FocusWriter: A Distraction-Free Writing Environment

FocusWriter is a free downloadable programme that helps writers focus on their writing by filling the screen completely, only leaving the taskbar at the bottom of the screen showing and the little strip at the top that allows the person to minimise, maximise or close the window.

The programme allows the writer to open up work that has been saved in a document regardless of whether it's saved in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice. The feature can be found on the menu bar (just hover the mouse at the top of the screen and it'll appear) as a folder icon or it can be found under the File drop-down menu. It also allows more than one document to be open at a time, the different documents appearing as tabs at the bottom of the screen.

Under the Settings drop-down menu, there's an option called preferences and through that option the writer can set a daily goal to reach on the programme under the General tab. The default is 1000 words in thirty minutes but it can be altered to suit whatever the writer feels like reaching for that day. A handy tool that the programme features is that while writing, the writer can hover the mouse near the bottom of the screen and another bar that features the statistics will show up. This features the word count, the time according to the computer's time and what percentage of the daily word count the writer has so far reached. It's a handy feature because not only does seeing the 0% motivate the writer in to writing, it also tells them when they're halfway done. Once the word count has been reached, the percentage continues to increase over 100%.

Still on the preference window, under the Toolbar tab you can customise what actions you want shown on the toolbar when you hover the mouse over it and whether you want just icons or icons with text or just text on its own. Next to the Toolbar tab is the Statistics tab where the writer can decide what contents they want on the statistics bar. You can have the page count, paragraph count or even character count alongside the word count increasing as you write. You can also edit the page size with how many words it will hold until the scrollbar appears.

Also under the Settings drop-down menu is the option to pick a theme. It features a default but there's buttons which allow the writer to import a theme, export a theme, add one, modify a current one or even remove one.

Under the Tools drop-down menu there's a feature called Find... which allows the writer to type in a certain phrase and the programme will find the word(s) and highlight them for the writer to see. In the same drop-down menu, there's a feature that allows the writer to replace a word or phrase with another one, saving the writer from having to go through their whole document searching for the words they want to change. Another handy feature that saves time.

The Format drop-down menu features word decorations such as italics, bold, subscript and underline. You can also change the word alignment there so instead of having the writing on the left, you can have it centred, to the right or justified. The menu also features an option to add an indent in the text if the writer sees fit.

However if you don't want to make any changes to the programme and just want to get cracking with your writing, then just download the programme and write away! It's an easy to use programme and was something that I found out about in July.

*The programme cannot rid the writer from procrastination but it can help beat it with the daily word count feature, something that can help force the writer into writing about anything daily until they're inspired enough to write for their story.

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FocusWriter