Bàrdachd is a writing app for poets: live scansion, a rhyme finder, and guidance for thirteen fixed forms — on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, with nothing sent anywhere.
Email 88_intake.troupes@icloud.com. Say which device you are on and what you were doing, and include a screenshot if there is anything to see.
Where are my poems kept? On your device, and in your own iCloud account so your devices share one set. There is no Bàrdachd account and no Bàrdachd server, and nobody but you can see any of it. See the privacy policy.
How do I save a poem? There is no save button. Every change is written back automatically about half a second after you stop typing, and again the instant you leave the poem or the app goes to the background. A quiet “Saved” in the corner of the editor confirms it.
Why does the syllable count look wrong to me? Often you will be right, and there are three reasons why.
The dictionary is American, so it says four syllables for secretary where most of Britain says three. Poetry elides — heaven and flower are two syllables in any dictionary and one in half the lines ever written, and which is right depends on the line rather than the word. And Gaelic words, Scots words, place names and coinages are not in the dictionary at all; those are estimated from their spelling and marked with a dotted underline so you know the app is guessing.
So the dictionary gets a vote, not a veto. Tap any word in the analysis panel, set how many syllables it has and which of them carry a beat, and the whole app reads it that way from then on. The panel also lists the words it had to guess at, so you can correct them in one pass rather than hunting for them.
Why does it show beats and syllables? Aren’t they the same? No, and that is the most useful thing the app tells you. They line up two to one only in duple metres like the iamb. A limerick line is three beats and eight or nine syllables, because anapaests run da-da-DUM. Anyone told simply to “write ten syllables” for an anapaestic line has been misled, so both numbers are always shown.
It says my sonnet is only 76% on form. Form-matching scores against strict metre on purpose. A deliberate, skilful variation — the trochaic first foot that opens Sonnet 18, say — reads here as a departure. That is intended. The panel shows you where a line leaves the template; whether that is a mistake or a good variation is your judgement, not the app’s.
How do I find rhymes? The rhyme finder opens on the last word of the line you’re writing, and lists perfect and near rhymes ranked by how common each word is. It keeps to ordinary words: names, places and brands are left out unless you switch on Include names and brands at the bottom of the list. Some words have no rhyme at all — orange, month, silver. Look at the near rhymes, or move the word off the end of the line.
The app looks empty when I open it. Check the sidebar. Your poems are at the top, then Forms, Rhyme and Exercises, then the reference lists. If you have started a poem in free verse there is no guidance to show, because free verse has none — set a form from the header of the guidance box and it fills in.
How do I delete a poem? Right-click it in the sidebar or in All poems, or swipe it. You can also delete the poem you are in from the ⋯ menu. Anything with words in it asks first.
Where are the rest of my poems? The sidebar keeps the six you touched most recently. All poems below them has the lot, with search, sorting and grouping by date.
How do I get a poem out of the app? ⋯ → Share as text, or Share as PDF, to send it through the normal share sheet — anywhere you can send a file. Or ⋯ → Save as PDF… to put a copy in a folder of your choosing.
How do I learn a poem by heart? Craft → Learn by heart. Choose one of your poems or one of the examples, or tap Add a poem to learn and paste one in. The words are hidden; tap anywhere, or Next line, to bring them back one line at a time. Hint shows the first letter of each word of the next line; Back hides the last one again. You can also start from ⋯ → Learn by heart on any poem.
Do I have to buy it again for my Mac or iPad? No. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac. Buy it on any of them and it is yours on the others too — download it from the App Store on each device while signed in with the same Apple Account. There is no subscription and nothing further to pay.
Can I use it on my Mac as well as my phone? Yes, with the same purchase. On the Mac it uses the same wide two-column layout as the iPad. It’s the same app, not a separate one.
Will my poems be on all my devices? Yes. Start a poem on your phone and it is on the Mac; keep writing on the iPad and the changes are on both. It syncs through your own iCloud account, not through any server of mine — see the privacy policy.
There is nothing to switch on: if you are signed in to iCloud on the device, it is already happening. If you are not signed in, or you turn iCloud Drive off for Bàrdachd in your device’s Settings, the app carries on and keeps that device’s poems to itself.
What dictionary does it use for pronunciation and rhymes? The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (Carnegie Mellon University), with word frequencies from the open-source wordfreq project. Both are credited in the app’s About screen, which is where their licences require it.
No accounts, no subscription, no advertising, no analytics. Apart from iCloud sync it makes no network requests at all — the whole pronunciation dictionary is inside the app, so scansion and rhymes work with no signal.