Writing tool | Productivity Tool

Effie - The Writing Tool Review: Is It Worth Using? [Explained]

Everything you need to know about Effie

6 min readAug 8, 2022

Image from Freepik (I love this website)

What the heck Effie is? Why I am reviewing this tool?

A few days ago I wrote a post “5 Writing tools I use to get more views and engagement on my post” which went massively viral and got 2.4k claps with 60+ comments. I love that people were talking about Effie in the comment section. So I thought, I should write a whole review post about it.

And, I’m here with it.

So, in this post, I’ll share with you all the pros and cons, benefits, and some unique features of Effie.

Let’s start —

What Is Effie

Effie is a writing tool that helps you to organize your work in one spot, it has a neat and easy interface with some important features like templatized writing, note taking, mind mapping, and list-making. Effie helps you to work more productively.

My Experience With Effie

No doubt, I love this tool.

I’m using this tool for three weeks to date, and to be honest, I found this tool very useful, now I write all my Medium posts here, because the way they have designed their tool’s interface is, appreciative. However, there are a few things that need to be improved in the tool. But my overall experience is quite good.

My Effie dashboard looks like this —

Did you see those organized posts? I love it.

That being said,

Now let’s come to the point and deep dive into Effie.

Effie Dashboard

Once you download and login into Effie, It looks like this —

In your case, there will be no folders and sheets.

How To Write Effectively On Effie

No menus. No sidebar.

Effie allows you to write on a full white blank page with only a blinking cursor, thus it helps you to write effectively.

However, if you want to decorate your post, then you can do that later. (see Image)

How To Do Effective Mind mapping On Effie

Mind mapping is of the best feature of Effie, they allow you to create a map of your writing.
Let me show you how.

First step

First, Write a word or sentence and change it into a headline. (above image)
Point your cursor to desired word or sentence that you want to change into a headline.
Then click on “Markup”, and it will show you some options of headlines (select any of them)

(See the image above)

Second step

Write another word or sentence and change it into a listicle form.
Again, select your desired word, then click on the menu “Markup” and it will show you options with the name “ Add Unordered List”, click on that.

(See the above image)

Now once you complete the above steps. There are two ways to do an effective mind mapping on Effie.

First Method (More Effective)

To mind map directly without using your keyboard, Type “/ “ to open the “markup panel in the sheet, and it will show you a panel like this (then you can select options from there) —

Second Method (Complex)

In this method, there are some steps that you’ll need to follow.

In this method you’ll need to open a new window to change your post into a mind map structure, to do this click on 1 option.
It will show you a new popup window, click on the maximize icon. (II option)
Now, It will show you a new page. In my case, I’ve changed the structure. Since Effie allows you to change your mind mapping structures in different variations.

And your page will look like this —

But in this method, you’ll need some formulas to do mind mapping.

Here is the formula —

First, click on the head (formula, in this case) and press enter or tab to create a new main topic.
For subtopic = Press Tab.
For the inner sub-topic = Tab then enter then tab then enter… so on. (see the above Image)

And this is how I created this Mind map —

Once you successfully assemble your mind map, your post will be arranged accordingly.

4 Core Benefits Of Using Effie

1. Distraction-free writing

As I said before, there is no distraction while writing. (one of the most important features)

2. No network connection is required

In order to use Effie, you don’t need a network connection/wifi while writing. The benefits? You won’t open your unnecessary social media notifications. But make sure, before closing the Effie app you’ll have to connect your network/wifi so that you can save the data.

3. Organized folder and sheets

Effie allows you to organize your work in one place at no cost.

4. Mind mapping

I can’t miss this point, this is the feature I love most about Effie. Because I bet you won’t get such tools that allow you to mind map.

Pros

Their tool is so simple and smooth, there are no hanging or lacking problems.
Protects you from writer’s block.
Effie comes with a trial version, which is free to use.
You can see the stats such as word counts, characters and most importantly reading time of a post.
You can sync your Effie account to multiple devices, which allows you to access it from all devices. (laptops, tablets, mobiles)
You can download the documents and use them anywhere on the internet.

Cons

The Effie website is a bit slow for computer devices.
There is no web version of this tool, so if you want to use Effie you will have to install it first.
There is no option to add videos or gifs to the posts.
Effie is not available for android devices.

Supporting Devices

Here is the list of supported devices —

Windows — Yes.
macOS — Yes.
iPadOS — Yes.
iOS — Yes.
Android — Coming Soon.

Subscriptions

Effie comes with both versions: trial and paid version.

First — “The Evaluation version” — it’s free. (trial)
Second — “The full version” — it will cost you $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year.

Final Touch

There are several reasons to use this tool.

If you're a writer who often faces writer's block or if you’re a person who often distracted while writing, then you should definitely check out this tool. If you want to try Effie, click the below link —

Har, I Want To Try Effie

Thanks for reading :)