Basically this means that the cursor will always beĬentered mid-screen so your eye doesn't have to track the text to theīottom of the screen while writing. One feature that's interesting for prose, but would be frustrating forĮditing system files, is under the "General" tab in preferences: Always The daily goal can be based on word count or the number of minutes (or hours, for the truly dedicated) spent writing. Users can opt to take FocusWriter out of full-screen mode as well, which will display the toolbar and status bar, but sort of misses the point of the application.
The main menu and toolbar are also hidden until one hovers the mouse over the top of the screen. The daily goal is set through FocusWriter's preferences. It is not displayed except when the user hovers the mouse over the bottom of the screen. The bottom toolbar tracks the number of words, paragraphs, characters, and percentage of the daily goal reached. For those who participate, tracking word count is of great importance, and that's one of FocusWriter's primary features. Quality is not the goal - though it's not discouraged, the idea is to get one's first novel out of the way. Naturally you can change the fonts and color scheme as well.įor those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to produce a novel-length work of 50,000 words. For example, one might prefer to have a background picture to set the mood, or to enlarge the text area, or place it off-center. The default is for a small text area on black background in the middle of the screen, but FocusWriter allows you to modify its theme and amount of text space through the preferences. I picked the most recent release, 1.3.1, from Gott's PPA and started logging some writing time with FocusWriter.
#FOCUSWRITER REVEIW FOR MAC OS#
It's multi-platform as well, with releases available for Mac OS X, Windows, and even OS/2.
#FOCUSWRITER REVEIW INSTALL#
Debian is the notable exception, but source is available if the Ubuntu packages will not install on Debian.
#FOCUSWRITER REVEIW SOFTWARE#
FocusWriter is Qt-based, free software (GPLv3), and packages areĪvailable from Gott for almost all major Linux distributions. Of the crop of distraction-free word processors (more on those below), FocusWriter looked the most promising.įocusWriter is written by Graeme Gott, who publishes it and severalīrand. Since I was trying to make a break from my normal mode of writing about technology in Vim using HTML, I wanted to see if a change of pace (or application) could boost creativity.
Granted, one could achieve a similar effect by simply writing inĪ full-screen terminal or switching to the console and running Vim or Emacs - but many writers ( Neal Stephenson excepted) are not well-versed in the classic text editors. When run, it elbows asideĮverything else on the screen and demands the writer's fullĪttention. Help writers immerse themselves in their work. It's certainly not a replacement for Vim, but it's a suitable word processor for prose.įocusWriter is a "distraction free" word processor that's designed to In the spirit of choosing the right tools for the job, I decided to look for an application more suited to fiction than my trusty Vim, and found FocusWriter. It's November, and all around the world aspiring novelists (including this reporter) have turned their attention to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This article was contributed by Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier.
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