Ulysses 21 Brings Advanced Grammar and Style Check to iPhone and iPad

[MacRumors]

Popular writing app Ulysses receives its 21st major release on October 6, and will bring with it the revision mode that was introduced to Mac this summer to iPad and iPhone.

Revision mode, as the name suggests, aims to aid focused text revision by hiding unnecessary features, dimming the editor theme, and highlighting annotations and suggestions.

Revision mode also includes an advanced grammar and style check powered by the LanguageTool Plus service, which can analyze texts and provide informed suggestions in categories such as capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, typography, and style.

On top of the grammar and style suggestions, users can review annotations, comments, deletions and marked text passages in this mode.

In addition to the new mode, Ulysses' developers have reworked the app's appearance to match the look-and-feel of iOS 14.

Ulysses can be downloaded for free on the App Store, with version 21 rolling out to existing users today. After a 14-day trial period, a subscription is required to unlock the app on all devices. A monthly subscription costs $5.99, while a yearly subscription is $49.99.

Students can use Ulysses at a discounted price of $11.99 per six months. The discount is granted from within the app. Ulysses is also included in Setapp, the subscription-based service for Mac applications created by MacPaw.

Article Link: Ulysses 21 Brings Advanced Grammar and Style Check to iPhone and iPad

 

[drumcat]

It's still a software rental. Pass.

 

[kesennnnn]

I mean its a welcome addition, but I'd rather they have integrated Grammarly into the existing software.

 

[Matthew Gibbons]

Ulysses was such a great app, but moving it to a subscription based model has made it useless to me. Thankfully Markdown is supported by a plethora of equally good editors.

 

[Kid Red]

It's still a software rental. Pass.

Agreed. Subscriptions are just greedy money grabs on certain products.

 

[johnnytravels]

Successfully moved over to Typora. Works great in conjunction with most any Markdown editor on iPad that does not lock its files away in proprietary containers (I still use Byword).

 

[MasterHowl]

Ulysses is my favourite non-Apple app in the whole Apple ecosystem. It's well worth the subscription price for me.

I finished writing a 135,000-word book in Ulysses earlier this year. The app is a delight to use on both macOS and iPadOS/iOS. Seamless iCloud integration, gorgeous UI, and some really nice features. It handled all of my folders/smart folders really well and made keeping track of drafts and chapter/sub-chapters easy. It's updated regularly, too, and new features added quite often.

I'll also add that the Ulysses team are great, too. They helped me out loads when I was getting started, and were always quick to respond to questions and feature suggestions.

I'm not writing anything at the moment and so I've let my subscription expire (I can still view my documents, just not edit them), but when the time comes to write book number 2 I'll be renewing without hesitation. An all-round fantastic piece of software.

PS: I understand the whole frustration with everything moving to a subscription service lately. I have very mixed feelings about it and I'm uneasy with it in many ways. But one of the good things about a subscription service is that you can have more confidence that the dev team are financially stable, and so will be less likely to suddenly go bust and drop support for an app that you rely on every day (at least I think that's the case with small teams of devs like over at Ulysses).

 

[Nordichund]

Subscription app? Forget it for me. I have dropped so many little apps due to their GREEDY change to subscription. One of the reasons I have not dropped my MacBook Pro for an iPad where many services are still free. As for writing on an iPhone, not unless it is necessary, talk about uncomfortable.

 

[canned_tuna_og]

Ulysses is my favourite non-Apple app in the whole Apple ecosystem. It's well worth the subscription price for me.

I finished writing a 135,000-word book in Ulysses earlier this year. The app is a delight to use on both macOS and iPadOS/iOS. Seamless iCloud integration, gorgeous UI, and some really nice features. It handled all of my folders/smart folders really well and made keeping track of drafts and chapter/sub-chapters easy. It's updated regularly, too, and new features added quite color-coded

I'll also add that the Ulysses team are great, too. They helped me out loads when I was getting started, and were always quick to respond to questions and feature suggestions.

I'm not writing anything at the moment and so I've let my subscription expire (I can still view my documents, just not edit them), but when the time comes to write book number 2 I'll be renewing without hesitation. An all-round fantastic piece of software.

PS: I understand the whole frustration with everything moving to a subscription service lately. I have very mixed feelings about it and I'm uneasy with it in many ways. But one of the good things about a subscription service is that you can have more confidence that the dev team are financially stable, and so will be less likely to suddenly go bust and drop support for an app that you rely on every day (at least I think that's the case with small teams of devs like over at Ulysses).

Congrats! Do you write primarily on your iPad or Mac? I'm new to the book world and I'm interested in what software works best. My editor gets Word docs with color-coded highlights and strikethroughs, lol. You made a good point about developer support.

 

[canned_tuna_og]

Subscription app? Forget it for me. I have dropped so many little apps due to their GREEDY change to subscription. One of the reasons I have not dropped my MacBook Pro for an iPad where many services are still free. As for writing on an iPhone, not unless it is necessary, talk about uncomfortable.

Agreed. It's slow business writing on iPad, but I research a lot and reading on Mac (with small children pulling back on the top lid) is equally unenjoyable. I research on iPad and write on Mac.

 

[mixel]

Goddamnit, I could never use an app called Ulysses 21..

Ulysseee-iii-eee-ii-eees
No-one else can do the things you do!
Ulysseee-iii-eee-ii-eees
Like a bolt of thunder from the blue!
Ulysseee-iii-eee-ii-eees
Always fighting all the evil forces, bringing peace and
justice to all!

My brain would never stop. (I know it's 31, it's just close enough to activate decades-old earworms)

 

[artfossil]

Ulysses is my favourite non-Apple app in the whole Apple ecosystem. It's well worth the subscription price for me.

I finished writing a 135,000-word book in Ulysses earlier this year. The app is a delight to use on both macOS and iPadOS/iOS. Seamless iCloud integration, gorgeous UI, and some really nice features. It handled all of my folders/smart folders really well and made keeping track of drafts and chapter/sub-chapters easy. It's updated regularly, too, and new features added quite often.

I'll also add that the Ulysses team are great, too. They helped me out loads when I was getting started, and were always quick to respond to questions and feature suggestions.

I'm not writing anything at the moment and so I've let my subscription expire (I can still view my documents, just not edit them), but when the time comes to write book number 2 I'll be renewing without hesitation. An all-round fantastic piece of software.

PS: I understand the whole frustration with everything moving to a subscription service lately. I have very mixed feelings about it and I'm uneasy with it in many ways. But one of the good things about a subscription service is that you can have more confidence that the dev team are financially stable, and so will be less likely to suddenly go bust and drop support for an app that you rely on every day (at least I think that's the case with small teams of devs like over at Ulysses).

My favorite app, as well. It's powerful, elegant, a pleasure to use, and has terrific support. (I migrated to the subscription plan so it's only $29.99 for me--but I'd gladly pay full price.)

 

[jpsalazar]

I live in this app on a daily basis. Not a fan of the subscription model but I have yet to find a better text editor when needing to reference and work on multiple documents.

 

[4487549]

Ulysses was such a great app, but moving it to a subscription based model has made it useless to me. Thankfully Markdown is supported by a plethora of equally good editors.

Uselesses Uselysses

 

[NufSaid]

I love this app for writing in multimarkdown. It saves me so much time.

 

[Donnacha]

The grammar-checking service they chose to integrate, LanguageTool Plus, does not have a good reputation, but it is the sort of thing that should be added to an app such as Ulysses


I believe most writers consider Scrivener, which costs $45 for a license (no subscription), to be a better writing app. Ulysses mainly gained momentum because they had an iOS version during a long period when Scrivener did not.

I would be curious to know if Ulysses has improved enough to overtake Scrivener.

 

[artfossil]

The grammar-checking service they chose to integrate, LanguageTool Plus, does not have a good reputation, but it is the sort of thing that should be added to an app such as Ulysses


I believe most writers consider Scrivener, which costs $45 for a license (no subscription), to be a better writing app. Ulysses mainly gained momentum because they had an iOS version during a long period when Scrivener did not.

I would be curious to know if Ulysses has improved enough to overtake Scrivener.

I don't expect Ulysses to ever overtake Scrivener but there are lots of us who prefer Ulysses.

I was an early adopter of Scrivener. I used it, but hated it, for a long time. I finally jumped ship to Ulysses because Ulysses had a iOS version AND because Scrivener's sync function across devices was crap AND because I simply could no longer put up with Scrivener's interface.

I'm happy for those who love Scrivener and think it's great that both apps exist.

 

[MasterHowl]

Congrats! Do you write primarily on your iPad or Mac? I'm new to the book world and I'm interested in what software works best. My editor gets Word docs with color-coded highlights and strikethroughs, lol. You made a good point about developer support.

Thank you honestly, I’d say in the end it was 50/50 writing my first draft on macOS and iPadOS (and very occasionally iOS when I was waiting in a queue or something!). For the editing phase of the book, though, I did that pretty much exclusively on macOS. Their side by side support is really good and allowed me to have two drafts of the same chapter open next to each other.

FYI, I used a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard with iPadOS. I’ve never got along with the onboard touch keyboard.

For the very final phase of edits and proofing, I used Microsoft Word because that’s what my publisher used. It was a real shock after using Ulysses for so long!

If you’ve got any more questions about my set up and workflow, do feel free to ask.

Best wishes to you and good luck with your writing!

 

[thefourthpope]

Ulysses was such a great app, but moving it to a subscription based model has made it useless to me. Thankfully Markdown is supported by a plethora of equally good editors.

I get the distaste for subscriptions, but surely the app’s actual utility is unchanged?

 

[planteater]

Scrivener + Antidote = the best writing and editing package, with the bonus of being owned.

 

[artfossil]

I get the distaste for subscriptions, but surely the app’s actual utility is unchanged?

Indeed. Ulysses was very good before moving to a subscription model and I used it happily. But it was after moving to subscriptions that Ulysses developed into the robust and feature-rich app it is today.

 

[ulyssesapp]

The grammar-checking service they chose to integrate, LanguageTool Plus, does not have a good reputation, but it is the sort of thing that should be added to an app such as Ulysses


I believe most writers consider Scrivener, which costs $45 for a license (no subscription), to be a better writing app. Ulysses mainly gained momentum because they had an iOS version during a long period when Scrivener did not.

I would be curious to know if Ulysses has improved enough to overtake Scrivener.

We have thoroughly tested LanguageTool before implementing it: Not only were their suggestions on par with other solutions’ suggestions, but LanguageTool is available for more than 20 languages. What also convinced us is that they share our values in terms of privacy.

 

[ulyssesapp]

Scrivener + Antidote = the best writing and editing package, with the bonus of being owned.

We also offer an integration for Antidote: https://ulysses.app/integrations/antidote

 

[thefourthpope]

Indeed. Ulysses was very good before moving to a subscription model and I used it happily. But it was after moving to subscriptions that Ulysses developed into the robust and feature-rich app it is today.

Sounds like a case-study example that developers use when arguing for subscriptions.

 

[thefourthpope]

I believe most writers consider Scrivener, which costs $45 for a license (no subscription), to be a better writing app. Ulysses mainly gained momentum because they had an iOS version during a long period when Scrivener did not.

I would be curious to know if Ulysses has improved enough to overtake Scrivener.

Scrivener is my choice, but I also have never tried Ulysses. I know there’s a lot of love. Feels, to me, like one of those situations where it’s a question of which you began with (comfort, time investment, file structure).