With Ulysses version 17 we have improved working with keywords: The keyword manager is now also available on iPad and iPhone, plus you can define favorite keywords. It is the perfect timing to once again recommend the keyword feature to all Ulysses writers out there: If you’re not yet using keywords, you should probably start today!

Keywords allow you to categorize your Ulysses sheets and make them therefore easier to find. Keywords can consist of one or more words and be as long – or as short – as you want. To make them easier to spot, you can customize their colors. The use cases for keywords are manifold and individual:

  • Novelists use keywords to mark the point of view of a scene, or the storyline it belongs to.
  • Bloggers use keywords to assign tags and categories from within Ulysses: When you upload a text to WordPress or Ghost, keywords will be automatically converted to the tags and/or categories in use on your blog.
  • Journalists use keywords to identify the progress of a text, with keywords like Draft, Final, Published.
  • Freelancers use keywords to mark their most urgent jobs, in order to be able to quickly get back to them and start working.

If you want, you can use keywords in all of these ways at once – or in a totally different way that’s unique to your workflow. With the keyword manager – now also available on mobile devices – you can easily get an overview of all keywords you’ve used throughout your library. There, you can also set your favorite keywords, globally delete or rename keywords, customize their colors, and merge two or more keywords into one.

You have the option to show keywords in the sheet list: This will make tagged sheets a lot easier to spot, especially when using colored keywords. With keyword search (Mac only), you can quickly reveal all sheets tagged with a certain keyword in the sheet list. Last but not least, if you need a go-to-place for sheets tagged with a specific keyword, you can create a filter with a keyword match as a condition.

So, if you’re now eager to find out more about the use of keywords in Ulysses, look no further:

Read everything about keywords in this tutorial.

Have fun getting organized!