Dark Room: distraction free writing
I stumbled onto a new text editor today, WriteRoom, that promises the simplicity of a typewriter:
WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text.
Does that ever speak to me! My Dad had an electric typewriter once. It weighed a ton. It hummed violently, jerked on every shift and carriage return, and stained my fingers black. But I forgave it everything those late, late nights because it let me concentrate on putting words to paper: the letters crisp, the paper pure.
Years later I’m still after that simplicity.
Happily, WriteRoom (which is for Macs) has a Windows clone called Dark Room that I’ve been using. I love it. It’s like a sheet of paper, just an empty screen. All the clutter is gone (I mean menus, task panes, task bars, buttons, tool bars, status bars, scroll bars, even your desktop). The simplicity is thrilling.
I’m more productive in Dark Room than I ever was in WordPress’s native editor. Dark Room even beats the pants off terrific blogging clients like BlogDesk or Windows Live Writer.
Software find of the year? 2006 still has 4 months to go.
Tags:editor simplicity writing
August 6th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Vim misses you.