I’ve been testing Highland Pro, which is an interesting (macOS, iOS, iPadOS) writing app. It’s designed for writing screenplays and manuscripts (with an emphasis on screenplays). It’s been around for a while, originally a one-off purchase but when Highland 2 was replaced by Highland Pro it changed to a subscription model, but that came with iOS, iPadOS versions included in the subscription. It syncs via iCloud.
The app uses a .highland file format, but the documents are formatted using Markdown. The proprietary file format and subscription model put off some of the original users, but the app has been nicely polished in the last year or so. It’s really intended to be a competitor to Final Draft, but as I mentioned it also handles manuscripts.
It has a few interesting features, like a nav sidebar with draggable Markdown headings to move content sections up and down the document. Also a good output to PDF for formatted screenplays and manuscripts. Some of the features are aimed at screenplay writers and only work in screenplay mode, like scene gender analysis.
On the down side, the app is a little costly, but it does include different Apple platforms in one subscription. There’s no way to easily do a chapter-by-chapter word count. I tend to switch between writing apps, but I always keep Scrivener handy to import Markdown files to study my chapter-by-chapter word counts. Scrivener is worth it for this feature alone in my view.