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What is your most effective writing software?
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Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Oct 26, 2025 at 01:34 PM
The discussion of Nisus got me thinking about the apps we use for writing. I hate writing in any word processor, because I find the plethora of features too distracting, as well as the temptation to use the formatting tools, which are mostly not necessary when drafting, but still pull at me. I prefer a clean “page,” with minimal features. I used to do a lot of writing in Notetab for Windows. Plain text (as the New Yorker article on TextEdit explains) is very alluring to me when I am writing. Because I would often do the layout of the finished work in InDesign, being able to paste clean text was a bonus.
I am still trying to find a good solution. I do most of my employment writing on my office Windows computer, so the options on Mac just don’t work—I’d probably use Ulysses otherwise. I’ve tried Craft (the web version), but that app has too many features as well. It might be good for note-taking and collaboration, but as a straight composition platform, it doesn’t work for me.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not an overwhelming problem. I find ways to write whatever I need to, but I end up using different apps depending on the length of the work and other needs. I’d just like to find one app that works. I know some of you love Obsidian, but I’ve found it less than optimal for me, but maybe I’m just being too finicky.
So, I am curious what apps you all use for composing articles or even books. I don’t expect you to name solutions for me. I am just curious about what types of apps are being used.
Steve
Posted by MadaboutDana
Oct 26, 2025 at 03:29 PM
Heh, nice idea.
Well, yes, I do use Obsidian. But I also use:
- Growly Notes (mentioned in the Nisus thread)
- Octarine (mentioned elsewhere in the forum
- reMarkable Desktop
The latter I use much more than I thought I would, with a subscription to reMarkable Connect. I use the app on multiple devices (MacBook, Android tablet, Android smartphone, iPhone, and of course reMarkable 2 tablet). What I like about it is:
- the syncing is very fast
- it’s unbelievably simple. No clever-clever features of the kind that make OneDrive, iCloud and Google Drive so annoying (especially on portable devices). It saves exactly what you put into it. It’s got a nice, simple word processor. And did I mention it syncs very fast. And of course you can save PDFs, ePub files and drawings (from the reMarkable 2) into it as well as text. Oh, and it does OCR, too (very well).
I use Octarine to write more complicated things, because you can open vertical and horizontal tabs and move notes around as you wish. It’s like a simple version of Obsidian. I often use it alongside Obsidian!
Cheers!
Bill
Posted by satis
Oct 26, 2025 at 04:35 PM
I write on Mac and iPad and iPhone. On the Mac I’ve used BBEdit for text processing for decades. I wish it had a companion iOS app. Since its release in 1992, it’s been maintained consistently updated. Two journalists I know have written in it for decades.
Almost two years ago, BBEdit expanded its worksheet interface to integrate with ChatGPT, allowing you to chat directly inside the app without switching applications or copying and pasting from a web browser. Each chat worksheet retains its own history, so you can refer back to past conversations or continue an ongoing exchange over time.
https://sixcolors.com/post/2024/01/bbedit-15-adds-chatgpt-support/
http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html
I know one person who uses BBEdit for shorter work but has written six books using a combination of Scrivener and Pages, though I’m a fan of neither. Around Xmas you’ll see 25% discounts on BBEdit, and it’s a regular participant at artisanalSoftwareFestival.com with that discount.
BBEdit’s main competition for text writing on Mac/iOS is probably iA Writer and Drafts. I love using Drafts because it launches extremely fast, faster than any other writing app I own, and it’s perfect for jotting quick notes or ideas while on the phone or at my desk. Unlike iA Writer, which restricts users to two themes and four weird bundled fonts, Drafts lets you choose from ten themes and any font you like. iA Writer isn’t bad, but I dislike being confined to its limited themes and oddball font choices. I *need* to write in my preferred font and I prefer to work with a customizable background that isn’t strictly black or white.
For me, a close 2nd to writing in text on Mac/iOS is MWeb, which MadaboutDana first wrote about here in 2017. It’s available as a free app, an unlocked $10/year subscription or a $35 purchase. Highly tweakable and themeable (more so than Drafts) Markdown editor with a library ability, and can even generate static websites.
For long form writing I use Ulysses on Mac/iOS, which I’ve found to be more robust than Scrivener, whose subreddit is filled with users complaining about bugs and even text loss, especially on Windows.
Ulysses uses a sheet/group concept where ‘sheets’ - which writers tend to use as chapters - can easily be rearranged or split, then ‘glued’ into a single visible document. The sheet I’m working in right now is not a chapter of anything but has 33,151 words, and it can easily handle many times that without slowing down. It has a simple but comprehensive built-in theme editor that lets you customize colors and formats for elements like text, subheadings, quotes, footnotes, equations, code, and lists.
Ulysses uses a custom flavor of Markdown that supports inline comments, footnotes, task lists, multiple H1 headers, code blocks, writing goals, and custom export styles (PDF, HTML, ePub, etc.). If you prefer you can choose to write in standard Markdown but you’ll lose these extended features. Ulysses saves directly to iCloud but also supports local folders if you prefer (although some Markdown XL functionality may not work in that mode).
Here’s a good overview of Ulysses from Zapier
https://zapier.com/blog/ulysses-markdown-writing-guide/
Posted by satis
Oct 26, 2025 at 04:42 PM
Ooh, I just realized that Zapier article is eight years old. Scratch that.
Posted by Paul Korm
Oct 26, 2025 at 06:25 PM
I bounce around. For focus solely on composition, I’ll use TextEdit (or Notepad on Windows). It’s just about the text in those apps, and little to distract. And they’re free.
If I want to turn the composition work into close-to-final, then I’ll open the file in Pages (ideally) or Word if its for people who belong to that church. At that point, I’ll be wanting to care about formats, tables, bullets, etc.
I’ve CRIMPed and bought a lot of text/word processing apps but I prefer simply writing in a no-drama environment.