Product Reviews

Ulysses 1.5 is the latest version of the text editor from the Blue Technologies Group. Ulysses is an application aimed squarely at those who work with text; if the complexity of modern word processors is too much for you, or you find the features of applications such as Microsoft Word get in the way of your creative process, then Ulysses may well be worth your attention.

This latest version sees a complete overhaul of the interface, additional features and a number of improvements under the hood. The appeal of previous versions has been the useful yet simplistic feature set, so we wanted to be sure that the new features add value without getting in the way.

Moving older documents takes mere seconds, as conversion is handled when you double-click your Ulysses project. The new version only works in Mac OS X Tiger, so if you're not running the most up-to-date OS then you'll need to upgrade to benefit from the changes.

The interface has been given a rounder appearance, with a more approachable and attractive styling. The three-panel design is still there, with a central section for your body of work, status and document previews to the left, and a notes and status palette to the right.

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The notes section can be split in to separate sections, rather than the single window it once was. Each note can be expanded or collapsed as needed, making keeping long notes much easier.

Preferences have been improved and extended so that you have much more control over the application. There's also an improved full-screen mode that allows you to see document statistics and scroll through a long document.

Included in the host of new features is a global search-and-replace and inline style formatting. One particularly noteworthy feature is Text Trash. Essentially, it allows you to delete text but keep it just in case you change your mind. All you have to do is hit Shift and Backspace. You can't edit the text or apply styles to it, but you can move it back to the document.

The application seems much snappier than previous versions, and start-up time is much improved.

The danger with applications that start out as simple little tools is that popularity breeds demand for features, and change without careful thought can lead to feature bloat. The company behind Ulysses has clearly thought long and hard about the changes it has made to its flagship application. The new features add value without distorting the original aim of the application. Pricing might put some off - at 100 it's hardly cheap, though education users get a 50% discount. However, it is an excellent tool for writers, and if you're not sure there is a trial version available.

If you need to write without constant interruptions from grammar and spell checkers and just want to get on with the process of writing, there are few, if any, better alternatives than Ulysses. Scrivener offers richer text options and nestable documents, but Ulysses' pared-down writing environment continues to impress.