90 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2019
Byword doesn’t fuss: it assumes that
you know what you’re doing and gets out
of your way. It automatically highlights
Markdown formatting and provides
keyboard shortcuts for commonly used
tags. Bear keeps it simple too, but it
doesn’t expect you to remember
everything: its menus provide the
various Markdown options for making lists, formatting text,
linking to files and so on. iA Writer and Ulysses do that too.
Scrivener takes a very different approach, keeping it old-
school with toolbars and lots of keyboard shortcuts. As you’d
expect from a publishing-focused app it’s packed with features
for footnotes, citations, equations and anything else you’d
expect in an academic or publishing environment. Where the
other apps on test are designed with speed and simplicity in
mind, Scrivener is built for massive, complex projects.At first glance, Scrivener is terrifying:
it can do many things, and all of them
appear to be on screen at once. But enter
Composition Mode and everything
becomes beautifully calm. You can focus
on the current line or paragraph, change
the appearance to get it just-so and bring
up crucial information by moving to the
bottom of the screen. It’s wonderful.
iA Writer isn’t quite as customisable but offers focus and
typewriter modes, optional sidebars and a pop-up toolbar in
the footer. Ulysses is similar, with an optional pop-up to keep
an eye on word and character counts. Byword offers focus and
typewriter modes too, but it’s simpler with just a word and
character count in pale text down the bottom of the screen.
Bear offers sidebars in full screen too, and it has an optional
and pretty pop-up to display your document statistics.Byword keeps everything simple: file
management is for Finder and searching
is for Siri. It syncs via iCloud and can
save your text files to Dropbox,
OneDrive or other sync folders. Bear
and iA Writer use text files too, with
library-wide search. Bear enables you to
navigate by tags, while iA Writer offers
tags, folders and Smart Folders. Both apps sync via iCloud;
iA Writer also supports Dropbox.
Scrivener gives each project its own .scriv file, which is a
folder containing multiple RTF documents, and has excellent
search tools. You can sync via Dropbox. Ulysses keeps your
documents in-app, sorted by folders and smart folders and
with a powerful search function. It syncs over iCloud, but you
can also add external folders, such as Dropbox ones, and
specify the file format to use for any documents in that folder.Scrivener has the most powerful
export options here. Its Compile
exporter offers incredible layout control
and supports DOC, DOCX, ePub, Final
Draft, Fountain, HTML, Markdown,
.mobi, ODT and PDF. It’s brilliant for
publishing but overkill for most stuff.
Bear exports to plain text, rich text and
Markdown plus ePub, DOCX, HTML, PDF and JPG.
Byword exports HTML, PDF or rich text, while iA Writer
saves in plain text and exports to DOCX, HTML, Markdown,
PDF and Project Archive. Ulysses exports to multiple text
formats including rich text and Markdown, and template-
based output to DOCX, ePub, HTML and PDF. If you want to
publish directly to a blog or CMS, Byword works with Blogger,
Evernote, Medium, Tumblr and WordPress; both Ulysses and
iA Writer work with Ghost, Medium and WordPress.TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS TEST RESULTS
TEST RESULTS
Te s t 1 The writing bit
Te s t 3 File Te s t 4 Export options
Te s t 2 Formatting
Start with a clean page
File storage and sync options Sharing your wonderful words
Making your words look better
Bear +++++
Byword +++++
iA Writer +++++Scrivener +++++
Ulysses +++++Bear +++++
Byword +++++
iA Writer +++++Scrivener +++++
Ulysses +++++Bear +++++
Byword +++++
iA Writer +++++Scrivener +++++
Ulysses +++++Bear +++++
Byword +++++
iA Writer +++++Scrivener +++++
Ulysses +++++Image credits (clockwise from top left):
Literature & Latte, Metaclassy, Ulysses, Shiny FrogAPPLE CHOICE Group test