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Overall, UltraEdit is a best text editor for Mac as its comprehensive collection of utilities are a definite aid to any developer. Brackets is an open source and free text editor, initially created by Adobe Systems, and at present maintained on GitHub. It has been available since 2014, and it is regularly updated. Probably the best-known text editor, Notepad++ is a familiar name even if you’re not a programmer. The reasons for its enduring popularity is its support for syntax highlighting and autocomplete. Here are five of the best text editors for Mac around right now. A text editor is different from a document editor. Text editors are often lighter and more powerful at the same time. If you’re writing a thesis or dissertation, you want a Document editor such as Word or Pages. If you’re writing code, stripping formatting or taking general notes, a text editor is much more useful.
Ulysses 13 (Mac)
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Whenever I tell other writers why they should consider bringing a Mac into their lives, Ulysses inevitably enters the discussion. In fact, this sometimes happens without any proselytization on my part: They simply see me typing on the minimalist app on my iPad or Mac at trade shows or conventions and demand to know how they could use it on their PC. But they can’t, and in my experience alternatives come up short. Ulysses is elegant. It’s intuitive. And thanks to the recent introduction of a couple of new features, it’s more useful than ever.
But it’s important to keep in mind what Ulysses is. It’s not an organizational powerhouse in the vein of Scrivener, which allows for Herculean feats of research collection but ends up wallowing in ugliness in its dogged attempt to be a one-stop shop. Ulysses can organize its various “sheets” into groups with keywords and it lets you search through every one of them at once, but that’s about as complex as its organization gets. It’s not a full-blooded word processor like Microsoft Word, with its tables and drawing tools and WYSIWYG export options, but Ulysses allows you to export documents into a variety of styles (and some of them are even user-made). Better yet, you can publish your articles directly to WordPress or Medium.
In practice, Ulysses is about just you, the words, and the page. It’s about crisp white words stamping on a fullscreen sea of inky black (or white on black, if you don’t like working in Dark Mode). It’s the finest of the minimalist writing apps, and it earns that distinction in part because it allows for a single custom font for writing while still exporting to plain text. (Sorry, iA Writer, but I simply think better in 14-point Verdana.) There aren’t any confining page borders to worry about, and its resource-friendly minimalism allows new documents to launch with blazing speed, and I can shrink Ulysses the corner of the monitor while I dedicate most of my screen to the webpage I’m referencing. Traditional word processors, like Word, feel too much like drudgy busywork. Ulysses’ beauty and minimalism make writing feels more akin to creation. Compare it to Pages or Notes, and it even out-Apples Apple.
But more to the point (and down from my cloud), Ulysses is first and foremost a minimalist Markdown editor, which uses its own version of Markdown called Markdown XL. Don’t know what Markdown is? It's a simple system of shortcuts for publishing web content more easily, but you can use Ulysses entirely without it if you wish and simply paste your copy into a more featured editor like Google Docs. But it doesn’t take long to learn, which is part of Markdown’s appeal. Happily, Ulysses comes with a bundle of easily digestible sheets explaining the simple and popular formatting language for internet content, as well as a handy cheatsheet for shortcuts available through a toggle. You can learn the basics within seconds.
Markdown works beautifully on Ulysses, and, blessedly, without any of the distracting visible code for hyperlinks you find in rivals like iA Writer. Converting Markdown text to HTML in Ulysses is a simple matter of selecting everything, right-clicking and choosing to copy the text as HTML, and dumping it in your CMS of choice. The vast majority of my content for Macworld starts this way.
Markdown works beautifully on Ulysses, and, blessedly, without any of the distracting visible code for hyperlinks you find in rivals like iA Writer. Converting Markdown text to HTML in Ulysses is a simple matter of selecting everything, right-clicking and choosing to copy the text as HTML, and dumping it in your CMS of choice. The vast majority of my content for Macworld starts this way.
Ulysses has worked this way for years, but the latest updates make it more agreeable for coders. Coders have long liked Ulysses as much as regular writers, but in the past it was easy for the actual coding to get mixed up with the regular text with all the minimalism and Markdown going on. Now, you simply click the ` key to start a block of code, and it formats it in a monospace typeface that’s distinct from the regular text around it. For coders, at least, it significantly improves Ulysses’ usefulness, particularly as it recognizes over 40 programming languages and accurately colors their syntax.
And for all of Ulysses’ apparent simplicity, you’ll find other options waiting unobtrusively in the background. There’s a word and character counter, visible only through a tiny icon on the taskbar. There’s a typewriter mode, which keeps your attention focused on the handful of words directly in front of you. You can set word count goals, and watch as a minimalist circle on the right side of your screen grows ever more full as your hurtle toward your word count. It’s elegant and satisfying. The latest patch made goals even more satisfying, as you can now set deadlines to keep you on your toes.
So what’s the catch? The big one is that Ulysses requires a subscription of $4.99 per month, although it allows for a fully featured trial (across Mac, iPad, and iPhone) that lasts two weeks before you have to pony up. I’m still not too sure how I feel about subscription models, but in my case, I certainly use it more than enough to justify the relatively agreeable price. I find the cross-platform subscription especially useful for my workflow, as I tend to write drafts on my Mac at work and then edit them on my iPhone or iPad while lying on the couch. It usually works perfectly, but I’ve experienced some syncing hiccups and I’m not sure whether to blame Apple or Ulysses for them.
This isn’t enough to send me running into the arms of a competing app (although I consistently try out others to make sure my admiration isn’t misplaced). Ulysses may not be an Apple product, but it’s one of the best things about using a Mac, and iPhone, and iPad. The experience remains remarkably the same across each device, and it’s usually just as satisfying on each. May it stay that way for a long time to come.
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Ulysses 13 (Mac)
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Dedicated Writing Apps
What constitutes the best app for writers depends on their process, genre, and conditions in which they are most productive. Additionally, it depends on what they intend to do with the finished work: publish it online, send it to an agent, or shoot a film. There is no single best app for all writers, but there are plenty of excellent writing apps that cater to different needs, work styles, and genres.
Priced for the Starving Artist (Mostly)
Apps for writers tend to be less expensive than other kinds of software. Many sell for a one-time fee, although a few require a subscription. The least expensive writing apps cost only around $10. Final Draft, one of the most expensive writing apps, costs $249.99, but even that is a one-time fee, meaning you pay once and own the software for life. Ulysses used to sell for a standalone fee but recently moved to a subscription model, now costing $39.99 per year. If you own an older copy of Ulysses, it's still yours to keep and use, but you won't receive any updates.
When an idea strikes, many writers want to be able to jot it down or immediately add it to an ongoing project. To do that, they likely need a companion mobile app to go along with their desktop software. Support for mobile apps isn't particularly strong in the writing category. A few companies that make software for writers offer iOS apps, but it's rare to find anything for Android. Additionally, mobile writing apps typically cost a good deal more than what people are used to paying for an app. Scrivener for iPhone and iPad, for example, runs $19.99. Storyist's iOS app is $14.99. To get over this price hurdle, I recommend thinking about the combined cost of the mobile and desktop software together and considering it a bundled purchase.
What's the Best Screenwriting Software?
As a genre, screenwriting has unique requirements. Scripts for movies, television, and the stage must make clear the difference between direction, setting descriptions, spoken dialogue, and so forth. This allows all the people involved in creating the final product—actors, film crew, editors, and directors—to do their jobs. As a result, the formatting for screenwriting is exceedingly precise. A few writing apps cater specifically to professional screenwriters. Final Draft is one, and it continues to be an industry standard. If you're actively employed in film or television, you might already own a copy. When you purchase Final Draft, you can use the app on two computers, and it's compatible with both Windows and macOS.
Another app that specifically handles scripts is Adobe Story. The app costs $9.99 per month, but it's also available to anyone who has an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Story is unusual because it's not just writing software. It also lets you make notes about the actual production of a script. For example, you can write a detailed description of shots you want to see or provide information about shooting locations. The app can generate a production schedule based on all the metadata associated with each scene. Adobe Story is also compatible with Adobe Premiere, so after the footage has been shot, you can pipe in the script to run alongside the video, helping the editors do their job, too.
Alternatives to Microsoft Word
Textmate
Why would a writer use a dedicated writing app instead of Microsoft Word (or Google Docs, Apple Pages, or any other typical word processor)? Mac text editor for java. There's no reason you can't use any of those apps, but they don't have many of the special features you get from apps that are specific to writers.
Fiction writers, book authors, and screenplay writers often change the order or scenes, sections, and chapters. That's easy to do when an app is designed specifically with professional long-form writers in mind. With the right drag-and-drop tools, you can quickly and easily reorganize your files. It also helps if footnotes and endnotes renumber accordingly, when you move parts around.
Another feature that office apps typically don't have is a writing target. It's common for professional writers to strive to meet a daily word or page count goal. So while Word, Google Docs, and Pages all have word count features, they don't have the same options for setting and tracking goals over time.
Some writers need to keep exhaustive notes regarding plot points and characters, and possibly even visual references, such as an image of a shoot location or faces that inspire characters. The best writers' apps include tools that make it easy to see reference material and notes whenever the writer needs, and then get back to writing quickly.
Finally, the word processors in suites are generally heavy-duty apps that can do everything from formatting and footnoting to headers, footers, and special pagination. That's handy for many kinds of business and academic writing, but for the average creative writer, all this may just be a major distraction.
What's the Best Distraction-Free Writing App?
Best Free Text Editor Mac
Writers who find themselves in the less-is-more camp will want a writing app that strips away anything that could possibly be the least little bit distracting. Distraction-free writing apps are a dime a dozen; the trick is to find one that also offers the tools you need when you need them. The best distraction-free writing apps hide the tools you need until the appropriate time, rather than omitting them altogether.
With that criterion in mind, Ulysses is my favorite distraction-free writing app, and a PCMag Editors' Choice. A well-designed interface makes Ulysses easy to use and easy on the eyes. It has good tutorials and help menus for newcomers, including a cheat sheet for Markdown language. Markdown is a very lightweight set of codes that can be used instead of the rich formatting options that are common in word processors. If you've ever typed asterisks (*) around a word in a chat app to make it bold, that's similar to Markdown. It's very simple, and takes no time at all to learn, especially when you have a cheat sheet to guide you.
The idea behind Markdown is that you can apply basic formatting, like marking titles and subtitles, bold and italic text, without moving your fingers from the keyboard. It's also less distracting than having a panel with 50 alluring typefaces that you're dying to try. Ulysses is only available for Mac and iOS. Windows users might also try yWriter.
Note that we have reviewed Focused (for Mac), but it didn't score well enough to make this top-ten list. If you're curious why, please feel free to read the review.
What Are the Best Writing Apps for Novelists?
Book authors spend a lot of their time simply organizing their manuscript. Whether it's fiction or nonfiction, the work doesn't always shape up as the author originally intended. Chapters sometimes move. Stories aren't always told in a linear fashion. And scenes sometimes become more effective when their order changes.
To facilitate the shaping of a story in this way, you need a library, or a pane within the writing app showing file folders and their organization. Not all writing apps have one, as you can see from the chart above.
Writing for Medium, WordPress Blogs, and More
Book authors and screenwriters aren't the only types of writers, of course. Many writers create shorter pieces that they publish online directly, without ever passing through the hands of an agent, publisher, or movie producer. If you're publishing on Medium or WordPress, it sure is handy to have a writing app that can export each piece directly to your platform of choice.
Mac Text Editor
Ulysses and iA Writer both have integration options for those two platforms. Like Ulysses, iA Writer is a distraction-free writing app, but it's much more pared down. It has some neat functions, such as text transclusion, that can be fun to learn for people who think more like programmers than traditional writers. Text transclusion allows you to create a final document of many smaller pieces by, essentially, giving commands about which files to pull together and in what order. 'First display the introduction. Next add an image. Then include my argument. Finally, show my author bio.' The text of your document could be all of four sentences long, but it might whip together a piece that, when exported, is 25 pages.
Your Writing, Your Choice
Every writer has unique needs and desires. Do you need an app that works on both Windows and macOS? Is learning a new way to format text a deal-breaker? Does your final submission need to meet industry standards the way screenplays and teleplays do? The range of software dedicated to writers is impressive. If nothing tickles your fancy from the full reviews linked below, you should also read our short synopses of many other apps for writers, as well. Finally, if you decide that a dedicated writing tool just isn't for you, and you'd rather just use a plain old word processor, we've rounded up the top office suites, too.
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Featured Writing App Reviews:
Best Editor For Mac
Final Draft Review
MSRP: $249.00Pros: Well tailored for screenwriters. Powerful tools for both writing scenes and crafting the larger story. Plenty of view options. Offers a variety of templates. Collaboration supported.Cons: Collaborative editing restricted to one person at a time. Inadequate default auto-save and revision history.Bottom Line: Final Draft is the software you need if you are in the screenwriting business or aspire to be. It has all the tools you need to get the script right, both from a story perspective and a technical one.Read ReviewScrivener Review
MSRP: $45.00Pros: Edit body text in microsoft word for mac. Excellent tools for organizing writing. Ample collection of templates. Competitive price. Multiple installs allowed. Also available for Windows and iOS.Cons: No web app. No native collaboration features.Bottom Line: Built with writers in mind, Scrivener 3 has everything you need to research, compose, organize, edit, and finish a piece of writing, all for a ridiculously reasonable price.Read ReviewUlysses (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $39.99Pros: Beautiful and clean interface. Excellent selection of distraction-free modes. Flexible. Tracks writing goals. Filters help organize content. Can publish directly to WordPress.Cons: Now sold as subscription. Requires some learning, especially for those unfamiliar with Markdown. No audio file uploads.Bottom Line: Ulysses is the most elegant distraction-free writing app for Mac. It's ideal for writers who prefer a minimal interface and total flexibility, rather than a lot of structure and hand-holding.Read ReviewAdobe Story CC Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Screenwriting and preproduction in one app. Generates shooting schedules. Feature rich. Collaboration features.Cons: No mobile apps or desktop apps; online only. Monthly subscription makes it expensive over the long run.Bottom Line: Screenwriters who not only write but also direct and produce their own work won't find a better outlet for their creativity than Adobe Story.Read ReviewScript Studio (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $199.95Pros: https://programenergy349.weebly.com/text-recognition-for-mac-free.html. Excellent feature set. Helpful sample scripts included. Attractive and organized interface. Also available for Windows.Cons: Expensive. No mobile apps. Some crashes in testing.Bottom Line: With a professional interface and wealth of tools, Script Studio is among the best writing apps you'll find. Its high price may dissuade some from trying it, though.Read ReviewStoryist (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $59.99Pros: Very good templates for scripts. Clean, clear interface. Includes tools for storyboarding, outlining, character sheets. Supports importing and exporting many formats.Cons: No collaboration features. Mediocre auto-save functionality.Bottom Line: Storyist packs the power of a full word processor into an app for writers. If you don't get distracted by having too many features, it's an excellent Mac app.Read ReviewiA Writer (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $19.99Pros: Inexpensive. Uses distraction-free style with Markdown language. Offers transclusion method for embedding images, tables, and so on. Can export directly to Medium and WordPress.Cons: Few tools for organizing and arranging files. No templates for genres. Not ideal for code-phobic writers.Bottom Line: Taking minimalism to the extreme, iA Writer might be the writing app with the fewest built-in distractions, and it's inexpensive, too. But this Mac app is also BYOE: bring your own everything.Read ReviewyWriter Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Good structure. Rich tools for story and character development. Plentiful stats. Free.Cons: No Mac app or mobile apps. Doesn't include screenwriting tools or templates. Support for third-party backup options could be more apparent.Bottom Line: The free writing app yWriter has a stats-heavy, technical feel to it, which is great for writers who crave organization and data about their work.Read ReviewByword (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $11.99Pros: Distraction-free writing app with support for Markdown language.Supports direct publishing to popular online sites. Good export options. Inexpensive.Cons: No library or tools for reference materials. Not ideal for long-form writers. Lacks templates. Solutions to common technical problems require macOS Terminal.Bottom Line: Byword, an inexpensive writing app for Mac and iOS, publishes your work directly to Medium, WordPress, and other platforms. It's not ideal for long-form writers, however.Read ReviewWriteRoom (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $9.99Pros: Distraction-free, lightweight Mac app for writing. Inexpensive. Some neat view options.Cons: Does not support Markdown formatting. No mobile apps. Lacks a library view/folder structure. No preview before PDF export. No collaboration features.Bottom Line: WriteRoom is an inexpensive Mac writing app with a less-is-more approach that helps you focus on your words. It's too bare-bones for book projects or screenplays, but, for shorter works, it can get the job done.Read Review