This whole post would not exist if Ulysses 3 natively supported Dropbox or if there was a Ulysses for iOS, and even an nValt for iOS! Woah. iCloud is a strange thing for now because you can't SEE it (see as in "folder"). Any tool that allows you to pick iCloud and Dropbox for syncing, and any choice of file format, is a winner. Maybe I'm wrong? Well, I've been thinking about this for a little while now and every app choice is based on format and platform.
Once you pick your format and sync platform, choosing the tools you prefer is just a personal decision. That's where this whole topic lays: should I TXT or MD? iCloud or Dropbox? When you think about it, these two questions are the most important. Seems obvious isn't it? But what if you want to be able to access your files from anywhere, or and make it look nice without having to load Word or Pages, etc. I could just write in TextEdit, save to Dropbox and copy/paste in WordPress. And then make it extremely easy to publish online.
#SIMPLENOTE NVALT IOS FULL#
But what if I'm loosing elsewhere? What if all the pieces of app I'm using are not used to their full potential? What if I end up using the wrong pieces in the whole process? Who cares, you'll say. So there's still room for thinking and planning. Nothing's black or white, except maybe some of the photographs I take with my Leica. But what about TXT vs MD files? I'm still thinking about it. What they suggest is to keep the workflow I'm using now and make use of the External Sources. I sent an email to The Soulmen's team to get their opinion on that. After a couple weeks using nValt with plain text, I though I had the best and simplest setup ever. Of course Ulysses offers the possibility to use External Sources, but you loose a lot of its power and advantages. Just when I thought nValt-iAWriter-Simplenote were the perfect team, I discover the benefits of Ulysses markdown structure and seamless sync of iCloud. If I switch to Markdown, some tools will not function. If I switch from Dropbox to iCloud, some tools will not function. Not questioning Dropbox itself (it's great!) but the fact that some tools are using iCloud, others benefits from Markdown instead of plain text, etc. Right now I'm questioning the fact that I'm using Dropbox to synchronize the TXT files for all my apps. That brings us back to my point of picking the right tools and making sure the workflow is consistent. So in some regards, there are rules to follow. But there are best practices, things to avoid, etc. The whole point here is that everyone has his preferences, tastes and ways of doing things. Bring in the equation all of the tools people can/would/wish to use and you end up with a deadly molotov cocktail. How many times did you see bad reviews about something you like? Or great reviews about things you just can't stand or see the purpose? Writing is already a very objective and personal thing. But sometimes it can get confusing and the main two reasons for that are: Most of the time you can get a sense of what things really do, and their value. The more your read on a subject matter on the internet, the more you get confused. I really like every app I buy, I only hope they are all useful. But simplifying a workflow sometimes requires sacrifices. Every purchase is weighted and I always do my homeworks when it's time to pick the best tool for the job. But if there is something I can say for now, it's that apps are adding up on my machine at warp speed and I want to make good use of all this. I don't know yet, it's still up in the air until I start using them in real world scenarios. I heard the later supports MarsEdit and since I bought this app last week I thought it would make sense to have them work together. Just today, I purchased two pieces of software: The Soulmen Ulysses 3 and Brett Terpstra Marked 2.1. Though this might change if it simplifies my workflow (without having to drop too many cooks!) Apps are like humans, they reproduce And for now, adding another ingredient in the recipe ( Daedalus) is not necessarily something I want. Simplenote being the goto choice with nValt (and it covers OSX & iOS), things quickly get confusing when there is too many cooks in the kitchen. nValt on OSX is simply awesome but unavailable for iOS. But the file management aspect is another story. iA Writer is great for that because it's covering all bases. What complicates things is the fact that OSX and iOS on the iPad and iPhone are three different things (i.e. Gloops! The objective is to have THE perfect workflow and avoid unnecessary step in the process. Can you believe I'm again looking for the perfect combination of writing tools for my needs? I was just getting started with nValt, iA Writer synced through Dropbox and now I'm playing around with Ulysses 3, Simplenote and Marked on top of everything else.
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