Key Takeaways
Ulysses offers Markdown support with intuitive shortcuts suited for any editor. Customize Ulysses with various options like line height, image previews, and themes. Use Ulysses for focused writing with distractions hidden, a progress bar, and built-in proofreader.
Gone are the days when we relied on traditional software like Word and Google Docs to draft documents. New-age solutions, such as Craft, Drafts, iA Writer, Bear, Ulysses, and more, have taken over our desks. Among them, Ulysses stands out due to Markdown support, robust customization options, a built-in proofreader, seamless publishing on popular platforms, and more. It's easily a must-have tool for Mac users today. Here are the main reasons why Ulysses remains the trusted companion of countless wordsmiths.
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7 Markdown support
Ulysses uses Markdown to draft your blog posts and stories. It comes with all the Markdown benefits, shortcuts, and advantages. For starters, Markdown is simple, intuitive, portable, and compatible with any text editor that supports plain text. It doesn't lock you into a proprietary file type that works only with a specific application.
Markdown language does require a learning curve, though. But once you get past the early stage, Ulysses is quite a breeze to work with. By default, Ulysses hides the toolbar to give you a clean interface. At any point, you can press the command + 9 keys to open a floating menu and make it a little easier to format text.
6 Customization and theme options
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Ulysses is power-packed with customization tweaks. There are ample options to change the line height, paragraph spacing, first line indent, line width, image previews, and more. You can even head to the Markup options within Ulysses settings to tweak color, style, and size for a specific Markdown definition.
If you want to get creative, head to the theme store and pick one that matches your aesthetic preferences. Overall, you won't have a hard time changing the entire Ulysses look and feel.
5 Focused writing
At times, you want a clean interface without any distractions to let your thoughts flow from mind to pixel. Ulysses comes with a dedicated focus editor to hide all the unnecessary elements like sidebar, notes preview, and other icons. Simply, head to View > Editor Focus and connect your inspiring thoughts to a blank page.
4 A handy progress bar
Ulysses comes with a dedicated progress section to check all the essential details about your sheet. You can glance over the sheet progress by showing the number of characters and words, identifying keywords (more on that later), outlining content, and even guessing the reading time. There is also an option to create notes beside each sheet so that you can reference your research info and other details while drafting a post from scratch.
Ulysses also lets you set progress goals with a specific word count. For example, if you usually work with specific goals (like 1000 words for a blog post), you can set it and check your live progress in the top-right corner.
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3 A long list of keyboard shortcuts
Ulysses comes with dozens of features and options to compose the perfect sheet. However, these options are tucked away all over the place. At times, it can get confusing to navigate the software. Here is where keyboard shortcuts come in. Ulysses comes with hundreds of keyboard shortcuts so that you can fill up sheets without lifting your fingers from the keyboard.
Whether you want to perform basic operations, toggle between screen modes, format text, or navigate the software, you will find a keyboard shortcut for every function. You can check out the entire list under the Introduction > Shortcuts and Other Tips folder. Make sure to check it at least once, memorize your frequently used shortcuts, and use Ulysses like a pro.
2 A built-in proofreader and editing assistant
A built-in writing assistant always comes in handy for your long Ulysses sheets. You can use Ulysses' default grammar and style checker to avoid embarrassing typos and set the right tone for your audience. It supports over 20 languages and fixes capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, style, and more.
You can simply open the Suggestions menu and click Check Text to enable editing assistance.
1 Publishing options
Ulysses offers integration with popular publishing platforms like WordPress, Medium, Ghost, and Micro.blog. You can simply write posts in Ulysses, complete them with feature images, tags, and excerpts, and publish them seamlessly on these platforms. You don't need to go through a manual process of moving text from Ulysses to your preferred publishing service.
Sailing through words
Overall, Ulysses is a powerful writing tool to transform the mundane act of typing into an epic adventure. What are you waiting for? Grab Ulysses on your Mac, start with a free trial, and elevate your writing experience in no time. Besides Ulysses, you may also need a lightweight note-taking app to jot-down quick ideas and thoughts. Among the dozens of options, Google Keep remains my top pick for numerous reasons.
