Dictate in any app · Writing
Ulysses removes every distraction, which leaves the writer alone with the typing speed problem. Typally puts your words into Ulysses the moment you release the key, in whichever field you left the cursor.
We make Typally, so treat this as a vendor's guide. Where Ulysses has a built-in option we say so, including when it is the better choice.None. macOS dictation works in its editor.
Distraction-free writing apps solve the wrong half of the problem. The blank sheet is still blank, and the app's minimalism means there is nothing to do except produce words.
In practice people use it for: Long-form drafts, blog posts, book chapters, and the daily writing session that needs a word count.
Setup happens once, outside Ulysses, and then applies to every program on the machine:
Windows or macOS build, signed in once.
Text goes wherever Ulysses has focus. One click first saves undoing a paragraph in the wrong box.
Nothing truncates part-way through.
Ulysses uses markdown-style markup, so dictated hashes and asterisks become headings and emphasis mid-sentence.
Typally handles the drafting pass and leaves Ulysses to do what it is genuinely excellent at — focused editing. Speak the rough version, then use the app's focus mode to cut it down. Dictate plain prose, since spoken markdown markers become formatting mid-sentence.
A writer with a daily target of a thousand words hits it in twenty minutes by speaking rather than the ninety minutes it used to take. The extra hour goes into editing, which is where the writing actually improves.
Use dictation for the first pass and the app's focus mode for the second. Ulysses is a superb editing environment and a neutral drafting one.
Ulysses uses markdown-style markup, so dictated hashes and asterisks become headings and emphasis mid-sentence.
It adds nothing of its own. On a Mac the operating system's dictation reaches the editor, and so does any app that sends keystrokes to the frontmost window.
Yes, through the microphone on the on-screen keyboard. That path is Apple's rather than Ulysses', so the accuracy is whatever iPadOS gives you that year.
Rarely. Saying 'hash heading' or 'asterisk' produces literal characters that Ulysses then converts, usually not the way you intended. Speak the sentences, apply the markup with your hands.
You can try this on the free plan — 100 minutes a month, no card, no trial countdown.
Also dictate in: Scrivener · Bear · Ghost · see all apps