folders you need.
There are an endless number of ways to arrange your documents and set up folders for organizing your work. You can set up ‘Smart Folders’ that will arrange your documents based on keywords and other criteria automatically, helping to ensure your writing remains easy to find when you need it with the least amount of effort.
Clean, distraction-free, writing options
Perhaps the best feature of Ulysses is it is an application that gets out of your way and just lets you concentrate on writing. There are not a lot of buttons to push for formatting, no ‘ribbon’ across the top that can create multiple distractions while you write. You can choose what you see.
The three-pane view can be handy if you are referencing other materials while you are writing. Or, if you are writing something short and will be moving or organizing the document frequently while you are writing.
You can move to a two-pane view and see the relevant documents to the area in which you are writing, but not all of the other organizational components. Again, this can be useful if you are working on a document that you have organized research items together and you need to reference them. Also, this can be useful if you are writing a multi-part article with each part occupying its own note.
In the second column, you can see and move your sheets around as needed to place in the order you are looking for. This can be useful if you are working on different parts of a draft at different times and want to move things around later.
Finally, you can move into the distraction-free writing space and hide all of the other panes so you can focus on the writing at hand.
There is one other great feature that many people will find indispensable for distraction-free writing and that is ‘typewriter mode.’ This places a bar across the screen to show which line you are writing on and moves the rest of the page around that. It simulates how an old-fashioned typewriter would advance the paper as you typed.
Easily create links and footnotes
Depending on what you are writing for, the need for inserting footnotes or links to other documents may be necessary. For example, when I reference other articles I always link to those items for ease of the reader. Ulysses allows this to easily happen within the text and keeps the information altogether for quick reference later. It also highlights the text to notify you that your text is either linked (and shows the link itself) or part of a footnote. Your footnotes will display at the end of your completed document.
Link to Tech Tip - Drafts - Easily Capture Thoughts and Act on Them
Other Resources on Ulysses1
Formating
While Ulysses presents a clean, distraction-free interface, it is not without powerful formatting options. As you may have noticed in many of the screenshots that I have different characters in front of certain words or headers. That is a form of formatting that Ulysses allows to make writing easier. By establishing your formatting with characters, you can keep your fingers on the keyboard and not have to stop and move the cursor or mouse around to create text formatting. Although that is still an option. All of the different formatting options can be seen in a quick reference drop down from the icons in the lower right corner (iPad version), this can be found in the upper right corner on the Mac version.
Writing Goals
Ulysses is full of extra tools for writers that want to track their progress and accomplishments. You can set different writing goals that Ulysses will track and display for you. If you have a goal of writing 500 words per day, it can track that. If you want to ensure that your writing is at least so many words, but no more than a certain amount, that too, can be selected.
These can be especially useful for college or grad papers, for articles you may be writing for blog posts, or other uses. I do not often use these the goal tracking functions, but I do appreciate that they are available for use for specific situations.
The goal options are very versatile and will allow you to set word goals, character goals, sentence goals, paragraph goals, and more. Ulysses even offers the ability to check reading time-based on the number of words within the document. You can be as exact as you need to be - you can choose to have a goal that is exactly a certain number, less than, greater than, or between two numbers. All very helpful when defining what your writing output needs to be.
Sync - works great to switch back and forth between your desktop and iOS device
One of the most important requirements I have with software is the ability to synchronize information between multiple devices as seamlessly as possible. Writing in Ulysses makes this as easy. Since I often work between my Mac and my iPad, keeping my writing in harmony is extremely important. When I travel, I want to ensure I can pick up on my writing or drafts anywhere I am on my iPad. I do not use a Mac laptop currently, but Ulysses allows the flexibility to stay connected on any of those devices, a desktop, laptop, or iOS device (iPhone or iPad).
When you set up your Ulysses account, you can select how you want to synchronize your information. You can pull data from iCloud, Dropbox, or other cloud-based services to ensure you can keep everything you need aligned.
Something else related to synchronizing that may be under-appreciated about Ulysses is the parity between the macOS version and the iOS version. The features are the same. What you can do on one device is available on all the others. They may look or feel a little different in how you go about those actions, but the features are all there. I have found few other software options that make it so easy to work between the two environments both from a document sharing standpoint and functionality. Because of this, you do not need to worry if you only want to have the iOS version of the software. If you choose to get only the iPad version of Ulysses, you can know that you have all of the features and functionality of the macOS counterpart.
Exporting, getting the information out of Ulysses into something else
Another challenge that can create issues when using a certain piece of software is the ability to easily export your work to something anyone can read. Ulysses would not be nearly as useful if you did all of your writing in there, but no one could read it unless they had the same software. Fortunately, Ulysses allows you to export in number common options to make it simple to share your work with others.
You can export your documents to Microsoft Word docs, PDFs, plain text, Rich Format Text, as well as HTML. This ensures that almost anyone could read your information or you can place your words in any software you need.
Exporting happens with the click of the mouse or screen. On the iPad, you can select the icon in the upper right corner that looks like the share sheet from all other applications. This will bring up all of the options for exporting your document. Most of these have sub-menus for additional formatting choices as you export. Ulysses will also provide a preview of what your exported text will look like. The exporting function will let you send directly to Microsoft Word, your favorite PDF Viewer, or even publish to a Wordpress or Medium website.
As you can see Ulysses is a powerful, yet simple document creation piece of software. There are no shortage of options when it comes to putting words on a page, but I choose for most of my medium and long-form writing to be completed in Ulysses due to its simplicity, yet flexible design. You can download trials of the software from the Ulysses.app website. You can also find the apps in the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, and it is available as part of the SetApp subscription for Mac (which is a great option if you have a Mac and want access to many different pieces of software for one monthly subscription).
Here are some additional resources if you have further interest in what Ulysses can do for you.
What writing solutions and suggestions do you have?
The Eight Best Ulysses Superpowers
The Best Pro Writing App for Mac (and iOS) - Ulysses
Ulysses 15 Review: Split View on the Mac, Remote Images, Improved iPad Multitasking, and More
Ulysses: Best Mac/iOS Writing App
- Other resources on Ulysses ↩︎
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