I’ve only had a few chances to use Phraseology (currently $1.99) as a writing tool so far, but it does bring some interesting tools to the table. Aside from the usual font choices, export options, Markdown preview, and word counts, Phraseology specializes in identifying and manipulating the words and paragraphs that you type out. That may sound a little hokey, but it’s actually a very different — very technical — approach to writing on the iPad.
Every paragraph you write can easily be re-positioned on the page, as if it were just a bullet point in a list. This makes it much easier to play with the flow of a piece, or insert one key argument before another. It’s the first time I’ve seen this macro treatment of writing in any iPad software, and although I have yet to make great use of paragraph re-ordering, I’m excited to try it.
There is also an Inspector panel in Phraseology, but unlike in most other writing apps, this panel is about much more than displaying word and character counts (in fact, the character count is always displayed at then top of the screen and updates live as you type). The Inspector shows how many determiners, adverbs, and prepositions you have used, as well as which ones you’ve used, and finally, exactly where those words are in the text. There are even extra details like the average number of syllables per word and even a live Gunning Fog Score, which can help you determine the general reading level required for your text. There’s even a tie-in with the excellent Terminology dictionary app, but as I haven’t bought a copy, I can’t comment on how it works.
Instead of simulating a clean, distraction-free writing desk, Phraseology chooses to equip the user with as many tools as possible. Paragraphs can be measured, destroyed, and words weighed, located, and easily replaced with the tap of a button. The emphasis in Phraseology is still very much on writing, but this isn’t the Zen garden presented by most other writing apps — it’s much more of a word laboratory. It’s certainly not for everyone, and it’s sorely missing Dropbox sync, but I rather like it.
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TAGS: writing app
