Despite being my first plaintext writing app, I gradually came to prefer the way its competitors do certain things, including the basic layout of text, and the way the interface is laid out and interacted with. To me, an app that manages to tick those boxes will be a contender for my daily driver, at which point the choice would come down to the individual nuances of its design, workflow, and additional functionality.Įxamples include iA Writer (and its Pro incarnation, which I’m going to lump into the same name for the sake of convenience), Byword, and now Ulysses.īyword isn’t included in this comparison because I have fallen out of love with it. Your choice of writing environment is a deeply individual thing, so this way you’ll be able to tell if your needs align with mine: In the interest of clarity, I want to lay out my criteria for judging these two apps. For science.ĭoing so helped me recognize what I love about iA Writer, and how Ulysses’ latest update allows me to bring almost all of those aspects to a much more functional and self-contained writing environment. With this revamp, Ulysses levels the playing field, so I knew it was time for me to put the two head to head. Much of that comes down to it being a consistent writing environment across all my devices. Though I’ve admitted I tend to oscillate between several writing apps, I’ve become a faithful user of iA Writer of late. In a strange departure from my normal routine, I did not beta test Ulysses’ update, nor the iPad app. The time has come: Ulysses is now available for iPad, and the Mac app has been given a Yosemite facelift.įor once, I’m experiencing this launch like everyone else. Note: I’ve since written a follow-up piece that revisits this comparison two years later.

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