The Best Writing Apps of 2018. Story is unusual because it's not just writing software. It also lets you make notes about the actual production of a script. WriteRoom is an inexpensive Mac.
Writing a book requires something major. It requires the right attitude, some solid, and the best writing software out there. And we know which writing software is best for you – and more importantly, why it matters.
With the best writing tools, you can write faster and more effectively. You’ll be more focused, with fewer distractions, and you can actually learn a thing or two from some of them –. And just as importantly, you’ll have an easier time keeping your outline, notes, and even those organized. But even if you have and an imagination that won’t quit, you can’t do either without the right book writing software.
You’ll have to make some choices. Nowadays, authors have so many options when looking for the best book writing software. There are 9 things to consider when deciding which program to use for your book. Depending on your needs, some of these questions may be more or less important to you:. How easy is it to format text the way you want?. Does it have templates available?.
How much does it cost?. Is the program simple & easy to use?. Does it offer any extra features or other bells & whistles?. How about a distraction-free writing experience?.
Is the program user-friendly?. Can you access your files no matter where you are?. How easy is it to collaborate with editors & team members?. Is there distribution capabilities when it’s time to publish? In the end, the truth is that there are many great writing tools out there. It isn’t really a question of which tool is BEST. What it comes down to is: which tool works best with YOUR unique writing process?
The Top 3 Book Writing Software Programs Writers everywhere flock to these specific tools and claim them to be the best book writing software for them. We’ll break down each so you can decide for yourself if their features are the best fit.
#1 – Microsoft Word Before any other writing tools came along, Microsoft Word was the only option available. Everyone used it.
Today, even though there are many other word processors out there, Word is still the most widely used book writing software in the U.S. Millions of people continue to use it for their writing needs. And it’s easy to see why.
Word has a lot going for it! It’s been around a long time. It’s trusted, reliable, and gets the job done well. It also provides a relatively distraction-free writing experience; much better than working on Google Docs in your browser, for example, where you’re only an errant mouse-click away from the entire internet. If you just need to wake up in the morning and by keeping your head down and getting those words pounded out onto the page, then Word is an obvious choice of book writing software. No fuss, no muss.
It’s about as simple as it gets. Word also offers some simple organization. Using headers, you can organize your book into chapters—and then you can navigate through them quickly using the Navigation pane. You can also create your own.
And if you start writing your book in Word and don’t begin with the correct formatting, it’s pretty easy to to make it “book ready” with a few simple steps. If you’re a Word user and you’ve got your own system in place for writing books, then perhaps you need to look no further.
But as a writing tool, Word does have some downsides. For starters, it doesn’t always play well with Macs. If you use a Mac, then Word might cause you a lot of frustration with crashes and formatting.
Thankfully, Apple offers a comparable program called Pages, for you. Word is also pretty vanilla. That’s part of its appeal, sure, but it also means Word lacks some of the more advanced features you get with other programs like Scrivener and Google Docs.
For example, Scrivener offers more functionality. And Google Docs makes it easier to share and collaborate on your files. All in all, Word is a solid contender for best book writing software. But there are many other choices out there. Book Writing Software Cost: $79.99 if purchased separately. #2 – Scrivener You just learned that Microsoft Word is the most widely used word processor in the world. But does that mean it’s the best book writing software?
Think about it this way. The fact that Word is so prevalent means that it has to cater to all sorts of users—students, businesspeople, writers, teachers, marketers, lawyers, the list goes on and on and on. But Scrivener was created for one type of person only: Writers.
Blogger and author, Jeff Goins, swears by Scrivener after giving up Word. He says: “I wasted years of my life doing all my writing on Microsoft Word. But that’s all over now.
I have finally seen the light.” Entrepreneur also praises Scrivener: “I now begin every piece of content—no matter what it is—with this tool. It has simplified my life and enabled me to focus on the most important aspect of my job—creating new content. I am more productive than ever.” Here are some of the top takeaways of this book writing software:. Helps with.
Easily export your data to other digital platforms such as Kobo, ibooks, etc. (this is one of the best features). Provides outlining functionality that keeps your content organized. Powerful composition mode with distraction-free writing environment. Easily drag and drop to move sections around. Provides a collection of robust templates.
Supports for bullets and numbers Because Scrivener was designed for writers, it’s super easy to lay out scenes, move content around, and your story, article, or manuscript. Instead of keeping all your content in one big file, Scrivener allows you to create multiple sub-files to make it easier to organize and outline your project. But as awesome as Scrivener is, it’s not perfect.
And the biggest downside to using Scrivener is the steep learning curve involved. You aren’t going to master this program overnight. But if you’re serious about your writing career, then investing the time to learn this specific writing tool will be worth it. You’ll save time and energy in the long run. And if you want to learn how to use Scrivener as quickly & easily as possible, we can help! Here’s a full Scrivener tutorial so you can easily maneuver this program. If you want to dig even deeper, you can also download the, or watch the tutorials they’ve put together at Literature & Latte.
Long story short: Scrivener is an investment, but one that’s worth it. It will take some time to master. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll never go back—it’s the single most powerful book writing software out there. I f you like what you see from Scrivener, you can buy it here: Book Writing Software Cost: $45 #3 – Google Docs We’ve looked at the appealing simplicity of Word and the in-depth power of Scrivener, but there’s another book writing software that more and more people are starting to use for various reasons: Google Docs.
Essentially, is a stripped-down version of Word that you can only use online. It’s a simple, yet effective writing tool. The beauty of this program (and in general) comes in the ability to share content, files, and documents among your team. You can easily communicate via comments, for example. This program keeps a complete history of all changes made to a document, so if you accidentally delete something you wanted to keep, simply click the link at the top of the screen that says, “All changes saved in drive.” That will bring up the version history, where you can review all the changes that have been made to your book file and revert to a previous version if you so choose. Google Docs doesn’t require any installation and can be accessed anywhere via your browser, or an app on your phone. And here’s one of the best features: everything is saved on the server frequently and automatically, so you never have to fret about losing a version or draft of your work.
(Anyone who has ever lost a draft of a book understands how valuable this feature is!) Plus you can access your work when you move from one location or another—no carrying a laptop or thumb drive around with you. When you share a book draft with others, like test readers or your, they can comment directly on the draft using the built-in comment functionality. Out of the “big 3” book writing software tools, Google Docs is probably the least sophisticated when it comes to formatting and outlining tools. But it makes up for that with easy collaboration, sharing, and online access. Book Writing Software Cost: Free. Book Writing Software You Might Not Know About Just because you may not be familiar with a specific writing software doesn’t mean it’s not beneficial or even better than what you’re using now. Let’s get to know some of the best book writing tools you can use to up your author game and make some progress.
#1 – Pages Think of as the Mac alternative to Microsoft Word. It has a variety of beautiful templates to choose from, has a simple design, and syncs with all devices from within iCloud so you can access it in a number of different places.
Personally, I love the ease of Pages. It works great for creating ebooks or manuscripts with a variety of you can get creative with. Book Writing Software Cost: $28 #2 – Freedom isn’t technically a writing tool, but it sure can help improve your writing. It’s a productivity app designed to help eliminate distractions by blocking certain websites – something more than beneficial for those of us who get sidetracked easily. For example: let’s say you have a tendency to get distracted by social media sites. All you have to do us start a Freedom session that blocks all your social media sites—and then you won’t be able to visit them even if you wanted to.
Here’s what it looks like when you schedule a session. This is a really liberating tool. Once you know you don’t have the option of visiting those distracting sites, you’ll find it easier to keep focused on your writing and you’ll be able to get a lot more done. Book Writing Software Cost: $2.42/month and up, or $129 for lifetime access. #3 – Ulysses If you’re a Mac owner, this might be the best book writing software for you. While you do have to pay $39.99 per year to use it, the cost to use is completely justified. One of the best features has to be the distraction-free capabilities.
As a writer who gets distracted easily, this is definitely a feature I look for in a good book writing software. This one is also great for exporting. Meaning, you can do all your writing in-app and then export it in relatively any format you’d need in order to, critique partner, or even beta readers.
And if you’re someone who has a hard time keeping all of your notes and ideas organized for your book, this app also has a feature that helps you keep all of it straight! Say goodbye to forgetting what you wanted to add in that obscure scene you wrote two months ago! Overall, this is one of the best book writing software programs out there for Mac users. But if you’re not sure if it’s worth the price, you can actually try it for free for 14 days.
Book Writing Software Cost: $39.99/year Free Book Writing Software There’s not much we love more than getting stuff for free – especially when it comes to our aspirations. You don’t have to doll out a ton of cash just to use highly beneficial book writing software. In fact, there are many best free book writing software programs. #1 – FastPencil is a nice little platform with lots of tools.
You can also use it for distributing your ebook. It is free to start writing with, but they offer paid services as well. Everything happens online in your browser, which means you can access your files from any computer (as long as you’re connected to the Internet). Here’s what the word processor looks like. You can customize the image in the background to suit your project to help inspire your writing. It’s simple and effective.
If you need a lot of features, it probably won’t work for you. But if simplicity is your thing, then you may have found your perfect free writing tool. Book Writing Software Cost: Free #3 – yWriter is a really popular word processor (intended mainly for novelists) with some impressive features (especially for a program that’s completely free). It helps keep your project organized by giving you space to include notes on all sorts of things, like character notes, scene notes, scene goals, etc. You can specify whose point of view each scene will be written in, and you can see the word count of your entire novel broken out by chapter—all at a quick glance.
One thing that yWriter does differently than a lot of other writing programs is focus on scenes rather than on chapters. A lot of writers prefer this since scenes are usually fun chunks of story to work on. And using yWriter, you can rearrange all those scenes to compose a compelling novel.
I’d call it a Scrivener alternative that’s free to use. But one downside is that it only works for Windows (at least, for now). Book Writing Software Cost: Free #4 – Evernote is a note-taking app. It’s a great way to keep track of your thoughts—like brainstorming ideas, outlining chapters, and jotting down inspiration when it strikes.
The mobile app is particularly useful for capturing new ideas when they strike, since most people have their phone with them 24/7. Here’s what Evernote looks like on a phone: While you can use Evernote to write content—I’ve used it for writing blogs and other small sections of books—you wouldn’t want to use it as your main word processor. Its functionality is a bit too limited. But as a way of keeping track of ideas, it’s a great find. Book Writing Software Cost: Free, but there is a cool upgrade for $5 a month that gets you #5 – Hemingway Editor The is a unique kind of writing tool. It’s a style checker that’s designed to help tighten up your prose and make your writing clear and bold.
Simply paste your writing into the editor and scroll through. You’ll notice that the program highlights certain words & passages—like long, hard-to-read sentences, passive verbs, and phrases with simpler alternatives. It’s basically your own personal editor rolled into a writing software. Here’s an example of what it looks like. #6 – Dropbox Reading this, you may be wondering: Dropbox? How is that a writing tool?
Trust me—it is! While it’s true that Dropbox isn’t a word processor like Scrivener or yWriter, it is a very helpful writing tool. Especially for writers who write on more than one computer, who need to collaborate with other writers or editors, or who want an easy way to back up their work.
Here’s how it works: When you set up Dropbox and install it on your computer, it will create a new “Dropbox” folder on your machine. Any files that you save in this folder will be automatically backed up to Dropbox’s servers in the cloud, which will be automatically downloaded to any other computers that are synced to that same Dropbox account.
A lot of writers choose to save their book on Dropbox, so that it will be automatically backed up. And as you can see, it looks the same as any other folder on your computer. Using this strategy, you can make it easier to share and collaborate on your files—even if you aren’t using Google Docs. Book Writing Software Cost: Free for a basic plan, or $9.99/month for extra storage. #7 – Open Office You may know of this software, you may not.
Essentially, it’s a free version of a word processor much like Word or Pages. If you don’t have Word on your computer and can’t afford to buy it, this is a great alternative that’ll get the job done. Here’s what this book writing software looks like. The capabilities are pretty limited with Open Office but if you really only need the basics and don’t want to spend any money, this is the perfect writing software for you.
Book Writing Software Cost: Free How Much Does Book Writing Software Programs Cost? I would recommend not worrying too much about the cost of these programs. After all, dropping $100 or less on a program is not that big a deal if it is going to help improve your writing for years to come.
That said, I know you work hard for your money—and you want to get the best deal you can! #2 Try a few different options Don’t just pick one of these writing software options and be done with it. Sometimes you really need to try them out before you can determine which will fit your needs with your current project. Make some notes as you work through a few and be sure to put together a pros and cons list to ensure you’re choosing the best option to propel you forward on your writing journey. #3 Nail down your book information I know it might seem fun to get started once you have a super helpful writing platform to use, but you need to nail down your book idea first. Have you created your? How does look?
Without these two necessities, you won’t get very far – even with some beneficial writing software. Do you use one of these writing software programs? Let us know how they are below!
Most of my stuff comes off of OpenOffice. If you buy your ‘puters, new, they might have MS Word on them, but if you don’t, you might not want to fork over the cash for a copy. Then you go OpenOffice. Before PDF got to be the go-to format for publications, I used Adobe PageMaker, which used to be the standard for professional publishing. I still use it for self-printed works. Unfortunately, PageMaker was created by Aldus, and instead of modifying PageMaker to better handle PDF’s (the PDF exporter in the final ver. 7.2 is not only prone to crashing the whole program, but irretrievably corrupting the file to be converted), they abandoned it and replaced it with their home-grown InDesign–which, to my reckoning, has two fatal flaws: it’s only available by subscription, and it’s Could based (speaking as someone whose writing time is 90% OFF-LINE) There’s also Scribus, with I have on my computer but haven’t really played around with much.
So you say that checking out an app that someone suggests, finding out it’s inapplicable to your system, and informing other people of that limitation is “hostile and negative in tone”? Warning people that there’s a HUGE FLAW in depending on Could-based applications is “negative and hostile in tone”? Telling people that there’s a COMPLETELY FREE alternative to a product that the people who don’t have the money to buy new computers (which would likely have MS Word pre-installed) all the time (and therefore, probably don’t have the money to buy a non-OEM copy) is “negative and hostile in tone”? I’ll tell you what’s “negative and hostile in tone”!
It’s reading a comment that’s pointing out that a product is Apple only, ignoring the follow-up comment EXPLAINING that the comment was referring to the premium prices Apple puts on its hardware, and somehow STILL taking my words OUT OF CONTEXT–concluding that the comment was meant to say that it was an Apple product and ACCUSING ME OF SAYING that I don’t believe people should be paid for their work. I NEVER SAID OR EVEN SLIGHTLY IMPLIED THAT, AND YOU ARE NEGATIVE AND HOSTILE IN CLAIMING THAT I DID.
(For the record, OF COURSE I believe in paying people for their work. What I don’t believe in is paying a premium for a brand when I don’t see any quality/reliability advantage over comparable products, especially a brand that emphasizes “the look” over functionality.) And being that this is a writing blog, you should understand the English language better than that. (Yes, THIS is a hostile comment. It comes out of me when people somehow get the idea I said/typed “turn left” when my exact words were “go straight.” How can someone POSSIBLY twist a meaning that much, and how can you POSSIBLY make your words twist-proof?). Wow, you’ve really got some serious issues! Maybe an anger management course needs to be in your xmas stocking.
Along with a reading comprehension course. Take a chill pill, dude. You’re claiming i accused you of stuff that i didn’t so you’re now just getting ridiculous. People are going to have different ideas and opinions from you. No need to go ballistic. Anyway, i’m not going to argue with you.
I’ve read your unpleasant disqus comment history, and you’re just not worth my time so i’m just going to put you on ignore. Plus also, it’s not fair to other people here to have to read me responding to your nonsense. Hope 2017 goes well for you. Thanks for the terrific link to your instructions for the Book writing template using Word. I started my first two books – way back in the Dark Ages of Indie-Publishing in 2009 – using Derek J Canyon’s HTML template; Word was a No-No back then; thank heavens it’s changed now. For my next couple I started with the assault course that is Scrivener. I love it, but I teach young writers, and for many of them it’s a technical and financial bridge too far.
Just as I was about to publish my latest (which has a section on how to publish) I discovered the Reedsy Book Editor. Free, easy, fast – and it produces well-formatted files for both ePub/Kindle and Pdf for print. But abandon all hope those that haven’t got easy online access, as it only works there. It’s also not (yet) for complex books – they’re working on it. And, no, I don’t have shares. I just have to say that while so many people use Word (shudder) there IS an alternative not mentioned. Rarely is, except by those who love it.
Word Perfect has so many more robust features (Reveal Codes!!) than Word could ever dream of, I simply don’t understand why it is never mentioned. Word Perfect was the first word processing program where you could simply sit down and type. Word finally caught on. Yes, I come from a legal background, but there IS an alternative to anything mentioned here.
Just had to say this. Remember, Reveal Codes. And easier formatting. Oh, and another thing that might be working against it: Back in the 1990’s, it had more bugs, weevils,and maggots than a ten-day-old corpse. I remember it spontaneously changing fonts (while I was typing), periodically deciding the ONLY font in the library was “Courier New,” and–everyone’s favorite–freezing during the 20-minute autosave (since this was still the DOS era, you’d have to warm-start the computer to clear it, losing all your data.) And I’m not sure about Word, but I know OpenOffice doesn’t have native import capability for WordPerfect files, so you’re always having to convert it for everyone else. Firstly, most of what Scrivener is so lauded for, like drag-drop sections/scenes/chapters, etc., originated in Word.
Most people don’t know how to do it because they don’t bother to learn to use the tools of their trade. Secondly, you’ve completely ignored YWriter, one of the BEST writing tools out there, and either FREE or the creator requests a whopping $25 donation, which I’ve gladly given. The creator (and author himself), Simon Haynes, is a terrific guy, and although his software isn’t “pretty” like the typical Mac product, it’s amazingly powerful. You want drag-drop scene and chapter manipulation? Piece of cake.
YWriter tracks characters, locations, times, props–you name it. (By props I mean things like murder weapons, cars, anything you can think of.) One of its absolutely fabulous features is that if you provide times and characters for your scenes, it will construct timelines for you, which almost none of the others do. I can highly recommend it for the creation of your book. There are also programs like Power Structure (excellent), Truby’s Blockbuster (eh.I have it, but it’s clunky as HELL, and refuses to run on my Win8.1 laptop), and others. I love PowerStructure. If you are an outlining fool, Power Structure is for you. I like to use it to outline, and then use YWriter to write.
WONDERFUL, both of them. I’ve got a Mac. I’ve got Word and despite what it says above, it doesn’t crash on me. I’ve also got Pages and Scrivener. I’ve also got a pen and a pad of paper. I like Pages, but it is a bit short on formatting ability.
I like Scrivener for certain things, especially non-fiction, but all the things it can do can become cumbersome if you let it. So I’m torn between Word and Scrivener. That said, I think Scrivener has the edge for original writing. I then export to word for final layout of the whole. So, for a start, as well as Scrivener, you can try Plume and YWriter.
They both have a collection of tools for writers. Second, there is more than Word. The obvious is LibreOffice, for many the successor to Open Office.
In some ways, it’s better. It’s been recoded recently. It has a ton of plug-ins. If you don’t want to use that, there are dozens of alternative word processors you can use. Some of them, like Jarte and Write Monkey, concentrate on distraction-free writing.
Or you can go for a fully-functional word processor like Softmaker’s Textmaker, or WP Office. None of them cost as much as Word, and all can create doc or docx documents for you. I haven’t found anything yet in Scrivener that I can’t do for myself in Word, using simple folder organization. It is the opposite to intuitive. If you have the patience to learn it, or if you don’t need to collaborate, or if you need to be organized, then pick it up. It’s worth it.
And apart from the poor handling of Track Changes, the word processor in it is perfectly adequate. Pity Scrivener doesn’t have a cloud-friendly solution. I love Scrivener’s features, but I need access to my docs from my PC, my Mac, and my Android phone. I need the docs to be sync’ed reliably. If Scrivener’s makers, Literature & Latte, are listening: embrace the cloud!
I’d happily pay more for Scrivener rather than use any other tool. But as it’s currently engineered, Scrivener would be fighting against me.
FYI to people about to say that they use Google Drive, Dropbox, or some other cloud service for their Scrivener files: Literature & Latte specifically warns against doing this as it can lead to complete and unrecoverable loss of your work. If it’s cloud-friendly you want, I recommend you check out the Ulysses App. I find it to be the most intuitive, simple, and user-friendly writing App available. You will never lose anything you write, because they store everything on the cloud. One of its (several) exporting options is Docx. The only draw-back is that it only works on apple products. But, on the bright side, it works cross-platform, so whatever you write on your Ipad will automatically appear on your Mac or Iphone, so you don’t need to “search” the cloud for it.
If i have a thought I want to record while I’m out-and-about, I can insert it into a paragraph on my IPhone, but for long writing spells, i prefer typing on a keyboard. The neatest feature (which i love to use) is customizing your writing environment (page). My personal favorite is white text on a black page. It helps preserve my night-vision by drastically reducing blue-light. It also keeps me more harmonized with my melatonin/ serotonin balance. Check it out.
I agree John. Ulysses is almost perfect; as long as you’re into the Apple ecosystem. The biggest plus for me is the capability of dragging and dropping the order of your “sheets”, be they chapters, sections, or whatever you desire. You can do the same in Scrivener, and in Word’s Navigation pane, but not as efficiently. Other good points for Ulysses: the iPad version is almost identical to the MacOS program, and the distraction-free and dark modes are great. The new subscription model is a bit pricey compared to other apps, but if you’re a serious writer it’s more than worth the price of a coffee a month. I use yWriter5 (upgrading to yWriter6) It is free.
Mainly for Windows, but I use it quite well in Linux. It does a lot of what Scrivener does, I use it with my work files on Dropbox, so I can continue from many devices.
YWriter6 is being developed for Android, Fire, IOS, and other platforms. Still in Beta for those. Scrivener released a slightly older edition for Linux. No longer supported, but seems to work pretty well and is also free. I’ve worked with it a little. I like Celtx for writing plays.
The free-standing pc version was free and can still be found I think, although they have been moving everything over to their cloud service for a fee. I also use Celtx with Dropbox. I love Evernote for quick notes. Again, free and cross-platform. It is awesome to be able to access the work from laptop, tablet or smart phone! I have used Word, and before that really loved Wordperfect.
It was a case of having to pay to upgrade WP or use the Word that was free on the pc I had at the time. I’m also a cheapskate! My first computer was the Radio Shack Color Computer (Pre Tandy I think.) Back when you had to store programs and work on audio casettes. It was incredible when I upgraded to floppy disk! The word processing program to use there was called Telewriter-64. You had to type in the special codes to get a lot of formatting and characters.
Even with all that it was still pretty productive. I wrote several plays on that system back in the early ’80’s. I miss PageMaker. It made it easy to handle multiple text streams, you could set chunks of text off to one side (technically not in your document, but still in your file in case you want to put it back later), and kern and lead your text until it fit just right. Unfortunately, the PDF export was unstable, the graphics would get automatically downsampled to something like 50 dpi, and instead of fixing it, Adobe dumped the whole package and replaced it with its in-house-developed (PageMaker was developed by Aldus), on-line only, subscription-only InDesign.
(I don’t have home internet, so anything Cloud-based is automatically “out.”) So if you want a desktop publisher that works offline, you have to learn Scribus (I’ve got it, but haven’t played around with it much.) And to say MS Word is “the first” is a misnomer. There used to be an awful lot of word processors around, but Word had the advantage of being pre-installed with the vast majority of new PC’s and basically shoved all the other processors out of the market. (Is Corel’s WordPerfect still around?).
About the only challenger left to Word is Apache OpenOffice (I believe it was originally written for Linux, then a Windows version was released), which has the advantage of being open source (and free). My books are born in OpenOffice. I began using the unsupported Linux version of Scrivener, but it would not work with my current distro. As i didn’t want to re-enter the work I had done I installed the paid Windows version under Wine and it mostly works, apart from media, which I don’t need. Other tools I’ll look at for the next project will include Manuskript, oStorybook, Bibisco, and yWriter. If your package includes MS Office, that’s fine, but don’t waste your money on buying it or on the annual charge for Office 365 – get Libre Office.
Ulysses is the best writing app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. For writers — from bloggers to authors to journalists and more — Ulysses offers the perfect combination of power and simplicity, combining feature-rich writing and research tools amidst a focused, distraction-free writing environment. There are many great options available in this golden age of writing applications for the Mac, but we believe that none of them are as finely tuned or have the degree of polish that does. What is a “pro writing app?” To us, a pro writing app is a powerful text editing tool that also includes other essential tools that are part of the writing, editing, and publishing process. This broad group of users includes:. Screenwriters.
Authors. Journalists. Playwrights. Bloggers.
Researchers If you fall into any (or more) of these categories and write more than occasionally, a professional-grade writing app might be right for you. Check out our in-depth course for Ulysses A “pro” writing app is designed to assist you in reaching your goal of getting words on a page as quickly and efficiently as possible. The mission of a pro writing app should be to help you produce words that will eventually end up being posted, printed, or published. It should provide an environment that is aesthetically pleasing and makes it easy for you to focus and create, and then allow you to take your content and export it wherever you desire. Since the words themselves are the end goal, it’s important that a pro writing app provide a distraction-free user interface that spurs creativity. It should provide the essential tools necessary to make the job of writing easier, but it shouldn’t provide anything extra that could clutter the interface with options you don’t need or want. The design should be as minimal as possible so as not to be distracting, and therefore the features that are not included in a pro writing app are just as important as the ones that are included.
What makes a good pro writing app? These are the characteristics we consider important in a pro writing application and the criteria we used when selecting the best one:. Design: The app must be well-designed so that it provides an inviting writing environment. Design is vitally important as it should strive to eliminate visual barriers so you can enter into a state of flow and do your best creative work. Ease of Use: The purpose of any tool is to make the work easier. If the app is not easy to use or it’s too difficult to figure out how a certain feature works, it can actually make it harder for you to get words on a page. Workflow Options: The application you choose should adapt to fit your workflow.
It should accommodate your preferred methods and styles for capturing and creating content so you can focus on the words no matter where you are when you decide to write them. Export Options: Your words are ultimately going to end up somewhere besides the writing app that you select.
Flexible export and publish options allow you to quickly and easily move your content from one location to another and make it simple for your content to get out into the world. Sync/Multi-Platform: With the technology tools that are available today, it’s easier than ever to capture inspiration whenever and wherever it hits. If the pro writing app you use has companion apps, it can make it even easier to record that perfect word or phrase when you think of it — even if you can’t get to your computer. Update History: The tool you decide to use should be in active development. Nothing is more frustrating than being fully invested in a platform that is no longer supported because you have to figure out a way to get everything out and start over in a completely new system (ask anyone who used WordPerfect or QuarkXPress back in the day). Price: There have never been more high-quality options to choose from, and the competition surrounding great writing apps is fierce. This is great news for you as a writer, as it means we have a lot of affordable tools to choose from.
What a Pro Writing App is NOT A pro writing app is not a word processor. Word processors are very powerful programs that have a lot of unnecessary tools (for our purposes, anyway) for formatting and layout that don’t translate very well on export. This results in a cluttered and cramped writing interface, which doesn’t align with our goal of providing a distraction-free user interface: Word processors also make it very difficult to work on your project outside the application you started with because of their proprietary file formats. Ever open up a Word document you received from someone and were welcomed by a warning message saying the font is not installed? That’s an unnecessary frustration of working with word processors like Microsoft Word and Apple Pages.
These apps have some great layout and design tools — but, for the purpose of writing words, these are overkill. The frustration they can cause when trying to export your words out of their proprietary formats can quickly make them more trouble than they’re worth. A pro writing app is also not a specialized text editor like Sublime Text or BBEdit. These are very powerful applications with specific use cases, but are overkill for the person who needs to put words on a page. These applications have a lot of very powerful features (like code completion and multiple cursors) that are great for coders and developers, but unnecessary for people who just want to write. Our Favorite Pro Writing App is Ulysses is an extremely powerful writing tool with well thought out features that will provide great support for any writing project. It provides all the tools you need to be a more productive writer, but still maintains a simple UI that limits distractions so you can focus on accomplishing your writing goals.
At $45, it provides an abundance of value for the power and organization it brings to your writing desk. When you first launch Ulysses, you’ll see the main three-pane window with the library on the left, the list of “sheets” (what Ulysses calls documents) in the middle, and the editor pane on the right.
While Ulysses does offer a full-screen mode for completely distraction-free writing, I found myself using the default layout a lot because it allows me to quickly find something in another sheet or document by using the search feature. The left pane offers a couple of locations for storing files, including iCloud and local Mac storage. You can also set up “External Folders” that can point to a Dropbox folder, for example.
In my workflow, I have an external Dropbox folder called “Notes” where I capture all my random stuff on my Mac with and on iOS. By adding that to Ulysses, I’m able to access those text files directly and turn them into articles (like this one). This flexibility allows Ulysses to fit perfectly into my writing workflow:.
When I get an idea (i.e. “Write article on Best Pro Writing App”), I capture it using nvALT or Drafts (which saves the note to a Dropbox folder called “Notes”). This might also include a list of apps I think would be useful or other tidbits of information I’ll use when writing. When I’m cleaning out my inbox, I’ll find the note and create a task in (previously selected as ), but since I’ll want to flesh out the idea later into a post or article, I’ll move the file from “Notes” to another folder in Ulysses for “Works in progress.”.
I’ll work on the article in Ulysses until I’m finished with it, then export the file and submit it for approval. Your writing workflow may differ, but with the ability to add text from many different sources (iCloud, Dropbox, local Mac storage, etc.), Ulysses is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of workflow implementations.
The Right Tools for the Job In a side-by-side comparison of Ulysses with some of the other apps we tested, you’ll see a lot of similarities; but, you’d also see that there are quite a few features that are available in one or more of those other apps that are missing from Ulysses. I would argue this is not only necessary in order to keep the design simple and clean, but actually helps you focus on using the tools that are available and specifically chosen to assist you in the writing process.
In our opinion, the features the developers chose to include are powerful, useful, and easy to use. One of my favorite tools is the “Goals” feature.
There are a lot of apps that offer a word count, but Goals is different because it sets a target for you to strive toward. By right-clicking on the sheet and selecting “Goal” you can actually set a writing goal based on the number of characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, etc. As you’re writing, there’s a small circle in the upper right corner of the sheet box (located in the middle pane of the three pane view) which displays your progress, as well as a much larger version located in the “Inspector” pane. So, if you wanted to set a goal of “at least 2000 words,” you can do that in Ulysses.
Once you’ve reached your writing goal and the circle is completed, it will turn green, giving you a very satisfying visual indication that you’ve met your goal. Seeing that green circle appear is much more rewarding (to me, at least) than a word count. This may seem trivial, but I can’t count how many times I’ve seen the progress circle and said “I’ve only got X more words to go and I’m on a roll — let’s just push through and finish this!” Personally, I’ve found that the Goals feature in Ulysses gives me a little bit more motivation to push through and finish my writing projects, and that has been invaluable to me and helped me get things from “In Progress” to “Done.” Another great feature in Ulysses, which allows you to go back to a previous version of something you’ve written in Ulysses. This allows you to edit ruthlessly, as you can always go back and get that sentence you deleted a few days ago if you decide it really should be there. Check out our in-depth course for Ulysses A clean, stylish interface One of the best things about Ulysses is that it looks great. You can customize, but in my opinion the standard color scheme is pretty much perfect.
Ulysses also has great Markdown support, so if you decide you want something a little more powerful than Byword — — Ulysses is a great option as all Markdown elements Ulysses are easily distinguishable (headers are blue, bold text is displayed in red, lists are indented, etc.) while not distracting. I also love the way Ulysses handles links and footnotes.
Markdown links can be long and messy, but Ulysses cleans these up and makes them more visually pleasing by displaying a link box which pops up when double-clicked. This makes for a more distraction-free writing environment and also keeps the word count accurate. Exporting Made Easy In addition to supporting a variety of export formats, including plain text, HTML, ePub, RTF, and PDF, Ulysses also has a very clever way of solving the image export problem inherent with Markdown files created in sandboxed Mac App Store applications. Images in Markdown documents are usually just links to a specific file location (which you can do in Ulysses), but this can cause problems with Apple’s sandboxing rules on the Mac App Store.
For example, when sending a file from a Markdown editor like Ulysses to a Markdown previewer (, an excellent real-time Markdown previewer that integrates seamlessly with Ulysses), users have to explicitly permit access to every single image file. This is obviously not ideal when you just want to quickly preview your work. To solve this problem, the developers of Ulysses have worked with internet genius to create a new file format called which provides a way to get around traditional sandboxing limitations on the Mac. Without getting too deep into the weeds, TextBundle is revolutionary because it basically takes all the assets that the plain text file points to and packages it all together, so if you wanted to edit the plain text file somewhere else (like a PC), all your assets are right there. But, what’s really cool about it is that it’s still essentially just a plain text file, meaning it’s very flexible to edit and doesn’t lock you into a proprietary format like a word processor. They’ve developed it as an open standard and encourage other developers to implement it in their own apps.
Syncing & iPad App With the external folders feature mentioned earlier, Ulysses will sync via Dropbox and provide access to your plain text files via just about any other plain text editor out there. This has been how I’ve used Ulysses for a long time, but the developers have also recently released an that gives you nearly all the power of Ulysses for Mac on your iPad. The first thing you’ll notice when you launch the iPad app is that it shares the same excellent design that makes the Mac app so great. It was designed to mimic the look and feel of Ulysses for the Mac and provide a comfortable, familiar writing environment.
Everything about the iPad app is top notch. It’s extremely well-designed and is a joy to use.
The iPad app also supports Apple’s Handoff feature, allowing you to walk away from writing on your Mac and instantly pick up right where you left off on your iPad. Pricing Ulysses uses subscription pricing. For $4.99 per month or just $39.99 per year, the app is unlocked on all your Macs, iPads and iPhones, including sync. If you purchased Ulysses before the apps became free with subscription, the developer is offering 50% for the lifetime of your subscription.
The Best Pro Writing App for Long-Form Writing is Scrivener If you’re working on a really big project (like a book or a screenplay), then you may want something with a little more horsepower. In that case, we recommend you check out ($45). Scrivener is a serious writing tool and can certainly be used for smaller writing projects as well, but its UI is not quite as nice or intuitive as Ulysses and has a much steeper learning curve. Scrivener includes a built-in text-based tutorial that will walk you through all the features, but it will take you at least a couple hours to go through it all.
If you have a big project you’re working on, learning how to use the additional tools Scrivener offers will more than make up for the initial time investment required to learn them. One of the reasons Scrivener works better for long-form writing is that it has a lot of organizational tools built in. For example, the Outlining view can be really useful when you’re trying to establish the foundational structure of the document you’re working on.
Another cool feature in Scrivener is the “Research” tab, which is basically a place that you can store assets (images, text, etc.) that relate to your project before you decide where they belong. Having all of these things available right inside the app can be a huge time saver when you’re working on a big project because you don’t have to leave the app to find what you’re looking for. Another unique feature in Scrivener is the Corkboard view, which lays out all your content sections on a giant virtual corkboard as notecards that you can drag around and reorganize, just like on a physical corkboard.
This allows you to look at your project from a different point of view and makes it very easy to rearrange the structure as needed. Scrivener also has a “Scrivenings” mode, which allows you to switch between editing your document one piece at a time, or all together as a whole. This allows you to focus on a specific scene, chapter, act, (and so on) and you can select the different components to edit multiple sections of your document as though it were one long document. Once you’re finished writing, Scrivener also has very powerful export options that allow you to compile your project into a finalized file format (i.e. Final Draft, ePub, Kindle, Word, etc.). Just select File → Compile, select the output format, check a couple of options, and Scrivener will do the rest. For example, you could export your book project as an ePub file that is ready to be submitted to the iBooks store, or select the Kindle format and upload it straight to Amazon.
Either one will result in a nicely formatted file that is ready for publication. Other Candidates There were a lot of other great writing apps that we considered when writing this review, but none of them quite measured up to our top pick in terms of creating a comfortable writing environment. Still, they definitely have unique features that deserve a mention. IA Writer Pro offers a couple of unique features that might be really useful depending on your workflow. The first is what they call “Syntax Control,” which scans your document and highlights your adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, or conjunctions so you can see if your sentences are balanced.
This feature is not limited to just English, but also supports French, German, Italian, and Spanish text as well. The second unique feature of iA Writer Pro worth noting is the “Focus Mode,” which helps you focus on one sentence at a time by making the surrounding text fade into the background, reducing the temptation to edit. IA Writer Pro is $19.99 on the and has companion apps for both ($9.99) and ($4.99).
If you use an Android phone or tablet and want to be able to write on the go, check out iA Writer as it is the only app we reviewed (besides Microsoft Word) that has Android support. Typed is relatively new to the scene, but it has one incredibly awesome feature that makes it worth noting called “Zen Mode.” We recently published an article over at Tools & Toys on, and Typed actually bakes this right into the app itself by providing 8 curated soundtracks designed to help you focus and concentrate on your writing. I personally listen to a lot of the music mentioned in the Tools & Toys article when I write, and the ability to launch it from the writing app and not have to open up (or rely on an internet connection) is a really cool idea. Is $29.99 and, in our opinion, doesn’t offer the same level of writing assistance that Ulysses does. The developer has a reputation for creating great Mac software, (like, ) and Typed is brand new. It will be very interesting to see what Realmac does with it in the future. Byword We previously selected as, and it can certainly be used as a pro writing app as well.
We believe that Ulysses just offers a few more tools (like writing goals and integration with Marked for previewing) and UI enhancements (like the three pane view which allows you to quickly search and find text from any file in your library) that make it a better choice for more lengthy writing projects. Byword is an excellent application, and at $11.99 for the app and $5.99 for the version, it’s a great option for a writer looking to upgrade their tools on a budget.
Both apps do have an available “Publishing” in-app purchase (that must be purchased for each version) that allows you publish your writing straight to an external source, such as WordPress. It also offers iCloud sync that works flawlessly (in our testing) between the Mac and iOS versions. Microsoft Word We’re including this in the list only because this is what a lot of people think of when they need to write a document — but, in our opinion, it’s one of the worst options available. Not only is very expensive (it starts at $70/year with Office 365 and goes up from there), but, as we outlined above, it locks you into a file format that is difficult to publish from. If you don’t use the extra formatting and styling features, then there’s really no reason to use Word as they just clutter up the screen. Word used to be the de facto option for sharing text documents throughout an office, but (thankfully) with the advent of plain text (and Markdown in particular), that is changing.
We heartily recommend that you use a tool that gives you flexibility that these other formats offer. Pages is also not a great option as it is a word processor and not a text editor that also locks you into a proprietary file format.
It’s free on the Mac App Store and offers an easy way to get started writing. It’s actually pretty powerful as far as word processors go, but still has the same drawbacks we outlined earlier for the application type. Pages does have free iOS versions that sync (mostly) reliably with iCloud, so you’ll be able to sync your documents wherever you go with your iPhone or iPad.
If you just bought a shiny new MacBook and want something that will allow you write on the go but you don’t have any money to spend on a fancy writing app, Pages will work, but you might run into formatting issues. Write is a beautiful writing app that offers a unique blend of writing and note-taking features. I mentioned my workflow for capturing notes and turning those into writing projects earlier, and Write offers both a powerful three-pane text editing interface (similar to Ulysses) plus a menu bar app for quickly capturing inspiration when it hits. Write aims to solve the problem of not having your text with you by syncing with just about every cloud platform available, but we think Ulysses still offers a more polished writing environment. Is $9.99 and worth checking out if you’re on a budget. It also has excellent companion apps for. This is one that’s definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Conclusion is an excellent tool for any professional writer. It has a well-designed layout, extremely useful features, and a distraction-free writing interface that does a great job of helping you focus on the act of writing. It offers a variety of export and publish options and also has an excellent for writing on the go.
At $4.99/month for the Mac, iPad and iPhone subscription we still consider it an excellent value for anyone who wants to become a better, more efficient writer. For long-form writing projects, is an excellent choice. It has some great additional features designed to make larger projects easier to manage, and offers additional export options that will be particularly useful for authors and screenwriters. The features come at the cost of a much steeper learning curve, and it lacks a good sync solution. Check out our in-depth course for Ulysses.
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