The reason some writers write with a text editor-Neal Stephenson ( Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon), for instance, uses Emacs, a Unix/Linux editor-is that text editors are fast, lightweight, and nimble, as well as being free of any formatting distractions. For Linux users the editor would be Vim, Gedit, Emacs, or one of the many open-source variants. In Windows, this is Notepad or a third-party substitute. The simplest editors of all are the text editors that come with your operating system. rtf and are easily imported into any major word processor. They sometimes offer rich text format (RTF) for preserving attributes such as italic, underscore, bold, and font choices. They usually create plain text files that end in the file extension. In general, minimalist editors share certain characteristics. With the addition of spellchecking, of course. They simply let you write text, the way you would on a typewriter.
#Focuswriter new page full#
These apps don’t try to be full word processors or outliners. However, if you’re yearning for even more freedom from distraction, or are simply curious about what other writing tools offer, there are products that also screen you from the complexities of, say, Word or Scrivener by keeping things minimal. If this mode helps you and you’re happy with the result, then you’ve already found a solution. In LibreOffice Writer this view is called, simply, Full Screen, and it’s also called Full Screen in Apple’s Pages word processor. Similarly, the Swiss army knife of writing tools, Scrivener, has a view called Composition Mode that effectively screens out the complexity of the menus. The latest versions of Microsoft Word, for instance, offer a view called Focus View that opens your writing palette full screen and hides all menus and scroll bars.
Happily, your current word processor may already have a screening mode that will hide the menus and icons of other programs so that what you see resembles a blank sheet in a typewriter. The most obvious way to avoid distraction is to screen it out, like a blackout curtain in Oslo used to screen out the midnight sun at midsummer. What we need is help in blocking out distractions. Most of us find our computing devices distracting. The next thing you know, your writing session is over and your time has been frittered away by addictive, fun, but nonproductive pursuits. Or an alert informs you that there’s a fresh New York Times crossword puzzle waiting in your crossword app.
You only just begin writing and achieve a little momentum when your mind decides to take a quick email break, or see what’s new on Facebook, or dash off a tweet. Let’s face it: desktop, laptop, and tablet computers can be distracting. Thoreau, Walden iA Writer’s focus mode on iPad. Distraction-Free Editors by Gene Wilburn TOOL REVIEW || updated
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