Mac OS X has the best interface in the world. Working with multiple applications, Expose, Spaces, and all the ever present menubar just makes working on so many things so easy. But in the midst of all this multi tasking it is hard to find peace and quiet, required to write a good essay or blog post. Writeroom from Hog Bay Software, a very simple, yet powerful application, attempts to clear the clutter and leave you fully concentrated on text, and just text. 

No distractions, no formatting worries, no shiny buttons. Just text. So let’s see how that works out for us.

On launch, the screen goes black, and all you see is a bright green flashing cursor, a remnant of the primitive monitor. That’s it. There’s no other options to fiddle around with, or any buttons to twiddle. Just write.

Of course, they wouldn’t just leave you stranded like that with green text on black. Move your mouse button to the bottom and the document info such as word count show up. Moving to the top brings up the menubar, which has a few formatting options, very similar to those found in TextEdit. The preferences however are loaded with options.

Writeroom is all about the preferences.
Going through all of the preferences might take a while, but it is totally worth it in the end. The preferences are a little unorganised, with the general tab sporting some preferences that should be in the fullscreen mode, but its not a bother. In any case, the developer has reorganised the preferences in the yet to be released 3.0 version.

For myself, the first thing I changed was the bright green colour (what where they thinking!) to a sober white. I also changed the page background to a dull grey leaving the window background full black. This provides some nice contrast to the text while not hitting the eyes. I also added some margins to keep the text from touching the sides of the page.

There are lots of options there that allow you to customise your fonts, page size, and even a point where your document begins to scroll up (like a typewriter). Very useful if you don’t want to bend your head in awkward positions while writing. There is also an AutoSave option that makes a backup every 5 seconds!

That’s it for WriteRoom as an application by itself. But the real fun starts when the Edit in Writeroom plugin is enabled. Unfortunately, the plugin doesn’t work in Leopard, so you will need to use a third party plugin QuickCursor, which essentially does the same thing, so no worries there. 

What the plugin does, is it allows you to edit any text in any Cocoa application like Safari, TextEdit or Mail, using WriteRoom as your editor. Confused? Say you are working on an important email and would like to do away with the clutter. Just hit the shortcut key and WriteRoom loads in with the text copied from Mail. You then write the entire email, and hit save. On closing the WriteRoom window, Mail will already be ready with the edited text. (The only difference between the Edit in WriteRoom and QuickCursor plugin is the latter puts a button in your menubar instead of having a shortcut key.)

WriteRoom.iPhone
To extend the WriteRoom experience, Hog Bay Software also makes an iPhone version. Although it isn’t exactly as powerful as the desktop version, the iPhone version is very solid. For one it supports both portrait and landscape modes for easier typing. Second, you can compose and send to Mail, and third, edit your documents using Safari on a Mac!

The developers warn that the share feature is unsecure so anyone on the network can access your documents so do not enable this when you are working on sensitive documents (in an unsecured wifi network). All you need to do is enable document sharing in WriteRoom.iPhone (its only the first button in the entire interface), then go to Safari on the Mac, and in the Bonjour bookmarks, your iPhone will show. To show your Bonjour bookmarks in Safari, go to the Bookmarks tab in Safari and enable Bonjour bookmarks from there. 

You can edit the colour and font settings on the iPhone from the iPhone settings option, although don’t expect customisability like that of the desktop version. The desktop web interface is very well done, with the look and feel of an actual iPhone. However, I would have preferred it if the iPhone version somehow integrates better with the desktop version. Quickcursor does the job, but only so much. 

WriteRoom.iPhone [iTunes link] costs $5, but doing so gives you a $5 off the price of the desktop version of the software, which in turn makes it free! Of course, make sure you get the iPhone version before the desktop version.

What WriteRoom is not.
WriteRoom is not a text editor or a page layout application. It’s intended use should not involve writing code or editing HTML. You should also not expect to be able to write a novel with this application as there are no organisational features. This is purely for writing, writing, and more writing. 

At $25 for a single user license, WriteRoom isn’t the cheapest application, but performs a very specific function and excels in doing so. Download the 30-day trial to see whether this application fits into your workflow.

The Smoking Apples WriteRoom giveaway!

Yes, you read that right. We are going to give away a license for the desktop version of WriteRoom worth $25! A bit thank you to Hog Bay Software for making this happen. 

Rules are extremely simple:
1. One entry per participant
2. Valid email ID (the winning email will be sent to Hog Bay Software for their filing purposes. We will only use it to contact the winner.)
3. Answer a simple question: “What is your perfect scenario for writing a good essay?”

Contest ends in 1 week. Winner will be chosen randomly.

A week has passed by and we are floored by the wonderful answers. Thank you for participating. The winner is Dan (random as it was, it also seems deserving!).