Ulysses 19.3

What's wrong with developers these days? They all want to charge a suscription for a piece of software. It's not a service like Netflix, so I don't see why they expect people to keep paying... Thankfully there exists Scrivener, which is much better and complete.

(9)

Greedy devs. 14-day trial, subscription s/w, poor customer service, too. Scrivener is a MUCH better tool, cheaper and better customer service.

(9)

Teksestro

16 January 2018

Version: 12.3

@MacUpdate Admins: this is NOT a free app. The app has a 14-day trial period, then switches on to subscription-ware - $40/year. It is misleading for it to be listed here as 'free'.

(6)

szeoli-1

31 December 2017

Version: 12.2

Not happy with the team that develops Ulysses. It's a great writing app, no question. But I paid out over $100 for 1. Ulysses II, 2. Daedalus, 3. Ulysses III, 4. iPad version of Ulysses. Then I learn that's not enough for them. They now want me to give them money every year. Even then they mislead me into believing existing users would get a 50% discount, when the actual discount was 25%. And I'm supposed to have faith they'll keep robustly developing the app? Sorry, no.

(6)

$40 per year when Scrivener is $45 for a one-off purchase? Tell him he’s dreaming! (from my favourite Aussie movie, The Castle). The version of Ulysses I actually bought (it got to version 2.8.3) still works perfectly well despite not having been updated since they introduced version 12 (how’s that for skipping a few version numbers) and the subscription model.

(4)

An other subscription model (and expensive at that) when there are so many other free alternatives or programs that do much more and much better with standard markdown or other known flavours. Scrivener and any markdown-specific text editor out there will do what Ulysses can do and better.

(3)

Nice little app for what it is but what it is...is very basic. It seems to be part of this new trend for minimal distraction free writing which I assume is its USP but really all that means in this case and many others is "lack of features". That said, what it does it does quite well and if you are looking for a minimal app to collate your thoughts then it's worth a try. Good that you can include images too and handy to be able to sync between devices. Not too keen on the whole subscription model but hey, seems to be another growing trend with publishers...

(0)

Wonderwarthog

24 October 2017

Version: 12.1

…aaand they went to subscription. Ditched.

- Ditched Adobe
- Ditched Sketch
- Ditched Ulysses

It's a glorified Markdown writer, just put your .md files in folders on iCloud drive and use whatever you want. I personally like Typora.io which is free (during the beta) or Byword, which is decently priced and works well. There's also Writeapp.

(4)

Ulysses makes small updates every couple of days to circumvent the voting systems here and in the app store. This just says so much about their policy. I bought the app one year ago and paid 60 Euros for it. Then I bought the iPhone app and paid premium again. Now they want us to shell out that amount of money every year. For a simple text editor.

(6)

I recently bought Ulysses and paid the full price, some weeks later they changed their pricing model and switched to subscriptions... Why does a simple writing tool like Ulysses that updates twice a year need subscriptions? They even didn't add any features with their change, the new app is the same as the old one...

(5)

Nice app, but I stopped using it. Will not switch to *yet another* subscription for software. Better to trash it and move on.

(3)

Derekcurrie

29 August 2017

Version: 11.2

NOT free. "Ulysses requires a subscription, which will unlock the app on all devices (Mac, iPhone and iPad). The apps can be downloaded for free on the Mac App Store and the App Store, respectively.... Contains a 14-day trial on all devices." https://ulyssesapp.com/pricing/ USA: $5/mth or $40/year I for one don't deal with subscriptions for software. When you stop paying, the app is worthless and its proprietary format files are worthless. :-(

(8)

I had an old version of Ulysses I wasn't using and decided to try out the Mac/iOS combo with the new subscription pricing. I have been using IA Writer for iOS/Mac and BBedit on the Mac too. Before that I was using Byword on iOS/Mac (with BBedit). After a few days of hard use I'm coming to like it a lot. A lot of power married to ease of use. Coming from the 'do it our way' design of IA Writer I'm really enjoying the user theme exchange and easy theme creation for colors, fonts, background etc. Not positive I won't drop the subscription and go back to my other tools, but so far I'm enjoying the app and the cross-platform experience. I understand that many people dislike subscriptions but my experience is that when devs have a stable, foreseeable cash flow situation they are better able to more quickly implement updates and features, and being able to being everyone into the latest version makes support easier too. I subscribe to excellent, well-supported apps (Lightroom, 1Password, Anylist) and if Ulysses is able to offer the same levels of support and development I can see sticking with it.

(1)

Show comments (5)

No thanks for the subscription model. Moving everything to Scrivener, or TextNut, or ByWord or iA Writer, I am not sure yet, but this is not a good sign. When a product is running out of expansion potential this happens, and with that comes less incentive from the developer to come-up with innovations. I am done, already spent way too much on the mobile app just a few months ago. Cutting my losses.

(4)

They move to subscription model offering no new feature, being available in a single ecosystem (no windows or android apps) and with a history of updates only during new OS releases for compatibility issues. $200 each 5-year cycle for a beautiful word processing seems a lot.

(4)

Subscription? - That normally means in my experience that a product is at the end of a live cycle where not much new can be expected but you continue paying. No thanks. I might be continuing using the previous version as long as at it works and begin looking for alternatives.

(7)

This is not a free version, as MacUpdate states. Instead this is a new subscription model which for me equals to: 'goodbye' Ulysses.

I think Ulysses is best for short and unstructured text, like newspaper and web articles, and blogging. Many diehard Ulysses-users are bloggers.
I pasted a long and heavily formatted dissertation into Ulysses to see how easy it would be to break it down into small chunks in Ulysses. The Headers remained intact, but all the formatting was lost, which is ok, but I think it would take a long time to create sheets for each chapter and section, and markup tags would have to be inserted from scratch manually one by one, which could be very tedious. I don't think, for example, that there's a way to automatically select all Headings 4 and change them to, let's say, Headings 2. Correct me if I'm wrong.
In other words, before formatted documents are imported, it's best to use tools like Nisus Writer Pro to quickly change the formatting and insert markup tags instead. In Nisus this doesn't take more than a second or two, and can be fully automated.
Apart from the Goal-setting feature, which is really good, I can't think of anything that Nisus doesn't allow you to do much better. In Nisus you can instantly create markup tags. I even tweaked the interface and the styles to give me a certain Ulysses feeling in Nisus. If you assign Heading 7 to the "Normal" style in Nisus, all your text will be accessible in Nisus' Navigator, from where you can instantly restructure the whole document by dragging portions of the text up and down in the Navigator, like you can do with sheets in Ulysses.
Ulysses also can't assign language property to text (like Nisus can do.) Therefore there's no way, for example, to find all French words and phrases in your document.
Ulysses doesn't have tables, does it? I searched for the word "table" in the introduction and found "comforTABLE", which then reminded me that you can only search for strings, not words. Enough said.

Based on the following criteria, I give Ulysses 2.5 stars.
[1] Not so good, [2] OK, [3] Good, [4] Very good, [5] Exceptional

(7)

¿Another app with subscription model? To the trash... At this rate this will be a painful for many people.

(17)

Five stars for the app, four stars removed for the surprise licensing change (which I found out about from 9to5 Mac, and not from the Soulmen themselves). It is a good app, but the subscription model is not justified for a text editor.

(9)

I just spent two months with Ulysses writing a chapter for a collective book; the tool is great; very hepful in focusing on your writing and managing notes from lot of sources. Just near perfect to manage markdown markup. Interface is good, really good (a thought for the really beautiful interface of Write, which its dev nearly abandoned), and the ability to merge two files seems to be great (I've not tested it this time… it feels risky for a production work, but I ahve to try it on some drafts). There's just two or three features I'd like to see implemented to make it the best tool for writing in markdown AND long texts: 1) folding text (really, really needed), as it becomes really annoying to scroll in a text of 20 pages or more, 2) export better, of course for Word (as we have lots of collegues, editors, and other peopla around in our profesionnal world who work with that… soft): converting to word means converting all the markdown, footnote, table, img… 3) synchronisation between the macOS and the iOS version works good, but not very good (folders seems to take more time than files to be sync when you change their name or replace them). Finally the learning curve is not so trivial; it could be good to add in-app tutorial when it csynchronisation between the macOS and the iOS version works good, but not very good (folders seems to take more time than files to be sync when you change their name or replace them).omes to learn some hidden features (I spend time in the menu items, and more times in the Help). It's a beautiful peace of software, and I really thank the Soulmen for maling it possible… Go on bro' !

(1)

This is not a serious writing tool - it's a glorified note-taking app. Commercial writers tend to work in multiple projects, for multiple clients. We need DOCUMENTS. Shoving all my writing into one big database is a joke. Unless the developers can make this fundamental change to the app, nothing else matters.

(6)

I really like this approach to writing. It allows me to chunk sections. I got well into a new project when I discovered that the tool does not have the ability to create tables. I do a lot of technical writing and tables are essential. For regular prose, this is a great tool but without tables, this is not very useful for me.

(0)

Probably the worst tool for writing I've ever come across. I fail to see what the developers thought they were offering that wasn't already provided in LibreOffice for free or Scrivener if you want to go paid. Candy-floss graphics for writer...have some respect. It's tools, and most importantly longevity that we need. I'm not locking my data up into this proprietary s/w (note how Scrivener saves everything in RTF).

(2)

OK. I'm coming straight at it. Ulysses just could be the most elegant, well-planned and best-realized way to write electronically to date. I want so much to buy it and live in it. HOWEVER (you notice that’s a big “however…”), I just can't get comfortable with a proprietary file mechanism that does not provide for an organized, predictable export of -- at least -- textual content. I can't seem to get over the feeling that The Soulmen want serve as my publisher and literary agent, with sole rights in perpetuity to my intellectual property — that I will never be allowed to get away from my “contract” with them. PLEASE — somebody tell me I'm wrong and why. I'll then gladly drink the kool-aid, straight, no chaser.

(6)

Any 'serious' writing app has to provide support for DOCUMENTS. Saving everything you write into a single database might be useful for note-taking and scrapbook-style apps like Evernote, but not for a professional writing tool. I don't want to see every note of every project I've ever written for in a gigantic database. I don't want to have to filter through dozens of projects, to find the current files for the project I want to work on. The "all your writing in one place" approach is a major fail - no matter how nice the program's interface might be.

(11)

Ulysses is a great app for writing longer projects - not as bloated or cumbersome as Scrivener, more utilitarian than ByWord or it's ilk. The main reason I find it hard to stick with Ulysses (and all the other Markdown editors out there) is it's insistence on displaying what you write in syntax rather than WYSIWYG. When I'm writing longer pieces I don't want my writing muddled with all the asterisks and other syntax, yet Ulysses forces me to have it. The no longer developed Write has the best implementation of what I'm after, there it's called 'Rich MD', and other apps such as Typora which feature WYSIWYG markdown don't offer typewriter scrolling, which I consider an essential feature of a serious writing program. So, the search continues ...

(2)

After reading several reviews online comparing Ulysses to Scrivener, I was eager to try it out. Now that a *lot* of my writing is done for online consumption, and therefore is done in Markdown, Scrivener is coming up short. I *really* wanted to find a serious writing project management software that could handle Markdown and somewhat rival the comprehensiveness of Scrivener. Unfortunately, Ulysses is certainly not 'it'. Ulysses' interface is arguably the best thing about the program - modern, clean, sleek, you can tell a great deal of thought went into it - and it does make using the program's features rather intuitive. But unfortunately, that seems to be it's only point of difference. Ulysses does sport some nice 'advanced' features, not commonly found in they myriad of Markdown editors available for the Mac these days - such as having a word count target. But these features are common to most word-processing and serious writing tools. But more disappointingly, it has some very severe shortcomings - at least for my use-case. It does not preview images in-line. It does not even allow you to select images using OS X's photo browser. Its support of Markdown is patchy - it uses its own 'version' of Markdown, which is not supported by any other software, so expect import issues if transferring your work. But most disappointing of all is to see that the developers have chosen to build the program as a snippet utility: Ulysses stores ALL of your documents produced in it within a SINGLE library, which it manages. Like other programs - TextNut, etc. - you can open an external folder inside the program's window, but features will be missing, as this is not how the program is made to be used. This is touted by the developer as a 'feature', but it is the most glaring indication that it is a note-taking application, rather than a serious writing tool. I deal with a multitude of different writing projects - from social media posts, through newsletter articles, to technical courses - and the *last* thing I want is to have all the texts from all my different clients and projects mixed into one big pile. Ulysses does have several filtering functions, that allow you to categorise and restrict the view of your documents, but that is basically forcing the user to jump through hoops to get the program to behave as if it were a document-based application (which it isn't). That "feature" alone means it's quite useless to me. I'm sadly disappointed at not being able to find a use for Ulysses in my writing toolbox. It does not have enough features to replace Scrivener as a writing-project manager, is not Markdown-compatible enough to replace a dedicated editor, and in the note-taking space there are more attractive and cheaper apps (with better Markdown support) - such as Write and TextNut. I hope the developers will decide which direction they wish to take the software, and invest on fine-tuning its features to suit that market, just as they fine-tuned its beautiful interface.

(13)

(2)

Ulysses is a great app for those who want to keep everything organised. Unlike most text editors, it lets search for particular part of your writing, edit what you've written previously with no effort at all. Moreover, I really like the sorting by time and the option that allows to display the document is different formats, for example, PDF or HTML etc. Well, the price could have been a bit lower, but to be honest, the app is totally worth its price.

(1)

Excellent program! One big problem, considering I work with other MD and MMD applications, including Deckset, is that Ulysses' version of "extended" markdown does not follow what seems to be the main standard syntax (MMD). This takes it out of my workflow except for some basic note-taking. Please add MMD support.

(2)

I've tinkered with many Markdown applications and have ultimately been dissatisfied with their shortcomings. Finally tried the Ulysses 2 demo after reading about all the improvements in the new version. Something clicked with it, so I took a deep breath and plunked down the $39.99 (sale price at the time) to buy it. Best move I've made in a long time. Ulysses solves most of my difficulties with Markdown input and output. I still have Scrivener, and it has a niche place in my workflow. I still have Mellel, and it, in conjunction with TextSoap, is my regex workhorse. But I now do most of my actual writing in Ulysses. People complain about the price of Ulysses. Scrivener and Mellel are about the same price. Nisus Writer Pro is more, and TextSoap (which I use a lot in rehabilitating third party texts) is not far behind. Price is usually commensurate with quality; irresponsible developers are, for the most part, easily recognizable. People complain about developer use of the Mac App Store. For many developers, this route provides the best overall return for their labor. Responsible developers provide a demo download on their website and a discount when a major new version comes out. The result is not much different from the traditional method. Bottom line: Of all the writing instruments I've looked into, tried, even bought, few of them even come close to Ulysses in either quality or utility. These guys work hard to make a product that not only works well, but works the way I want it to.

(1)

"Write" app offers features that go well beyond "Ulysses" - such as support for tables, acces to the system media browser when inserting pics - for less than a QUARTER of the price. Ulysses' interface is nice, but that alone would not justify the price difference, even if both programs had equivalent feature lists. Both programs are geared towards SMALL writing projects. Serious authors who deal,with lengthy, varied and complex projects will need the superior file and project management tools offered by programs such as "Scrivener". Ulysses' approach of keeping all your texts from all your projects in a single database is nothing short of a nighmare, more suited to a note-taking application like Evernote than a serious writing tool.

(8)

Ulysses is of the more innovative markdown text editors I've tried. The GUI is clean and elegant, the themes are great, and the general layout is logical. I tweaked a theme in user preferences to create what for me produced the least eye strain of any app I've ever used on a Mac. This fantastic writing environment is unmatched by any other app I've tried on a Mac, and I've been using Macs since the 1980s. Unfortunately, there is no way to integrate Ulysses into my document storage organization. Ulysses relies an on absurd storage scheme that buries it's document library in the user's hidden Home Library directory. A greater surprise awaits those who spelunk their Home directory to find the mystery Ulysses library (hidden at ~user/library/containers/com.soulmen.ulysses3/Data/Documents/Library/Groups-ulgroup/): the file names are meaningless alphanumeric gibberish! Want to save a markdown document in a project folder in your Documents directory? F-you. Want to back up that novel that's consumed the last 6 months of your life? F-you. Want to open a Ulysses document in another app? F-you. You're not competent to manage your own files, so F-you! What a disappointment. Maybe Ulysses IV will finally introduce the futuristic capability of saving files in any directory of the user's choice. Until then, there are other (free) markdown editors, and plenty of mature and refined writing apps (Scrivener).

(4)

Rochade

30 April 2014

Version: 1.2

Tried the demo and have to say I am impressed. But for me the price is too high for an elegant writing app (markdown composer). I would have instantly bought it if it was about half the price. btw: I wasn't able to add a similar app, as MU can't find it (even it is listed). The best alternative for me is Write. Still in beta but works without any problems: https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/50080/write

(3)

This app is just great - especially in combination with Deadalus. I do all my writing in there - from notes to paper drafts. Once you have it, you start wondering, why it has no built in IDE and stuff before you come back, that there can hardly be one app alone serving any task... But it goes a long way towards that. Thanks Soulmen.

(0)

Ulysses and Scrivner are about the same price. I wanted to replace my aging copy of Storymill with a tool that would give me equivalent features--chapters, scenes, research, character info, etc. --it's all the same data just stuffed into different categories in backend database. All the writers I asked said "Scrivner" without hesitation. One SF writer even called it an IDE for those that write.

(1)

Zx81

19 January 2014

Version: 1.1.2

Another app that goes MAS only. I'll stick to U2 as long as it is possible.

(2)

I'll not comment on the price/version issue except to say that, after using it for a couple of months, every day. U3 is an entirely different app from the ones that went before. U3sits in a space somewhere between a Text Editor like BBEdit and comprehensive writing management system like Scrivener. It's much closer to the Scrivener end of the space though. It allows you to create and manage complex writing projects, written in Markdown, to share and edit them with a partner app on iOS (Daedalus) and then output them to a variety the usual formats. It doesn't have every bell and whistle that Scrivener has, but it is - to my eye at least - a better looking app and one that feels loose and unstructured whereas I find Scrivener always pushes me into a structure whether I'm ready or not. Of course, that's just me, and YMMV on that one. I've found the app to be entirely stable, easy to use. I've not yet figured out a way to use a Citation app like Bookends with it - and perhaps I can't. So, for me, in an academic setting, U3 is for drafting and developing unto Draft 3 or thereabouts, and then over to something else for finishing. That might be a Word Processor for shorter pieces or into Scrivener for longer ones. I enjoy using U3, which is a key quality in any software.

(1)

misterjspencer

31 December 2013

Version: 1.1.1

This site needs a more sophisticated review system. The reviews under are not about the app so much as about the marketing, or the price On MAS this app has 47 x 5 stars as of my comment. Of course software rip off needs criticising, but I need to know about the app itself

(2)

pl-svn

29 December 2013

Version: 1.1.1

... according to the Mac App Store, Ulysses III v1.1.1 was released on November 7, 2013 :-p

(1)

anonymous-tapir-4715

25 September 2013

Version: 1.0.2

Hello? This thing is not half so revolutionary as the dev thinks ... Clueless that people are going to be ticked off when they spent way too much on previous version (and struggled to learn and use) ... and he asks they spend large again. For what? If anything, I want a refund for the ditched Ulysses II!

(3)

Sadly my view reflects the pricing model. Having only purchased U2 in September 2012 and not being able to make us of the discount due to work commitments. I was massively disppointed that Soulmen wanted another £27 for U3. My problem is developers that do not deem existing customers worth retaining. v2 was expensive enough without having to pay another £28 for the next version. Developers go on about the fact that upgrades are not available with MAS, then they shouldn't use it until Apple make this available. It's hardly a good idea to alienate your existing customer base. I have now switched to Scrivener as they do reward existing customers and not penalise them as Soulmen do.

(8)

I don't know whether it's the App Store or Soulmen's fault, but it's ridiculous that those of us who bought Ulysses before should now have to pay full price for this. I know it might be a complete rewrite, but many programs go through major rewrites, yet still offer discounts to previous users. The bottom line--it's about rewarding customer loyalty.

(7)

Show comments (6)

Maclover1-1

13 April 2013

Version: 1.0

Purchased the previous Ulysses from the AppStore about 6 months ago.. and now I'd need to pay full price again for this new version.. furthermore I'm Swiss.. and it shows at CHF39.. which means $42.. Hello ?!!!!

(3)

Ulysses 3 is fantastic. Sure, there are a few bugs to squash, but I'd rather have access to it now. It's not really like anything else available. It's kind of like a simple text editor that is designed to write and organize small and very large documents. So, it's great for writing a 20 page paper, plus it's handy to keep notes and research in another folder. It has some similarities to Scrivener, but Scrivener is really better for really long documents–as writing a book (Don't get me wrong, Scrivener is worth every penny for what it does). The bottom line is if you are interested in writing with Markdown, Ulysses 3 is great. I've been loving Markdown for a couple years now, and so far there hasn't really been anything available to help you organize your documents.

(1)

Show comments (5)

I like plain-text and a nice UI. I thought Ulysses could be the one but unfortunately it has too many weak points for me: - the lack of a global search within the app is almost unbelievable; - the spotlight search displays a number ID instead of the note/sheet name (well, well…); - I can’t, or at least I couldn’t find an option for that, have .txt as the default format - I wish I could simply use markdown to add an image or link - it seems that Ulysses does not read openmeta tags (none of mine were displayed) so Ulysses is not exactly an alternative for nvALT users. Of course that are some nice things about Ulysses but it seems to lack the basics for a plain-text lover.

(3)

Xplicit

05 April 2013

Version: 1.0

looks interesting, I'd like to try it, compare it to Scrivener ... hmm, CrappStore only, so I guess this - me and Ulysses III - ends here

(3)

DrFrank (below) has already made the first point I wanted to address: U3 is not an upgrade from U2. It is a whole new machine. It is slick and attractive, and if you’ve worked with NV or nvALT, it won’t be too hard to get going. As for supplanting Scrivener, however, I’m not so sure. All I can say is that we have, in the driveway, both a Honda Fit and a Honda CR-V; sometimes we take a particular one for a particular reason, other times we take whichever is nearer the street.

(1)

Ulysses III is NOT the natural evolution of Ulysses v1 and v2, it's a new plain text paradigm. If you're a devotee of the original Ulysses workflow, expect a bumpy transition. I preferred Scrivener to the original Ulysses, but Ulysses III has very quickly become my primary writing environment. Ulysses III v1 is a meticulously crafted gem with huge potential. If you appreciate the value of a plain text workflow and the markdown syntax, dive in, you're going to have fun. There's a 50% discount this week.

(5)

I just bought this last month to centralize all the texts I receive to layout a magazine (am a graphic designer and get all sorts of thingsm articles, ), it is a really great tool for that that's helped me streamline this process. I imagine there can be many ways to us this, and it's quite cheap. I can use it with DropBox so other people have access, make notes etc.. MAny options wit this. Great product and quite cheap.

(0)

Solid app. Looks good so far. Can't comment much on it as I just purchased it but I thought I'd note that as of today (5 Oct 2012) it has a price drop to US $1.99 in the MAS. At that price (and with its history of positive reviews) it's a no-brainer to buy right now.

(0)

Ronl

05 October 2012

Version: 2.1.5

Has anyone that is complaining about the Mac App Store even went to the developer's website? There's 20-day free trial there (no restrictions)!

(1)

Superb app! Fantastic! The best of its kind on the market!

(1)

Ulysses is a very well written piece of software. It has been very well thought out making it very intuitive, a pleasure to use with a minimal learning curve. I use Ulysses for writing website pages, so for me the export capabilities are truly awesome. I can set-up an HTML template that exports the complete page exactly how I need it. Because of its multiple export options I can also create PDFs and ePubs. If you need support then I am pleased to say that the developers are very quick to reply to emails. They take the time to help which is not the case with all developers.

(0)

Xplicit

28 September 2011

Version: 2.1

Ulysses cannot be purchased from The Soulmen's directly anymore, it's now kind of AppStore mostly and from what I read on the devs website from v3 on it will be AppStore only. The thing is AppStore only truly sucks. I think you know why.

(2)

Bloobie

22 September 2011

Version: 2.0.6

Version 2.1 is available for download from the developer's site, despite 2.0.6 being listed here and on the App Store (strangely enough).

(1)

Randy-Crawford

27 August 2011

Version: 2.0.6

Available only on MacApp Store. Any software that this is true of is useless to me.

(5)

Mac users have several choices for their word processing - and it all comes down to personal preference. Scrivener has a full-featured WYSIWYG interface - which I actually prefer - but Ulysses comes into its own after you deal with the learning spike. All of your writing tools are available on the same page, with very little navigation, which makes writing much easier - once you get the hang of it. Recently, they've priced the software at $11, making Ulysses a real bargain.

(0)

I love this app ; really fast on my iMac. I'm a writing apps addict, so I also use Scrivener, Mellel and Supernotecard, but this one is the one I do serious writing with. I really don't know why, but this how it is. Maybe it helps me concentrate on words, sentences & composition more than scrivener after I have jotted down the structure in SNC?

(2)

The problem is that with all moving to the app store; they are not moving current registrations to the app store. I have ran into this many times and I don't want to be forced to rebuy when I have already paid. This whole process is not handled well. Vendors still need to have the updates available on their site until they move to a new version and all have to update from the chosen update site (app store). Even if you are owner the app store does not recognize that you have already registered/purchased it. For the vendor to dump these kinds of questions back to Apple is really silly and stupid and it is their responsibility to take care of their current users as well without forced upgrades. The app is great but the delivery method sucks be time.

(7)

Zx81

12 June 2011

Version: 2.0.6

Another problem with the App store ; I have been literally bashed for criticizing it, so I'll try to be cautious : I bought Ulysses a few years ago and have been a quiet customer ever since. I found on MU that a new version was available and fixed a "severe bug", so I clicked on the update button and discovered I had the latest version (2.0.5, the one with the "severe bug"...). So, once again -sorry, don't bash me, App store worshippers - a problem with an app that is now only available through the App store. I found no way around this on the Soulmen site. Do I have to pay or am I doomed to suffer from that "severe bug" unless I bow to the App store? Sorry, I'm getting critical again. Any idea?

(4)

Show comments (4)

Very clean, fast, simple. After jumping between Nisus, Mellel, Scrivener, which are all powerful in their own respect, i found this grat piece of minimal power. A clean interface and a series of powerful tool to format, and organize thoughts, ideas, drafts and notes. I regret only the possibility of import rtf with footnotes, just to switch flawlessly. Thanks Soulmen!

(0)

alas!

19 February 2011

Version: 2.0.5

Hmmm. I downloaded Ulysess from the link here at MU and found that it works fine with OS 10.5.8, which is what I'm running, but at the MacCrapStore it states that OS 10.6.6 is needed. Most puzzling! I'd prefer to bypass dealing with the CrapStore...folks have been reporting issues. No, Ulysses is far, far from being crap. In fact, when trying it out before, I found it to be a most stellar addition to one's assortment of creative writing apps. At a mere $12, it's a bargain, but apparently it can only be purchased through Apple at that price and not through the developers, and only for a limited time.

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Yes, Ulysses is now probably 3 or 4 stars - a perfect writing environment for many - even if it feels a bit teutonic and regimented for others. Still, before you part with your dollars at least view the video tutorials here and then decide: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html There an act of mind that is like an ephemeral beat of a butterfly's wing that is the 'vibe' of a writing application. It is that, not price, that should you should be looking for. I know where that magical creative spark can be found - one application has it. In spades. You guess which one!

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Hamdi

01 February 2011

Version: 2.0.4

It is currently offered at 29.99 at the AppStore. Originally (before 2.0) it had a pricetag almost thrice that of Scrivener, and now goes at half of it. Interesting (or should I say irritating?) pricing policy.

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Yes, I know others have responded before me ... but I can't get past this astonishing idea that it is a *flaw* of Ulysses that it is not WYSIWYG ... when that is exactly what is intended. Do people not read, say, the description before they post? One could as easily say that NisusWriter is flawed because it does all this darn formatting as you write. Hello. You pays your money and you takes your choice. And you try not to waste other MacUpdate readers' time.

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This would probably be the best dedicated writer's tool out there except for one fatal flaw: it isn't WYSIWYG. What appeals about the programme is its project-based approach, with its ability to hold different documents together in the project and notes tied to the document. But the idea not to use standard rich text editing but tagged styles which then translate into appropriate formatting when exported is a bore. All those inserted tags and highlights actually interrupt one's reading over the text, whereas experienced writers (this one has several books and numerous articles to his credit, as well as innumerable documents for students etc.) have long learned to use formatting and layout properly as they write (like italicising titles of books or films, or making indented lists) which cannot be done effectively here. I suspect this is aimed at would-be writers, not real ones. Would be nice if the authors produced a rich text version of the programme - they might call it 'Dubliners' (or even 'Finnegans Wake').

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As a writer/editor, I can definitely see the appeal of this program. It does have a lot of editing/text manipulation horsepower. And yet, as I tried it out, I had this weird sense that I was suddenly back using WordStar on my first computer, a CP/M machine. I used WordStar and WordPerfect extensively, "back in the day" and knew by heart almost all of the embedded codes for formatting text. Then, WYSIWYG word processors began to make their debut, and it seemed like magic to see your actual formatting onscreen, rather than having to imagine what it would look like, until you printed, or did a formatting preview. After a while, embedded codes seemed so old-school and cumbersome to many people. And now, 2009, 21st century, here comes Ulysses, with (very powerful) embedded codes and a WordStar-like embedded code paradigm! Of course, Ulysses is way more sophisticated, in many ways, than good ol' Wordstar, but I find it fascinating to see the power of embedded codes presented as way to do day-to-day editing, and not just layout, like LaTeX or the like. I can definitely see how I could use the Ulysses approach as a way to get WYSIWYG out of the way, and endless tinkering with layout and format, and to really zero in on text creation and content. Of course, one can do this, with discipline, in a any good writing program, and one has to note that Ulysses also offers many, many other way-cool and data-base like features for keeping track of research and notes. I don't know if this has enough to move me away from Scrivenir or StoryMill, but it's definitely piqued my interest.

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Hmmm. Half the price of what it used to be plus an interesting new feature set plus their website advertising is no longer arrogant. Finally got my interest.

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It would be nice if everything were free. And a Lexus is really just a souped-up Suzuki Swift... Actually I don't think putting Scrivener and Ulysses head to head is quite right. I've used both since they first appeared and I still use both. Scrivener is a brilliant free-form organizer with some very sophisticated writing tools; Ulysses encourages a more disciplined approach. To be glib, Scrivener is for feeling your way forward, Ulysses is for managing a writing project when you already know more or less where you're going. Given that Ulysses is developed by (I believe) working journalists and Scrivener by a chap who wanted to write a novel and couldn't find the right app to do it in, it's curious that, for me at least, Scrivener turns out to be ideal for non-fiction while Ulysses is rather better-suited to the total immersion required for writing fiction. (Others may disagree, of course.) Put even more simply, I find Scrivener encourages a smaller granularity that Ulysses. Scrivener's natural unit is a scene at a time; Ulysses', a chapter at a time. Depends what you're doing and how you like to write. As to price -- well, if you write in order to put bread on the table, the cost of either is small beer compared with the benefits they deliver. Try them both. You might end up buying them both. How many tools does a carpenter have in his toolbox?

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I want to add my voice to those who think this app is outrageously priced. It does have some nice features, but it's essentially a souped-up text editor. Many of its features can be found in Textmate while Scrivener, in fact, has many more features and is far cheaper. I really hope the developers will listen and lower the proce.

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When I first bought Ulysses in (I think) 2003, I didn't balk at the price because there was simply nothing out there doing the job. The closest thing -- a program called Z-Write -- was on its way to becoming abandonware and had stability issues, and of the small number of other programs I found that let me do tabbed documents, all were simplistic to the point of irritating, buggy, or top-loading the program with useless (buggy) features in an attempt to make it more like Word, the program I was trying to get away from in the first place. Scrivener and other newcomers have certainly changed the playing field, but I do think some of the comments here overly harsh. Is Ulysses high-priced compared to other programs? Yes. Is it the program for you? It may well not be; certainly check out the cheaper options first. But the beauty of Ulysses is not only what it does but what it doesn't do. It doesn't distract you, and yet it does deliver pretty much every feature I actually need, neatly, quietly, and in such a manner that the features are immediately accessible when I look and completely invisible when I don't. That's rare. And, for me, it's worth every penny. I also want to note that the price on this listing is somewhat misleading. The actual price of Ulysses is (at the moment) eighty Euro, meaning its US dollar price varies depending on the strength of the Euro. Right now it's running about $100, a quarter less than the listing price.

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Much, much to expensive for what it does.

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Don't know what version of Scrivener Talazem was evaluating - but v 1.12b does Markup perfectly. So still no contest and a spurious and flawed comparison. Don't get me wrong, Ulysses is fine for what it is, it is just that Scrivener is a direct competitor and it is streets better for writers - and the developer really does listen, seriously listen. Maybe that's part of why Scrivener is so superior. Version 2 is scheduled to appear in September so I strongly suggest that you download v1.12b and become familiar with it. At least look at the forum: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/ and at the video on the FEATURES section of the Scrivener splash page: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

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This is an wonderful program for what it claims to do: plain text writing. But it really shines when one uses it in conjunction with LaTeX and other markup based writing. Why? Because the new features of 1.5 -- like inline style formatting and markers that can be set to export as markup -- can be be set to export as markup. This is excellent for people who like to export ultimately to LaTeX, with all the necessary markup, but do not want to *see* that markup on the screen as they write. This is a *huge* step in LaTeX editing/writing. So, for example, you can apply styles to text -- for example, a yellow highlight, or the color red. That's what you see on your screen. Then, upon exoprt, you can have that be transformed to something else, such as LaTeX escapes. Again, this isn't for people who just want to "type up some notes"; go use TextEdit for that. Don't care about plain text or LaTeX, and need RTF? Then Scrivener is the best of the breed (though, it must be said, that Scrivener also has an *awesome* LaTeX export mechanism due to its MMD integration). The major weakness of Ulsses? The organizer. I understand they have their own philosophy, but ultimately, if I want to export into something PRINTABLE (as opposed to hypertext), then I need an outliner, a folder-type hierarchy. Why? Because that's how books and book-length documents (like theses) are organized. As it stands, Ulysses effectively has a two-level deep hierarchy. When I'm writing a book, or a thesis, that just isn't enough. Long printed publications are hierarchically based; that's reality. And I need a program that allows me to use that intuitive form of organization, and to move parts of the document around that hierarchy on the fly. It's just too hard to keep track of parts, chapters, sections, and subsections of a thesis or a book without as it stands now. So -- since other have (unfairly) attacked Ulysses and praised the "competition -- let's be fair, and compare them based on relative *merits*: where do each of Ulysses and Scrivener shine (only focusing on strengths not existant in the other; not commenting on "writing software" features they both have)? Scrivener: it has a database (to store your research files such as other RTFs, web pages, pdfs, etc, that you can then view within the prgoram); it is an RTF editor (if that's what you need); it has an excellent hierarchical organizer and outliner; it has excellent export abilities through MMD. Ulysses: the ability to apply inline styles or markers that can then be translated into markup upon export is revolutionary, especially for LaTeX users; it is plain text (if that's what you need); you can choose to have inline footnotes, or footnotes in the notes pane; it is one of the most aesthetically pleasant pieces of software I have seen (not that Scrivener is ugly, and this is a subject thing, yes). If the devs are listening, please put a hierarchical organizer (outliner) at the top of your developing priorities. That is the only thing necessary to make your excellent program perfect for people with plain text/LaTeX needs. And if you're a user: please don't flame an apple for not being an orange (and mind you, neither are lemons).

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