Ulysses Iii 1 0 1 – Creative Writing Text Editor

Ulysses isn’t exactly a plain text editor. For a long time, the pitch for Ulysses was “plain text enhanced,” and while I hate to succumb to advertising catch phrases, that does describe. Ulysses offers a simple and intuitive workspace you can customize according to your taste. Clean, Distraction-Free Interface. The interface leverages modern OS X concepts. This beautifully familiar environment will stay out of your way – and help you get around in no time. Markup-Based Text Editor. Ulysses’ editor is text, and text only.

Ulysses is a Clean and Intuitive Workspace. “Many options” can easily become too many options, and “complex” can get complicated. Ulysses sticks to what is essential for writing, and keeps its advanced features out of the way until you actually need them. The Blue Technologies Group’s Ulysses 1.1 is not a word processor, an outliner, or a text editor, but it incorporates aspects of each of these into its streamlined writing environment.

By John P. Mello Jr. MacNewsWorld ECT News Network
Jul 2, 2013 5:00 AM PT


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Ulysses III by The Soulmen GBR is available in the Mac App Store for US$39.99.

During the fledgling era of word processing, developers divided into two camps over formatting documents.

Software makers like Xywrite believed formatting and composition should be distinct. They designed their word crunchers to have two modes -- one for writing, another for formatting a document.

Ulysses iii 1 0 1 – creative writing text editors

Other programming outfits, like Microsoft, favored the 'what you see is what you get' approach. It allowed someone to see on their computer screen exactly what their document would look like on paper.

Xywrite was especially loved by keyboard jocks, because it gave them very fine control over the typography of a document through the use of embedded codes and scripts. Those kinds of programs, though, had less appeal to document writers, who preferred to not to deal with the nitty gritty of document production.

Eventually, the WYSIWYG wing of word processors won out because they were just plain easier to use. However, as more and more writing moves to the Web, WYSIWYG word processors have begun to show their age.

Flexibility, Not Bloat

For many writers, the proprietary word crunchers have become lumbering behemoths waiting for an asteroid strike. Their bloated feature sets have been augmented over the years more to distinguish one version of a program from the next than for any concern about need or value.

Ulysses III isn't that asteroid, but it offers a vision of word-processing beyond programs like Microsoft Word and Apple's Pages -- or maybe a vision harking back to the days of Xywrite.

Like that hoary word processor, Ulysses III, which sells for US$39.99 at the Mac App store, uses codes to mark up text. A convenient cheat sheet can be displayed in the program until you remember the two dozen or so codes to mark up your text.

Ulysses III, though, is designed to give you a broad degree of flexibility when exporting the documents you create. That's because the software acts more like an HTML editor than your typical word processor.

By the way, don't let the Roman Numeral in Ulysses III fool you. For all intents and purposes, this is a whole new ball game for this text editor -- another version 1.0, if you will.

Unsightly Codes

Like HTML, Ulysses III marks up content. That means it describes what text should look like, rather than carving those looks in stone, as a word processor does.

For example, if you select a word in Pages and italicize it (cmd-I), the italics will appear properly when the file is printed from Pages. If you export the file so its digestible by another program, those italics may or may not be preserved.

That problem won't occur with Ulysses because it describes formatting italics in a way that can be interpreted accurately for popular content applications -- even if within Ulysses III the formatting looks disconcerting.

Italicized content, for instance, appears as italics but is delimited by underscore marks (_/_). You can use keyboard shortcuts, like cmd-I and cmd-B, to style text in Ulysses III, and it will automatically add the codes it needs to recognize the formatting when it exports it to HTML, PDF, RTF and such.

3-Panel Interface

Ulysses III has a nice clean interface, but if you're comfortable with a traditional word processor like Microsoft Word, it may take some getting used to for you.

The interface is based on three panels. One panel -- the sidebar -- contains the tree structure for your documents and places where your documents may be residing -- on your Mac, for example, or in iCloud.

The middle panel -- the sheet list -- contains 'sheets' connected to items in the first panel. A 'sheet' is like an item or page in your document.

The third and largest panel -- the editor -- is where you do your writing.

In full screen mode, Ulysses III displays a barebones document with light gray text on a black background. You can still use shortcut keys in that mode and have access a menu for attaching notes, images and keywords to your sheets.

Creating Without Clutter

You can write entire documents in a sheet or treat the sheets as building blocks for whatever you're writing. Sheets can be easily combined or moved among topics in the sidebar with drag and drop.

Ulysses III can be customized in a number of ways through its preferences menu. Among its general preferences are the font to be used in the program, paragraph spacing, first line indent and page width. You can also choose between an OS X or iOS insertion point.

In addition, you can choose how marked-up text will appear in your documents. You can choose color themes put together by the software's designers or create your own.

Another preference lets you show content from iCloud, your Mac and Daedalus Touch in the sidebar.

There are some features writers may yearn for in Ulysses III. There's no dynamic word count -- you have to pull up statistics on an item or sheet by right-clicking on them -- and there's also no spell check.

Despite some deficiencies, Ulysses III offers a streamlined way to write. If you need complexly formatted documents, Word is still your best bet. If much of what you write appears on the Web or in PDFs, Ulysses III can help you create without the clutter of a typical word cruncher.

Ulysses Iii 1 0 1 – Creative Writing Text Editor Word

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Ulysses Iii 1 0 1 – Creative Writing Text Editor Pdf

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John Mello is a freelance technology writer and former special correspondent for Government Security News.

Ulysses offers a simple and intuitive workspace you can customize according to your taste.

  • Clean, Distraction-Free Interface

    The interface leverages modern OS X concepts. This beautifully familiar environment will stay out of your way – and help you get around in no time.

  • Markup-Based Text Editor

    Ulysses’ editor is text, and text only. With a few characters you mark headlines, important passages or comments. No need to lift your fingers from the keyboard.

  • Plain Text Enhanced

    Ulysses still offers all the features you’d expect from a traditional word processor. Even images, footnotes and links are handled with ease – and unprecedented style.

  • Themeable Editor

    You decide what your editor looks like – choose from handpicked color palettes, or download user-generated themes from the Ulysses Style Exchange.

  • Keyboard Navigation

    You can operate Ulysses via keyboard only, so no need to reach for the mouse. On iPhone and iPad, you can make full use of external keyboards.

  • Typewriter Mode

    When enabled, the line you’re currently typing remains vertically fixed – top, center, bottom, whatever you prefer. Line highlight is also supported.

Ulysses offers a full suite of organizational tools, from note taking to novel writing – and everything in between.

  • A Single Library for All Texts

    Ulysses’ library holds everything you’ll ever write. No Save dialogs, no Finder searches. It’s all just there. All the time.

  • Hierarchic Groups

    Groups let you organize your writings project- or subject wise. You can break them into sub-groups and sub-sub-groups as you see fit.

  • Attachments

    Additional information that belongs to but not in a text can be attached to it: Images, PDFs, notes, keywords, you name it.

  • Filters

    With filters you can narrow down your library’s content according to keywords, text occurrences and even creation or modification date.

  • Auto-Save & Automatic Backup

    Ulysses automatically saves your writings and keeps local backups of your entire text library.

  • Writing Goals

    Pursue a daily writing goal, or set word or character limits to your texts and define deadlines. Goals help you track your progress and let you brag about it on social media.

Ulysses lets you write anywhere, without the need to spend a thought about your setup.

Ulysses Iii 1 0 1 – Creative Writing Text Editor Free

  • Full iCloud Sync

    Synchronization is simple, seamless and neither requires third-party apps, nor any kind of interaction. All content is always available, no matter where you are.

  • For macOS and iOS

    From iPhone to iPad to Mac – Ulysses is available for all your devices, and the apps share an identical feature set. No matter what you are writing on – you get the real Ulysses.

  • External Folders on Dropbox

    Ulysses lets you add Dropbox folders to your text library. So if you prefer to store your texts in plain text files, or collaborate with others, you can.

No matter what you write and who your readers are, Ulysses’ versatile export function has you covered.

  • Various File Formats

    Export your writings as plain or rich text, as a Markdown file or HTML code. Create beautiful PDFs, Word documents and eBooks, properly formatted and styled.

  • Publish to WordPress and Medium

    WordPress and Medium users can write their stories with Ulysses and directly schedule or publish them from within the app. At the push of a button.

  • Live Preview

    The built-in live preview shows what your output is going to look like, and you can watch your changes take effect instantly.

  • Built-In Export Styles

    Ulysses ships with a number of export styles for all supported formats and various use cases. ADA-style PDF? Check. That classic manuscript look? Also check.

  • Styles & Themes

    On the Styles & Themes website, you can download plenty of export styles and editor themes for all kinds of purposes, created by the Ulysses community.

  • Share & Open In

    Attach a Word manuscript to an e-mail, or open an ePub file with iBooks: Ulysses lets you conveniently share your texts, or send them directly to third-party apps.

All this, and so much more: For a comprehensive overview visit the feature table.

Feature Table