Learn Ulysses: Easy Video Tutorials

Ulysses Rocks

Learn Ulysses is an online course that will quickly teach you how to get up and running with Ulysses — the best writing app out there for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. (We dive into the power-user features, too.)

This course was made by myself (Shawn Blanc) and the rest of us here at The Sweet Setup. We're known for our in-depth app research and tutorials.

Thousands of people have purchased our workflow guides, and our site is read by half-a-million people every month.

This course was made for you to take full advantage of the Ulysses app and get on top of your ideas, your writing, and more so you can be more focused and productive.

— Shawn & The Sweet Setup team

P.S. Already know you want the course? Click here.

It sucks to have ideas, notes, and writing scattered all over the place.

When you get an idea or when you want to write something down, where does it go?

For me, ideas, notes, and writing all used to live in different apps. It was a nightmare. Check it out...

A scattered mess of ideas, notes, and more

Ideas went wherever I happened to jot them down.
Notes from books I read stayed in the books.
Articles I was writing were saved to whichever writing app I happened to be using that day (could have been iA Writer, Byword, Simplenote, Bear, or whatever else).

Stuff was everywhere!

Now, I had known about Ulysses for a while, and had even used it here and there. My impression of Ulysses was that it was just another minimalist writing app like all the others. And therefore it was simply part of the pile of note-taking and writing apps I had at my disposal.

But then, one day I put everything into Ulysses. Because I’d seen how someone else was using Ulysses, and I discovered new things about how I could organize and structure all my notes, ideas, and writing work. It was liberating.

Stop losing ideas and time.

Ulysses is the central spot for where I store all my ideas, quotes, inspiration, writing, and research notes. It is also where I actually do all my writing because underneath all that power is a simple and easy-to-use writing app.

Ulysses makes it very easy to find and organize all my stuff.

Ulysses is an app that can help you go from scattered to structured, and from cluttered to organized. Having a place for everything, it turns out, is incredibly productive. And I’d love to help you get there.

A structured writing workflow with Ulysses

You deserve to be free to focus on your ideas, your writing, your notes, and your research. Not fumbling around, trying to remember which app or folder or even which device has that one thing you were working on the other day.

Ulysses is one of the best writing, researching, note-taking and organizational apps on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It offers a ton of power and flexibility, while maintaining its simplicity and ease of use. Ulysses is not intimidating or difficult to use, but it does have quite a bit going on under the hood that can benefit you.

Our Learn Ulysses course will help you take full advantage of this app in order to get on top of things and be more productive.

Learn Ulysses Has Been Featured In...

As an avid Ulysses user, I couldn't wait to take this course.

It’s clear that Shawn and his team have a solid grasp on what makes Ulysses special and how best to use it.

After going through the course, I learned many new things and have already improved my writing workflows. Thanks to Learn Ulysses I’m saving time and have a much stronger mastery of this app that I use every day.

Michael Hyatt / New York Times Bestselling Author

Ulysses is the Best Writing App for Mac, iPad, and iPhone

There are a lot of great options available in this golden age of writing applications for Mac and iOS, but we believe that none of them are as finely tuned or have the degree of polish that Ulysses does.

Just last year (2016), Ulysses won the prestigious Apple Design Award. This app is a perfect combination of powerful writing tools wrapped within a beautiful and distraction-free writing environment.

Ulysses provides all the tools you need to be a more productive writer while still maintaining a simple interface that limits distractions so you can focus on accomplishing your writing goals.

It provides an abundance of value for the power and organization it brings to your writing desk.

That’s why we use Ulysses, and that’s why we want to help you learn Ulysses and discover everything it’s capable of doing.

This tutorial gave me new ideas for how to organize my writing process.

Having great writing software and learning how to use it is saving me time and providing me with more momentum for my book project than I could’ve imagined. I only wish I’d started sooner!

Isa Adney / Author

I just checked out the video tutorials of your Ulysses setup, and holy crap. My mind is blown.

I loved the idea of filing away published posts in Archived at the bottom, using custom icons, and attaching images before publishing to WordPress. I can be dense sometimes. I had no clue I could do that with Ulysses.

And filters. I had zero filters set up. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You generally got me searching for more functionality I could add to make my workflow more efficient.

Austin L. Church / Freelance Writer & Content Marketer

Shawn Blanc’s Ulysses Setup

Here's a screencast video showing how I have my Ulysses set up, and how I use it on a day-to-day basis. More details on my organizational structure are below. 👇

P.S. In Learn Ulysses, we have more behind-the-scenes interviews to show you how others are also using Ulysses in their day-to-day workflows.

More details about the groups and sub-groups I have set up in Ulysses and how I’m using them to stay organized and structured with my ideas, notes, research, and writing.

Quotes: This is a group I keep in my Ulysses library for saving quotes and other tidbits of inspiration. It's perfect for saving anything I think is clever, helpful, funny, etc.
Ideas: Things I’d like to write about. These sheets can be as short as one line, or as long as a whole slew of unordered thoughts on a particular topic.
Ready for editing: Once an idea has been fleshed out into a rough draft of sorts, then all that’s left to do is give it a round of editing. So I move it from the “idea” group to the “Edit” group.
To Publish: Articles that have been edited and are pretty much ready to publish go here.
Archives: Anything that’s been published to my website or newsletter is now, obviously, longer an active piece of writing. So I move it to an archives group. It’s still available via searching and filtering, but it’s out of sight from any of the other groups.
Today Filter: This is a custom filter I set up that shows me all the documents I've been working on in the past 24 hours. (There is a LOT you can do with custom filters, by the way.)

Book Notes: Whenever I read a book, I take voracious notes and highlights. Creating my own “alternate index” of sorts. Then, afterward, I copy all of my highlights, takeaways, and other notes out of the book and into Ulysses. Tagging them with keywords.
Instapaper Highlights: I have things set up so that whenever I highlight a passage of text in my Instapaper, that text is automatically saved to a folder in Ulysses.
Simple Notes: A catch-all for any and all non-specific tidbits of information that I want to write down but don’t really know where they go or what to do with them.
$Ideas: This is where I jot down all the ideas I have for future products, services, and other things related to growing my business.
Individual groups for other projects: Any specific project gets its own folder. This is where I store all the writing and other reference material for that specific project. I’ve got about half-a-dozen of these right now.

This is so good! There is tons of useful information in bite size chucks, and I learned so much about how powerful Ulysses really is. After the first video I had to open Ulysses so I could pause the videos and check out what I just learned myself!

Veronica Domeier / Freelance Writer and Illustrator

Ulysses is an app with a deceptively simple appearance and design philosophy, but substantial hidden depths. This course introduces everything from editing basics and markup, to project management, search, sync and backup, export, and advanced subjects like integration.

Shawn’s obvious love and mastery of Ulysses comes across clearly, showing not just how to use it, but why you ought to. I spend hours every day writing in the app, and I learned a few things from this course. I particularly appreciated the high production quality, and the inclusion of full text transcripts alongside the video tutorials. Thank you!

Matt Gemmell / Scottish Author

The Tip of the Iceberg

There is so much to this app, you won't believe it...

Some of my favorite features include: it's focused writing environment; excellent integration Workflow on iOS; best of breed versions for Mac, iPad, and iPhone; reliable and free syncing between all devices; incredible Filters and smart folders for automatically sorting your research; backup and restore; version control; publishing directly to WordPress or Medium; and beautifully designed writing goals.

We’ll show you how to make the most of all these features, and more.

I found this series really helpful, even as someone who uses Ulysses enough to feel entirely proficient. Excellent job!

Drew Coffman / Writer, Photographer

Ulysses is undeniably one of the most powerful, flexible writing apps for Mac and iOS.

Federico Viticci, MacStories

Learn Ulysses

All seven video tutorials to help you quickly learn Ulysses. In-depth enough to teach you all the ins and outs. Concise enough to watch during your lunch break. Plus additional cheatsheets and expert user setups.

Getting to Know Ulysses
In just a few minutes, we’ll get you quickly acclimated to the basic structure of how Ulysses works.
Writing Tips and Tricks
Everything you need to know to rock and roll with Ulysses’ unique use of Markdown syntax and plain text.
The Ulysses Toolbar
There are many powerful features hidden beneath the simple design of Ulysses. Discover where these features are and what they do, so you can use them in your own workflows.
The Main Features
One thing that sets Ulysses apart is how powerful it is. We’ll show you more of the powerful features found within Ulysses so you can really make it dance.
Ulysses on iPhone and iPad
Not many writing apps have iPhone and iPad versions that are just as powerful and awesome as their Mac counterparts. We’ll show you some of the features that are unique to the iOS versions of Ulysses.
Backup, Restore, and Version Control
We’ll show you how to access and navigate your backups so you can restore files or just roll back to a particular version.
Powerful Search, Find, and Replace
Ulysses has an incredibly robust global search option, on top of the standard find and replace features you would expect. We’ll show you why this is so great and how you can make the most of it.
Hidden Gems Cheatsheet
An unordered list of additional features and keyboard shortcuts you may not know about, but that you'll be glad to have discovered.
Setup Interviews
Get a behind-the-scenes look at how others are using Ulysses in their day-to-day workflows.

30-Day, Money-Back Guarantee

Please take a month to check out the class. If, for any reason, you’re not completely satisfied just let us know and we’ll be glad to give you a full refund. No questions asked. It’s zero risk on your part.

I cannot recommend Ulysses enough. It is clearly built with a true love for writing by a company that takes care of its customers.

David Chartier, Writer and Content Strategist

FAQ

Q: Is there a money-back guarantee?

A: Yes! You get 30 days to check out the class, which is more than enough time to go through all the material. If, for any reason, you’re not completely satisfied just let us know and we’ll be glad to give you a full refund.

Q: What do I get when I buy Learn Ulysses?

A: You will get immediate access to all the content as soon as you sign up. The website is easy to use and navigate, and works great on desktop, iPad, and iPhone. You also will be able to download all the videos in HD format for offline viewing, and we include full-text transcripts of each video as well.

Q: I mostly use Ulysses on my iPad (or iPhone), is the Learn Ulysses class still relevant for me?

A: Yes! Absolutely. The Ulysses iPad and iPhone apps are first-class citizens here. All three versions of the Ulysses app (Mac, iPad, iPhone) are nearly identical to one another. While most of our Screencast videos show the Mac app in use, you’ll still discover all the same features that exist across all versions of the app. Moreover, we even have a video that focuses only on the iOS version of Ulysses, showing you some of its unique features, and the Hidden Gems Cheatsheet is full of stuff you may not have known about the iPad app just as much as the Mac app.

Q: Who made this class?

A: All of us here at The Sweet Setup. Our goal is to help you make the most of your time and attention. We do this by researching the very best apps for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. But we also know a LOT about workflows, staying focused, and best practices. That’s why we’re visited by 500,000 readers every month.

With Learn Ulysses, we'll teach you how to get up and running with the best writing app out there for Mac and iOS.

Shawn and his team have put together a solid tutorial for Ulysses. They quickly get down to business even at the orientation video. Important and not so well known functions are readily explained, bit by bit. He presents the basics as well as several less well known tips and tricks.

If you’re interested in using Ulysses well, this course is a useful resource.

Kourosh Dini, MD / Psychiatrist, productivity expert, author