Questions about Ulysses

By Alexandra Moldovan, 21 July, 2021

Forum

macOS and Mac Apps

Hi all,
I installed Ulysses on my Mac for the first time and I have some questions. Sorry if they were asked before, but I don't have the time to look into all of the posts.
1. How to convert a Word document into Markdown? I'm interested especially in the bold, italics and underlined text. After importing it, I noticed it doesn't automatically display these as markdown and I would like to be able to convert them in order to read them easier with my Braille display.
2. Where can I find stats such as page number, word count etc.? Is there a way to see them?
That's all I would like to know for the moment.
Thank you in advane,
Alexandra

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Comments

re: Questions about Ulysses

Hi dear Alexandra!
If you want to convert from docx into markdown text.
You'd better to try free software pandoc.
As for page numbering I didn't test.
If you use braille display to read texts, then it would be better to convert into brf format.
It is trivial text processing.
Good luck!
Cheer up! <smile>

I’ll ask

Hi,
I love Ulysses!
I’ll tweet them & find out some answers, because I have these questions myself.

Ulysses with VoiceOver

Hi, I have written review about Ulysses from a VoiceOver user perspective. To see different stats, press ⌘ + 7.

Here is the review Accessible Writing With Ulysses

Thanks

Thank you for your answer. I tried using Pandoc, but I would like to be able to import the dox file into a software and to automatically convert it rather than writing so many commands in the terminal. As for the texts, I refered to the fact that I would like to know their formatting easier, because general and extended status cells don't show us how much of the text in a line is bolded, for example. Or is there another way to indicate the formatting of a text on a Braille display without having to look over and over again to the status cells or to use speech? I'm interested in working with a text on the fly, not only in reading it, so, for me, converting it to brf is not an option.
I would be very glad if you could answer some of my questions.
Thank you again.

Thank you

Thank you for your answer. I was looking forward to reading a review from a VoiceOer user, so I will examine it in detail. I would like to use Ulysses as one of my text editors. It seems very fast and reliable.

About converting text.

Hi again dear Alexandra!
Unfortunately I can't answer you constructively.
In fact I don't have a mac os machine.
I can say The only following:
I think you can write a small script to automatically convert a lot of files into the markdown text.
I am sure the mac system has enough possibilities to make that.
And it is a trivial task, so you could press down one key to convert files.
Have a good day.
Cheer up!

Thank you.

I thought about using AppleScript or automations for this, but I have no programming knowledge, so I'll look if there are any step-by-step instructions to do that.
Thank you for suggesting this. I'd like to learn AppleScript at least in order to make my life easier. :) .

Good idea!

Hi again!

Yes, it is really a good idea to lean apple scripting.
I would help you, but I don't have the mac one.
I think the people here would be very happy to assist you in studying apple script.
Good luck!
Cheers!

Imports and status cells

I don't think PanDoc is necessary for importing into Ulysses from .docx, although that's how I've done it myself. The help page says to simply drag files from the finder onto the groups or sheets list. Naturally, all formatting not supported by Ulysses MarkDown flavor will be stripped. Not sure how this would be accomplished by VO, since I think mouse-down and mouse-up points have to both be visible at the same time for dragging to work. I have Ulysses pointed to an "external folder" (its term for anything outside its own proprietary file system) and none of the docx files show up in the sheets list. It says you can also share from IOS Word to Ulysses via the share sheet.
As for formatting, the whole point of MarkDown is that it's handled with plain text characters surrounding the text. So, this would be **bold** and *this would be italicized* on export. That will show up on a Braille Display. It also registers as bold for VO, so it should also be in the status cells.

I tried importing files that way but

I tried importing files that way, but I haven't noticed any changes to the syntax of the document: bold text stayed bold, it wasn't converted to markdown symbols. So that's why I asked.

Your choice of course.

Hi!
I don't understand why to pay for this app 3$ a month, if pages and google document (online) exist. And you can export import endlessly.
And if you want to make markdown, I said about that earlier.
Of course, it is your choice how to work or what to use.
Cheers!

Word Import, Text Statistics

Hello!

To import a DOCX file into Ulysses, you can open the context menu for the file in Finder and select “Open With › Ulysses”. When you do this, Ulysses will open and import your DOCX file into Ulysses' Inbox. Bold and italic text should be converted using the corresponding Markdown tags (strong and emphasis, respectively). Other formatting and images should also be imported.

Regarding text statistics: To access the text statistics for the currently open sheet, you can press command-7. In the panel that opens, you can view the sheet's words, characters, pages, etc. To close the text statistics panel, press command-7 again.

If you should still have problems importing DOCX, you can send us an email to help@ulysses.app and we'll take an in-depth look at this.

Thank you all

Thank you all for the advice and help. I have one more question: how can you change text alignment in Ulysses? I read something about some code blocks, but I am a little confused. Isn't it a simpler way to do thi? And, if you need to use code, I'd like a step-by-step guide.
P.S. I have a strange issue: I noticed that I see some markdown when importing .docx, but only for italics. Bold text is not recognized.
Thanks again.

Text alignment, DOCX import

Hi Alexandra,

text formatting (which includes alignment) is done when exporting. In Ulysses, writing the text is done in the editor, while the exporter formats the text. For more information, you can read about it in the “First Steps” section in the in-app introduction.

Regarding the DOCX import: This might be a problem with your specific DOCX file. If you want, you can contact us directly at help@ulysses.app, so we can investigate this problem.