So, about a month ago, I purchased WriteRoom (mostly because of the price). I'd been using TextEdit for the majority of my writing (school and recreational), but I wanted a more proficient document software where I could control the page margins and such (college is very particular about papers being submitted in MLA). Mostly because I'm too lazy to try and find a competitor. To be fair though, none of these stop me from using it. It's a great concept but execution is pretty flawed. If someone thinks its useful, please give the rest of us the option of getting rid of it. The auto-indent feature is beyond useless and annoying as hell. I had to buy another app to parse my output. There needs to be a markup export feature. Sessions are really cool, but they're incorrectly formatted: there's no space after the headers and the first line of session data so you have to manually edit the session file or it doesn't show up in Excel correctly. Sounds are great, but crippled: the space bar needs its own sound. You have to exit full screen then make it full screen explicitly for it to work. Opening a document in full screen while WriteRoom is already running makes it full screen as the default desktop, making everything else on that screen inaccessible. It can and will cause the application to crash and be unable to re-open. Since that's the entire point of distraction-free writing, it seems like the first thing you'd want to get right, but alas. Interaction with the OS and other features - not so much. Full screen, distraction-free writing is its forte. It's great at what it does when it does what it's great at. “A perfectly balanced, indispensable part of any Mac writer’s toolkit.” “WriteRoom’s minimalist interface also frees you from the nagging urge to fiddle with margins, fonts, and other settings, leaving you with nothing to do but write.” “Unlike practically everything else in our digital lives, WriteRoom's minimalist interface implies a truly flattering proposition: It's you, not the software, that matters.” “But if, when it comes right down to it, full screen is your r grail, and the ultimate antidote to the bric-a-brac of Word, then you must enter the WriteRoom, the ultimate spartan writing utopia.” Choose your own background images, paper textures, and typing sounds.Use themes to save, switch, and share your favorite settings.Automatically log your writing sessions to a spreadsheet.Select word, sentence, and paragraph commands.Shift line up, down, left, and right commands.Live word count, reading time, and more.Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. If you'd like to be able to take notes in between writing sessions, you'll be happy to know that WriteRoom notes can be synced to, and then imported directly into Scrivener.Write without distractions. Those who run out of luck or time and aren't NaNoWriMo finishers can still get 20% off by using the promo code NANOWRIMO. Now here comes the really fun part - if you are successful in writing your 50,000 words by November 30th, you can buy Scrivener starting on December 2nd at a 50% discount off the normal license price of US$39.95. Downloading the trial version of Scrivener between now and the start of NaNoWriMo on November 1st gives you a trial version that lasts until December 7th, long enough for you to not only finish your tome, but also make your first editing pass before sending it to your publisher. While that's long enough to last through the 30 days of writing ecstasy that it NaNoWriMo, you should get to know the tools of your trade before you start writing. After my post about NaNoWriMo preparation the other day, a couple of TUAW readers pointed out that Literature and Latte, the folks behind Scrivener 1.52, have a special deal going on for NaNoWriMo 2009 participants.Īre you considering giving Scrivener a try while you're writing your entry for NaNoWriMo 2009? You're in luck! Normally, the application comes with a 30-day free trial.
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