Most writing tools start out great. Then, over time they are enhanced and enriched with so many additional features that you soon find yourself staring at a narrow writing space with buttons, tool bars and menus swarming around your content area. If you are using a writing editor typical to what I described just now - you're in luck!
Because in this post, I'm going to be showing you a wonderful tool that will make you want to throw away every other writing editor you've ever tried. This tool is called Write! and is a Windows desktop app that is designed for the sole purpose of providing a distraction-free writing experience for the modern writer.
Writing Editor That's all White
To get started with Write!, you need to download and install the software, which is currently in beta. A quick wizard run will have you installing and launching the app in no time at all.
On opening, the editor is displayed in compact mode. In the current state, you'll find a tiny three-lined menu bar at the top left of the window. Tapping the menu displays the hidden File, Edit, View and Help menus. To the right of the menu button is a tab page displaying an untitled document. A + button to its right lets you open up another tab document page.
When you restore the window to full screen, all the editing elements disappear off the screen leaving you with a beautiful pristine page to start composing your stuff. (You can customize the editor to pin the tab bar and status bar, but that kinda spoils the whole Write! experience.
The Write! (ing) Tools
Typical to any word processor, you'll find editing options in the hidden menus, but common formatting options are available just where you need them - in the right-click menu. In Write! the contextual menu contains 5 tabs each with a specific set of commands.
Tab 1: Contains options to bold, italicize, underline, strikethrough, hyperlink, lighten and upper/lowercase text.
Tab 2: Holds options to add lists, headlines, quotes, codes and body text.
Tab 3: Has a color palette with 8 color shades to make your text look decorative and stand out.
Tab 4: Lets you Google stuff, view the thesaurus, Wikipedia, or translation services.
Tab 5: Is an innovative spell checker that lets you check spelling according to the type of language you are writing in.
So far I'm loving every minute of Write!
An Intuitive Writing Experience
Write! offers a beautiful writing experience on many levels. Its smooth fonts are easy on the eye, the AutoComplete feature is always right there should you prefer to press Enter instead of complete the typing yourself. There are plenty of shortcuts to add lists, headlines, switch between tabs and most commands like Spell Check F7, Ctrl+F for Search will be familiar to anyone who has used any editor before.
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There is also a markup section to help you get more done in less time... if you can remember them. For instance, writing text between 2 double* will bold format the text within. All commands, shortcuts and help options are instantly available when you hover at the top of the screen. The cool thing with Write! is that it doesn't take too long to get familiar with the various commands and tools.
When you type an erroneous word, a tiny red abc button shows up below the word and you click on it to do the auto correction. Searching for text in Write! is also pretty straightforward. Hit the shortcut Ctrl+F and enter your keyword at the top of the window. Your search text will be highlighted in yellow giving you a glimpse of all search terms in the document at just a glance.
Multi tasking pros will also love the tabbed pages, which makes it a breeze to switch between different documents. Plus, you can drag tabs around if it makes more sense to shuffle between pages that are close at hand.
Another feature I love in Write! is how the editor automatically saves all your content as you type, and when you open a new session, it opens up exactly in the same place where you left off earlier.
Other features of Write! include options to import stuff, export to popular formats such as PDF, ODT and TXT, print, and create a cloned copy among others.
As far as customizations go, there are enough options to tweak to suit your writing requirements.
The Write! team has been constantly working on updating the tool and the current Beta 8 version was so smooth and glitch-less that I did not feel like I was using a beta. But, as with any tool, there are plenty of scope for improvements and the one feature that I miss the most is the option to save directly to the cloud and access my Write! stuff from just about anywhere.
Final Thoughts!
It has been years since I wrote on a beautiful white screen and Write! with its clean UI and intuitive controls has offered a happy stress free writing experience for me. It certainly makes my Windows Live Writer and Word processor look ancient, stuffed and crappy.
I hate to say this, but if I hadn't met Thrive Content Builder ( the premium wordpress plugin that helps me create beautiful content effortlessly), this would easily be my first choice of writing tool. However, Write! will definitely be my tool of choice for my every other writing project.
Write! is completely free to download and use. Its has a clean install, there are no compromises or sacrifices you need to make to use it... its got a fantastic, clean, uncluttered interface you'll love to start writing on each morning and I couldn't recommend it enough.
Click the link below to go to the website and try it out! Don't forget to tell us what you think!
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