1 Introduction
According to the tagline, UX Write is "The first desktop-class word processor for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch". The blurb says it is designed for large, complex documents such as reports, research papers, thesis, technical documentation and books.
It is intended for students, research scholars, technical writers and those who wish to present content (text, tabulated data and pictures) as a structured document.
This review is written in UX Write not only to reveal its features, but also to operate it as a general user. The author has been associated with it since the beta testing of this product; however, he is by no means connected with either the product development or its owner in any way.
2 Features
The app has the following features:
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Structure a document into multi-level headers. This allows the content to be presented in sections with headings. All the common header styles are available. It is also possible to customize the styles using the free-formatting feature.
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The document's page layout can be set using margins, borders, line indent and spacing and colors for text and background. Fonts can selected from an array of styles.
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Extended keyboard provides the most essential keys for structured writing.
The extension to the regular IOS keyboard is unique in some ways:
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The first key allows moving through letters one by one, forward or backward.
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The second key allows swipe selection, a feature that is still on the drawing board of many app builders. It is easy to use; simply position the cursor with a tap, press the key and just swipe on the panel below. Two-finger swipe is noticeably faster.
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The third key is very important for text formatting. Rather than pull down the menu and hunt for the style you want to apply, just press the format key and choose the style you want. Use the same feature to undo a style that you applied before (bold, italic, underline, indent, bullet)
I am experiencing a little difficulty here to continue the bulleted list I started above. The inclusion of a figure has apparently terminated the list. So i begin again. (Notice the letter i did not convert to upper case automatically)
To continue with the features:
The next six keys are the most useful to any writing of considerable length. The last one deserves special mention, one that is not found in any app so far as I know. It is the key, literally, to build your own lexicon. It supersedes the built-in dictionary and provides a powerful system to build a repository of words for later use. It is to all intent and purpose the auto-correct mechanism done right. Here is how it looks:
Clicking on the last key pops open a list of word variations to choose from and if required to add to the dictionary.
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The icon A available on the top of the app provides all the essential text formatting features one can expect from a word processor. The figure 1 shown in the beginning of this review presents a snapshot of these features. Buried inside this pull down menu is a set of buttons to customize the styles and preview them before applying to the document.
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The + icon next to it allows insertion of pictures, tables, references from within the document, links to external web pages, generate table of contents, list of figures and tables.
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The bars icon pops open the Outline view of the document. One can jump to any section of the document from the outline menu.
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The gear icon allows document-wide layout and styles.
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The export icon allows the document to save as a PDF, email it as its native format HTML. It is also possible to open this document in any other app that supports HTML or send it to a printer.
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Undo and Redo button allow mistakes and corrections on the fly, though according to my experience this feature is yet to mature.
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The close button faithfully closes the document and takes the user back to the main menu.
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In the landscape view, the sidebar can be opened from the bars icon to view the document in the outline view. Here ins an interesting feature here. The sections in the document can be reordered using the Edit button at the top of the sidebar.
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Another interesting feature that is lacking in the regular keyboard is the '-' key in the extended keyboard. Based on the context, the key intelligently provides the right character: an em dash, an en dash or a hyphen.
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There is a basic file management system. Create folders and files unlimited in any of the three root folders: on the device, in the cloud such as Dropbox or any WebDAV server.
This completes the tour of the features.
3 Conclusion
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UX Write is dependable
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UX Write is elegantly designed
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Serves the purpose for which it is designed
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Implemented in the latest HTML5 technology
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Provides a rich set of features like any word processor worth its name
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The enhancements to the keyboard, intuitive user interface, personalized lexicon and export options — all these features set it apart from a number of apps in the Apple store.
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Barring minor issues that may go away as the app matures, it is a strong contender in the area of word processors for the iOS devices and is sure to give the existing apps a run for their money.
