Too many writing/notes apps?

Software
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Gratefully use Ulysses & Drafts for word/thought capture and storage. WordPress as an editor.

Messages & Spark get their share of words.

Thankfully, I do not need to crank out APA or other styles.

Lots of little bits like apps for micro.blog. Ulysses & Drafts remain the center of attention.

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I hope, recommend, that you have a PDF version! :slight_smile:

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May I strongly suggest that you export them out into something else, PDF or some other word processing format (my choice would be LibreOffice) each time you open or look at one? That way the conversion task is done incrementally and eventually everything of importance will be converted.

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The ones I use and why.

  • Microsoft Office 2011. However I don’t need it anymore as I don’t need a 100% Office compatible app since I retired. So it goes away when it stops working next year.
  • LibreOffice. I use this for my Office compatible and also to read my old WordPerfect files (I was a big WP user and totally resisted Microsoft Office).
  • Pages My go-to short format word processor.
  • TextEdit Works fine as a quick editor to dump text into temporarily.
  • Notes To share across devices.
  • Coda 2 For my websites.
  • Scrivener Long form writing.
  • Growly Notes Replacement for Circus Ponies Notebook, RIP, when I need mixed media notes (such as planning trips) that are not related to writing books (for which I use the features in Scrivener).
  • Epsilon An Emacs editor. I’ve used Emacs for nearly 40 years. My go-to programming and plain-text editor but it’s a 32-bit app and I don’t think it will be rewritten.
  • BBEdit Everyone says this is fantastic, but I’d rather use Epsilon. Chances are I’ll end up using this one.
  • Nisus Writer Pro I wanted to love this but found I didn’t really need it. Intended on using it to create PDFs for publishing but decided to go 100% ebook route.
  • Sigil Intended to use for cleaning up ebooks but found that I could do everything I need in Scrivener version 3.

They all have had their purpose.

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I try to limit my editors to a few, but still:

Current apps I use

  • Ulysses for all notetaking on the iPad (and occationally on the Mac)
  • Drafts 5 for composing a bit longer texts for social media / forums with less than stellar built-in editors
  • Word only when I absolutely, positively really need to (but it does excel at tracking changes and review comments)
  • Pages for simple, personal stuff that needs to be printed or PDF’ed
  • Notepad++ on Windows
  • Markdown Pad on Windows
  • Notepad on Windows sytems I don’t have permission to install stuff on

I also keep Textastic on my iPad for special cases, but it finds less use these days. The syntax highlighiting is quite useful when you need it though.

Retired apps

  • Byword, Mac and iOS. Never liked it, got the license on recommendations
  • nvAlt, more or less confined to the Mac and while fast, not very pretty
  • DayOne, as I quickly found out I really don’t like journalling
  • 1Writer on iOS is the one app I actually miss a little. This is still my fall-back solution if I were to abandon Ulysses for any reason
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That’s exactly what I’ve done. Nisus Writer Pro has steadily improved its import of WP files, and Gero Herrman has written Spotlight and QuickLook plug-ins. I used to use NeoOffice but haven’t had it or Libre installed for years.

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I probably have my old undergrad papers in Word 97 format (which was common enough and long enough lived that it will probably remain readable for a long time to come). Thinking about it though, I’m not sure I want to read most of my undergraduate writing (particulary the early stuff). I suspect that the quality might be embarrassingly bad, but I have no desire to confirm this.

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Do you have any recent URLs for those? Last I saw was v.2, which was updated years ago for MacOS 10.5(!), and Herrman’s site, herr.atspace.eu is defunct and I don’t see any web presence for him.

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This link seems to work - checking on my phone tho.

also the full site from wayback machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20171106213959/http://herr.atspace.eu/

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I use far too many, I think, but they each seems to have their niche…

  • MS Word - for work. I don’t share the pathological hatred of it; it works nicely on the iPad in particular and has great review functionality.
  • Apple Notes - my digital scratchpad. Used to capture short, impermanent bits of information (eg, meal plan for the week)
  • Ulysses - I have a few articles in here but mostly I dabble. I just can’t seem to get into it the way I have other apps.
  • OneNote - my work life is contained in here. I keep everything from meeting notes to prep work and a daily notes page in this app and love it.
  • DayOne - journalling.
  • Evernote - this used to be my digital brain but I’ve moved away from it over the last few years.
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I claim, keep it simple with Ulysses and Drafts.

Actually, I download and mess with most new to me apps mentioned on this forum — Agenda and Notebooks most recently.

Ohh yes i keep Evenote around as storage for old notes. This cuts short the need for a replacement or fancy storage solutions. The stuff in there could go up in a puff of electrons. Based on how much i refer to them no great loss.

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FYI IA Writer has just updated its iOS and Mac apps, and it has added a number of useful features. It’s added a new ‘Quattro’ font to the two fonts already installed (which will soon be available for free download on its Github account). And it’s addressed one of my major pet peeves, the limited enlargement of font sizes in the app. Combined with its recent and sophisticated embrace of tags, and it has become even more powerful and useful.

I still prefer Ulysses for its breakdowns-by-sheet and the virtually unlimited customizations of font/size/colors (I still wish I could use my own font choice in IA Writer), but for the price IA Writer is my favorite cross-platform non-subscription writing app.

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I’m playing with OneNote as an Evernote replacement. Not sure. Tags support is worse than no tags at all but I don’t know if that’s a dealbreaker.

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I used to use this under MSDOS. A friend of mine still uses it to this day.
It’s still being maintained.

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Just to follow up on this.

I have completely switched to Bear. Bear has replaced the following apps:

  • Drafts (quick jottings to send elsewhere)
  • Apple Notes (Shorter notes and lists)
  • Evernote (filing cabinet)
  • Ulysses (Long-form writing)

This move has saved me money and everything is much tidier now. I can’t get rid of Microsoft Word as it is used for work.

I don’t want to replace Day One as it is a nice environment for journaling and I’m already too deep in it with over 500 journal entries.

But I have saved money on Evernote (I will keep it active but I won’t be adding new notes to it. If there is something I really need to keep for later reference it goes in iCloud Drive)
I have saved money on Ulysses. Bear is almost as good a writing environment as Ulysses.
Switching away from Notes.app, I now have a much nicer notes environment in Bear.

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I’m curious, why Bear rather than Ulysses? I have Ulysses and it seems like a great application. What is the advantage of Bear, if any? And, is it possible to export Ulysses notes to Bear?

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I just wanted to consolidate as much as possible in one single app. Bear is primarily a note-taking app, which is what I need the most and what most of my entries are, notes for later reference.

But I also wanted a nice and clean writing environment and have been Ulysses, which is an amazing app. But I just don’t use it enough. My needs are satisfied with Bear as a more than capable long-form writing app.

I also like how Bear looks on iOS. I always want to keep all my apps in solarized and Ulysses (to my knowledge) doesn’t do this on iOS. But I might be mistaken.

So it is not really me disregarding Ulysses as a great app. It is a fantastic app. But for my needs and for my wish to consolidate everything into one app, then Bear is the way :blush:

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Thanks, that is helpful. Much appreciated.

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Best of luck with it! I wanted to like Bear because the features are great, but I just didn’t like the aesthetics - I have a visceral distaste for the embedded Avenir Next font they insist be used in the app, and the devs said this summer on Reddit that they weren’t planning to allow user font choices for now.

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Pleased it works for you.

I use enough actions in Drafts that Bear is not a replacement.(Nothing agaist Bear just different apps) Ulysses, I prefer the organization structure and other features. (Nothing against Bear… a matter of preference.)

Evernote similar to you. On my devices but as a place holder. …no new work

Fortunately, the fees for my current apps are low on my list of economic reforms. …many better candidates.

I have spent serious use time with Bear. I use other apps.

I applaud your idea of simplifying the apps you use. Not that’s important.

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