writing novel on ipad

Using the iPad for: Writing Novels

I write books , and writing is one task that the iPad is ideally suited for. Even the on-screen keyboard is very usable with practice, though you’ll certainly want a physical keyboard for serious typing, and there are a wealth of apps available to help you get words down in a focused environment.

For years, my writing tool of choice on the Mac has been Scrivener , and the iOS version was released at last in July this year. It’s how I work on novels on the iPad. Let me tell you a bit more about it.

Scrivener on iPad offers most of the organising, writing, and editing features of its big brother on the Mac. Even the cork board is there, and the sidebar (or Binder, in Scrivener’s own terminology) can be used for rudimentary outlining — but you’re much better off using a dedicated tool like the unmatched OmniOutliner for that particular task.

The actual writing experience is delightful, as you’d expect. A dedicated full-screen mode is available, or you can equally keep the Binder visible (narrow or wide), or open a different document in that panel to refer to. Here’s how it looks when editing full-screen.

The novel pictured is my own CHANGER (since you ask). And here’s a screenshot of Scrivener with the sidebar and Binder visible.

The editor is rich text, offers typewriter mode — which keeps the line you’re currently editing at a fixed point on screen — and supports common keyboard shortcuts for formatting. It can also preview the collated full text of your manuscript in-app, without requiring export first.

What it doesn’t have, though, is all of the Mac version’s Compile functionality, to format and collate your manuscript ready for export. It can generate PDF, Word, RTF, and plain text formats, but not ePub (though you can open the Word format directly in Apple’s Pages app, which can then generate ePub files on the device). Significant customisation of Scrivener’s output is possible via SCOMP files (Scrivener Compile Appearance), which you can add and edit within the app itself; it’s a YAML -based format, with full documentation included. Users of the Mac version of Scrivener will recognise many of the options available (folder-level title formatting, font overrides, text transformations, etc), but there’s no UI for any of it in the iOS version — it’s strictly via the configuration files alone. I’m already very familiar with YAML since my blogging system, Jekyll , uses it for article metadata. You’ll find it very straightforward.

Given the lack of direct ePub support, Scrivener on iPad naturally also can’t make use of KindleGen to produce mobi files on its own like the Mac version can, but if the Kindle Store is your distribution channel, note that the KDP portal accepts ePub files too, and will convert them to the mobi format for you automatically. Thus, with a suitably-customised SCOMP file to export a Word document from Scrivener, then running it through Pages to create an ePub, you can have an ebook-production workflow entirely on the iPad.

Getting print-ready output may take some more work. The SCOMP files don’t support the full range of typographic and layout control of Scrivener’s Mac version, so you’ll need to experiment to see if you can get what you need. I can at least tell you that custom page sizes and margins ( including mirror margins), starting chosen folder-level titles/texts on recto pages, and verso/recto running heads and folios, are supported. I’ve seen people saying that they’re not; I can only assume those people didn’t actually read the SCOMP spec closely enough. There’s no widow/orphan control, though, as far as I can see, or automated text-replacement, but there’s a lot that is available. You can probably get quite a long way towards what you want. I advise spending some quality time creating your own configuration file, and seeing what’s possible.

I was asked by a reader about spelling and grammar checkers. While Scrivener does (optionally) participate in the system-wide “wiggly red underline” spellchecker, there’s no grammar checker available. I haven’t researched other options for this, because truthfully I use neither feature. That’s not a boast, and my proof readers know that I make my fair share of typos and errors. I just try to catch spelling errors during proof-reading and editing, and I’ve never used grammar checkers. I can understand that they might be of some use if you’re not a native speaker of the language you’re writing in, but for fiction, they produce so many false positives that they’re almost useless to me. They don’t allow for flexibility of style, deliberate sentence fragments, interrupted thoughts, and so on. I don’t think the technology exists to do it in a way that’s suitable for fiction, with informal speech, vernacular, and just the craft of making prose that flows and engages. For business documents, absolutely; take whatever help you think you need. For novels, grammar checkers are highly dubious, in this writer’s humble opinion.

(What would be of benefit is the kind of visually-highlighted linguistic analysis that the Mac app Marked 2 provides. I’d be interested in an iPad option for that functionality — even though it’s soul-destroying to see the evidence of weak-adverb proliferation writ large ‘pon your beloved manuscript.)

Scrivener on iOS is still young, and not without its minor bugs here and there (some fixes coming soon!), but it’s a beautiful, richly-featured, and focused distillation of what makes the Mac app so great. I personally think it’s a superior writing environment to its elder sibling too.

If, like me, you have a strong preference for using rich text when writing fiction — complete with native italics, automatic smart quotes, first-line indents, and so forth — you owe it to yourself to give it a thorough shot.

Alternatively

It would be downright rude not to also mention the excellent Ulysses here. It’s a writer’s workshop too, through and through, and provides a remarkably similar overall workflow to Scrivener: projects and folders and files; documents and notes and metadata; exporting with styles; and robust sync with its desktop counterpart. It’s wholly worthy of your attention, but it’s also a different beast.

Ulysses is a Markdown app (you can write in different formats, but Markdown is the default), so you’ll be using plain text rather than Word/Pages/TextEdit/Notes-like rich text. Ulysses cleverly goes some way towards bridging the gap between the two, by displaying Markdown-emphasised text in italics alongside the underscores, and double-asterisked text in boldface too. Headers are suitably larger beside their hash-symbol prefixes, and various types of annotations are supported, like footnotes, comments, links, and images. There are also per-document notes, writing targets, metadata tags, and associated images — though these features are unavailable if you’re using Dropbox as a file store rather than Ulysses’ own internal (and iCloud-synced) library.

Its editing mode is always full-screen, not providing an in-app two-up view for reference (and document-specific notes are in a slide-over UI that doesn’t really afford simultaneous work and reference). However, it does participate in iOS’ split view functionality with other apps. Like Scrivener, it supports typewriter mode.

Here’s an editing screenshot.

Ulysses supports exporting to HTML, plain text, PDF, ePub, and also publishing directly to Medium or to WordPress (either the hosted variant or your own installation). Both the editor’s theme and the various export formats are all very customisable, though you’ll have to use the Mac app to actually create or edit these yourself ( technically , you can make and import an editor theme or a PDF export theme wholly on an iOS device — both are stylesheets; one in actual CSS, and the other in Ulysses’ own very-similar and well-documented syntax — but the ePub custom export style format is a Zip archive with an undocumented property list embedded beside the CSS and preview images, so you’re on your own there). There is, though, an online theme and export style archive, from which you can download others’ submissions directly to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

If you prefer to write your long-form fiction in Markdown-flavoured plain text (or Textile’d, or Minimark, or even other markups you add yourself — again, via the desktop version and iCloud sync), and/or you like the idea of being able to fully preview not only your PDF output but also your ebooks right there in the app, you should certainly give Ulysses some seriously thought. If you have a Mac, there’s a trial version of the macOS app which gives you a very strong sense of what to expect on iPad too; Ulysses’ UI and interaction flow is virtually identical regardless of which OS you happen to be using it on.

The distinction between Scrivener and Ulysses is ultimately a personal one. Try both on a Mac if you can (and do read through the excellent and entertaining included tutorials in each case), and see which writing paradigm you like most. You’ll be spending the vast bulk of your time writing and tweaking text, after all, so that’s the activity on which to primarily base your choice.

That’ll do for now. Writing has always been readily possible on iPad, but these days we have tools that allow planning, organising, writing, editing, and compiling manuscripts for publication. It’s a very exciting time, and the iPad’s focus and exceptional portability make it a highly attractive tool for the contemporary author.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again next time. To stay up to date, it would be the very wisest of decisions to follow me on Twitter .

How to write a novel on an iPad

Think an iPad would be rubbish for writing a novel on? Think again.

Write a novel on an iPad

It's said that everyone has a novel inside them, the hard part is getting it out. But with a tablet it's now easier than ever, as you can write whenever and wherever you happen to be.

Of course there are still hurdles. Even if you're strong enough to resist the lure of the latest games and are tired of refreshing Facebook you need the right apps and tools to get the job done. Thankfully if you've got an iPad there's an ever growing number to choose from. Here's where to start.

Step 1 - Get a full size iPad

The iPad mini 3 is great, but if you want to write a novel you're ideally going to want a bigger canvas, so a full sized model like the iPad Air 2 is preferable. A mini is workable, but fifty hours of writing from now you'll be glad you opted for a larger screen.

There's less need to zoom and scroll, less eye strain from having the text zoomed too far out in order to fit a full page on the screen and more space to type, whether you're using the touchscreen or a keyboard case.

Step 2 - Find a writing app that suits you

Out of the box there isn't a hugely useful text entry app on the iPad for serious writing. Trust us, you don't want to write a novel in Notes.

But there are loads of options on the App Store, so you just have to find one which suits you. From full-featured word processors like Pages , Microsoft Word and Polaris Office , to more specialist apps like Werdsmith , which has a minimalist interface free of distractions and even Hanx Writer , which simulates a typewriter without the annoyance of having to start again every time you make a typo.

Some writing apps are free, others aren't, but the important thing is to find one which you're happy to use for hours at a time.

Step 3 - Find the perfect note taking app

As well as an app for the heavy lifting of writing your novel you may also want a separate one for jotting down notes and ideas as they come to you.

The Notes app on the iPad can do this job but there are stronger options. Evernote for example gives you an attractive interface and cloud storage, while A Novel Idea is more designed with authors in mind and has separate sections for scenes, characters, locations and ideas.

Then there's Mindly , which helps you brainstorm and structure your ideas. As with writing apps these are just a few suggestions from the many options on the app store, so dive in and find the right one for you.

Step 4 - Grab a dictionary

A writer is only as good as their vocabulary, so grab a dictionary or thesaurus and make sure you're using the best words for the job.

Dictionary.com includes both a dictionary and a thesaurus and best of all it's free, though you can also upgrade to an ad-free premium version which additionally benefits from an encyclopaedia and example sentences.

Step 5 - Vanquish writer's block

Writer's block hits us all from time to time, but there are now a number of tools to help you overcome it. You could check out Creative Writer for one, which is essentially a keyboard but with far more inspired next word suggestions than you'd typically find.

Or there's Writing Challenge , which turns writing into a game with creative prompts for you to follow.

Step 6 - Get a keyboard

The iPad has a pretty good keyboard and now that there's third party keyboard support there are other options too, but ultimately if you want to write a novel you really need a physical keyboard.

That inevitably means an additional purchase, but there are a number of options available, including some which double as cases to keep your iPad protected too. They range from things like the £13 Caseflex Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard to the likes of the £85 Logitech Ultrathin Magnetic Clip On Keyboard , with plenty of options priced in between.

Step 7 - Keep your work backed up

We can't think of many things worse for a writer than losing hundreds of hours of work, so keeping your novel backed up is essential. Thankfully some writing apps will offer this as standard, but if not you should get set up with a cloud storage account such as Dropbox and make sure you're regularly backing your work up.

This will also make it easier to access your manuscript from other devices, as you can get back into it from any computer, tablet or smartphone with an internet connection.

Step 8 - Find a good editing app

Once you're done writing you'll want to edit your work. The app you chose to write your novel may already have strong editing tools, but then again it may not. So if it doesn't you'll want to switch to something else for the editing process.

Writer Pro is a good bet. Among other things it has a Syntax Control feature which can highlight superfluous adjectives and adverbs, spot repetitive nouns and more. The feature-packed Editorial is worth a look too if you've got £7.99 to spare.

Step 9 - Just write

Apps and keyboards are nice, but ultimately all you really need is an idea and the means to write. With an iPad you have the means, the idea is up to you. Once you have one, just write. Ignore any distractions, don't worry about whether or not you have the perfect tools for the job, just do it.

Starting is the hardest part and it's easy to come up with excuses not to, but when your masterpiece is complete you'll be glad you did.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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The Ultimate Guide to Apps for Writing on iPad

Struggling to find the perfect app to transform your iPad into a powerful writing companion? This comprehensive guide explores the top contenders for all your writing needs, from note-taking and journaling to crafting novels and screenplays. Discover feature breakdowns, pricing comparisons, and expert tips to make an informed decision and unleash your inner writer on your iPad.

The iPad has become a beloved tool for writers of all stripes. Its portability, combined with the versatility of the Apple Pencil, makes it an ideal platform for jotting down ideas, composing documents, and even tackling full-length novels. But with a plethora of writing apps available, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming.

This guide delves into the top contenders in the iPad writing app arena, catering to different writing styles and needs. We'll explore:

• Note-Taking Powerhouses: Perfect for brainstorming, organizing research, and capturing fleeting thoughts.
• Minimalist Marvels: Streamlined interfaces for distraction-free writing.
• Organizational All-Stars: Apps that excel at structuring and managing large writing projects.
• Content Creation Chameleons: Versatile tools for crafting various content formats, from blog posts to scripts.
• Penmanship Perfection: Apps that prioritize the natural writing experience with the Apple Pencil.

By the end of this journey, you'll be equipped to identify the app that best complements your writing style and workflow.

Finding Your Perfect Match: A Look at Top iPad Writing Apps

The note-taking powerhouses: capture every spark of inspiration.

For many writers, the journey begins with capturing ideas. Note-taking apps excel at this crucial stage, allowing you to organize thoughts, research materials, and brainstorm freely. Here are some of the top contenders:

• Apple Notes: Pre-installed on all iPads, Apple Notes offers a user-friendly interface for basic note-taking. It seamlessly integrates with other Apple devices and supports basic formatting options. While not feature-rich, it's a convenient option for casual note-taking.
• Notability: A popular choice, Notability boasts a clean interface and robust features. It excels at handwriting recognition, allowing you to seamlessly switch between typing and writing with the Apple Pencil. Annotate PDFs, record lectures, and organize notes into folders for a comprehensive note-taking experience.
• GoodNotes 5: Beloved for its realistic pen emulation and paper-like feel, GoodNotes 5 prioritizes the natural writing experience. Annotate PDFs, insert images, and utilize its powerful organization tools to categorize and manage your notes effectively.
• Bear: This versatile app caters to writers and note-takers alike. Its clean interface encourages focused writing, while powerful formatting options and tagging capabilities ensure your notes stay organized. Bear also integrates seamlessly with other productivity tools, making it a great choice for streamlined workflows.
• Evernote: A long-standing player, Evernote offers comprehensive note-taking features along with web clipping, to-do lists, and project management tools. Its powerful search functionality makes it ideal for organizing large amounts of information. However, the free tier comes with limitations, and the paid plans can be expensive.

Choosing the Right Note-Taking App:

Consider your needs. If basic note-taking with seamless Apple device integration suffices, Apple Notes might be enough. For more advanced features like handwriting recognition, organization tools, and PDF annotation, Notability, GoodNotes 5, or Bear are excellent choices. If you require comprehensive project management features alongside note-taking, Evernote could be a good fit.

The Minimalist Marvels: Focus on the Flow of Words

For some writers, a clean and distraction-free interface is key to unlocking creativity. These minimalist apps prioritize a clutter-free environment to keep you focused on the flow of words.

• Ulysses: Designed specifically for long-form writing, Ulysses boasts a unique organizational structure. It breaks down projects into sheets, allowing you to focus on specific scenes or chapters without losing sight of the bigger picture. Its minimalist interface and powerful goal-setting features make it ideal for writers tackling novels, screenplays, or other lengthy projects.
• iA Writer: This award-winning app employs a focus mode that fades everything except the current sentence, promoting laser-sharp focus on your writing. Its clean interface and support for various Markdown features cater to writers who prefer a streamlined approach.
• Editorial: Similar to iA Writer, Editorial utilizes a focus mode to minimize distractions.

The Organizational All-Stars: Structure and Manage Your Writing Journey

As your writing projects grow, organization becomes paramount. These apps excel at structuring and managing large projects, ensuring your thoughts and content remain organized.

• Scrivener: A long-time favorite for novelists and screenwriters, Scrivener offers an unmatched level of project organization. Create notecards, corkboards, and outlines to structure your narrative. Its powerful outlining and indexing features help writers maintain a clear overview of their projects, making it ideal for crafting complex narratives.
• Mariner: Inspired by Scrivener, Mariner offers a similar organizational approach specifically designed for iPads. Break down your projects into chapters, scenes, and notecards, and utilize its storyboarding and outlining features to map out your narrative. Mariner's user-friendly interface and focus on visual organization make it a compelling option for iPad users.
• Ulysses (mentioned previously): While excelling in minimalism, Ulysses also boasts impressive organizational features. Its sheet structure allows for a modular approach to writing long-form content, making it easy to manage and rearrange chapters or scenes. Powerful note-taking capabilities seamlessly integrate with the writing experience, keeping all your project-related information organized.
• Scapple: This mind-mapping app from the creators of Scrivener allows for brainstorming and visual organization of ideas. Create connections between thoughts and concepts, and explore the non-linear flow of your writing project. Scapple integrates seamlessly with Scrivener, making it a valuable tool for writers who thrive on visual brainstorming.

Choosing the Right Organizational App:

If you're tackling complex narratives like novels or screenplays, Scrivener or Mariner are ideal choices. Their robust outlining and organizational features will keep you on track. For a more streamlined approach that integrates well with Ulysses, consider Scapple for brainstorming and visual organization.

The Content Creation Chameleons: Craft Diverse Content with Ease

Many writers create content beyond novels and scripts. These versatile apps cater to a range of content creation needs, from crafting blog posts to writing social media captions.

• Google Docs: A familiar and free option, Google Docs offers real-time collaboration, offline access, and seamless integration with other Google Workspace tools. Its simplicity makes it a good choice for quick writing tasks, blog posts, and collaborative projects.
• Microsoft Word: Another familiar option, Word offers a robust feature set for creating professional documents. Templates and formatting options make it ideal for formal writing tasks, reports, and creating polished content. However, the mobile app might feel less intuitive compared to some iPad-specific options.
• Draft: Designed specifically for writers on the go, Draft boasts a clean interface and powerful text-to-speech functionality. It allows for dictation, real-time collaboration, and seamless syncing across devices. Draft caters well to writers who value portability and a distraction-free writing environment.
• Ulysses (mentioned previously): While excelling in long-form writing, Ulysses also supports various content formats. Create blog posts, articles, or even scripts alongside your novel project, making it a versatile choice for writers who create diverse content.
• Bear (mentioned previously): Bear's clean interface and powerful formatting options make it suitable for crafting various content formats. Write blog posts, articles, or even short stories, and leverage its tagging capabilities for easy organization across different content types.

Choosing the Right Content Creation App:

For quick writing tasks, collaboration, and free accessibility, Google Docs is a solid choice. If you require more powerful formatting options for professional documents, consider Microsoft Word. For writers on the go who prioritize a minimalist interface and dictation capabilities, Draft is worth exploring. If you need an app that caters to diverse content creation alongside long-form writing, Ulysses or Bear offer versatility.

The Penmanship Perfectionists: Unleash the Power of Apple Pencil

For writers who crave the natural feel of pen on paper, these apps prioritize the Apple Pencil experience, offering a smooth and intuitive writing experience.

• GoodNotes 5 (mentioned previously): Praised for its realistic pen emulation and paper-like feel, GoodNotes 5 is a favorite among those who enjoy writing with the Apple Pencil. Its extensive selection of pen styles, customizable notebooks, and annotation capabilities make it ideal for handwriting notes, brainstorming, and even sketching storyboards.
• Notability (mentioned previously): While offering diverse features, Notability excels at handwriting recognition. Write notes seamlessly with the Apple Pencil, and the app will convert your handwriting to text instantly. This makes it a great choice for writers who value the fluidity of penmanship but also require the convenience of digital editing.
• Nebo: This app takes pen-based writing to another level. Its advanced handwriting recognition allows for real-time conversion to text, even recognizing mathematical equations and diagrams. Nebo caters to writers who heavily rely on diagrams, sketches, and handwritten formulas within their text.

Writing your book with Pages

Pages is Apple’s free, powerful word processor that lets you write, edit, and collaborate with others to create stunning books.

Pages is not only simple to use, but it’s full of helpful features for writers. You can use Pages to create any kind of book, from a traditional novel to a dynamic digital book with interactive graphics, bespoke font treatments, and much more. Pages can help you manage and develop your entire writing process: plan out your storyline on the go with Pages on your iPhone, edit on your Mac without compromising your original draft with Track Changes and Smart Annotations, and format your story to look beautiful and professional using Pages templates and text styles. Pages makes it easy to write and polish your draft into a beautiful, engaging book that readers will love.

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Use Pages on iPhone to write whenever inspiration strikes

Inspiration can strike when your computer isn’t on hand, but don’t let that stop you from getting your ideas down. Use Pages on iPhone and never let an idea slip between your fingers. Jot down thoughts, edit a section, or even write your whole book from start to finish directly from your iPhone. Pages uses iCloud Drive to sync documents across all your devices, so when you’re ready to sit down at your computer, you haven’t lost a word and can pick up your story right where you left off. Conveniently, iCloud Drive automatically saves your work periodically so you never have to worry about losing your work.

Use Comments to brainstorm

Writing is an organic process. It doesn’t always start at the beginning and proceed forward neatly. When you’re beginning to collect your thoughts, don’t get stuck on perfecting a paragraph or finding the perfect word — that will just slow down your creative process. Use the Comments feature in Pages to brainstorm ideas, think through sections of your book that you might not be ready to write, note questions you may want to answer later, or just highlight sentences you want to remember to complete another time. Comments can help unblock you on tough parts so you can keep writing without losing a thought, or losing momentum.

Use Collaboration to share your process with others

Even the best authors can use an editor. Getting feedback from a trusted reader on your draft helps you refine and craft your best story. A reader’s feedback can consist of line-by-line editing or more general suggestions about characters or plot. Use Collaboration for Pages to easily share with others and collect their feedback all within your single document. Use Pages password-protection features to keep your book safe and control who’s able to see it.

Use Track Changes or annotate with Apple Pencil

Every great book is polished through the same process: edit, rewrite, repeat. Use Track Changes to edit without overwriting your original text and track who made a change when collaborating. Use Apple Pencil on iPad to make annotations directly in your document for easy editing later.

Use text styles and panel navigation to add structure and organize your story

Great books are polished with strong text hierarchy and organized page structures. Use text styles to add chapter headers or page breaks, or to bring emphasis to specific text. Use Pages thumbnails and table of contents views to easily navigate your book.

Use Pages free book templates

Start by choosing a template that works for your book genre. The templates include layout, placeholder text, and even images to give you an idea what your book could look like. After you’ve picked a template you can add text, photos, image galleries, videos, audio, shapes, tables, charts, and more to your book.

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The best writing apps for the iPad

If you’re looking for a portable device that can also be used as a writing station, well, the humble iPad is a great choice. While it’s still lacking in some respects, Apple has bridged the large gulf that previously existed between iPads and laptops, adding a variety of features in iPadOS that help to turn your tablet into a laptop substitute. So whether you’re using the entry-level iPad  or the top-of-the-line iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard , you can get a good writing experience out of your device.

Google Docs (free)

Microsoft word (subscription), ulysses (subscription), scrivener ($20), jotterpad (free/subscription), werdsmith (free/subscription), compo (free), shortly: a.i. writing assistant (free).

But you’ll also need a good writing app to really take advantage of iPadOS’s additional writing oomph. The perfect writing app for you depends on what you need and what you’re using it for. So whether you’re jotting down an assignment, your idea for a bestselling novel, an award-winning screenplay, or anything else, here are some of the best writing apps for the iPad.

Although iPadOS’s keyboard isn’t bad, you’ll want a keyboard to really take your writing to a new level. Check out our list of the best iPad keyboards to see the best keyboards for you.

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This wouldn’t be much of a list without the Google Suite’s writing app. Google Docs may lack the crazy features of some of the other options on this list, but Docs has everything you need for most basic writing tasks, including full formatting, support for images, and spell checkers. But the real strength lies in its online nature. It’s completely free, but despite that, you’ll get instant syncing so you can work on your document at the same time as other people and see edits and additions in real time, and it can import from and export to pretty much every format you’ll possibly need. While it’s a bit bare if you’re writing a novel or a screenplay, this is the ultimate note-taking tool, and one of the best completely free options available.

It’s the classic app we all know and love, and probably the program we all immediately think of when anyone says “word processor.” Word comes with a number of templates for different styles of document, handles images, and has a full formatting toolbar to boot. Word is effectively Microsoft’s answer for Google Docs — except you have to pay for it. Regardless of that, if you already have an Office subscription, Word is a strong option with support for importing from and exporting to many formats, cloud-based storage, and real-time editing with collaborators, plus the advantage of being the word-processing program of choice for many professional editors.

The first app in this list to really push itself to “writers,” rather than people who just need to write, Ulysses is a strong contender for the app for serious writers. You can keep almost anything in Ulysses, including your screenplay, novel notes, a to-do or shopping list, or even your blog’s latest post. There is a strong spelling and grammar checker, it syncs up with the MacOS version of Ulysses, and it can even export as an e-book. Unfortunately, you won’t get this for free, and Ulysses requires a subscription to work. It’ll set you back $6 a month, with discounts for year-long plans — but if you’re serious about writing, Ulysses is a good investment.

Possibly the most powerful single tool for writing, Scrivener is one of our favorite writing apps. It costs an upfront $20, which is a lot of money for an iOS app, but for that price you get a solid writing platform, a place to keep all your research (including images), notes on characters or locations, and a useful “corkboard”-style view for your chapters, which allows you to view everything at a glance, or even move individual chapters around easily like you would on a real corkboard. It exports to e-book and other popular formats, and syncs up with the MacOS version — though you’ll need to buy that too . Still, even with those added costs, Scrivener is the real deal.

Jotterpad’s aim is to provide a writing app without the distractions of a traditional word processor, and it does this extremely well. The interface is simple and extremely streamlined, but even with that, it’s not lacking in features. You’ll find all the usual additions, including Markdown, Fountain, a spell checker, and more. There’s even a rhyming dictionary. You can start up your document as a novel, screenplay, blog, or editorial piece, and you can jump between Jotterpad on different devices, thanks to its syncing. However, you’ll need a subscription to access most of the features on offer, including cloud syncing. A year’s subscription will cost you $30 a year.

Writing should be addictive. At least, that’s what Werdsmith believes, and it has the tools to hopefully inspire you to make writing a part of your daily routine. It uses writing tracking and daily goals to push you into keeping up a streak and jotting words down every day. Heck, it even has an Apple Watch word-counting app. If you struggle to keep writing, this may be the iPad writing app for you. Other than that, it has a decent number of features, including novel or screenplay writing tools and cloud syncing to keep your work current. There is a subscription, but it’s purely to allow you to work on more than a set number of documents at once, for $5 a month.

Compo is a brutally simple writing experience that aims to deliver a quick, easy way of writing down whatever’s on your mind. While some other apps may want you to set up a project and a template before you start, Compo just opens a blank page and lets you at it. Although it’s something more of a note-taking app, it’s certainly good enough for more heavy-duty writing tasks. You can share your writings on a number of different services and social media sites, and it syncs up with iCloud as well.

We’ve left the, well, weirdest until last. Shortly is a writing app with a difference — it has another tiny writer caged inside it, who learns from your writing and pens their own additions to your story when asked. All right, so it’s really an A.I., but Shortly’s writing assistant is actually pretty good, and it’s the perfect tool for getting over a small writer’s block. Using your past pennings as a template, it’ll take the reins and type away, adding new ideas and story turns you might not have thought of. While it’s unlikely to finish your story for you, it’s a great way to get the creative impulses firing up again. Worth a download and a try, even if you’re using another app.

Editors' Recommendations

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As of Tuesday, May 7, Apple has begun rolling out RC builds for iOS 17.5. RC stands for "Release Candidate," and it's the last beta version of a software update that Apple releases before its final public rollout. In other news, the official iOS 17.5 update should be right around the corner.

If it’s time to trade in an old device or otherwise make the jump to a new smartphone, we’ve got some savings in store for you. The best smartphone deals currently taking place include some popular phones, several of which are often considered to be among the best phones. We’ve rounded up all of the best phone deals to shop right now. They’re full of Samsung Galaxy deals, Google Pixel deals, Apple iPhone deals, and more. There are even some great foldable phone deals in the mix. Reading onward you’ll find impressive savings on phones from some of the top brands, as well as some information on why each phone may best suit your needs. Nokia C210 (Unlocked) — $100, was $110

If you’re looking for an affordable, no-frills phone that’s tough as nails, the Nokia C210 is a great phone to consider. It has a sharp LCD display that comes in at 6.3-inches, as well as a resolution slightly less than Full HD. The main camera is 13-megapixels and the selfie cam checks in at 5-megapixels. And despite this phone’s price, it packs an octa-core processor and 32GB of internal storage, with the ability to expand internal capacity using MicroSD cards.

The Apple iPhone lineup isn’t often a place to turn for a discount, as Apple deals can be somewhat difficult to come by. The best phone deals often turn up discounts on less premium brands, but there are some ways to save on the iPhone 15, which is Apple’s most recent iPhone release. You’ll find some of the best iPhone 15 deals scattered across retailers, which is why we’ve done some of the heavy lifting and organized them all below. Among the best iPhone deals you’ll find below are some impressive savings even if you don’t have an old device to trade-in.

You can also shop the best refurbished iPhone deals if you’re looking for ultimate savings, and there are plenty of iPhone 14 deals to shop if having the most recent iPhone release isn’t of importance to you. Today's best iPhone 15 deals

7 best novel writing apps for iPad

Super-clean writing space with a lot of configurability that stays out of sight when you don’t need it.

• Gorgeous writing space
• Silky-smooth typing
• Deep personalization (Pro)
• Markdown or Plain Text
• Syncs with iCloud
• Writes and edits texts with ChatGPT AI
• Publishes drafts to Medium, WordPress, or Ghost
• Exports to PDF, HTML, RTF, DOCX, image, or clipboard
• Works seamlessly across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Scrivener takes tools familiar to writers everywhere and integrates them in new and exciting ways.

For writing. And writing. And writing.

Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. Scrivener won't tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing.

Grow your manuscript your way

Tailor-made for long writing projects, Scrivener banishes page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order, in sections as large or small as you like. Got a great idea but don't know where it fits? Write when inspiration strikes and find its place later. Grow your manuscript organically, idea by idea.

See the forest or the trees

Whether you plan or plunge, Scrivener works your way: hammer out every last detail before typing a word, or carve out a draft and restructure later. Or mix your methods and do a bit of both. In Scrivener, everything you write is integrated into an easy-to-use project outline. So working with an overview of your manuscript is only ever a click away, and turning Chapter Four into Chapter One is as simple as drag and drop.

Research within reach

Need to refer to research? In Scrivener, your background material is always at hand, and you can open it right next to your work. Write a description based on a photograph. Transcribe an interview. Take notes about a PDF file or web page. Or check for consistency by referencing an earlier chapter alongside the one in progress.

Getting it out there

Once you're ready to share your work with the world, compile everything into a single document for printing, self-publishing, or exporting to popular formats such as Word, PDF, Final Draft or plain text. You can even share using different formatting, so that you can write in your favorite font and still satisfy those submission guidelines.

Create documents, make impact. When your work needs to wow, Craft gives you the tools to make it magnificent.

Don't just process words - build documents

Craft brings structure to your documents - and gives you the tools and freedom to do it your way. Seamlessly combine images, text, media or tables for the perfect experience. Drive deep understanding and engagement by allowing the reader to consume your document just as they would a website. Add your brand and personal touches on top for the prefect document.

Big on impact, teensy weensy on effort

Organizing your workflow, writing your report, creating your code or mapping your masterplan; whatever you’re doing, the freedom to do it your way matters. Tables, toggles, markdown and blocks, back-linking, forward-thinking, in, out and shake it all about - Craft’s ingeniously rich feature-set gives you endless possibilities to love how you work. Just click and create for amazingly beautiful docs in minutes, then bring it all together in your own unique way.

One beautiful experience. All of your devices.

At your desk, on the go, on or offline, enjoy Craft’s powerful performance and legendary UI across your entire toolkit, courtesy of the native app experience. Lose the lag and fall in love with instant sync; quickly jump into any document on any device; and free your creativity with the same beautiful experience whatever device you’re on. We’ve even got a web-based app so you’ll never drop the ball again.

And plenty of ways to share the love

Why keep your brilliant work to yourself when we’ve made it really simple to share? Secret Linking, shared spaces, external guests, and fast, easy export; inspire action across teams, clients, and everyone who’s anyone with the kind of content that’ll make you look way more wow than yet another Google Doc. Or Word doc. Or (insert app you’re using here).

Get focused. iA Writer offers a unique writing experience that lets you concentrate and clarify your message. Used by half a million people worldwide, its powerful interface is crafted to cut out noise, let you focus on what you want to say, and help you structure and trim your text. Available for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android.

Simple and Powerful

No rulers, no formatting bars. iA Writer provides the crisp, uncluttered environment you need to write well, supported by discrete, powerful features, from Content Blocks, to Syntax Highlighting.

Focus and Flow

Focus is the key to good writing, and the guiding principle behind iA Writer. With shortcuts and simplified settings, you can keep your hands on the keyboard and your mind in the text.

Ownership and Control

We think every craftsperson should own their own tools, so when you download iA Writer, you own it. No forced subscriptions, microtransactions, or compatibility concerns. Your work, your files, your app.

Hack Your Syntax

Highlight parts of speech to improve your writing. Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, and unwanted repetitions. Developers have long used syntax highlighting to improve their code. Now you can hack your text.

Power of Style Check

Style Check is like having a personal editor-in-chief on your device, carefully reviewing your text for redundancies, clichés and filler words as you type. It’s simple, different, and powerful.

The Original Focus Mode

Focus only on the sentence or paragraph that you’re working on. Introduced in 2010 with the original iA Writer, Focus Mode has since been copied by many writing apps. This is the original, and still (we think) the best.

Flexible Content Blocks

Swap sections around, add media, and construct your content with flexible building blocks of text, .csv tables and image files. Stitch separate chapters together into one master file. Express yourself through experimentation.

Optimized Typeface

We have created an innovative typeface for iA Writer, specifically designed to enhance the writing experience. The family comes in three flavors: classic Mono, Duo for larger screens, and Quattro for small devices.

Parallel PDF Preview

iA Writer now offers a live, paginated PDF preview, parallel to the text you are editing. Instantly see how your document translates into PDF pages, as you edit.

Advanced Markdown to Word Export

iA Writer features one of the most advanced Markdown-to-Word export functions available anywhere. Quickly export your Markdown documents to MS Word (and back too!). Includes support for tables, images and footnotes.

The Ultimate Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Powerful features and a pleasant, focused writing experience combined in one tool, made for people who love to write and write a lot — this is Ulysses.

Like 12 Fingers, 25 Hours a Day

Some things simply work better when you’ve got the right tool. Ulysses’ well thought-out features boost your productivity through the entire writing process; its distraction-free interface keeps you in the flow so you can get things done.

Projects Cannot Get Too Big

Be it college essays, blog posts, or the next Great American Novel: No matter what you’re working on, Ulysses is equipped for managing writing projects of all sizes and ambitions.

Built-In Proofreader and Editing Assistant

Write with confidence: Ulysses’ built-in grammar and style check helps you avoid mistakes and meet the right tone. Available for over 20 languages, it offers suggestions for capitalization, punctuation, semantics, redundancy, style and more.

Let Your Words Shine

After you’re done writing, Ulysses can turn your texts into beautiful PDFs, Word documents, ebooks and even blog posts. Everything is just a click away, with on-the-fly switching of styles and a live preview built right in.

The Simplest Writing App for Mac, iPad and iPhone

There are many writing apps for you to choose from today, so why bother with yet another one? Because Simpletext is different — it’s thoughtful simplicity provides an experience unlike any other writing apps you have used before.

Simpletext started as a passion project because I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Most apps were trying to do too much and ended up bloated with features I don’t need. So I built Simpletext based on a simple premise — what if there’s an app that refuses to do more, choosing instead to do just one thing, and do it well? For Simpletext, that one thing is writing.

Why Simpletext?

Most people would say Simpletext is lacking in features, and they’re right. In fact, Simpletext began the opposite way — by listing down everything I didn’t want in a writing app. The idea is to create a dumbed-down writing app that inspires you to do nothing else but write. In order to achieve this, Simpletext is centered around four cornerstone principles:

Zero Clutter

Simpletext provides a quiet space to write with absolutely nothing to distract you from writing. There’s no visual clutter — the intent is to create a space that helps you connect with your voice and get into the flow.

Beautiful Typography

Simpletext comes with three professional fonts for you to choose from, handpicked to ensure the finest writing experience. They are: (1) Akkurat Mono by Lineto Type Foundry (Monospaced); (2) Graphik by Commercial Type (Sans Serif); and (3) Valkyrie by MB Type (Serif).

Plain Text Only

Simpletext supports only plain text, which is lightweight and platform independent. It will never have rich text formatting, images, tables, etc — the focus is solely on writing, not formatting. This also ensures your words are always accessible on every device, now and in the future.

Fully Native

Simpletext is a fully native app developed in Swift and runs natively on Apple silicon. It uses only Apple’s framework and UI components, the way they’re designed to be used without any custom workarounds. This means less code, less bugs and better overall performance.

iWriter Pro

iWriter Pro is elegant and minimalist text editor with built-in MultiMarkdown support.

Clean and Simple

iWriter Pro is designed to be easy yet powerful text editing app. It provides distraction-free writing experience with a bunch of handy features.

Markdown Highlighting

Markdown is a good way to format your text, apply styles, insert lists and block quotes. iWriter Pro automatically highlights text as you type.

iCloud Support

Use iCloud to store your documents. You can easily create, view and edit your files on Mac, iPad and iPhone devices.

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How to write a novel: 6 writing apps & inspiration apps

How to write a book: Writing apps to help you write your novel

If you have had an idea for a novel for months or years but haven’t quite figured out how to put that idea to paper and actually write it, you are far from alone. But what you might not know is that there are lots of tools out there to help you get started, so why not make 2017 the year that you finally take the plunge?

We’re here to help with a round-up of writing and inspiration apps that will help you get started and see the writing process through to the end. Read on to find out how to write a novel using your Mac, iPad or iPhone (plus a splash of imagination too of course).

How to write a book: Scrivener writing app

One of the first things to decide is what software you’re going to use to actually write the thing. Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages are great, but they come with lots of trimmings that someone writing a novel doesn’t actually need. You can choose an application that strips things back to basics but adds some handy tools for writers to help organise notes, ideas and timelines instead.

View on Mac App Store View on iOS App Store

One of the most popular is Scrivener . In addition to being a word processor, it’s also a project manager designed specifically for anyone writing a novel, research paper, script or other long-form text. It’s designed to let you work in any order and restructure later, meaning you can dip in and out of your novel at any point when you have new ideas or if you get a bit stuck on a particular chapter. You can add a synopsis, an index, collections and more to help you stay organised when you’re writing, and thanks to the mobile app you can write when you’re out and about if inspiration strikes.

How to write a book: iA Writer writing app

View in the Mac App Store View in the iOS App Store

While Scrivener is excellent for collecting all of your ideas, drafts and notes in one place, there is a lot going on there. Some might prefer iA Writer, which sports a plain text editor that is designed to take away all of the distractions. There’s a Focus Mode for when you really want to knuckle down and write, and when it comes to editing you can use the Syntax Control tool to see empty adjectives and adverbs, weak verbs and faulty conjunctions.

It’s a very good-looking application that is available on Mac, iPhone and iPad so you’ll be able to use it wherever you are too.

How to write a book: Hemingway writing app

View Hemingway App’s website .

If you like the sound of iA Writer’s Syntax Control tool, you might also want to check out Hemingway App, which is designed to help you improve your writing. It will highlight sentences that it deems hard to read, offer advice on the use of unnecessary adverbs and overcomplicated phrases and more. It will also give you a word count and rate your writing for readability.

This isn’t going to work for everyone, because you might have a particular style of writing that doesn’t play well with the Hemingway App. But it’s a neat idea and worth investigating, because of course you don’t always have to take its advice.

How to write a book: MindNode

View in the iOS App Store View in the Mac App Store

If you’ve got lots of ideas that feel like they’re jumbled up in your mind, it can be really difficult to know where to start. An app like MindNode can help, as it allows you to create a visual representation of your ideas and organize your thoughts. Available for iPhone, iPad and Mac, MindNode lets you quickly create mind maps that can be as simple or as complicated as you need them to be.

How to write a book: The Brainstormer

View in the iOS App Store.

MindNode is great for when you have loads of ideas to put down onto paper, but what if the problem is that the ideas just aren’t coming at all? There are several apps that can help, including The Brainstormer.

The Brainstormer is designed to help you get rid of writer’s block by offering a plot, subject, setting and style combination completely at random using a spinning wheel mechanism that’s a lot of fun. Start writing whatever comes to mind and hopefully it’ll kickstart your creativity ready to get back to work on your novel.

There are additional wheel sets available as in-app purchases too, including Character Builder and World builder.

How to write a book: Lists for Writers

Similarly, Lists for Writers offers prompts to help you with your novel if you get a bit stuck. There are lists that will help you name your characters and get to know them, as well as come up with places, settings and even plot ideas. Lists include phobias, basic plots, dramatic situations, weather and many more.

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Pages User Guide for iPad

• What’s new in Pages 14.0
• Intro to Pages
• Word-processing or page layout?
• Intro to images, charts, and other objects
• Create a document
• Intro to creating a book
• Use templates
• Find a document
• Open a document
• Save and name a document
• Print a document or envelope
• Undo or redo changes
• Prevent accidental editing
• Quick navigation
• Intro to formatting symbols
• Show or hide the ruler
• View pages side by side
• Copy text and objects between apps
• Basic touchscreen gestures
• Use Apple Pencil with Pages
• Customize the toolbar
• Create a document using VoiceOver
• Use VoiceOver to preview comments and track changes
• Select text
• Add and replace text
• Copy and paste text
• Add, change, or delete a merge field
• Manage sender information
• Add, change, or delete a source file in Pages on iPad
• Populate and create customized documents
• Format a document for another language
• Use phonetic guides
• Use bidirectional text
• Use vertical text
• Add the date and time
• Add mathematical equations
• Bookmarks and links
• Change the look of text
• Set a default font
• Change text capitalization
• Use text styles
• Copy and paste text styles
• Format fractions automatically
• Add drop caps
• Make characters superscript or subscript
• Format Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text
• Format dashes and quotation marks
• Set line and paragraph spacing
• Set paragraph margins
• Format lists
• Set tab stops
• Align and justify text
• Add line and page breaks
• Format columns of text
• Link text boxes
• Add borders and rules (lines)
• Set paper size and orientation
• Set document margins
• Set up facing pages
• Page templates
• Add and format sections
• Rearrange pages or sections
• Duplicate pages or sections
• Delete pages or sections
• Table of contents
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Headers and footers
• Add page numbers
• Change the page background
• Add a border around a page
• Add watermarks and background objects
• Add an image
• Add an image gallery
• Edit an image
• Add and edit a shape
• Combine or break apart shapes
• Save a shape to the shapes library
• Add and align text inside a shape
• Add 3D objects
• Add lines and arrows
• Add and edit drawings
• Add video and audio
• Record video and audio
• Edit video and audio
• Set the movie format
• Position and align objects
• Place objects with text
• Use alignment guides
• Layer, group, and lock objects
• Change the transparency of an object
• Fill shapes and text boxes with color or an image
• Add a border to an object
• Add a caption or title
• Add a reflection or shadow
• Use object styles
• Resize, rotate, and flip objects
• Add or delete a table
• Select tables, cells, rows, and columns
• Add or remove table rows and columns
• Move table rows and columns
• Resize table rows and columns
• Merge or unmerge table cells
• Change the look of table text
• Show, hide, or edit a table title
• Change table gridlines and colors
• Use table styles
• Resize, move, or lock a table
• Add and edit cell content
• Format dates, currency, and more
• Format tables for bidirectional text
• Highlight cells conditionally
• Alphabetize or sort table data
• Add or delete a chart
• Change a chart from one type to another
• Modify chart data
• Move, resize, and rotate a chart
• Change the look of data series
• Add a legend, gridlines, and other markings
• Change the look of chart text and labels
• Add a border and background to a chart
• Use chart styles
• Check spelling
• Look up words
• Find and replace text
• Replace text automatically
• Show word count and other statistics
• Annotate a document
• Set your author name for comments
• Highlight text
• Add and print comments
• Track changes
• Send a document
• Publish a book to Apple Books
• Intro to collaboration
• Invite others to collaborate
• Collaborate on a shared document
• See the latest activity in a shared document
• Change a shared document’s settings
• Stop sharing a document
• Shared folders and collaboration
• Use Box to collaborate
• Use presenter mode
• Use iCloud Drive with Pages
• Export to Word, PDF, or another file format
• Restore an earlier version of a document
• Move a document
• Delete a document
• Password-protect a document
• Create and manage custom templates
• Transfer documents with AirDrop
• Transfer documents with Handoff
• Transfer documents with the Finder
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Keyboard shortcut symbols

Intro to creating a book in Pages on iPad

Pages comes with a variety of book templates to help you create interactive books in EPUB format. Books in EPUB format can be opened in Apple Books and other ebook readers.

Choose the right book template for your content

To create a book, you first choose a template to use as a starting point. Book templates come in two orientations—portrait and landscape—which are designed for different types of content.

Portrait orientation: These templates are best for books with mostly text—for example, novels, reports, and journals. They allow text to adjust to different sizes of devices and reflow when a reader changes the font size on their device. Because these templates are word-processing documents, you can group pages into sections, like chapters.

Landscape orientation: Page layout documents in landscape orientation are best for books that use lots of images or that have content formatted in columns. The layout of each page is maintained no matter what device the reader uses—text doesn’t flow freely from one page to the next unless you add linked text boxes . Landscape-oriented documents come with one or more page templates that you use as a starting point for your own pages.

For more information about the differences between word-processing and page layout documents, see Intro to word-processing and page layout documents .

Add your content

Templates come with placeholder text and images that you replace with your own content. Placeholders give you an idea of what a book created with this template might look like when you use its text and object styles. You can modify the template however you like and add features like an interactive image gallery for readers to swipe through.

You can change book margins, customize how headers and footers are formatted, and use different headers and footers for left- and right-facing pages.

Note: If you plan to publish your book to Apple Books, you need to apply paragraph styles to headings or chapters. Pages uses applied styles to create a table of contents for readers to navigate the book. You can also add a table of contents yourself and style it how you like.

View your book or share it with others

When you’re ready to view or share your book, you export it in EPUB format . In the export dialog, you can add the book title and author name, choose a cover, and more. You can send the book to someone else or view it in Apple Books.

To make your book available for purchase or download from Apple Books, you can publish it to Apple Books directly from Pages. An EPUB file is created during the process—you don’t need to export the book in EPUB format first.

If you need help getting started, see Create and format a document .

The Best Writing Apps For iPad To Write Anywhere Anytime

There are so many fantastic writing apps for iPad now. If you like to write on the move, it’s a winning combination.

You don’t need to carry around your laptop because any iPad, even an old one, has more than enough power and memory for writing apps.

It’s possible to write with the on-screen keyboard. But it’s more practical and efficient to use a keyboard cover. If you don’t have one, do a quick search on Amazon. They range in price, but you can usually find one to suit your budget.

Now you are equipped to write in a cafe, on a plane, in a park, or while waiting for a train. All you need to do now is choose your favorite writing apps.

The best writing apps for iPad

When choosing your writing app, you need to decide what features you need. It is especially true if you want to write a book on your iPad .

Many of the free apps offer almost everything you require to write and save your work.

But of course, there are premium apps that can extend your functionality with many more features.

You should try a few to see how they work and if they can do the job for you.

Another factor with writing on an iPad is whether you need a wi-fi connection to save your work.

Most apps will save to your iPad and then sync your files when you are in wi-fi range again.

If you have an iPhone, you can always use your personal hotspot to connect.

The most important factor, however, is the ease of writing.

You don’t want to jump through hoops every time you start a new writing session. You just want to open an app and continue writing from where you left off.

So what are the best choices for writing apps for your iPad? Let’s look at some of the best options.

1. Apple Pages – Free

I have to start with the easiest and best solution.

Well, for me, anyway, it’s the best app for writers with an iPad.

I have used Apple Pages on my laptops and a bunch of iPads over the years.

For any form of writing, it’s one of the easiest apps to use on an iPad.

There are book templates that can get you up and writing in no time at all. For article and essay writers, there are lots of ready-made templates to choose from.

One great advantage is that you can start writing on your laptop and pick up where you left off on your iPad.

All your work is saved and synced on your iCloud account.

You can also use Pages to format an ebook for publishing and export it in an epub file.

You get 5 gigabytes of storage for free with your iCloud account, which is way more than enough to save your writing files.

2. Microsoft Word – Free

You can find the free Microsoft Word app in the App Store.

It’s basic, but you can write and edit your docx files with ease.

I save my Word files to my free Dropbox account, which works super well to sync my files between my iPad and Macbook Pro.

If you have a PC, this is also the best way to sync your files between a Windows computer and an iPad.

3. Novlr – Free and Premium

Novlr is a relatively new writing program for authors.

However, it is gaining popularity. The main reason, I think, is because of the simplicity of the program.

It’s super easy to use, so you can get started on writing straight away.

But when you dig a little deeper, you will find plenty of useful tools to help you write a book, even with the free version.

It’s a cloud-based app, so don’t need to install anything, just use it with any iPad browser.

4. Scrivener – Free trial – Premium

Almost every author knows about Scrivener.

It’s probably the most popular program for writing and publishing books.

It can take a little while to learn how to use Scrivener. But once you get through the learning curve, there are so many tools and features to help you organize, research, write, and publish your book.

While most authors probably use the laptop program, the iPad app allows you to write anywhere and anytime.

There is a generous 30-day free trial period if you are interested. Also, you won’t have to pay an annual subscription. The premium version is available for a one-time payment.

Price: $47.00 for a household Mac or PC license. $19.99 for the iOS app.

5. Google Docs – Free

There’s no doubt that Google Docs is a favorite for article and content writers.

While most writers use it on a laptop, there is an iPad app so you can write on the move.

As far as word processors go, it is probably the most popular after Microsoft Word.

It has every feature you could ever need to write, edit, and check.

6. WPS Office Suite – Free

If you have used Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you can work with WPS Office straight away.

WPS is similar to other free word processors .

It comes with the standard features you expect and is compatible with the most common word-processing file extensions .

But one of its best features is that you can drag and drop paragraphs. It is a practical idea.

Another great feature of WPS is tabbed documents. No need to keep hunting for open windows.

WPS also comes with a free cloud storage service that gives you 1 gigabyte of storage space for PC and iOS. The free iPad app is available on the App Store.

7. Grammarly Keyboard – Free

Grammarly is one of the most popular grammar checkers around, and you probably use it already.

But if you want to write on an iPad, you can use the free Grammarly Keyboard app.

It works for both free and premium Grammarly users, so it’s available for all writers.

While it is certainly not as extensive as the Grammarly editor on a computer, the app provides more than enough help to ensure error-free writing.

8. Apple Notes – Free

One last suggestion is Apple Notes, which is a default app on iPads and Macs and syncs between them.

It’s not the fanciest writing app, but there are enough basic formatting options to meet most writing needs.

Perhaps the best use is to keep a list of your writing notes and ideas so you can work on them on your iPad, laptop, or desktop Mac.

You have so many choices when it comes to writing apps for your iPad.

If you use a different writing program than the ones I have mentioned above, check the App Store to see if there is an app available.

There’s no need to be tied to your desk or office to write. Grab your iPad and write wherever you like.

I recall that when I was traveling a lot, I always took an iPad with me. I wrote chapters and chapters either on a plane, in an airport, or while on holiday.

You won’t use it all the time, but when you feel like a change of scenery, grab your iPad, and you’re ready to write.

Related reading: The Best Phone Apps For Writers Who Want To Write On The Go

About The Author

Derek Haines

More articles.

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2 thoughts on “the best writing apps for ipad to write anywhere anytime”.

Yes, that can be a problem. But you can often find an old version. Try this article for details. macworld.co.uk/how-to/download-old-version-app-3681477/

If that doesn’t work, you could try updating your iPad iOS.

You said that Apple Pages works, no matter the age of your iPad. I just tried to download it onto my iPad, which is old, and it told me ‘it’s not compatible with this iPad.’

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Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Everything you need to craft your first draft.

Get your thoughts onto the page and explore the connections between them.

Join the conversation. Ask a question or just get to know your fellow users.

What we’re working on, interviews with users, and general prolixity.

Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines all the tools you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.

Scrivener takes tools familiar to writers everywhere and integrates them in new and exciting ways.

Start a new chapter: Scrivener 3 is now available for macOS and Windows.

No matter what you write, Scrivener brings together all of your notes, research and writing so that it's always at hand.

For writing. And writing. And writing.

Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. Scrivener won't tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing.

Available for

Grow your manuscript your way.

Tailor-made for long writing projects, Scrivener banishes page fright by allowing you to compose your text in any order, in sections as large or small as you like. Got a great idea but don't know where it fits? Write when inspiration strikes and find its place later. Grow your manuscript organically, idea by idea.

MORE FEATURES

See the forest or the trees

Whether you plan or plunge, Scrivener works your way: hammer out every last detail before typing a word, or carve out a draft and restructure later. Or mix your methods and do a bit of both. In Scrivener, everything you write is integrated into an easy-to-use project outline. So working with an overview of your manuscript is only ever a click away, and turning Chapter Four into Chapter One is as simple as drag and drop.

Research within reach

Need to refer to research? In Scrivener, your background material is always at hand, and you can open it right next to your work. Write a description based on a photograph. Transcribe an interview. Take notes about a PDF file or web page. Or check for consistency by referencing an earlier chapter alongside the one in progress.

Getting it out there

Once you're ready to share your work with the world, compile everything into a single document for printing, self-publishing, or exporting to popular formats such as Word, PDF, Final Draft or plain text. You can even share using different formatting, so that you can write in your favorite font and still satisfy those submission guidelines.

Who uses Scrivener?

• Autobiographers
• Biographers
• Children's Authors
• Journalists
• Screenwriters
• Translators

I genuinely think this is the biggest software advance for writers since the word processor. Michael Marshall Smith , NYT best-selling author.

Scrivener gives you the freedom to make a mess, the confidence to know you’ll clean it up, and the semantic relationships to tie it all together in whatever way makes the most sense to you. Merlin Mann , indie writer, speaker, and broadcaster.

If there was a list of the top five greatest apps of all time in the Mac App Store, it would start with Scrivener and then there would be four other things. Andy Ihnatko , technology columnist.

As a writer's application, Scrivener is damn near perfect; it means outlines, treatments and then first drafts can be put together in the same application. Neil Cross , author and screenwriter.

Scrivener is worth every penny: quite simply, it’s the best writers tool there is. Zoe Margolis , best-selling author.

Scrivener is the biggest leap forward in writing software since the venerable days of WordPerfect, and believe me, I’ve tried them all. Antony Johnston , comics writer and novelist.

Scrivener has so many useful features, there’s almost too many to list. Mike Sussman , Writer-Producer.

I'd thought it was yet another hobby app at first but this is genuinely for working writers with real deadlines and monster workloads. Karen Traviss , #1 NYT best-selling author.

Scrivener 1.2.4 Requires iOS 12+ Release Notes

Scrivener 3.3.6 Requires macOS 10.13+ Release Notes

Scrivener 3.1.5.1 Requires 64-bit Windows 10+ Minimum display resolution 1024x768px Release Notes

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• How to Make $100K Per Month

7 Best Writing Apps for iPad 2024 (Write A Book Fast)

by Chris Von Wilpert, BBusMan • Last updated November 23, 2023

Expert Verified by Leandro Langeani, BBA

First-Person Perspective:   We buy, test and review software products based on a 3-step rating methodology and first-hand experience .  If you buy through our links, we may get a commission.  Read our rating methodology and how we make money .

Today there are 118 different writing apps for iPad . We spent 57 hours comparing the top 50 to find the seven best you can use to write on the world’s best tablet.

What is the Best Writing App for iPad?

• Scrivener — best of the best
• Ulysses — best minimalist app
• iA Writer — best distraction-free interface
• Pages — best from Apple
• Google Docs — best for cloud storage
• Microsoft Word — best feature-rich app
• Bear — best markdown editor

1. Scrivener

Our verdict — best of the best.

Scrivener is the go-to writing app for aspiring authors. We think it’s the best because of its customizable corkboard view, versatile writing and editing features, and powerful outlining tools.

The Best Part:

Powerful outlining functionality. Scrivener's Outliner feature helps you effortlessly plan, organize, and rearrange your projects.

The Worst Part:

Steep learning curve. It might take some time for newcomers to get acquainted with all of Scrivener’s features.

Get it if you want a feature-rich app that allows you to write, edit, and manage your book projects from the comfort of your iPad.

I recommend you buy Scrivener from the App Store for $23.99.

(download now)

Scrivener is best for aspiring authors who want an all-in-one app to help them write, edit, and manage their book writing projects.

Top Features

Visualize your plan. Organize your ideas with digital notecards on a customizable corkboard — perfect for visual thinkers.

Write now, organize later. Piece together bits of text you've penned spontaneously and easily rearrange them with Scrivener's scrivenings mode.

Make it feel like home. Tweak settings, toolbars, and layouts to create the perfect writing environment on your iPad.

Write without distractions. Focus all of your attention on your words with Scrivener's full-screen composition mode, to block out all distractions.

Keep up with your writing goals. Set word count goals for your project or individual sections to stay on track.

Scrivener offers a single pricing plan:

Scrivener for iOS: $23.99 one-time payment, for aspiring authors and dedicated writers who want a powerful, all-in-one writing tool on their iPads.

Try Scrivener today via the App Store.

Our Verdict — Best Minimalist App

Ulysses is a sleek and straightforward writing app designed for iPad users who crave a minimalist experience. We think it’s the best minimalist app because of its clutter-free interface, seamless synchronization across Apple devices, and efficient organization tools.

Organization made easy. Ulysses lets you keep your content structured and tidy with its intuitive sheet grouping and library sorting options.

Limited formatting options. Ulysses doesn’t have many of the fancy formatting options other writing apps offer, which could be a letdown for some users.

Get it if you want an intuitive writing app that covers the basics and keeps things simple for the minimalist in you.

I recommend you get started with the free trial, then go for the Yearly Plan for $39.99/year.

(free plan)

Ulysses is best for writers who want a minimalist writing environment that keeps them focused on their work.

Sync it up. Use iCloud integration to keep your work up to date at all times across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.

It helps you keep your pace. Set word count or time-based goals and track your progress effortlessly.

Your own space. Customize Ulysses with a variety of themes that suit your style, while keeping that minimalistic feel.

Export in a snap. Ulysses makes it easy for you to convert and export your books to various formats, including PDF, HTML, and ePub.

Search and find. Use the advanced search function to locate specific content within your library.

Ulysses offers three pricing plans:

• Monthly Plan: $5.99/month for writers who prefer a flexible, short-term subscription for writing a book or two.
• Yearly Plan: $39.99/year for dedicated writers who are in it for the long haul and want the best bang for their buck.
• Student Offer: $10.99/six months for students.

The annual plan provides a 44% discount.

Try Ulysses today with the free plan.

3. iA Writer

Our verdict — best distraction-free interface.

iA Writer is the perfect iPad app for writers who want the closest experience to pen and paper. We think it’s the best distraction-free interface because of its seamless fullscreen mode, live syntax highlighting, and smooth syncing capabilities.

It’s all about focus. iA Writer’s full-screen mode allows you to completely immerse yourself in your writing without a single distraction.

No free trial. iA Writer doesn’t offer an option for testing out its features — you’ll have to pay the $49.99 fee in full.

Get it if you want a completely distraction-free writing environment that allows you to put all of your focus on your words and ideas.

I recommend you get iA Writer from the App Store for $49.99.

iA Writer is best for writers who want a clean, distraction-free writing environment.

Swift cloud storage access. Access all of your docs within iA Writer’s intuitive Library, whether they’re stored in iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox.

Favorites FTW. Mark your most-used files and folders as favorites to always keep ‘em handy.

Stay organized. Set up custom rules for Smart Folders and watch your documents automatically get organized.

Categorization made easy. Group your work using hashtags to categorize key chapters, themes, and ideas to easily locate while writing your book.

Sort files your way. Personalize how you view your File List by sorting documents according to Name, Date, or Extension.

iA Writer offers a single pricing plan:

iOS & iPadOS: $49.99 one-time payment, for writers who want lifetime access to a full-screen, distraction-free writing app.

Try iA Writer today via the App Store.

Our Top Three Picks

Here’s a quick summary of our top three picks:

• iA Writer — best distraction-free app

Here’s a quick comparison of our top seven picks:

Here are the top 50 best writing apps for iPad we considered in this review:

• Google Docs
• Microsoft Word
• JotterPad 
• Fade In Mobile
• ProWritingAid 
• Grammarly Keyboard
• Zoho Writer 
• Celtx Script
• Quip: Docs, Chat, Spreadsheets
• FocusWriter
• iaWriter 
• Markdown & Rich Text Editor
• Textilus Pro
• Manuscript Writer
• WriteMapper 
• Aeon Timeline
• Writer's Studio
• Day One Journal
• Penultimate
• XMind: Mind Map
• Story Planner for Writers
• Hemingway Editor 

What is the best writing software for iPad?

The best writing software for iPad is Scrivener, known for its powerful features, intuitive interface, and seamless compatibility with industry standards. 

Scrivener is a powerful writing app that caters to the needs of aspiring authors, professional writers, and anyone looking to enhance their writing process. Its customizable corkboard view allows users to organize ideas using digital notecards, making it an excellent tool for visual note-taking and planning.

Scrivener excels in the writing process, providing powerful outlining functionality, handy features for editing, and efficient note-taking capabilities. The app is designed with industry standards in mind, offering a formidable tool for writers who need to manage complex projects. With its handwriting recognition feature, it allows users to input handwritten notes and convert them into digital notes, making the transition from traditional notes on paper to digital notebooks seamless.

Additionally, Scrivener offers a range of export options, making it easy for writers to share their work with others or publish it in various formats. The app is available for both desktop version and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent writing experience across platforms. With cloud service integration, your work can be synced across devices, ensuring you always have access to the latest version of your projects.

Although Scrivener has a steep learning curve due to its advanced tools, mastering these features can significantly improve your writing experience. It offers a comprehensive set of onboard organization tools, markup tools, and features like the color fill tool, curve tool, and an easy-to-use tool interface. With its sharing features and options for storage, Scrivener becomes an invaluable resource for writers. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store.

What is a good free writing app for iPad?

A good free writing app for iPad is Apple Pages, which is designed to provide a simple, clean interface and essential tools for creating documents, including essays, reports, and even books. 

Pages come pre-installed on iPads, making it an easily accessible option for Apple users. As a free app, it offers a range of powerful features that cater to the needs of writers, from beginners to professionals.

Pages provide a variety of ready-made templates that can be customized according to your preferences, making it easy to create polished documents with minimal effort. The app supports handwriting recognition, allowing users to input handwritten notes and convert them into digital notes. This integration of the concept of handwriting with digital tools makes it easy for writers to capture their notes with ease and keep their notes neat and organized.

Apple Pages is designed with a focus on simplicity and ease of use, offering a streamlined writing experience without a rigid note-taking structure. This makes it perfect for writers who prefer a clutter-free environment for their work. It is compatible with popular note-taking apps, making it easy to transition from one platform to another.

Pages also support cloud syncing through iCloud integration, ensuring seamless synchronization across Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones, and Macs. This feature allows writers to access and update their work seamlessly across devices, making iPads an excellent platform for writing on the go.

What app do most writers use?

Most writers prefer Scrivener for its comprehensive set of powerful features, intuitive interface, and compatibility with industry standards. It caters to the needs of aspiring authors, professional writers, and anyone looking to enhance their writing process. With its powerful outlining tools, handy features for editing, and efficient note-taking capabilities, Scrivener becomes an invaluable resource for writers. Its compatibility with both desktop and mobile devices ensures a consistent writing experience across platforms. With cloud service integration, your work can be synced across devices, ensuring you always have access to the latest version of your projects.

Are iPads good for writers?

iPads are suitable for writers due to their portability, flexibility, and compatibility with various writing apps, including Scrivener, Ulysses, and iA Writer. The availability of these apps on iPads allows writers to access and update their work seamlessly across devices, making it a convenient platform for writing on the go. Additionally, iPads support handwriting recognition, making it easy for writers to input handwritten notes and convert them into digital notes. This feature enables a smooth transition from traditional notes on paper to digital notebooks, allowing writers to organize their work efficiently.

Furthermore, iPads offer the ability to add audio recordings to notes, providing an extra dimension to the note-taking process. The combination of a powerful processor, high-quality display, and long battery life make iPads an ideal choice for writers who require a versatile and reliable device for their work.

Is Scrivener worth getting?

Scrivener is worth getting for its powerful features, intuitive interface, and ability to streamline the writing process. Although it has a steep learning curve due to its advanced tools, mastering these features can lead to a more efficient and organized writing experience. Scrivener is highly recommended for both aspiring authors and professional writers.

Its customizable corkboard view, powerful outlining functionality, and handy features for editing make it an excellent tool for managing complex writing projects. With its compatibility across desktop and mobile devices, writers can access and update their work seamlessly, ensuring they always have the latest version of their projects at their fingertips. Scrivener's cloud syncing capabilities also make it easy to collaborate with others or work on multiple devices.

The Bottom Line

To recap, here are the best writing apps for iPad to try this year:

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Best Writing Apps in 2024

Showing 128 writing apps that match your search.

Hemingway App

Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It's like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on your message, not your prose.

Platforms: Windows, PC, Mac

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, Book, Essay, Story, Blog, and Free

Website: https://hemingwayapp.com/

Base price:

Premium price:

★★★★ Performance

★★★★ Features

★★★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.0 ★ on Reedsy

Note down, shape, & share your ideas with the world's best loved digital paper. Fall in love with handwriting all over again with Goodnotes’ digital ink.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Book, Story, Journal, and Poetry

Website: https://www.goodnotes.com/

★★★★★ Features

★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.8 ★ on the App Store

yWriter is a word processor which breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you keep track of your work while leaving your mind free to create. yWriter was designed by an author, not a salesman!

Platforms: Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, PC

Best for: Drafting, Book, Story, and Free

Website: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter7.html

★★★ Performance

★★★ Features

★★★★★ Value

Also rated 3.5 ★ on PC Magazine

Learn more about Reedsy Studio .

Take digital handwritten notes for class, work, or fun!

Platforms: Android, Chrome

Best for: Note-taking, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.squidnotes.com/

★★★★★ Performance

Also rated 4.3 ★ on Google Play

Cold Turkey Writer

Cold Turkey Writer transforms your computer into a typewriter, which forces you to do nothing but write.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, PC

Website: https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/

★★★★ Accessibility

Also rated 4.0 ★ on TechRadar

From boardroom to lecture hall, project plan to daily diary, Nebo makes note-taking smarter, more efficient and more enjoyable.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Best for: Note-taking, Journal, Poetry, and Blog

Website: https://www.nebo.app/

Also rated 4.3 ★ on the App Store

SSuite Wordgraph Editor

SSuite WordGraph is a free and very useful alternative to Microsoft's Word, OpenOffice's Writer, or anything else out there claiming to be the latest and greatest. You don't even have a need for .NET or even JAVA to be installed. This will save you a lot of hard drive space and precious computer resources.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Chrome, Android, PC

Best for: Drafting, Story, Book, Essay, and Free

Website: https://www.ssuiteoffice.com/software/wordgraph.htm

The only online writing and editing platform that guides your hand based on data from real, bestselling books, AutoCrit is built to match the genuine demands of publishing professionals and discerning readers.

Platforms: Online

Best for: Outlining, Drafting, Proofreading, Book, Story, and Free

Website: https://www.autocrit.com/

★★ Accessibility

Freedom blocks distractions across all your Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and Chrome devices so you don’t have to fight off the temptation of distracting pings, notifications, headlines, and emails.

Platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad, Chrome, Online, PC

Best for: Productivity, Journal, Book, Story, Essay, Poetry, Blog, and Free

Website: https://freedom.to/

Also rated 4.4 ★ on Google Play

WhiteSmoke renders you with the highest quality proofreading abilities available, correcting not only simple spelling mistakes like old fashioned word processors, but everything from grammar, word choices and even style mistakes, all without breaking a sweat.

Platforms: Online, Windows, PC

Best for: Editing, Proofreading, and Essay

Website: https://www.whitesmoke.com/

Compose bold, clear, mistake-free writing with Grammarly. Work with an AI writing partner that helps you find the words you need⁠—⁠to write that tricky email, to get your point across, to keep your work moving.

Platforms: Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, Online, PC

Website: https://www.grammarly.com/

Also rated 4.4 ★ on the App Store

Create documents, make impact. When your work needs to wow, Craft gives you the tools to make it magnificent.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Online, PC

Best for: Note-taking, Drafting, Journal, Essay, Blog, and Free

Website: https://www.craft.do/

Also rated 4.9 ★ on the App Store

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This neat Apple Pencil trick may be my favorite way to type on iPad — type text without waiting for the virtual keyboard

You had better practice your handwriting.

- iOS 17 tips and tricks - Speed up your typing with this neat trick - Delete Screenshots and save loads of storage - Solve your iPhone's bedtime woes

One of the original iPhone’s biggest selling points was its revolutionary approach to the digital keyboard. Sometimes, however, this can feel cumbersome on the huge display of the best iPads . If you have an Apple Pencil, legible handwriting, and don’t always want to use the virtual keyboard to send a quick text, there’s a better way. 

Apple’s Scribble function allows users to simply write what they want to type and the iPad’s smart chip can translate that into text and send it in any text box. This works in your conversations in WhatsApp, when Googling something, or just for taking down notes. 

Here’s how to use the iPad’s built-in Scribble function and why you should learn how to use it. 

How to use the Scribble function with Apple Pencil

With the Scribble function, you simply write down what you want to say in a text box and your iPad will automatically translate it into text. The great part about this tip is that it doesn’t require clicking any extra options or figuring anything out. You simply write in a text box with any version of the Apple Pencil and it will work. You don’t even need to neatly line up your handwriting in the tex box. As long as you start your first letter in it, your iPad will pick up your text. Unfortunately, this tip won't work on even the best Apple Pencil alternatives so you have to go official to get it. 

If you happen to have accidentally turned Scribble off or decide you don’t like it and actually want to turn it off, you can do so by doing the following: 

• Go into Settings
• Find the Apple Pencil section
• Look for Scribble and toggle the switch beside it

From this section, you can also customize Apple Pencil gestures, which allow you to do specific functions based on actions. I like to keep the Quick Note function from the bottom right corner and screenshot from the bottom left. Once you’ve gotten used to Scribble, you will never need to pop your Apple Pencil back on charge just to text a friend back. You’ve got no excuse now. 

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James is a staff writer and general Jack of all trades at iMore. With news, features, reviews, and guides under his belt, he has always liked Apple for its unique branding and distinctive style. Originally buying a Macbook for music and video production, he has since gone on to join the Apple ecosystem with as many devices as he can fit on his person. 

With a degree in Law and Media and being a little too young to move onto the next step of his law career, James started writing from his bedroom about games, movies, tech, and anything else he could think of. Within months, this turned into a fully-fledged career as a freelance journalist. Before joining iMore, he was a staff writer at Gfinity and saw himself published at sites like TechRadar, NME, and Eurogamer. 

As his extensive portfolio implies, James was predominantly a games journalist before joining iMore and brings with him a unique perspective on Apple itself. When not working, he is trying to catch up with the movies and albums of the year, as well as finally finishing the Yakuza series. If you like Midwest emo music or pretentious indie games that will make you cry, he’ll talk your ear off.

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• utrph770044 Scribble works just fine with my Zagg Stylus 2. Not sure why you say that you need an original Apple Pencil. Reply
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Where in the world is Apple Books+ to rival Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited service?

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

After another iPad event, I’m left without the announcement I’ve been waiting for once again. While I’m always happy to see new iPads and accessories for them, I have been waiting for a different kind of announcement from Apple for years now.

While a larger iPad Air and the OLED screen on the iPad Pro are both something to get excited about, I was really hoping to see Apple talk about something else — not about hardware, not about software, but about services.

Specifically, I was hoping (yet again) that the company would finally announce Apple Books+, a subscription service to rival Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited book-reading service. Kindle Unlimited, which gives readers access to a catalog of ebooks and audiobooks for one monthly price, has now been around for a decade and has established itself as the go-to service for readers.

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Despite Apple also being in the book business and offering ebooks and audiobooks through the Apple Books app since 2010, when it revealed the original iPad, Apple has yet to reveal a competitive service to take on Amazon. Since 2019, the company has released a number of subscription services, including Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+. However, Apple Books+ remains elusive.

This seems to be the next obvious service that Apple can bring a subscription to, and I hope it does. I would leave Kindle Unlimited so fast — especially if Apple Books+ was wrapped into Apple One, the company’s subscription bundle service that offers a discount on its services. If the company offered Apple Books+ as part of its Premier tier of service, I would cancel my Kindle Unlimited subscription so fast that Jeff Bezos would…probably do nothing because it wouldn’t make a difference. But you get the point.

The rumors of a new iPad mini point to a potential release in the fall. So here I go again, hoping that such an announcement will also include Apple Books+. Until then, I’ll debate myself on whether or not I want to read on my iPad mini or a Kindle. That’s another battle for the ages, so that’ll keep me busy until October.

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Joe Wituschek is a Tech News Contributor for BGR.

With expertise in tech that spans over 10 years, Joe covers the technology industry's breaking news, opinion pieces and reviews.

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The best apps to turn any iPad into a powerful audio editor

Logic Pro on an iPad

One thing that iPads are unexpectedly poor at is recording podcasts — they can't readily be used to record a host and remote guest separately. There are workarounds but none that match the audio quality of being able to record directly.

Which is curious, because once a recording has been done, the iPad is nothing short of spectacularly capable at editing. There is simply a slew of audio editing apps available in the App Store — AppleInsider stopped counting at 60 of them.

Although at least one, Audacity , is really only on the iPad as a scaled-up iPhone app for people who like the Mac versions.

Alternatively, though, some of the apps claiming to edit audio are really meant for other media purposes and happen to include audio editing. A couple of those are worth looking at if you only rarely need to edit audio and you do already know these apps well.

That's really how you decide between the apps. There is no limit now on what you can do with an iPad and the right app, but you always have to start with what your needs are — and what your budget is.

Apps that include audio editing

Even when audio isn't their primary focus, there are very many apps that have to include at least some features for editing spoken word or music. The best examples of this are iPad video editors, of which there are now many.

Apple's own iMovie is one, and it's free for all iPad users. Equally, Apple's other video editing app, Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 includes very many audio features for $49/year (or $4.99/month).

In this same line there is also DaVinci Resolve , which is free but includes optional in-app purchases. If it's solely audio editing you want it for, you'll never need its paid extras.

How, while all of these include at least basic and often quite powerful audio editing features, they are never the right choice unless you need their other functions. If you already edit video, for instance, then being able to quickly use tools to also do some audio editing in an app you're familiar with is tremendous.

If you don't already know, say, iMovie, then simply getting to its audio editing features will be a chore.

When you don't know apps like that, and when you need to do more than one or two quick audio pieces, then you need an audio editor. In AppleInsider 's experience, there are three audio apps that are worth considering.

Best easy and free iPad audio editor — GarageBand

Apple's GarageBand is designed first for recording voice and musical instruments, and then for adding music loops. But once you've done all or any of that, you have to be able to edit the audio.

Consequently, GarageBand comes with a multi-track audio editor. That means you can, say, have two podcast guests recorded separately and then line them up together.

GarageBand also lets you split tracks, so you can cut out sections if you need. There are also features such as fading in or out, although overall, GarageBand tends to prefer ease of use over fine control.

So when you need more, or GarageBand's settings don't happen to suit what you want to do, it's time to buy or subscribe to an audio app.

GarageBand is free . Note that the current version of GarageBand requires iPadOS 17.0 or later — but if you've got an older iPad, you can still download an older version .

Best one-off purchase iPad audio editor — Ferrite

Called in full the Ferrite Recording Studio , this is the iPad app that the AppleInsider podcast was edited on for several years. It was used chiefly on an iPad mini with an Apple Pencil and at times, it still is.

Ferrite is an example of where a list of features doesn't convey all of what's good about it. For instance, it has multi-track editing, but so does GarageBand.

Yet in Ferrite's case, manipulating those multiple tracks just feels easier. And there are specific features such as the ability to tell it to automatically dip one track as another is playing.

Ferrite is also an example of an app whose free version is excellent enough that you upgrade at least in part just to reward the developer. Nonetheless, if you do upgrade to the Pro version for $30, you do get extra features.

Such as the ability to play back at twice normal speed as you edit. Or the ability to tell Ferrite to strip out accidental silences, for instance when you've misaligned two vocal tracks and inadvertently left gaps.

The Ferrite Recording Studio requires iPadOS 16.4 or later.

Best subscription iPad audio editor — Logic Pro

As shown off by Apple at its "Let Loose" event as a highlight of the iPad's capabilities, Logic Pro is surely the single most powerful and comprehensive audio editor available for the iPad. On the Mac, it has competition from Pro Tools and to a lesser extent Adobe Audition, but neither are available on the iPad.

It's a true Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and as such is right for musicians, producers, and audio engineers. Logic Pro is really extreme overkill if you're doing much less than making albums.

Yet even if all you want is to record a podcast with two hosts, having a full-on DAW at your fingertips is superb. It does come with the cost of a fairly steep learning curve, though, simply because it does so much.

It's also arguably expensive, or at least it is not a casual purchase. Following a month-long free trial, Logic Pro for iPad costs $49/year, or $4.99/month.

Logic Pro for iPad 2 requires iPadOS 17.4. Apple has not yet specified any minimum hardware requirements for the forthcoming new version, but Logic Pro for iPad 1 needed an iPad with an A12 Bionic chip or later.

It also takes up quite a significant amount of storage space. The app itself is 1GB — compared to Ferrite's 25MB — but then there are optional extras that can swell that to 15GB.

The AppleInsider podcast used to be edited on Ferrite, but it's now done on Logic Pro — albeit for the Mac. The Mac edition is a one-off $199 fee and it does not come as part of the iPad version's subscription.

That's the same as with the other app that Apple highlighted at its iPad event, Final Cut Pro. But unlike Apple's video editor, Logic Pro has the tremendous benefit that projects can be moved between iPad, Mac, and back again, as you need.

Choosing the right audio editor for you

The one you want is Logic Pro for iPad — if you're going to use it enough to warrant the subscription cost. And if you're going to be using it for either complex enough projects, or just so many of them that it's worth the time it takes to learn Logic Pro.

Then at the other end of the scale there is GarageBand, which you've already got. The fact that it's designed for musicians means it has a lot of recording and loop features that you might not need, though, and its controls tend to be more basic.

So the sweet spot across all of the audio editor apps that AppleInsider has used, is the Ferrite Recording Studio. This, too, takes some time to learn but not as much as Logic Pro.

There may be situations where it becomes an issue that there isn't a Mac version of Ferrite. But overall, it just means that the developer is truly focused on making it the best it can be for iPad users.

Whichever app you use, though, it's got to be said that editing audio on an iPad is a pleasure. It's much more of a pleasure to edit it than it is to record on, but pinching in and out of a track's timeline, it feels like you're touching your music and vocals.

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