Revision Mode
Ulysses is more than a writing tool — its dedicated revision mode aims to help you improve your texts. On Mac, you can access the revision mode via the checkmark button on the top right. On iPhone/iPad, tap the circled ellipsis and select “Revision Mode.”
Grammar and Style Check
Great writing requires more than a compelling story; you’ll want your text to be articulate and free of mistyped words. Ulysses’ built-in advanced grammar and style checker, available in over 20 languages, can help you achieve this.
On iPad and iPhone, you can access Revision Mode via the editor menu (circled ellipsis top right). On Mac, select “Check Text” in the Suggestions view of the Revision sidebar to get informed suggestions in categories such as capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, typography and style. Double-clicking a suggestion will take you to the respective spot in the text and open a popover with background information, the suggested change, plus an ignore option.
Review
In addition to the general markup you use to mark headings and emphasized passages, Ulysses lets you use several tags for editing purposes, such as comment, marked and annotation.
Revision mode can list them all in the right sidebar. Now, you can double-click (Mac) or tap (iPad/iPhone) an entry to jump to the respective spot in text and start editing instantly.
To end revision mode, click Done in the editor toolbar. On iPad and iPhone, open the editor menu (circled ellipsis) and select “End Revision Mode.”
More detailed information is available in our Grammar and Style Check guide which also includes a video.
Dashboard
See the gauge icon in the editor? Select it to open your dashboard. It lets you keep track of everything that’s important about your text beyond the text itself: statistics, keywords, your document’s structure, comments, footnotes, and more. Feel free to look around!
Navigation
The dashboard is also your navigator: Its outline section displays all your headlines in a hierarchical order. That way, you can not only quickly oversee your document’s structure but also jump between its various parts. Even better, Ulysses does not stop at headlines — you can also navigate directly to embedded images, links, footnotes and even annotations and marked text passages.
Dashboard Views
The dashboard features various views that combine available information with a certain focus: all statistics, all navigable items, all comments, all notes, and all media. Most of these views are configurable, so you can display only the information you really need.
Take a look at our Dashboard guide if you want to find out more. There's also a video about Ulysses' Dashboard.
Tracking Progress
Would you like to know how much you’ve written so far? Open the dashboard and switch to the “Progress” view. Here, you can set writing goals and check your text statistics.
Text Statistics
Text statistics are divided into counters and reading times. They display the values for the whole sheet and any text selection. Lines and pages are calculated based on norm page settings, which you can also adjust. More on that here.
Goals
Writing goals allow you to track your progress toward a certain word or character limit or even target a specific reading time. They are versatile and adapt to your needs. Group goals additionally let you review your writing session history, as they display daily statistics based on the activity in that group. They can also help build a writing habit.
Check our Goals guide for detailed information.
Editor Settings
The editor plays a central role in Ulysses, so you will probably want to customize it to your needs. Ulysses' Editor Settings allow you to determine how your editor looks. You can, for example, choose from a variety of editor Themes, set your editor font, or turn on/off Revision Mode. You can also enable Typewriter Mode and modify its various options.
On iPad/iPhone, open the editor menu via the circled ellipsis and select “Editor Settings” to open the settings overlay. On Mac, all these options are in the “View” or “Ulysses” menu (under “Settings”).
Focused Writing
Ulysses offers the essential tools for the entire writing process and a distraction-free working environment. There is a full-screen mode, for example, which lets Ulysses take over your entire screen so other apps can’t distract you. You can also use Editor Focus on Mac to make the toolbar fade out in windowed mode.
If you want to learn more about Ulysses' Editor Settings and focused writing, check out our Editor Customization guide.
Sheet List Settings
Markup Language
By default, Ulysses uses its native markup language, Markdown XL. This language is an extension of John Gruber’s Markdown and allows for annotations, footnotes and other features. It forms the basis of Ulysses’ advanced text editing capabilities. However, Ulysses comes with three other variants built-in – “Markdown,“ “Textile’d,” and “Minimark,” which offer somewhat different tags and features.
Check this FAQ article to learn how to apply a different markup.
Split View (Mac and iPad)
Do you want to display two texts next to each other? Write a paper while chatting with your friends. Research Wikipedia while writing an essay. You can do so, as Ulysses supports the system’s multitasking features! Split View allows you to open Ulysses next to Safari, Ulysses next to Ulysses or a Ulysses sheet next to its export preview.
Check our Split View guide for more information.
Backup & Restore
The safety of your work is very important to us. That's why Ulysses regularly creates automatic backups that are stored locally on your device. This applies to all sections except the external folders.
We also recommend that you perform regular iCloud and Time Machine backups to be on the safe side. For more information about backups, see our detailed guide.
And so Much More…
As you can see, Ulysses has a lot to offer. And there is so much more to discover. For example:
- Organize your writing using keywords.
- Create a Table of Contents in Ulysses.
- Add mathematical equations to your sheets.
- Need a table? That's also possible!
- Use the built-in password protection to protect your writings from being viewed by others.
- Search the sheet, group or library to find exactly what you are looking for.
- Create your own theme or modify existing ones on your Mac.
- Assign Siri Shortcuts to many actions on your iPhone or iPad to speed up your workflows.
- Use Apple's Writing Tools to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text. Or disable this feature. The choice is yours!