One tool I use quite frequently in my freelance work is Microsoft Word. And, Word introduces a fair amount of writing distractions just by way of the interface.
The problem, I think, lies with all the bells and whistles Microsoft has apparently insisted on jamming into their product. So much of it just seems so tacitly unnecessary, and the wide array of formatting (and auto-format) options often seem to cause more harm than good. That’s to say nothing of the visual clutter that’s only a simple glance upwards – a chaotic array of buttons, menus, and icons.
Most of us have enough distractions without our word processing software hurling more in our faces.
What if you want to get away from all that? What if you’re looking for a simple, no-nonsense alternative? What if, instead of dealing with all the glitz and glitter of so many modern word processors, you simply want to write? A novel idea, isn’t it?
Make Use Of recently profiled an application which will let you do just that - at least, if you’re on a Mac. It’s called WriteRoom, and it’s a program essentially designed to allow for the complete elimination of all outside distractions while you write.
To this end, the most noteworthy features of the application are, in order, Full Screen, Full Screen Single Viewing, and Typewriter Scrolling. Full Screen and Full Screen Single are pretty much what’s written on the box: they’ll put WriteRoom front and center on your monitor (or, in the case of multiple monitors, a single one), hiding all other applications along with your computer’s desktop. In other words, the project your working on will be right in your face, and you’ll have no excuse not to work on it.
Typewriter Scrolling, meanwhile, automatically centers the cursor on the most recently typed line of text, which itself is kept right in the middle of the document.
The interface of WriteRoom is, not surprisingly, not all that much to look at. It’s designed to be a lightweight word processor, after all. Including a bunch of garish, aesthetically pleasing menu bars would run directly counter to what the developers were looking to accomplish here. One interesting feature is “Reading Time,” which will have the application calculate roughly how long it will take for a reader to make their way through your document.
Unfortunately, WriteRoom isn’t perfect. For one, it’s not actually available on PC, so those of you who aren’t on a Mac will have to look elsewhere. Second, it only works with Rich Text and Plain Text documents. Word Documents are apparently off the table, which actually limits to a great degree what you’ll be able to do with WriteRoom. And last, but certainly not least, it’s not free. If you’re looking to pick up a copy for yourself, it’ll run you at $9.99 (which, to be fair, is a reasonable price).
Those of you interested in purchasing a copy can look here. It’s available for both Mac and iOS.
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I tried to read to the end but all I could see was “notepad notepad notepad notepad notepad”.
That is, of course, after I got to “Unfortunately, WriteRoom isn’t perfect. For one, it’s not actually available on PC,”
An alternative to Notepad is Notepad ++, free, which is Notepad on steroids.
Good point. Of course, this has auto-save and stuff, but if that isn’t important to you, Notepad would definitely work, if totally maximized.
You might try AbiWord with the tool bars turned off. Pretty clean and basic.
You might try Write Monkey, very versatile, has options for translators: http://writemonkey.com/
Negative of Write Monkey is the need to install .NET 4. Java may also be necessary. I have Java because I use OpenOffice.