Today's issue of TL NewsWire covers an integrated app for writing and storing all your documents (see article below), a task management add-in for Outlook, a clipping and annotation utility, and a black and white laser printer with a small footprint. Don't miss the next issue.
Email is so important (or at least voluminous) that email apps offer both a writing environment and document management tools such as folders and search. Given how much time lawyers spend writing documents — most of it alone in their office — a similar unified system makes sense for word processing.
Ulysses 2.5 … in One Sentence
Launched last month, The Soulmen GbR's Ulysses 2.5 is an integrated writing environment for Macs and iOS devices.
The Killer Feature
Ulysses looks like an email app with customizable folders (called Lists) along the left that contain your documents. Smart Lists also exist such as "All," "Last 7 Days," and "Trash." You can create your own Smart Lists using Smart Tags. Filters and full-text searching also help you find documents.
Ulysses automatically saves your work in your iCloud account, enabling you to access the same documents on a Mac, iPad, and iPhone without having to worry about file management. A conflict resolution tool exists if a sync error occurs or you work on the same document on two devices without an Internet connection.
You write in plain text using an easy-to-learn markup syntax for headings, bullets, numbering, etc. Customizable paragraph styles map to this syntax for previews and when you export. Speaking of which, you can export documents in Word and PDF formats, including the styles. Ulysses also outputs to plain text, ePub, and HTML, and integrates with the blogging platform Medium.
Other Notable Features
Ulysses seeks to offer distraction-free writing. The optional Typewriter Scrolling feature always keeps the line you're typing at the center of the screen. Every function in Ulysses has a keyboard equivalent to keep your hands in place, including adding footnotes, hyperlinks, and images. Other features designed to get you in the zone include full-screen, dark (light text on a black background), and minimal (tools disappear) modes.
You can set goals for a document such as word count. Even without a goal, Ulysses offers live statistics. In complex documents, you can group different sections and collapse the groups you're not working on, attach notes, add bookmarks, annotate and comment, search and replace, and create a glossary of keywords. Ulysses keeps all versions of a document, enabling you to revert back anytime.
Ulysses takes advantage of services built into Apple's operating system such as dictation, text-to-speech, special characters, spell check, grammar check, auto-correction, dictionary, and thesaurus.
What Else Should You Know?
You can import Word and other documents into Ulysses using several methods, including Dropbox. You can also export documents to Dropbox. The Ulysses Mac app costs $44.99. The iOS app costs $24.99. Learn more about Ulysses.
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