Ulysses, At Speaking Speed

Short answer: pick a Ulysses sheet, place the cursor, press ⌃+⌥+R, speak the section, press ⌃+⌥+R again. AICHE drops clean prose into the sheet so you can handle Markdown XL and structure after.

How Ulysses Organizes Longform Work

Ulysses is built for longform writing that lives in one library instead of a pile of loose files. Sheets hold chunks of text, groups keep those sheets organized by project, and goals show progress for a day, a sheet, or an entire manuscript.

On top of that, Markdown XL gives you a clean separation between words and presentation. You write in plain text and add structure with markup, either from the Markup Bar or with simple shortcuts. Filters and keywords then let you slice the library into views like scenes that need revision or essays that are ready to publish.

All of this works best when you can get a complete first draft onto the page so those tools have something to operate on.

Where AICHE Fits

AICHE speeds up the part of the process where you are turning ideas into sentences.

• First drafts for new sheets: talk through a scene or section and let AICHE fill in the body of the sheet while you watch the goal ring climb.
• Section rewrites: put the cursor under an existing heading, dictate a fresh version of that section, and delete or archive the old paragraph after you compare.
• Fast passes on outlines: rough out headings with Markdown XL, then dictate under each one in turn until the outline is fully fleshed out.
• Dictation on low energy days: pace around the room with Ulysses in the background and let AICHE keep up at speaking speed.

AICHE uses cloud-default transcription. Audio is streamed, processed, and discarded immediately after processing, within 1 second. No persistent audio copy.

How It Works With Ulysses

1. Open Ulysses and pick the group and sheet you want to work in.
2. Click into the editor where you want text to land.
3. Press ⌃+⌥+R to start recording.
4. Speak in full sentences and paragraphs at a normal pace.
5. Press ⌃+⌥+R again. AICHE transcribes, lightly cleans the text, and inserts it at the cursor.
6. Add Markdown XL where it helps: ## for headings, **bold** and *italic*, [text](url) for links, > for blockquotes.

The Ulysses goal ring updates as each block lands, and per sheet or project goals move in real time. Speaking is usually around 150 words per minute while typing sits closer to 40, so a 1500 word target that needed half an hour of keyboard time can often be drafted in about ten minutes of dictation.

Drafting With Sheets, Groups, And Goals

Sheets and groups

Ulysses encourages you to break longform projects into manageable sheets inside groups. A chapter might be a group. Each scene or subsection can be its own sheet inside that group.

With AICHE, you can walk through the structure one sheet at a time. Open a blank sheet, press ⌃+⌥+R, describe what happens in that scene in your own words, and press the hotkey again. Move to the next sheet and repeat. The group fills with raw material that is ready for you to refine.

Daily goals and deadlines

Daily goals and deadlines become easier to hit when drafting is closer to talking than typing. A 1000 word target that felt like a long session becomes roughly seven minutes of speech. A 2000 word day becomes something you can front load in the morning and edit later.

On days when you do not feel like typing at all, you can still open the project, talk through what should be on each sheet, and let editing happen in a separate pass.

Working With Markdown XL After Dictation

AICHE does not try to speak or insert Markdown XL syntax for you. That is deliberate. Markdown XL is designed to be applied once the prose exists, using the Markup Bar or standard Mac shortcuts like ⌘B for bold, ⌘I for italics, and ⌘K for links.

A practical pattern:

• Start by typing out headings as ## lines to sketch the structure of the piece.
• Dictate under each heading in turn until the sheet or group feels complete.
• Make a formatting pass where you add emphasis, lists, links, quotes, footnotes, or image markers.
• Make a final editing pass focused on tightening sentences and fixing transitions.

This keeps content and presentation separate, which is the core idea behind Ulysses and Markdown XL.

Filters, Keywords, And Revision

Once you start drafting with AICHE, you will generate more words in less time. Ulysses keywords and filters help you keep that volume organized.

• Tag new dictation heavy sheets with something like first-draft.
• Add a needs-editing keyword when a sheet is ready for a revision pass.
• Create a smart filter that shows all first-draft sheets across a group or the entire library.
• Use that filter view as your editing queue, flipping sheets to ready or published once they have gone through a full Markdown XL and revision pass.

The bottleneck moves from drafting to editing, which is where Ulysses is strongest.

What You Get With AICHE + Ulysses

• Faster first drafts: speak into sheets at natural speed while Ulysses tracks your progress with goals and statistics.
• Cleaner section rewrites: dictate replacement paragraphs under existing headings without disturbing your sheet structure.
• Library friendly workflow: keep using sheets, groups, filters, and keywords exactly as before, with more content flowing into them.
• Markdown XL on your schedule: do formatting and structure passes when you are in editing mode instead of while you are trying to get ideas out.

AICHE handles speech to text so you can spend more time using Ulysses as an editor and organizer.

Pricing And Setup

AICHE runs as a separate desktop app on macOS and works with the Mac version of Ulysses. Install it once, set the global hotkey to ⌃+⌥+R, and leave it running while you write.

You can find current pricing details and download builds on the AICHE profile page under downloads at https://aiche.app/profile?section=downloads. Drafts you dictate into Ulysses on Mac sync through iCloud to other Apple devices the same way as typed text.

To try it, open a sheet in your current project, type a ## heading for the next section, place the cursor under it, press ⌃+⌥+R, and talk through a rough version of that section. The words land in Ulysses, ready for a Markdown XL and editing pass later.