20 Fantastic Full Screen Text Editor for Distraction Free Writing
February 7, 2009 – 9:15 pmIt is easy to get distracted when using a computer. There are internet browsers, instant messengers, music players, and beautiful things sitting on your desktop. If you are doing something important like finishing a blog post, these distractions can greatly decrease productivity. One easy way to get over this is to use a full screen text editor.
A full screen text editor hides all the digital distractions from your view, leaving you with a minimalistic editing screen, a blinking cursor and maybe some simple editing tools. Therefore, you can churn out all the creative juices from your head to the screen, minus all the distractions.
Below are 20 fantastic full screen text editor if you are looking for a distraction free environment:
Windows Full Screen Text Editors
1- DarkRoom
Dark Room is a clone of WriteRoom (another full screen editor for Mac OS X) for Windows. Simple and free for all. Praised by many.
2- JDarkRoom
Another popular full screen editor with features such as auto-save backups, mouse wheel scrolling, character count and more. Can run on other platforms too.
3- Q10
If you are looking for a full screen editor with advanced features, Q10 is a cool choice. Also available in portable mode so you can carry it in your thumb drive.
Online Full Screen Editors
4- DarkCopy
Another clone of WriteRoom, only that it is web-based!
5- Writer
Writer dubbed itself as “the Internet typewriter”. Go figure!
6- MyTextFile
Have a Google account? Login to MyTextFile, an ajax-powered online text editor for typing plain text files.
Mac Only
7- WriteRoom
“Walk into WriteRoom, and watch your distractions fade away”. The most popular full screen text editor among Mac users.
8- Scriviner
Scriviner offers one of the most most beautiful distraction-free modes available.
9- CopyWrite
Advances Mac text editor with project management capabilities.
Editors / Word Processors with Full Screen Modes
10- AbiWord
A popular open-source word processor that offers full screen view.
11- Microsoft Word
Surprised? Try viewing your documents in Normal view and go Full Screen.
12- Notepad SX
A better, feature-rich notepad clone that comes in full.
13- Wordpress 2.5
Blogger rejoice! Wordpress nowadays has a full screen mode (alt + shift + g).
Linux
14- Vi / Vim
The king of Unix text editors. It is just you and your terminal.
15- FTE
A full screen text editor specially designed for developers.
16- PyRoom
“PyRoom is a free editor that stays out your way - and keeps other things out of your way, too.”
17- RubyRoom
Rubyroom is a full-screen text editor which gives you a complete workspace for your text, and nothing else.
Others
18- WriteMonkey
WriteMonkey is a “zenware” for creative, distraction-free writing. Small, stable, fast and features-laden.
19- WestEdit
A simple, old school text editor and typewriter. No fancy features.
A full screen text editor aimed for creative, large writing projects.
If you are ever in need of a distraction free writing, try one of the 20 full screen text editors above! One of them will definitely capture your heart! Enjoy!
Tags: full screen text editor, text editor, full screen, writeroom, darkroom, jdarkroom
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12 Responses to “20 Fantastic Full Screen Text Editor for Distraction Free Writing”
Nice list buddy. I prefer Dark room and Q10
By Madhur on Feb 8, 2009
I’m a windows user and really enjoy using Writemonkey. It is (in my humble opinion) the best choice. It has some unique and very useful features and is slick and eye friendly. Must try if you are running win. I’m using win7 ebta and it runs smoothly …
jack
By jack on Feb 8, 2009
I really like Q10 especially the sound like a type machine. However, it does not work well with Typing Assistant. You can copy and paste text in Q10 while Typing Assistant is active.
By Phaoloo on Feb 16, 2009
Personally I prefer the WestEdit editor. I love it!
You can download it from here: http://home.online.no/~westerma/WestEdit/
By Peter D on Apr 3, 2009
Just wondering: Why did you put WriteMonkey in your “Other” category, rather than with the other Windows full-screen editors? WM is just as good as Q10 and the others; some people may even say it’s better.
Cheers, ander
By ander on Aug 18, 2009
Good summary, thanks!
You can add Nisus Writer to the list of Mac full-featured text editors that offer fullscreen writing/editing. Both version offer this, Nisus Writer Pro ($79, http://nisus.com/pro/) and Nisus Writer Express ($45, http://nisus.com/Express/).
Also, a journalling and blogging app, MacJournal ($39.95, http://www.marinersoftware.com/sitepage.php?page=85), includes fullscreen writing/editing.
By nosleepingdogs on Oct 11, 2009
Excellent list! I just stumbled across it on google searching for “full screen text editor mac”. I’ve tried all the Mac options outlined here and I have to say that one that you may have missed is MyTexts by MOApps - http://createlivelove.com/applications/applications.html
It’s a lot like WriteRoom, but prettier and auto-saves your documents inside the app. Great support from the developer too.
By Daniel on Oct 26, 2009
Try CreaWriter at http://www.creawriter.com. A full screen text editor with ambient sound.
By Pepe Sanchis on Dec 22, 2009
I tried all the Windows Versions - save yourself some evaluation headaches - WriteMonkey is the best, with NotepadSX coming in a distant second, and all the rest being no-rans.
WriteMonkey has lots of preferences you can tweak to turn off a lot of annoying garbage you don’t want (on screen text area markers, stupid popup dialogs, etc) and change things to be the way you do want (like to use the full screen area).
NotepadSX’s biggest failing is it displays a glaring distracting white vertical scroll bar in full screen mode and there is no way to get rid of it, and a donation later and comments to his website, the developer author is decidedly out to lunch.
For editing computer code, I recommend EditPlus ( http://www.editplus.com/ ) , which though it does not have a fullscreen mode, is feature packed and awesome for editing html, computer code, or any other computer related tecnical config file.
By CHOPPERGIRL on Jan 4, 2010
I am currently using Focused (http://spreadingfunkyness.com/focused/)
Just a tip: it is best when used with 24-size font.
By Erik on Jan 19, 2010