Mellel Mobile Released

[Eyal Redler]

We've just released a new app for the iPad: Mellel Mobile. Mellel Mobile is the new incarnation of Mellel on iOS. Mellel Mobile is fully compatible with Mellel for Mac - you can view and edit your Mac-produced documents on your iPad and vice versa without losing a beat. Some editing options are not available on the iPad, but this gap will shrink quickly with every new version of Mellel Mobile.

In addition to bringing an improved user interface and more formatting options to the iOS side, Mellel Mobile introduces a new business model that will allow it more room to expand in features and really stand on its own.

Mellel Mobile introduces one more very exciting feature: citation management integration on the iPad. We've partnered again with Sonny Software, the makers of Bookends, to provide interactive citation and bibliography management that allows you to produce publication-ready documents on the iPad. Without leaving Mellel, you can now insert temporary citations and generate formatted citations and bibliographies that meet the most exacting requirements.

Given that Mellel and Bookends sync your documents and reference libraries between the Mac and iPad, you can work exclusively on the Mac, exclusively on the iPad, or transition seamlessly from one to the other, whatever fits your style.

Mellel Mobile
Bookends for iOS
Citation Integration Announcement
Video

[swilcox]

I am tremendously excited about the release of Mellel Mobile and its ability to connect to Bookends. I've only played with it a bit, obviously, on my M4 iPad. I have a first question. I see that styles and auto titles are already present. When I try using the Figure Caption autotitle, I see how to change the formatting of the text of caption, but not the title itself (FIGURE 1). Is it currently possible?

[Eyal Redler]

At the moment editing the auto-title configuration, including the Auto-title formats is not possible with Mellel Mobile. This is inside the gap that is planned to closed between Mellel for Mac and Mellel Mobile.

[pepe]

Really sorry to see Mellel move to the "rent an app" business model for the advanced features, although the price is certainly not onerous. Not sure if this is due to limitations in the App Store, but I wish it was not going this way. I do not mind upgrading every two years IF I think it's worth it, but the never ending subscription is getting really annoying.

Best,

Pepe

[Eyal Redler]

I want to clarify: Mellel is not going to the "Rent an app model".

Allow me to explain.

Mellel Mobile is free to download.

The free version allows you to view, print, export and review changes in any Mellel document. It also allows you to edit short documents so this serves as some sort of a trial.

There's an in-app purchase - "Standard" which removes the editing limitation and gives you a full-featured app. This is a one-time payment.
In addition to that there's "Premium" which is a yearly subscription. Premium gives you access to special features, at the moment these include citation management integration and more will come in the future.

As you can see, the subscription is layered on top of a one-time purchase model. Not only that, we are planning on adding a lot of features to Standard with future updates, this means that even if you only purchase Standard once, you will get a better Mellel without being required to pay for the upgrades. By no means will the standard version be crippled, it will be perfectly usable and powerful as is.

Premium is also going to get upgraded and we will need to make the features we add to Premium compelling enough to justify the extra expense.
Now you might ask why go with this model? Why not sell Mellel Mobile like we do on the mac: Buy once and get free upgrades for two years and then upgrade (or not) and so on.

The reason is simple: Apple doesn't provide any mechanism to charge for paid upgrades on the App Store. This means that the only way we can get reoccurring revenue from users way is to release the app as a new app (with a slightly different name) every now and then (and make all the users pay the full price again) or use subscriptions which are, in essence what Apple are offering to mitigate this issue.

If we could provide paid upgrades on the App Store, we would, but we can't so we're using the best next thing. In monetary terms, it is the same deal and if you stop your premium subscription, you don't lose any updates, just the premium features.

Finally, note that when you buy Standard, you get to try for three months, the Premium features, this is done in a way that puts you under no obligation, the premium features are enabled for three months and then when the time is over, you only get a notification, if you don't subscribe, we (that is, Apple) will not charge you anything.

[swilcox]

At the moment editing the auto-title configuration, including the Auto-title formats is not possible with Mellel Mobile. This is inside the gap that is planned to closed between Mellel for Mac and Mellel Mobile.

I totally understand. I see that if I edit a document created in Mellel Mobile in Mellel on macOS, for example to add numbering to a Heading auto-title, that change carries of into the Mellel Mobile document. That’s very nice.

I’ve paid for Standard and I’m trying Premium for your 3 month trial. I regularly use Bookends for my scholarly and research writing. The integration is nicely handled. I did notice that formatting doesn’t seem to carry over. For example, italics for journal entires don’t appear in Mellel Mobile, like they do in Mellel macOS. Is this a feature to come? Or can I fix this, maybe in configuring a character style variant?

[Joel]

I have been using Mellel on IPad Pro for years. I do a lot of writing and research. The new Mellel Mobile is top shelf. Thank you for the improvements. I have been working with this new version and love it. I appreciate the ability to experience a more advanced UI and all that goes with it. The ability to use Bookends while remaining in the app is so helpful.

Thank you and I look forward to continuing development.

Joel

[Eyal Redler]

swilcox - regarding the missing italics. It should work on Mellel Mobile, it is perhaps a bug or maybe you're not using the same format on mac and iPad. If you are using the same format that it could be a bug, please contact me via support (mellel.com/support)
Regarding auto-title formats carrying over from the mac, the rendering on the iPad should be virtually identical to the rendering on the Mac, there are some things you can't yet access to configure on Mellel Mobile (like, for example, the Auto-title formats) but the current configuration, as done on the mac is still effective.

Joel - thank you for the positive feedback I'm very happy to hear that from an old-time users. We are going to add a lot more...
Don't forget to give us a high rating and possibly a review on the App Store, it can really help.

[Amontillado]

Mellel's subscription plan is pretty gentle. If you stop paying, you can still use the app and all your documents are available to Mellel on your Mac.

Besides, word processors are magic things. During the workday, mine is a springboard for my career. At lunch it calls out fraud and makes strong legislators weep. At night, I stay close to family and friends through the power of correspondence. A weekend of high adventure wouldn't be the same without stories spilled from a wandering cursor.

Where else can you get that much zing for ten bucks a year? If that's all it takes to keep Mellel in development, I'm prepared to forget my standard complaints about subscription fees. Truth to tell, I already did, got a kickstand for my iPad, and packed my original small Mac keyboard in my messenger bag.

[swilcox]

swilcox - regarding the missing italics. It should work on Mellel Mobile, it is perhaps a bug or maybe you're not using the same format on mac and iPad. If you are using the same format that it could be a bug, please contact me via support (mellel.com/support)

Eyal - I'll look again at the formatting of references with Bookends and check to see if I'm using the same format.

[Joel]

I read the posts. I purchased the Mellel Standard then the Premium for $9.99/yr.

At the time, it gave me a free subscription to the Bookends Premium which will be $14.99/yr, scheduled to be charged Nov 26, 2024. Is this necessary to pay the Bookends Premium additional to the Mellel Premium or is it meant to be included?

Should I cancel the Bookends Premium subscription or leave it alone and just add the two total of 9.99 + 14.99?

Appreciate this improvement, have used Mellel for years. Please advise.

[Eyal Redler]

Joel,

To use citation management integration you need both a Mellel Premium and a Bookends premium subscription. However, purchasing Mellel Standard gives you 3 month of Mellel Premium features for free and Bookends Premium is also offered for free for three months so you can delay that purchase to a later date.

[macsailor]

Will there be spell checker implemented in a later version of Mellel Mobile? If not, it will very hard to use it for important texts.

[Eyal Redler]

Better spelling support for Mellel Mobile is high on the list.

[macsailor]

Looking forward to that.

Just bought the Standard version of Mellel Mobile at the 30% discount Black Week.