Lousy Atticus book editing software
Bought Atticus book writing software a year ago and have written several books on it. I am writing this because Atticus hasn't improved, had no updates, and the website makes false promises. It is only online software and not downloadable even in paid version (App online only). Impossible to write a chapter or subheading on Atticus at any normal speed online because the system constantly tries to save every word, preventing you from writing the next. Seems like third-world coding. Removed all browser extensions and still doesn't work. Practically unusable.
Searching through the document is almost impossible with the practically invisible ghost like slider. When I pointed this out to the company I got a polite confirmation that there was nothing they could do.
It makes a terrrible job of importing from pdf format, even paragraphs have to be manually re-edited and spellings fixed. However, converting between pdf and word is notoriously difficult and it makes a good job of importing from word.
However, you cannot save or export in any word .doc format which is a major ommission, only pdf or epub. On their website they said it would be updated to export in KDP's format but they never have. When I questioned this they said they had no plans to because KDP would eventually switch to epub. Then why did they say it on their website?
The undo function is next to useless. For example if you make a page in a chapter a 'master page' by accident you have lost the chapter. You cannot revert to previous saves at all, even though it constantly reports 'saving' every time you type. The inability to make erorrs and revert to past saves means I now have to rewrite a 20 page chapter from the start.
Atticus compares themselves to Vellum, which I don't know, but I think it is more expensive. All I can say is you get what you pay for, and this is a waste of money for writing unless you only want to use it for formatting to epub, which is what I use it for. There is lots of useful information on their blogs for writers, and other products I have bought are very good. It is just a shame they don't take writing software development for Atticus very seriously and, for what it is, Atticus is way over-priced and not fit-for-purpose, thus only two stars. My advice is don't believe the pitch.
Update 25th May 2023
Atticus has released a new update. It greatly improves the visibility of the sliders to scroll pages - you can actually see them now! And there is a feature to make a collection of books, which I haven't tried yet. But some problems still persist.
For a paid-for item, I don't know why I have to keep closing sign-up for Speechify pop-ups every 5 seconds. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
There is still no option to save in any .doc format, which is still a major ommission.
No option to choose English or US spelling.
No proper searchable help function on the site, but links to Q&A which are more like Sales benefits than help, and the option to send a message for more support quoting a four-day response time. Not very useful if you are in the middle of a problem.
Incredibly slow app calculating print pages (+30mins)
More like a beta programme selling itself as the finished article. Save yourself the headaches and pay a little more for something that is already developed.
They obviously read this because pop-up has been removed and response time has been changed to '4 hours' rather than days. Although I couldn't reply to their email because their system blocked the clarification, they did at least reply quickly.
They have also offered an export in word.doc on a different menu to the formatting screen. Paragraphs aren't indented even if you chose that format in settings, and chapters aren't numbered as they appear in settings, or on print preview, but otherwise it actually does a surprisingly good job.
Typing headings and subtitles is still MAJOR difficulty. But turns out a chrome browser incompatibility, which you would have thought anticipated, tested and overcome or at least a warning given. Works on Safari.
The Parts function is also problematic IF you add Parts retrospecively. They will disappear in the contents page. You also cannot edit the contents page to show Parts subtitles only, unless you want all subtitles for every chapter in the book, which kind of defeats the object of having Parts. You should be able to decide what to include in the Contents page rather than listing everything like Title, Dedication etc., But I have to say Atticus are listening. If it was free Beta I wouldn't mind explaining what's wrong.
I should also add that they had offered me a full refund, but I was prepared to do the legwork for using it to convert to epub. Now publishing platforms like Draft to Digital offer free conversion to epub from word, there is less need to use this software.