Now that I'm about to become the proud owner of a spanking new MacBook Air, I've been taking a long, thoughtful look at the applications I really need, as opposed to the ones which, as an inveterate CRIMPer, I merely toy with.

And Ulysses has caught my eye. I've tried to like ConnectedText - but I just can't do it. Intellectually, I can understand its appeal; as a user, I very quickly get frustrated and annoyed. But Ulysses III 1.2 (to give it its full label) looks like a very attractive alternative, especially now it's got a full-fat tagging feature. Text-based, Markdown-supporting, outliner-style all-in-one writing, notekeeping and commenting app - yup, that's attractive. I like Scrivener, but Ulysses just looks all round more... integrated.

Any Ulysses users out there who'd care to comment?

I like Ulysses too. Ulysses III is in a different class from Ulysses I and II. I can't remember whether Steve Z. has drawn attention here (he certainly has on his blog) to the author David Hewson's review of the new Ulysses: http://davidhewson.com/2014/04/29/ulyssess-iii-growing-up-fast/#more-12554 and also http://davidhewson.com/2014/05/13/managing-a-book-project-with-ulysses-iii/#more-12574 I agree with Hewson's review: in particular, horses for courses - in a toolbox for writing, Ulysses can play a role that is different from Scrivener's. Also well worth reading is Steve's description on his blog of his use of Ulysses III as an application for a 'spark file': http://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/further-ruminations-on-the-spark-file/ I have Ulysses III and Scrivener on my MacBook Air (and Daedalus, which synchs seamlessly with Ulysses III, as my main writing application on my iPad).

Interesting, Hugh. I have Daedalus, but hadn't realised it syncs with Ulysses. Hm. Tempting...

Mind you, the iOS version of Scrivener will be seriously tempting, once that appears. My only beef with Scrivener is the peculiarly limited search function - but that may not apply to the Mac version, which - so people say - is supposed to be rather more complete than the Windows one.

Thanks for posting those two reviews, too - very interesting indeed.

Ulysses III and Daedalus sync Markdown with not problem but pay attention to items making use of MarkdownXL, a superset of standard Markdown that only Ulysses uses (but not Daedalus). Inline Videos and images come to mind, but also rather annoyingly annotations.
Play around with your documents, you'll receive a warning so nothing bad should happen but you might want to check before investing a lot of time and using a kind of markup that does not sync as I did.

That said, it is just something to keep in mind, I really enjoy Ulysses and Daedalus and use the two a LOT more than I thought I would.

The two are also a rather powerful combination for note-taking, not just writing. One of the very few companion app pairs (Mac and iOS) that can make use of Webdav.

I want to like Scrivener, but Ulysses and Daedalus Touch are the apps I actually use. One day I may actually go back and try Scrivener again, it's just more complicated to get going with and as much as I like stuff like notes and writing on backs of cards, I feel like I'm going to lose track of things.

I must say, I'm increasingly attracted to Ulysses, especially after what you've both said. It's the combination of simplicity and underlying power that attracts - a kind of mix of Scrivener and ConnectedText. And the elegant inclusion of Daedalus is, I have to say, very cool...

Steve Zeoli recently posted his thoughts on using Ulysses III for spark notes (http://welcometosherwood.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/further-ruminations-on-the-spark-file/

I have Ulysses in the Dock and use it extensively. Beside rich features, the main reason I like it is that is a very pleasant place to write. A few markdown things are missing -- principally tables -- that The Soulmen say will come along eventually. Daedalus and Ulysses are not 100% compatible, because Daedalus is older and Ulysses iOS is still in the works. That gap will get filled eventually. The Soulmen are very careful and particular about quality, and I'm fine with waiting.

The Preview mode is excellent. I've tweaked some of the styles, and there are other custom styles available for download from Ulysses' site. For long documents, I've had excellent results from exporting from Ulysses to Calibre (ePub export mode) and importing the result to iBooks.

I would just concur with what Hugh, Prion, Stevey and Paul have said about Ulysses III. It is a terrific app. I use it on smaller, more focussed projects, and Scrivener for bigger, complex projects. I've always preferred writing in plain text, so Ulysses fits that bill nicely. I think Ulysses uses screen space more efficiently than Scrivener, which matters on a MacBook Air, too.

Steve Z.

Funny thing. I tried to get the hang of Ulysses before Scrivener came out. But didn't get it. I switched to Scrivener - but find myself using Scrivener mainly for structuring huge projects and for keeping notes (for 2 projects). For writing I still use LibreOffice Writer - and paste the finished text back into the Scrivener outline/folder structure. Just to to turn it into a scrivening which is processed in LibreOffice or Word or (for the current project) Calibre. All on Windows.
For the next projects (which are more visual), I plan to get a Macbook Air 13" for Scrivener and Curio - and I will give Ulysses 3 a try again, instead of LibreOffice.

BTW: I quit the Windows RT experiment (Dell XPS 10 plus keyboard dock). Windows RT just is not instant-on as the iPad or Android tablets. And if I have to wait for the tablet to boot I can do so on a Windows or Mac notebook and have the full scope of Windows or Mac OS X apps. Moreover, the Dell plus keyboard dock is as heavy as a Macbook Air but the Dell keyboard is not as good as the Macbook keyboard.

Is this some kind of a mass phenomenon of switching to Macs, or have you all on this thread always been Mac users? I'm just wondering what the main attraction of Macs is these days, especially of users on this forum. In the UK there is a pretty big price difference between Windows and Mac machines, which has managed to put me off so far even from just contemplating such a switch. I'm just wondering if any of you were Windows users who have decided to switch to a Mac, and why?

Franz,

Ulysses III is very different from the previous versions. About the only thing they have in common is that they are plain text. Not saying that means you'll like it, but don't judge it based on your previous experience of versions I or II.

Steve

Franz Grieser wrote:

Funny thing. I tried to get the hang of Ulysses before Scrivener came
out. But didn't get it. I switched to Scrivener - but find myself using
Scrivener mainly for structuring huge projects and for keeping notes
(for 2 projects). For writing I still use LibreOffice Writer - and paste
the finished text back into the Scrivener outline/folder structure. Just
to to turn it into a scrivening which is processed in LibreOffice or
Word or (for the current project) Calibre. All on Windows.
For the next projects (which are more visual), I plan to get a Macbook
Air 13" for Scrivener and Curio - and I will give Ulysses 3 a try
again, instead of LibreOffice.

BTW: I quit the Windows RT experiment (Dell XPS 10 plus keyboard dock).
Windows RT just is not instant-on as the iPad or Android tablets. And if
I have to wait for the tablet to boot I can do so on a Windows or Mac
notebook and have the full scope of Windows or Mac OS X apps. Moreover,
the Dell plus keyboard dock is as heavy as a Macbook Air but the Dell
keyboard is not as good as the Macbook keyboard.

Doc,

Speaking just for myself, I switched about six years ago because I wanted to use Scrivener and Tinderbox. I've come to like other apps, of course. But if you're happy using CT on a Windows machine, there's no reason to change. Sometimes I even imagine getting a cheap PC so I can run CT and the Windows version of OneNote.

Steve Z.

Dr Andus wrote:

Is this some kind of a mass phenomenon of switching to Macs, or have you
all on this thread always been Mac users? I'm just wondering what the
main attraction of Macs is these days, especially of users on this
forum. In the UK there is a pretty big price difference between Windows
and Mac machines, which has managed to put me off so far even from just
contemplating such a switch. I'm just wondering if any of you were
Windows users who have decided to switch to a Mac, and why?

Dottore.

I am not going to completely move over to Mac OS X. Part of my daytime job is writing a magazine on Outlook - as long as I do that, I will surely stick with Windows.
The Macbook Air is just so convincing as a mobile machine, and it gives me the opportunity to use Curio for my new writing and teaching projects.

Besides, I had been using Macs (in addition to Windows) for almost a decade. So it's nothing new for me.

Switching to Macs... well, I've got a few reasons:

a) Macs run Windows really well (even Windows 8, although MacBook users would be well-advised to invest in PowerPlan and Trackpad++). My son's iMac runs Windows faster than any PC I've ever seen (boots Windows 7 in less than 10 seconds! And that's despite the fact that Windows doesn't make use of the Fusion drive's SSD, or so I'm told).

b) The MacBook Air - despite its age - is vastly superior to any other Windows ultrabook. Journalists like to insist that Windows ultrabooks have left the MacBook Air far behind, but actually, that's wishful thinking - a kind of concatenation of all the features offered by many different Windows ultrabooks. No single Windows ultrabook that costs less than twice as much as a MacBook Air combines:
- outstanding battery life (12 hours+, and in actual use, more like 14-15 hours. Yes, that's more than an iPad)
- outstanding light weight (less than 3 lbs, and that's the 13.3" version)
- outstandingly robust (all alumin(i)um, so really very, very tough indeed)
- outstandingly quick to boot up (10 secs) or wake from sleep (less than one sec)
(I have to laugh when I read about how expensive MacBooks are. Have you looked at ultrabook prices? And the 2013 MacBook is available at hugely discounted prices (in my case, more than £200 less than the 2014 version, for very little difference in specs, performance etc.)

I travel quite a bit, and even in the office, like to move around while I'm working. The MacBook Air is, well, just the most obvious tool to use.

c) Most of the software I use is cross-platform nowadays. Having analysed what I really have to have, I realised that I can do everything I currently do in Windows in MacOS X. No need to compromise at all!

d) Lots of nice, shiny new software ;-) (viz. Ulysses III, Notational Velocity, Metanota, Tree Outliner etc.) = CRIMPing heaven!

e) Much better mail client (most Windows mail clients are the pits, to be honest, and I won't touch Outlook), plus some exceptional alternatives (e.g. Mail Pilot)

f) Much more compatible with my iPad and iPhone (sorry, I've abandoned Android almost completely, because of the grisly permissions issue that has been growing steadily more and more problematic over the past couple of years: so many apps - even the most basic ones - require deep-system access, to contacts, web behaviour, account creation, calls/texting etc. etc. It's very bothering. Having said that, I did convert my Samsung Galaxy Note to CyanogenMod, and it's been a much happier bunny since! But permissions remain an issue, so I use it very rarely)

Having watched my daughter coexist happily with, first, an old MacBook (the white one) and now, a MacBook Pro 13 Retina, it's also become apparent to me that MacBooks just go on, and on, and on, and on. Even when - like my daughter's white MacBook - they have cracks and holes in the casing. I've got a couple of elderly HPs that are like that, but my current Lenovo - nice though it is - is already showing signs of disintegrating. What with the price drop on 2013 models, the opportunity just seemed too good to miss.

Of the dozens of machines I've owned, I now have the two best computers I've ever owned -- in one box:

My MacBook Air 2012 with a 500GB SSD. This one is running Windows 8.1 under Parallels.

Dr Andus wrote:

Is this some kind of a mass phenomenon of switching to Macs, or have you
all on this thread always been Mac users? I'm just wondering what the
main attraction of Macs is these days, especially of users on this
forum. In the UK there is a pretty big price difference between Windows
and Mac machines, which has managed to put me off so far even from just
contemplating such a switch. I'm just wondering if any of you were
Windows users who have decided to switch to a Mac, and why?

Ha! We simply enjoy having the opportunity to break cover and endorse a good Mac application - just to make all you Windoze users jealous...

In reality, I switched to a Mac about seven years ago specifically in order to use Scrivener. I had previously used Windows, and before it MS-DOS, for nearly twenty years in various corporate environments. I was trying to write a complicated long-form document - all right, a book - trying out numerous Windows applications for the purpose: Liquid Story Binder, WriteWay, WriteItNow, yWriter, PageFour, RoughDraft, New Novelist, IdeaMason and of course MS Word amongst them. All were 'wrong' for me, and I finally gave up Windows in disgust and dismay when Word lost 40,000 words. (That isn't to say that all those applications and others weren't then 'good' and aren't even better now - or that there aren't really excellent programmes now in the Windows realm in other areas, Connected Text amongst them. In particular, I think Word is now better at coping with documents of more than 20,000 words than it used to be - or at least the hardware is better.)

Incidentally, investing in a Mac desktop need not be so expensive: Mac Minis are the often-forgotten but relatively cheap, reasonably powerful and very reliable end of the Mac range. And it's good to have a desktop that can handle 16 GB of RAM but whose physical footprint isn't much larger than a hard-back novel's.

Many thanks for all the interesting answers to the Mac question. I learnt some new things.

At the moment my needs are fulfilled with my Win7 + iOS + ChromeOS combo, but it's good to know what's happening in alternate universes. Ulysses III does look very nice...