Product Reviews

Wordsmiths rejoice. Not only is Ulysses a superb basic word processor, but it also employs a project-based approach that makes writing everything from novels to MacUser features a cinch.

Each project can contain a number of individual documents, arranged as tabs at the top of the project window, and these can be re-arranged by dragging and dropping. At the right side of each document sits a separate notes section, containing everything from jotted ideas to pictures by way of fully formatted RTF documents and PDFs.

Writing is done in the central pane. Ulysses uses Mac OS X's text engine, which brings many benefits of its own. You have access to the OS-level spell checker (which is useful if you spend a lot of time teaching your Mac custom spellings in Apple software such as Mail and iChat), including 'Check spelling as you type'. A quick control-click on a misspelt word brings up a list of alternatives and gives you the choice of which main dictionary to use. These include British to Multilingual, which will simultaneously check in all languages. OS X editing tricks, such as option-delete to remove the last word, speed up the writing process.

Document statistics (shown on the right) display counts for words, paragraphs, lines, pages and characters, and all update live as you write. Alternatively, if you select a block of text, Ulysses will instantly provide you with stats on this section, which appear below the main editing pane.

The documents themselves can each be allocated a status

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and category. Although both are geared towards book authors (with labels such as Locations and Plot), they can be edited to suit your workflow.

Saved documents are shown in the upper-left pane, along with their status and category. You can, for example, easily check how much work still needs to be done on a particular project simply by sorting the list by status. Click on any document in this section and it's displayed in the pane beneath. The final, bottom pane shows the document's notes.

It's a little complex to explain, but in use, the ability to quickly flick through other sections of a project while still retaining full writing control in your current document is invaluable. Furthermore, the main window can be split in two to show different parts of the same document.

They're useful, but if all these panes get in the way, the option is available to edit in full screen, which removes everything from view except your text. It also shows the text as amber on black; this is an unusual approach, but it has long been held as more readable on screen than the standard black on white that is used by most other word processors.

Export strength

The really clever bit is when you come to export your finished piece. As well as various formatting options, such as removing empty lines, taking out defined comments and the ability to export the project either as plain text or RTF, Ulysses invites you to export either as separate files or as a 'coherent' document. Individual files can be prefixed with, say, a serial number, and creating a coherent file is as simple as dragging the documents in the project into the order you want and optionally specifying characters to appear between sections.

This application is admirably focused on the job of writing. Its OS X-savvy nature counts heavily in its favour, and neat touches, such as the ability to drop multiple documents onto the icon and have Ulysses create a new project from them, confirm that it's both well executed and well conceived. It's a little more expensive than we'd like, but it's an investment you won't regret.