Hi everyone,
This question is mainly for Mac users who do a lot of writing, editing, or document work professionally. I’ve been using Macs for about twelve years now, so I know this probably sounds like a very delayed question. And just to save us all some time: if your advice is “switch to Windows,” I respectfully decline. I’m staying with macOS.
I’d really appreciate hearing about any workflows, tricks, accessibility tips, or editing habits that make document work smoother on the Mac. Lately I’ve been struggling with formatting consistency, especially when it comes to fonts, colours, and tables. I often feel like Pages behaves unpredictably, and keeping documents properly formatted can become frustrating.
One thing I genuinely dislike is the way Pages presents documents as separate pages rather than one smooth continuous flow of text like Microsoft Word. For long-form editing, it feels much less comfortable. Has anyone found ways to make the experience more manageable or less disruptive?
Tables are probably my biggest frustration right now. Once they start extending across multiple pages, VoiceOver navigation becomes messy. I’ll be working somewhere deep in the document and suddenly VoiceOver throws me back to the beginning of the file for no obvious reason. It completely breaks concentration.
I’m also wondering whether there’s a more efficient way to control row heights and column widths precisely in Pages. Right now it feels unnecessarily tedious having to navigate through multiple menus just to make small adjustments.
More generally, if you use a Mac for serious editing or writing work, I’d love to know what apps, settings, shortcuts, or approaches have improved your experience.
I’ll probably add more questions here over time, so apologies in advance if this evolves into a long-running discussion 😅
Also, for context, I did buy the My Pages tutorial. Some parts were definitely useful, but it feels dated now and doesn’t really address many of the newer Pages or VoiceOver quirks and issues.
By Maldalain, 28 May, 2026
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
Ulysses
I do most of my writing in Ulysses, which is a markdown editor that applies styling on export rather than during the writing and editing process. I don’t know how well it does tables as they aren’t something I usually use, though I do know it supports tables. Its main disadvantage over Pages is that it’s subscription based.
I’ve worked in Pages before, I ran into similar issues. Also, I find it easier in long form writing if I can jump around in the document, which is harder with something like Pages. Ulysses allows me to break larger projects into smaller pieces that are reassembled during export. It’s also possible to work in a style similar to what you mentioned by “gluing” sheets together. It isn’t exactly the same as a single, continuous document, but the transition between glued sheets is pretty smooth from what I remember (I haven’t used glued sheets for a while).
Thanks Paul
Can advanced formatting be done using markdown? Like font colours and line and paragraph spacing?
ulysses
yes, you can change the style, font, paragraph spacing, all that, but not while editing or using markdown syntax. when exporting to word, pdf or whatever, in that export screen, there's a button that says "swiss knife""" you click on that. You have ooptions in there such as academica, manuscript, papers, etc. in addition, you can create your own styles or download many community-made styles from the style exchange.
One more thing
Forgot to mention, I use ulysses all the time. while it is subscription based, I'd personally say for the features and the accessibility of the app, it's definitely worth it. Their customer service is excellent.
If you want to play with Markdown.
But you don't want to subscribe to Ulysses yet, there's Macdown 3000.
https://macdown.app/
Ulysses, as I understand it, has a lot more writing help stuff, e.g. you can write in sections and then easily rearrange sections. Also Macdown 3000 might not support all of the Markdown capabilities. But if you've never messed around with Markdown, it's free. So you could do some testing to see if it makes any sense for you to use at all, and if it does, well you know Ulysses will do more stuff.