Recent updates added some nice features to two of my favourite apps, Byword and Command-C.

Byword

I have written previously about the use of Byword in my writing workflow, unsurprisingly around the time of a previous major update from developer Metaclassy. Although the current update is a minor one, a great feature has been added in the form of support for external keyboard shortcuts, shown in following screenshot from the app update screen.

Although the additional keyboard row from the onscreen keyboard remains visible when an external keyboard is connected (as you can see below), users who prefer, and are familiar with the keyboard shortcuts from the Mac app will welcome the increased functionality on iOS.

Although I have recently been using Editorial for much of my iPad writing needs, Byword remains a great alternative (and extensively used one on my phone and Mac) with an elegant interface, additional keyboard features, and Markdown support. Robust syncing for the iPad, iPhone and Mac versions is through iCloud or Dropbox.

The addition of external keyboard shortcuts is a welcome addition for the iOS versions, which I’m sure will be well utilised by those doing a lot of writing in Byword. If you are a keen external keyboard user, check out the dedicated page of iOS keyboard shortcuts (including Byword) and the apps that support them at Macstories.

Command-C

Another app that has increasingly been of more use in my workflow over the past couple of months is Command-C, a Mac and iOS clipboard sharing utility. As probably the simplest and quickest way to share URL’s, text and images between my iOS devices and Mac, it is extremely useful in putting together relevant information for blog posts.

Once installed and set up on your devices, when copying and sharing contents of the clipboard, the receiving device gets a push notification which can be actioned directly from the Notification Center.

The latest update includes performance improvements, as well as a clipboard history feature for the iOS app, and is a nice improvement on the original version which I have always found to work extremely well.

Read more on the update in this article at Macstories or of course directly from the developer Danilo Torrisi.

If you haven’t tried them out already, both these apps are well worth a look in the respective App stores.