I know many of you suggests Ulysses and it would be the perfect app for what I’m doing. But it has just too many dongles and preferences that I won’t use anyway, so a subscription cannot be justified.
Currently Bear is ahead of the field. No subscription needed. Plain and simple. All files are contained in the app. Supports markdown.
Second is iAwriter. I got a trial from the nice guys at iAwriter and I like it and it would be my chosen app, but I am looking to create 100-150 documents and in iAwriter they will all live in the Finder/iCloud, which is good for some, but I don’t want to clutter my Finder more as it is, which is why I prefer Bear at the moment.
IA Writer and Ulysses have their own library which allows you to avoid the Finder or icloud.
I use Ulysses with its own library and have never had to manage documents in Finder.
I can justify the $40 annual fee because I can easily cover that with one blog post. If your work can cover the $40 fee, it’s worth the price. There is less friction when I’m writing something long.
scrivener has a longer learning curve and can’t be dismissed after a couple of days trialing. If time is spent about how scrivener works. It is well worth the effort.
Are you sure that iA Writer has its own contained library? I’m pretty sure that it only uses iCloud to store files outside the app and then pulls in the documents to view in a left pane in the app. But maybe I’m wrong?
You can choose another location on your hard drive as a place to store your iA Writer documents. Then use the iA Library feature to manage your documents.
I believe Scrivener has excellent document management features. It’s a matter of buckling down and going through the Scrivener manual. There is a Taking Control of Scrivener book that is available for sale from TidBits that will help speed up the learning curve.
@andreasl, the note keeping and taking tool I use and love is one that is very full-featured and I never hear anyone talk about! It is Notebooks: Write and Organize by Alfons Schmid (website) and has a 100+ page, well-written, manual I keep in iBooks.
It has an iOS Mac and winpc version sold separately unfortunately, but I use it on my iPad and don’t mind the others much.
It is simple enough to just download and use but can do so much more!! I think it may scratch your particular itch well.
Check it out before you decide - you may like it as much as I do!
I will give a strong plug for Bear. I have several hundred notes and they are easy to organize with the tag system. Bear is easy, straightforward, and seems to be just right. I love the markdown and outline structure. Very clean.
I use the various HEADER (H1 / H2 / H3) options for different sections. I use the bullet points for paragraphs and different indentations. I use the task box for things to do or follow-up. The keyboard shortcuts allow me to move things quickly. The only thing that I wish I could do is to indent a paragraph without a bullet point. Sometimes I will use the quote option. I hope that helps!
In Scrivener, you can write in Markdown and export, (I use Marked, a Markdown viewer/exporter by @ttscoff alongside Scrivener to keep an eye on the formatting) but it isn’t really necessary since Scrivener can output Markdown from rich text easily (and, I think, html).
For basic writing, Scrivener is as easy to use as a typical word processor. Going through the manual is only really necessary if you want to squeeze every ounce of potential from the software i.e. recommendable but not essential
I have Notebooks 8 everywhere (except PC) but it has never really lived up to its own expectations. Tasks simply don’t work, for example, and colour coding is hit and miss.
CCI use 1A Writer for just that: Notes. It definitely does the job. Tech support is wonderful.
I use Scrivener for writing projects. I am currently writing books in various stages of completion. I also use it for notes and for essays.
I love it and the price is reasonable. Unlike Ulysses, there is no subscription fee. Actually I’m already paid up with Ulysses in a previous version but I just don’t use it preferring Srcivener by far. You need not get into all the details of using Scrivener so the learning curve is something you need not really worry about aside from learning the basics you’d need for any app. I’m teaching myself as I go along. It’s actually kind of fun. (They have an interesting website about writing, by the way, Literature and Latte). The only thing I don’t like about Scrivener is that there is no iCloud support. Their rep explained that it was beyond their control as Apple was not setting it up so that they can support Scrivener. All in all, I am very happy with Scrivener and believe it would definitely meet your needs. Consider giving it another try, if you wish, and maybe you’ve already paid for it!
My only worry about this is that it’s a propriety format meaning if Ulysses goes in the dump are we unable to export our files? I’d also like to reference files in DevonThink as some of these writings relate to my DevonThink groups and projects.
If your Ulysses subscription expires, you can still view your sheets and export them. You just can’t add new sheets or modify existing sheets. There’s no worry about having your sheets locked inside Ulysses.
Many good tips already collected here. I absolutely like list-based (and collapsible) interfaces when writing, so I am a big fan of Dynalist for that. There you can both pick your vice concerning Folders, Tags or simply the hierarchical structure itself.
Concerning the Ulysses subscription, did you guys know that the Setapp subscription not only includes Ulysses but also use of the iOS version? Absolutely fantastic, if you ask me.
Cheers!
Every week I export all of my files from Ulysses (and Bear) as plain text files to a folder in my Dropbox. This is more to get them into my backup system than because I’m worried about the app going away, but it covers my bases there too.
You can add external folders to Ulysses. I keep all my texts in Dropbox so that I can use them with text editors like Sublime Text (on macOS) and 1Writer (on iOS). The only issue is that some of the more advanced features are only available when using the built-in sync, but I haven’t come across anything that’s enticed me to switch. I like being able to access my text files however I want without having to fuss about.