You need to consider your writing process, what you are writing, and where you intend to publish it before deciding on a writing app. The Apple-only Byword is a low-cost, distraction-free writing app that supports Markdown. It works reasonably well for writers who produce short works and usually publish online. Byword lacks tools for shaping long-form pieces, however, such as templates and a library where you can see and rearrange chapters and scenes. It also needs to improve its autosave and local saving options. No one wants to have to redo all their work, even if it is short-form writing.
Ulysses and Scrivener are our Editors' Choice winners for long-form writers, while Final Draft is the best option for screenwriters. Of these, Ulysses is the only one with comparable distraction-free views, but it costs a lot more than Byword.
How Much Does Byword Cost?
Byword is available only for Macs, iPads, and iPhones. The Mac app costs $10.99 and the mobile version is $5.99. There's no discount for buying both, so the combined total is roughly $17. Those prices are one-time fees; you pay once and own the software forever.
With Byword, you may end up paying extra for storage, however. The app uses iCloud by default for syncing and backing up your work, though you can choose another cloud storage service, such as Dropbox. While text files don't take up much space, your storage needs may vary depending on what else you save to your cloud storage account.
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Comparison Pricing
Byword costs less than competing apps. For example, iA Writer charges $29.99 for its macOS app and an additional $29.99 for its iPhone and iPad app ($60 all-in if you're an Apple user). iA Writer also now has a Windows app ($29.99) and Android app ($4.99 per year or $29.99 once). The macOS-only WriteRoom costs just $9.99. The developer hasn't updated that app since 2012 and there's no mobile version, but WriteRoom still works fine.
At $49.99 per year, Ulysses costs significantly more, but it has many features specifically for people who write long-form pieces and need to store and organize notes, reference material, and other related data. It also includes templates and advanced formatting, which Byword doesn't have. Other apps with broader feature sets charge more, too. For instance, Storyist and Scrivener respectively sell for one-time costs of $59 and $49. Apps for screenwriters tend to cost even more. Final Draft lists at $249, Script Studio goes for $199, and even Fade In, which is a relatively low-cost alternative, costs $79. All those prices are one-time charges.
What Is Markdown Language?
As a distraction-free writing app, Byword supports Markdown language. That doesn't mean Markdown is your only option for customizing text; you can opt for a simplified formatting menu if you prefer.
Markdown, however, is a way to add formatting to text without using menus, which keeps you productive and the interface clear of any distractions. You add bold, italics, heading formats, and other styles to your writing by typing codes right in the text. For example, to make a word bold in Byword, you add two asterisks around it, like *this*.
Markdown isn't uniform across apps where it's used. For example, in some apps, single asterisks around text make it italic. In other apps, single asterisks add boldface. When you use Markdown in Byword, the app shows you on screen how the text will look once it's exported and formatted, which helps you make sure you've coded your text correctly.
Markdown is simple to learn if you have a little cheat sheet—which Byword indeed gives you—because there are only a handful of codes to memorize. If you really don't want to learn Markdown, you can alternatively apply a limited number of styles using an optional popover formatting menu. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to apply basic formatting, such as Command + B to make text bold.
Getting Started
When you first start a document in Byword, the app offers to save it to iCloud. Saving to iCloud or another cloud storage service allows you to sync your writing across all the devices for which you have a Byword license.
When saving files, you can also tag them, although at the macOS level and not within the app. In other words, you can add the standard macOS color-coded tags. Other apps let you create custom text-based tags directly within them.
As you start writing, you should experiment with Byword's different views, each of which helps you focus on your text in a different way. For example, a Paragraph view shows only the active paragraph text at full brightness. The Line view displays only the active line at full brightness. Typewriter mode locks the focus on the center of the screen and scrolls completed lines up and out of the way. There's also a Full-Screen mode that takes over your entire screen with nothing but text and very wide margins. These modes are standard among this sort of writing app.
In addition to customizing the view, you can change the theme to be either light or dark. The app also lets you adjust the page width, the typeface, and the text point size.
Saving, Exporting, and Publishing
Byword keeps a history of your documents and allows you to revert to a previous version. However, it only saves a copy when you close the document or manually save it. I wish it had an auto-save option.
You designate the save location for any new files, but you cannot see a list of files from within Byword. Instead, you have to pull up a Finder window—this is a strange design choice and no other writing apps work this way.
Many writing apps, including Scrivener, Ulysses, and Storyist, also provide a library feature. The library is where you organize pieces of writing into different folders or sections by dragging and dropping them. Another advantage of having a library is that you can quickly switch from one chapter or section to another without keeping too many windows open at once. When working on long-form writing, such as a book, it helps to be able to rearrange the order of sections and chapters at will. Byword doesn't offer anything like this.
Byword also doesn't include any tools for crafting a story, such as storyboards, character sheets, outlining tools, and so forth. Again, long-form writers typically need these tools at their fingertips to keep their work organized and moving forward.
Byword doesn't have any options for tracking how much you write each day, although you can view or hide the word and character count of a single document at the bottom of the page. Other apps that are more attuned to the needs of long-form writers, such as Ulysses and Scrivener, let you set goals and track them to monitor your writing progress over time.
Short-Form Writing
Although Byword isn't ideal for long-form writing, it is much more adept at supporting shorter pieces and especially those you intend to publish online. You can set up the app to export your files directly to Blogger, Evernote, Medium, Tumblr, and WordPress. The app supports a few export formats as well, including HTML, LaTeX (commonly used in academic publishing), PDF, RTF, and Word.
Byword doesn't come with templates, as many other writing apps do. Templates generally help you format a specific type of writing, such as a screenplay or a novel. If you've never written a novel and submitted it to a publisher, you might not know all the front matter that's typically included. This is just one scenario in which a template can guide you. Scrivener and Storyist both have an excellent array of templates.
I didn't run into any major problems testing Byword, but from the look of Byword's support page, most technical problems are resolved using the macOS Terminal. The instructions are written clearly enough, but people who are not especially technically minded will not be happy to fire up the Terminal and resolve issues using code.
Good for Publishing Short Works
Byword is comparable to iA Writer and WriteRoom in that they are all lightweight, distraction-free writing apps. However, iA Writer has more features than the others. Byword's strength is its ability to export and publish directly to Blogger, Evernote, Medium, Tumbler, and WordPress. For budget-minded writers who compose reasonably short pieces for the web, it's a fine option. That said, we would like Byword to add a library tool and templates, plus improve its saving options.
Writers who need libraries, templates, goal-tracking features, and the ability to create reference materials should pay more for an app that caters better to their needs. Final Draft, Scrivener, and Ulysses are our Editors' Choices picks. Final Draft is the industry standard for screenplays, Scrivener's interface is closer to the word-processing apps that are a part of office suites, and Ulysses offers a more distraction-free experience.
Byword, an inexpensive writing app for macOS and Apple mobile devices, publishes your work directly to Medium, WordPress, and other platforms. It's not ideal for long-form writers, however.
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