What is Ulysses Writing App? Advantages & Disadvantages

Writing is self-work. It must be as original as possible and must not contain any repeated points or perspective. If you write anything, you must be honest and express your perspective. However, this doesn’t mean you cannot take help from writing tools. Writing tools are available to guide you through the writing process and ease the nitty-gritty of writing like formatting, conversion, tagging, referencing and more. But remember that writing tools are not for writing your material. One such tool is Ulysses. Let’s dig deeper to understand how it functions.

Ulysses is a writing app available for MaCOS and iOS. It helps the writers in writing without distraction and with proper formatting and themes. It is rich with themes, interface, formatting process and more. Now let’s see the benefits of Ulysses writing app.

Benefits of Ulysses App

• Distraction-free Writing

Ulysses has a minimal interface which means less distractions. There will be less decorations and bright colours in the background. It will be clean making it easier for you to avail of options. If you use this app to write, you will be able to write without any distraction obstructing your writing process.

• Markdown Approach to Referencing

Ulysses uses the markdown approach to referencing and formatting. Markdown approach adds formatting to a plain text without adding HTML codes or formal text editor. This will help you in an easy and clear formatting process.

• Organisational Tools

Ulysses also has organisation tools which will help organise your writing into groups and libraries. This will keep your writing safe and clustered.

• Access from any Apple Device

Ulysses connects with iCloud and hence you can access it from any device.

• Easy Sharing and Export Process

Ulysses has an easy export process. It helps you share or publish your work in any format be it PDF, word or other online documents.

• Setting Writing Goals

Another special feature of Ulysses is the option to set writing goals. This will help you track your progress, meet your goals and remain motivated.

• Customised Themes

The app also offers various themes with custom options. You can choose a default theme or create one of your own. This provides you the background of choice while writing.

Now that you are aware of the benefits and meaning of Ulysses writing app, let’s understand how to use it.

How to Start Writing on Ulysses?

For the answer to your question “what is the writing style of Ulysses?”, follow the mentioned steps to understand how to write on the Ulysses app.

• Open Ulysses and click on the ‘New Group’ option in the dropdown list of iCloud.

Source: Ulysses

• Name the group as per the title of your write-up
• Use the custom icon to customise your group name. If you are writing a novel, select a caricature of a book and so on.
• In the blank sheet of your newly created group, start writing by clicking on add a new sheet icon.

How to Use Markdown Formatting?

After writing your text, you will need to format it with heading, subheading, italicisation, highlights and more. Ulysses helps you with it through the Markdown method which means you just need to add symbols before the text to convert them into desired formatting.

• To create a heading in your text, add single hashtag (#) right next to the first word of the heading.
• To create heading 2, add double hashtags.
• To make lines bold to grab the attention of the readers, add double asterisk (*) at the beginning and end of the sentence
• Add underscores (_) before and after a word you want to emphasize.

Source: Ulysses

• To highlight text, place two colons (:) before and after the text you want to highlight.
• To see something only to your eyes and not in the final document, add a double percentage sign before and after the text in the Ulysses.
• If you want to annotate a text in the final document, add curly brackets {} before and after the text.
• If you want to see a certain text only in your original text in Ulysses and not in the exported ones, add two tilde symbols (~~) before and after the text to strike it through.
• You can review your annotations, highlights and deletions and more by clicking on the revision mode option. It is available in the htree dots icon on the top left corner.
• After clicking on the revision mode, you will directed to a drop down menu of things you can correct or revise.
• You can also apply colours and themes to your writing. Click on the same triple dot option and select edit settings.
• You will be directed to themes and other edit options. If you want to change the theme click on the theme option and change as per your choice. You can also choose modes like dark mode from the edit settings option.

How to Convert your Text into Desired Format and Export it?

To further answer your question “What is the writing style of Ulysses?”, let’s see how smoothly it changes the format of the texts after having already seen how it changes the formatting easily through the Markdown method.

• After writing your export in the drop down menu of the middle icon on the top left corner
• You will be directed to your formatted text. There will be an option named PDF on the top middle of the page. Click on that option to choose the format you want to share the text in.
• You can also add other styles to the text being exported through the export styles icon. Click on the first icon on the top left corner and choose the style.

Source: Ulysses

• Inally, click on the top left icon to share the text through message, email or any other option suitable for you.

How to Insert Images in Ulysses Text?

• Add the markup tag for the image at the place where you want the image to be located. The markup tag is (img).

Source: Ulysses

• You will be led to a drop down menu which provides you options to select images from your device, browser and more.

How to Access Ulysses Library?

Another important feature of Ulysses is that it saves and creates a library of your texts with filters. There filters like:

‘Last 7 days’: Contains the texts you wrote over a week.

‘All’: Contains the texts that you wrote on Ulysses till date.

‘Open files’: You can select and open any file you want to edit. All will be stored here.

Favourites: Helps you navigate to the text you have marked as favourite.

Trash: Here you can see the files you have trashed but haven't been erased. To empty the trash, click on ‘Empty Trash’ option

You can also import external folders using Finders.

Now let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of Ulysses writing app.

Is Ulysses Recommendable?

Is Ulysses a good writing app? To understand this, let’s refurbish the features it provides. It provides a distraction free writing environment. It makes formatting easy using the markdown method.It allows various formats in which you can export your text which is also easy. It helps you check grammar, add images, themes and templates. It also provides easy transfer of text from below to above or vice versa by drag and drop option.

The features of Ulysses are certainly more advanced and clear than any writing app. However, its biggest disadvantage is that it works only in MAC. Not everyone, in fact only a few, can afford Apple products. Moreover, it is not free. It is more suitable for bloggers or novelists. It is not really certain that if it can help you with writing and publishing assignment or other academic writing.

So the answer to the question is no. If you can afford Apple and the subscription plan of Ulysses, you can go ahead and use it. But if you can’t, it is better to stick to other free versions of writing apps.

So that’s all. Ulysses is certainly the ideal writing app with so many features that make writing experience good and easy. It is also accessible from anywhere and from any Apple device. However, affording Apple, especially as a student, is not practical or common. Moreover, to write assignments, you cannot use your savings to buy an Apple device just to get access to a writing app. Writing assignments is best when it is down on your own.

Yes Ulysses undoubtedly is a good and ideal writing app. Every writer will want to have it. But as stated earlier, it is not very academic-writing friendly. Moreover, there are more formattings in academic writings than just headings and highlights. So sometimes, the ideal should be considered an inspiration but not an experience.

So start writing assignments on your own. If you can afford Ulysses, go forward with it with steps noted above.But remember, everything must be original and plagiarism free. This is what matters more in assignment writing, irrespective of how and using which app you write it.

If you need any more help, seek guidance from writing and publishing assignment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Ulysses a paid app?

Yes, Ulysses is a paid app which includes a basic subscription amount for $6 each month.

Is Ulysses available for PC?

Ulysses is not available for PC. It can only be used by Apple users which includes the compatibility with macOS and iOS.

Is Ulysses available on Android?

No, Ulysses is not available on Android, instead it is available on iOS, the alternative to Android platform.

Does Ulysses work offline?

Yes, Ulysses works offline as well. You can write and edit documents even without any internet connection and the changes will reflect across your devices syncing with each other when you reconnect with the internet.