Thinking through my text editing/blogging setup, on the Mac side. The server side is WordPress, and I’m happy with it.
I’ve been thinking through the whole writing/editing/publishing workflow for website content, and it occurs to me that what I’m looking for is basically an IDE for text.
In my ideal world, I would have one app that gave me the following:
Ability to write in and keep text in regular Markdown files, including after publishing.
a. Bonus - mild rendering while editing (i.e. italic, bold, etc. that shows me the formatting while keeping the Markdown syntax visible)
Ability to manage files via a sidebar
a. I’d have four folders/categories - “Ideas,” “In Process,” “To Publish,” and “Archive”
b. I should be able to easily move things back and forth between folders
c. The file browser would be visible when I’m working on text
Ability to easily publish to my WordPress site
I’ve been experimenting with various software setups, and from what I can tell:
MarsEdit is great at (3), but it really falls down at (1) and (2).
BBEdit can get me (1) and (2)(a), but falls down on (2)(b), (2)(c) and (3). Double-clicking a file, in particular, makes a new window without the sidebar.
SublimeText is basically the same as BBEdit, but adds (2)(c) well.
iA Writer does everything except (2).
Atom doesn’t exist anymore, but there’s a successor called Zed which gets me everything except (3). This combined with MarsEdit would probably be workable, although not ideal.
Obsidian is in the same category as Zed. It has a community plugin to publish to WordPress, but that plugin is severely lacking in features.
Ulysses does all of the above, if I’m willing to shell out $40/year. Which, to be clear, isn’t completely out of the question.
Are there options I’m not considering? Assumptions I’m making that aren’t valid? Anybody with a similar workflow have thoughts?
Oh, don’t get me started! I have been struggling for months, trying to decide on whether or not to use Ulysses, Scrivener, or Pages for all or the majority of my writing. Here is my summary, having worked with ChatGPT for several months on features and options in addition to my own writing experiences with all three apps. Perhaps this will be useful to you:
Writing App Comparison: Scrivener vs. Ulysses vs. Apple Pages
General Writing & Structure
Supports writing blog articles, devotions, speeches, and a book:
Scrivener: Designed for long-form writing, including books and research-heavy projects.
Ulysses: Suitable for various writing types, from short articles to long-form content.
Apple Pages: General-purpose word processor, works well for articles and speeches.
Provides an outline view for structured organization of long-form writing:
Scrivener: Full-featured outline tools, including a corkboard and hierarchical binder.
Ulysses: Minimalist interface with groups and subgroups, but no traditional outline view.
Apple Pages: Basic outline functionality through styles and table of contents.
Allows embedding images within documents:
Scrivener: Supports embedding images directly.
Ulysses: Allows image embedding with Markdown formatting.
Apple Pages: Fully supports embedded images with flexible formatting.
Enables adding and managing footnotes or endnotes:
Scrivener: Comprehensive footnote and endnote support.
Ulysses: Supports footnotes via Markdown.
Apple Pages: Built-in footnote and endnote support.
Supports inline comments or non-exported notes for internal use:
Scrivener: Offers inline comments and annotations.
Ulysses: Supports Markdown-based comments.
Apple Pages: Includes inline comments for collaboration and internal notes.
I toggle back and forth between Bear and Ulysses for this exact workflow. I love how Bear looks and feels, but I don’t love the lack of folders. Meanwhile, I love how easy it is to publish to WordPress from Ulysses, but I don’t love how it looks. It’s a dilemma.
Shawn Blanc’s Ulysses setup is probably the best I’ve seen. I’d recommend watching the video here to get some ideas.
Bear I think does everything but folders; the sudebar in Bear groups fils based on tags. I hated it at furst, but in function it’s kinda like folders sans icons. Change a tag, or add a tag, the file is placed in or removed from the appropriate group(s). It can be useful to have a file with multiple tags; for instance, one for content, one for editing/producyion stage
Unless I misunderstanding you, iA Writer does handle the items you mentioned in number 2.
Also, concerning “mild rendering while editing,” I use the “Minimal Writing” theme in Ulysses. It shows the Markdown syntax, but it is less prominent than in an app like iA Writer. Here is an example from my book project.
I just write something I think of (suddenly) on the go and finalise on Apple Notes.
If it is something that needs to be published on blog and even books, I will manually copy to iA Writer as one more opportunity to edit, proofread and a way of backup as plain text files. Or if it’s presentation or something like CV, finalize on Keynotes and Apple Pages (or MS/Google dependent on situations) respectively.
Maybe focus mode, typography and user interface matter, but I found I can still concentrate on writing on Apple Notes even on Mac.
I have been using Ulysses to manage my blog for the past 5–6 years, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I use Ghost instead of WordPress, and the entire workflow, from writing to publishing, runs seamlessly.
One reason is I need to write on my smartphone, Apple Pages’ experience is not smooth at all. Yes, iA Writer does a good job on mobile but when changing title of an article I will need to change the file name as well. Sometimes I will need to import pictures and Apple Notes is easier than iA on iPhone.
I use Ulysses. I have Wordpress blogs. I sometimes connect the two.
However, the main thing for me is no software on my Mac is going to be able to do everything I can do in Wordpress itself. So even when I “publish” from Ulysses, I publish to draft status, then open it up in Wordpress and finish it off.
I should also note that I really don’t care for Markdown. I find it silly in many ways. I also find it severely lacking. But… Ulysses gives me a nice writing environment and the few bits of markup I do use — headings, emphasis, and unordered lists — don’t get in my way. Heck, I can even select a bit of text and hit Cmd-I for ‘italics’. Oh, I do also insert links, but because Markdown links are 100% unintuitive (so easy to get back-asswards) that I use the near-universal Cmd-K when I want one.
I absolutely get that. Having a blog post go into the correct category and be “mostly done” though is more than enough for me. Especially if it’s scheduled for the future.
Basically, when I hit “publish,” my adjustment of the text is done. The only things I might want to do after that is add a featured image, tweak a headline, change a publish date, etc.
I’ve been using Ulysses for several years now. I’ve looked at other apps, but Ulysses does everything I need it too, and, in my opinion, better than others for my needs and preferences.
I too publish to WordPress, and the publishing feature in Ulysses is worth every penny for ease of use. I love not having to cut and paste, which always seems to mess up my formatting.
About six months ago I subscribed to Settapp and now get access through them.
I wish Bear would give me an option to opt out of its db note storage option on Mac and just give me text files on disk somewhere (e.g. in that iCloud folder). I like to use iA Writer and other editor apps to work on my text/note files on desktop (and those can be many pages long at times). What an excellent app otherwise (or even with the lack of this specific feature that I would have loved to have).
I don’t understand the obsession with having text files. It feels like resisting the benefits of development and the possibilities that come with it. What’s the rationale? Is it just the slight chance of losing something? I can only imagine that all the important systems in the world, from the economy systems to nuclear plants, run on databases. This whole idea of “owning your files” seems like a marketing gimmick to me. I would prefer to use all available means to create something truly worth owning.
The advantage to text files lies in being able to use the same file in multiple applications when you have a need to do so. I think of text files the way I think of CSV files: there are times when I need to open the latter in Excel and there are times when I need to import the same data into another application. Similarly, storing certain kinds of information—in my case, learning and research notes—in a plain-text file located in a repository I control allows me to port that information into whatever application is appropriate to the task at hand, and in the format of my choosing. (RAW image files are similarly flexible … but I digress …) Sometimes I want to use Obsidian to work with them; sometimes I want to use Devonthink; sometimes I want to upload them into one of my NotebookLM notebooks. Having them all in plain text markdown file makes that easier.
Another example: I write simple-to-moderately complex documents in markdown and use Marked 2 to export them in the desired format—maybe PDF if the document is finished and ready to go as-is, maybe as a DOCX or ODT file if I need to share it with collaborators.
I once got hooked on this idea, something like you can only choose to open in one app, the data is not yours, you don’t need those (fancy) features, you have to outlive commercial ways of doing…
Every note taking, writing or document apps have different UI/UX with various features for various users with different demands. Some people are fine with text only so they use plain text. Some people are visual thinkers so they need images, sketches and tables. Some people will need to connect the dots by links. Some people like me may need different ways of doing in different circumstances so I need Apple Notes, Pages and Freeform. One app doesn’t work all for me, and all-in plain text will bring a lot of pain.
Permanent storages is not the only need. Ways of thinking through texts, tables, mind maps and sketches also matter. No apps can fulfill all my needs and thus I use different tools even though they are locked in. Sometimes I need tools to help me think more than storing them permanently. If I think I need to achieve, I will manually move those contents to a place which is suitable to store safely. No convenient ways.
I saw some developers are trying their best to integrate WYSIWYG with Markdown, but the experience is still far from expectations. And looks like most users who advocate plain text do only need texts and don’t understand the importance of visuals.
I’m a plain text fan, and I absolutely understand the importance of visuals, both for my own thinking and, especially, for presenting that thinking to others. What I won’t do is lock my work behind a proprietary format that only one app can parse.
I would append, “at least not without some sort of benefit that justifies the tradeoff.” Bear uses a proprietary database. Ulysses utilizes a proprietary database as one option, but can also work with regular text files. Other apps only work with text files.
The question becomes one of the benefit that one gets by using a proprietary database instead of an open format. For a mind mapping app, the benefit is obvious. For primarily plain-text apps, not so much.
