News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

July 3, 2006

software

Writing, distraction free

Posted Jul. 3, ’06, 9:37 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Software

WriteRoomI’m easily distracted. I admit it. All it takes is something shiny anywhere in in my peripheral vision and any chance of productivity goes right out the window. Ooh, the window. Sorry.

The quasi-3D space inside the computer is often the most distracting environment of all. There’re emails, instant messages, iCal reminders, RSS feeds, et cetera. When I need to get some work done, I usually take myself some place with no network connection, and hide everything else. This works pretty well for the most part, but I still find myself wondering what’s going on.

WriteRoom attempts to black out all of those temptations by obliterating everything aside form what you’re working on. It’s a bare bones, full screen text editor that looks like computing from the 1980s, or perhaps The Matrix. You can customize the color of the background, the font, and…that’s about it. It offers a windowed mode as well, but the full screen mode is the major attraction here.

My only complaint is that it takes care of file storage itself; so rather than allowing you to save documents wherever you like, it keeps them in its Application Support folder. You can export documents as well, but it’s an extra step; you’ll need to specify the location and file name every time you want to export.

[via 43 Folders]


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