Same As It Ever Was
Despite the roots being New Wave rock, not quite post-punk, but almost? I mean, David Byrne was on Saturday Night Live, so, there is that. Mainstream, now.
tl;dr — seen here
The internal debate, and wrestling it to the page, that helps, but the question is which app works best — for me — ByWord or Ulysses?
Same As It Ever Was
I used ByWord at first, then ultimately switched over to Ulysses, and didn’t look back until this last Mercury in Retrograde. In part, I was craving simplicity, easy as that.
Previously, as linked above, I switched from one to the other, opting for the simplistic ByWord because of the way it stored files. While I still don’t understand the Ulysses file format entirely, and how it works with the cloud, I did mistakenly think it was proprietary format, and it’s not.
The two salient differences is the format for typing in ByWord allows for multiple windows on a desktop while Ulysses is limited to a single pane.
The two are pretty similar except that ByWord is less robust when handling a ton of files, while Ulysses advertises itself as being able to handle large, long format? Not as good as something as simple as Apple’s Pages (dedicated, i-thing, Apple etc.)
My experience with Ulysses in longer format wasn’t what I wanted. Just not quite equipped to tackle a novel-length manuscript with excessive formatting options, then multiple output options — might be me, but I defaulted back to Apple’s Pages for that.
During last few years, never thought about this before, but for the last decade, maybe longer? The average bog-standard blog, currently KramerWetzel.com — that’s more than an entry per day, say, 400 entries, plus or minus, in a year. Then, the other volume of work, the horoscopes, they run 120K words per annum, maybe more. 129K and 134K spring to mind as numbers in recent years.
At least two novel-length volumes, each year, rather episodic, still, right at two or three books a year.
- But which tool is best for me?
I got really used to Ulysses, then switched back to ByWord, only to miss some of the extra assets included with Ulysses, and now I’m torn. Super simple? Eschew creeping featurism? Both are rock solid tools, and relatively lightweight in terms of software demands.
ByWord is one step above Simple Text Edit, and really useful as such, but it does require a finite amount of fiddling, and it helps to understand basic web structure to be most effective.
When I switched back to ByWord, I was hoping for a simpler workflow. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll keep it on hand, and keep updating, and I do not regret purchasing ByWord, as that got me to Ulysses. As for which one I’ll continue to use?
If I ran a single, WordPress weblog website? I think I would opt for ByWord, as it appeals with its simplicity. While it proved capable of handling a plethora of sites, I think I had three or five at one time, ByWord uses a single, simple variant of the Markdown markup style sheet. Ulysses, after I dug around a bit, uses Markdown XL markup style sheet (think I got that right).
At this moment, I’m only running two sites, but they have very different demands, astrofish.net is weekly, long format, text-heavy, while KramerWetzel.com is a free-for-all playground for my entertainment.
Same As It Ever Was
I figured a perfect analogy after wrestling this material for a few days, letting it percolate a bit, and swapping out between apps, this is like an EDC issue. I tend to carry a pocketknife, wherever legal, and of legal length. My preferred EDC knife is a single-blade, Moore Maker liner-lock, “Trapper” with a bone handle. Single blade. ByWord is just like that simple, effective tool. Only good for slicing, and cutting, and even then, nothing too large. High carbon steel, so the blade is sharp, holds an edge, and is pretty stained.
The other EDC tool I’ve got? It is an allegedly TSA-friendly Swiss Army Knife. Tiny little thing, toothpick, tweezers, scissor, maybe a nail file? No cutting edge, no blade, and according to what I saw online? At least for domestic sir travel, it’s safe. Wouldn’t know, haven’t flown anywhere to test it out, see if it gets tagged by security. Still, I have used it a few times, and it’s that Swiss Army Knife brand of cool tool. That’s what Ulysses is, to me.
ByWord is an excellent, minimalistic, multi-functional, single-use software tool whereas Ulysses is more like a multi-tool, a clean, sharp Swiss Army Knife.
Both are utilities, and both function well. But the Swiss Army Knife is best for tightening the screws on reading glasses or paring nails whereas the regular pocketknife is best for just cutting.
I had to stop and pause. ByWord app got me to Ulysses app, and then, when I started writing this comparison, horsing my ideas onto a page, trying to corral my thinking? I started this detour in ByWord, but finished it, posting it from Ulysses.
