Byword App Reviews

I was dismayed with first experience, for all apps I’ve used before let me by without space between text paragraph and ordered list. So when Byword didn’t render it correctly as others had I got a quick response that the spec required it. Live and learn. And I’ve learned since then how much I’ve really, really liked this app. I especially like that it doesn’t have the distracting inline preview that so many others have. Sure I could turn them off, but why bother when Byword is so much more elegantly designed.

LOVE the minimal distraction + LOVE the dark theme + LOVE the paragraph focus + LOVE the typewriter mode + LOVE LOVE LOVE the icloud support. BUT…i tell you i just NEED the option to enable bold/italics/underline. i just can’t •just write• without it, you see, as EMPHASIS is a NECESSITY without which there is NO EXPRESSION of ANY TYPE...this including ANY TYPE of VERBAL expression…this including oral speech and also .W.R.I.T.I.N.G. so, very VERY simply stated, such a feature quite LITERALLY COULDN’T EVER distract a writer from the task of writing but...AAAHHHHHHH GODZILLA’S ON THE LOOSE…um, its absence seems to have succeeded in distracting me, at very least to the point that this review now exists.

Like most writers, I have more than a dozen writing programs — Ok, call them apps if you must —on my iMac. This and Scrivener are the only ones I really need any more.

I use this app pretty regularly and love the interface. There are a few caveats that I’d mention for anyone considering using it, though. Because markdown is baked in, I generally only find myself using this for web writing. I haven’t used it much for fiction writing, because even though I can switch to a rich text file format pretty easily, I just haven’t done it thusfar, laziness? Or maybe that extra step just stops me from jumping right into what I want to be doing, writing. The thing that really irked me is having to pay for the feature to publish to evernote, wordpress, etc. I already paid 11.99 for a functionally pretty basic app, the developer should have just added publishing as an additional feature, rather than an upgrade for 4.99. Also, on iOS, you have to pay for the app again, and publishing options, again. I’ve taken to saving any writing I do on my phone and then waiting until I get to my laptop to publish, it’s an annoyance, but I’m not going to pay for such a simple feature a second time in order to have it on my phone. Overall, great app, worth checking out if you’re a ‘zen mode’ type of writer.

Byword is a simple text editor that handles text and markdown flawlessly. It opens quickly and is easy to write in. It’s my go to text editor when I don’t need the formatting of Word or the project management of Scrivener. Five stars.

To write, to do my job, I prefer no app more than I prefer Byword. Pay for it today, enjoy writing tomorrow.

I can only give the desktop application 3 stars because it does not allow you to save documents to Dropbox. It only allows you to save to iCloud. I hate iCloud and being tied to the Apple ecospace. Byword for iOS allows you to save to Dropbox or iCloud. Why isn’t this feature available for the desktop version???????????? If they had this feature then I would give it at least 4 stars.

I really love this app, it makes typing on my phone so much easier than with Pages. But I don’t really use this as much as I’d like because I like the locking feature in Pages. Please add a feature to lock files or just locking the app itself, that would be 5 stars!

I bought this a few years ago because my other writing app didn’t keep up with the OS X updates, and it remains my favorite writing app to this day. It’s simple, clean, and attractive, but it’s also versatile. I never feel as if I have to fight with the application to do what I want. It also syncs with ByWord on my other Apple devices, which is a must for me these days.

I bought this app to do one thing: render markdown. It doesn’t render lists well and doesn’t seem to support check lists. I’m asking for a refund. This is worse than editing markdown on github’s gist service.

There are a number of outstanding Markdown editors out there. What distinguishes Byword is its adherence to pure text files and (Multi)Markdown. Unlike other (however excellent) editors, Byword doesn’t impose itself on your writing or workflow. It doesn’t save all your text documents in its own library, and its format is simply .md or .txt. Some editors wrap your plain text documents in their own proprietary format, and while you can sometimes dig in and extract your precious data, it’s generally quite difficult or at least complicated to do so—effectively locking your data into their format and defeating the very purpose of the open and simple Markdown format. Byword also doesn’t impose its own escape characters on your texts. Some Markdown editors output backslashes before every “special” character that has meaning only to that editor. Your .md or .txt file is then full of backslashes that you then have to convert before opening in another program. Byword doesn’t do this either. This makes it ideal for any applications that rely on true Markdown with any “extras” that end up getting in the way.

When I use software like MS Word, I spend way too much time making the document look pretty. Byword allows me to focus more on the content and less on the initial formatting of the document. Writing in Markdown is a breeze. Sometimes I call it “Markdown Lite” because Byword has some of the basic keyboard shortcuts we know (i.e. ctrl+B for Bold and ctrl+I for Italic). Since I’m forgetful with my Markdown, I find that really helpful. The one thing I wish was different is the background color options. You only have a choice between grey and black. While the grey is great for reducing distraction, I would prefer it to be slightly lighter, which would make the words pop a little more. I would also prefer if the black were lighter also. It’s just way too dark.

I continue to use Byword as a basic tool. The Markdown feature is a favorite for short HTML snippets for widgets on my website.

I was impressed with byword after viewing a tutorial on the internet by Mathew Mitchell—it was a combo teaching on Byword and Markdown. The part of Cross Reference Links really impressed me. I did not know I that can use Markdown to navigate a long document and to make a table of contents. I like font choice, expecially Gerogia 17 and I like the light and dark mode. I like everything about Byword so far. I even downloaded the premium option to go along with the regular version. I look forward to using it to export to Evernote. I downloaded ia writer, classic, in August, 2015 The next month they came out with ia writer 3 and stated that they would provide no further compatibility updates for ia writer classic. My product lasted one month. I will never again buy a product from the company that makes ia writer, Information Architects, I think. I have all the information on them I need, than you very much. They have an extremely selfish business model. I removed ia writer from my dock. I not only have a zero opinion of the company that makes ia writer, my opinion of Apple has declined. I cannot imagine that a great compnay like Apple would partner with a company that has no regard for their users/customers. If you have byword, I would strongly recommend the tutorial video by Mathew Mitchell. He is a good teacher and the tutorial is just what I needed. You can google byword tutorial and the 24-minute video will pop up near the top. You will like byword.

I’ve used several Markdown and text editor apps over the past 5 years including Byword, iA Writer, Ulysses, Scrivener, Desk, and more. I always come back to Byword. It’s simple, easy to use, and gets out the way. I’ve written over a million words between Byword on my Mac and Editorial on my iPad (yes, a million) and the Dropbox sync couldn’t be better. If you want a simple Markdown app that lets you focus on your words, Byword is one of the best options available, hands down.

I use this app almost every time I need to write something and keep it. If you use Markdown, you should use this app. That’s all there is to it. *** The only gripe I have is that development of the app has waned in the past few years. Part of the problem for *any* developer who wants to support Markdown is that the markup languange itself is so fragmented. It runs the gamet of Gruber’s original spec on one end, all the way to the idealized CommonMark spec (nee “Standard Markdown”). As the CommonMark spec starts to gain presidence, I hope the developers of Byword get on board. It would be nice for everyone to use one grand form of Markdown that all Markdown readers parse the same.

This app is great for just getting down to writing. I really like the distraction-free writing, simple layout, and dark mode writing. I recommend if you write a lot and you need more focus when you do write.

If you have to write markdown, especially on devices that do not support plugins to existing text editors, then Byword is for you. It produces properly formed markdown and WYSIWYG formatting in the editor window. It is a nice, lightweight application with a lot of functionality.

Byword has become an essential and reliable tool in my writing workflow, especially for fiction and poetry work. The Byword interface is clean and straightforward, with the right number of features and customizations for my purposes. I can move smoothly between Byword on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac, writing whenever and wherever the mood and opportunity suits me. The key thing that makes this flexibility possible is reliability. I store most of my work on iCloud (backing up locally and elsewhere, of course), and Byword keeps everything in sync quickly and without any hitches — I’ve never lost a word of work syncing between Byword on different platforms. I highly recommended this app!

Byword is eye pleasant. However, it seems it is missing an important feature that could highlight code syntax. If it would support github or stackoverflow style code syntax highlighting, it definitely would be worth 5 star.