Writing Tools

I've been a mostly happy VSCode user for a few years now. So much so that I even maintain a couple of extensions for it. Before VSCode, I loved Atom. And before that… I can't remember anymore. But every now and then, it's good to look into alternatives and see how they compare, what options you haven't considered they offer, and if they bring anything new to your productivity.

Autocomplete has existed on macOS in some form for years, and it's always been inconsistent. I tried Cotypist, an AI-powered autocomplete tool that works across almost every app on the Mac, to see if it does a better job.

Much like "googling" has become a generic term for searching, Grammarly has become almost synonymous with a general grammar and style checker, outside of those provided by tools like Word or Google Docs. I have used the pro version for several years, and while its advice is not always correct and inconsistent, it's generally a good aid in giving ideas and pointers for writing. However, every year, that subscription comes up for renewal, and I start thinking about alternatives and features I'd like to have that Grammarly doesn't offer. In this post, I look at the disappointingly few alternatives that exist.