Sometimes you need a bit more context than a calculator provides. Soulver—ahem—solves that problem by letting you work with numbers in an entirely new way: how you’d talk about them.

For example, if you want to know “30% of 300,” type that in. The app understands common math terms—“plus,” “minus,” “times,” and “divide” (and conversational equivalents like “and,” “less,” “by,” and “over”)—as well as arithmetic, trigonometric, and standard functions.

Though Soulver isn’t a full-featured spreadsheet, its spreadsheet-like features make it more flexible than a traditional calculator: Drag a result elsewhere in your document to insert the value there. (Pro tip: To add a subtotal beneath any line, press Command-T.)

Or assign a name to an equation (like “area=116 x 284”) and use it in other calculations. When you change a value in a formula, every calculation that uses that result updates too.

Check out these tips for getting better results.

Include text and comments anywhere, like when annotating a list of expenses. The app color-codes unit names and math terms, making it easy to skim your document.

With Soulver, you can calculate percentages the way you think of them. For example, type “9.25% on what is 92.86?” to find the pretax price of a product you paid $92.86 for, given a 9.25 percent tax rate.

The app is also adept at mixing and matching currency: Type “200 CAD + 30 EUR in USD” to get the result using the latest exchange rates. Revisit this sheet later and all your calculations will be updated with the current rates.

The app handles time calculations (“days between Jan. 1 and July 31” and “5 hours + 25 minutes from now”) with aplomb. Hopping between time zones? Try “10 a.m. Los Angeles in Tokyo.”

Soulver takes the pain out of conversions, handling everything from liters-to-gallons to complex relationships involving time, weight, speed, data transfer, and other measures. Want to know how many hours a 225-gigabyte file will take to download at 100 megabits per second? Type “225 GB over 100 Mbit/s in hours.”

Soulver keeps everything safe in documents (called sheets) and folders. Or create stand-alone documents that don’t clutter your sheet organizer. When you’re done, share your work by exporting to PDF, HTML, CSV, or plain text.

Don’t need to save your results? Try Soulver’s new QuickSoulver: Press a systemwide keyboard shortcut (or click the Soulver icon in the menu bar) for a Spotlight-like window that handles calculations—and Soulver’s natural-language features—lickety-split.