atticus.ioReviews of atticus.io

It's finally (after like four years) starting to get better and show improvements. But, god for all the hassles I've had to deal with--lost chapters, program randomly closing, not saving, not backing up correctly, limited formatting options... It's been a huge pain in the as* over the years. Customer service used to be useless, too. I haven't even bothered opening tickets anymore because of it, so idk about now. Hopefully they continue to invest in making the system and support better. Even so, as of now, I would only recommend it to people who are looking for a cheaper option to format their books.

Atticus feels like it is still in beta development. Being browser based, it runs very slowly when the page count goes up. When I first started using it, it was fine, but as my book got over 80 pages, Atticus became unpleasantly slow, often taking 2-3 seconds for a typing update to show. There are features that a person would expect a formatting application to have, such as table creation, but Atticus cannot do that. It also does not support in-line images, such as an emoji. I wanted a small thumb-tack/push-pin to highlight a text box note, but no can do. Exporting from Atticus to docx is very poor, requiring hours to reassemble the document in docx format. Exporting to PDF is reasonable for a publisher to use, but do not count on the pdf to be used for online reading, because some fonts are not properly embedded in the pdf.

it's a word processor. that's it. nothing more, nothing less. the only difference I could figure out is that being web based, i could access my docs from more than one place. get one for free anywhere you'd like, and save your money. they do have a reasonable refund policy, though.

Atticus is decent enough at producing a very basic layout for your paperback or non-fiction book; there are nice font choices, it will look professional. But it does struggle with images, and if you've got a lot in your book, and have an idea where you want them, Atticus won't play; you're actually way better off with Word. It also struggles with indented copy (e.g. a letter or something, maybe); it just makes it look bad on the page. Also, an update last year (2024) rendered the software virtually useless; it was so excruciatingly slow as to make it unworkable. They've yet to sort mine out despite tons of troubleshooting. On the plus-side, Atticus' help is top-notch. They get back to you very quickly, and do their best to sort your problem out. But often they cannot due to the failings of the software. I think most positive reviews come from these self-publishing gurus with massive platforms, who probably get a freebie deal. If you have the money to spare, go for it, but if you're really thinking about it, and mulling if the spend is worth it, I wouldn't.

I need the refund as I am not satisfied with the product.

This software could be great if it worked correctly half of the time. I run into issues formatting it into a PDF for Kindle almost every time I try to use it. Sometimes, you have to change the settings so you don't have two sentences on one whole page before the next chapter. It never fails that this app lags and can't process the PDF. And sometimes, it loses chapters. Again, it would be perfect if the owners of this software fixed the millions of glitches. It is frustrating when you want to get your book uploaded and published on KDP or other platforms. I can't tell you how many times I have had to contact support regarding all the different issues. GRRRRR.

I wanted to love it. I had used GoogleDocs and OpenOffice but didn't want Google Docs because it gets delayed in typing my words which really impedes me when I'm on a roll and I was looking for something a bit more writer oriented than OpenOffice. I liked Atticus's TOC/layout and although I had Vellum, I wanted more freedom with formatting. Lastly, I trusted Dave Chesson and after looking at reviews thought he'd built something that was headed to a good place. Atticus is not great in compatibility (your word docs may not import or if you edit it and try to reimport it won't work), limited as a word processor, and, now, has actually gotten worse. Lately when I'm trying to write and it's constantly syncing. My word target frequently wont appear (and that's the only way to see how much I've written). But the worst, for my writing style, is if I have 1 hour to write, I'll get a good 15-20 minutes out of it. The rest is retyping or correcting (like position will suddenly change or I try to put something in italics and it changes where I am in the chapter and it never gets the italics or I highlight something to delete and it deletes only one character) or waiting for it to finish syncing. This, is essence, is waaay slower than google docs. I haven't lost anything yet but it feels like it's just a matter of time tbh, especially after looking at more recent posts and reviews since I bought it. My faith is shaken. I also didn't realize how much I put little flags in my writing or notes to myself and this is just not easily done in Atticus the way it can be done in a word processor. I will probably migrate to Scrivener. It looks intimidating but it's tried and true. The most important thing for me as a writer (beyond not losing my work) is not impeding my flow and Atticus is the worst for that. I've tried using it offline and that might resolve the issue but I don't see how to do that without literally being offline and I need an online thesaurus tbh.

When it works, it is fantastic. It is everything one would want in book composition application. When it fails, it is miserable. Support is mediocre; I don't blame them as they are working with the paucity of information given to them. Connectivity issues are infrequent, but when they happen, they are serious and come with a "you have to understand" caveat. Looking up the problems that I have encountered, well they keep on repeating. I want to love it. I want to give it five stars.