MakeUseOf » minimalist

Meet Your Writing Deadlines In A Distraction-Free Writing Environment With OmmWriter

Tina Sieber — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:30:30 +0000

OmmWriter is a writing application for Windows, Mac, and the iPad. It is based on the philosophy that in order to concentrate and be creative, we need a calm and largely distraction free writing environment. Unfortunately, our electronic writing environments are typically riddled with distractions, be it complex program menus or random messages and alerts popping up. The result is a constant struggle for focus. OmmWriter creates a serene, relaxing, simplistic, and fullscreen writing environment to help you be alone with your thoughts and be inspired. Best enjoyed with headphones!

We have previously reviewed OmmWriter for Mac. It has since been updated with additional features and versions for Windows and the iPad have been released. This review focuses on the Dana I version of Omm Writer, as seen in Windows 7. A donation-based upgrade to Dana II is available, which comes with additional audio and visual effects.

Writing Environment

OmmWriter takes over your entire screen and fills it with a serene background image and matching ambient music. A text box area accompanied by a simple menu is your writing space. As you start writing, you will hear typing sounds, adding to the serene atmosphere.

After a while, the bar on the right-hand side and the text box with the menu will disappear, leaving you with only a canvas for your words. This is perfect bliss for creative writing.

When you move the mouse, the surrounding structure comes back on. You can minimize or close OmmWriter by clicking the respective item in the top right of the bar on the right-hand side. Minimizing the application immediately fades out the music and you’re mercilessly returned to the bleak reality of your desktop.

Features

The whole point of OmmWriter is that it has almost no features. Nevertheless, there are some options that are nice to have and good to know about. So let’s have a look at what they are.

The menu has six different items: font, font size, background image, music, typing sound, and saving your document. Each comes with very few options. More precisely, you can choose between four different fonts, four different font sizes, three different background images, three different music loops (or off), three different typing sounds (or off), and you can save, save as or open files as .omm or .txt documents.

In addition, there is a word count in the bottom center of the text field.

Of course you can resize the text field to almost any size you like, as demonstrated below. Once your text exceeds the available space, the bar on the right-hand side will offer a scroll wheel.

And after all, some additional features are hidden in a traditional Windows menu that is uncovered at the very top when you hover in that area. The menu structure is dissected below. It contains some additional options, such as exporting your document to PDF, opening a new document, finding text, or transforming text.

Missing Features

Personally, I miss the option to personalize the background and the music. Also, for the darker background image, it would be nice to choose a lighter font color. It would also be nice to do some more formatting options to make the PDF export option worthwhile. To me that includes changing the font size only for highlighted text or making highlighted text bold, underlined, or italic. Without being able to format text, I don’t see much sense in exporting the document to PDF. That said, any additional feature would take away from the simplistic experience it offers, so maybe it’s just perfect the way it is.

Conclusion

OmmWriter is a great application to find serenity and peace for creative writing. It offers a very calm and relaxing, yet inspiring atmosphere. Features are stripped down to the minimum, preventing the writer to play around with options instead of focusing on the text. I would highly recommend OmmWriter to anyone who is easily distracted and needs a clean desktop environment to write well.

If OmmWriter doesn’t quite cut it for you, have a look at these applications:

Also if you’re struggling with writer’s block, be inspired by the following pieces:

What is your preferred writing environment and how do you get rid of distractions?

The Minimalist Approach To Security Tools On Your Computer [Windows]

Tim Brookes — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:31:55 +0000

A few years ago when Windows Vista was the OS of choice, I chose not to use an antivirus. Instead I relied on a couple of anti-spyware solutions, my router’s firewall and good old common sense. This decision was partly due to my reluctance to pay for overpriced subscription-based security software (despite plenty of decent free alternatives) and concern over resources and boot time. In short, I didn’t want my AV interrupting a very important game of whatever I was into at the time, and took my chances accordingly.

A minimalist approach might not be for everyone, but here’s a few ideas and tips in case you were curious.

Pick Your Tools

These days I do use an antivirus, but not because I was burned by malware. Put simply, I don’t even notice my current AV of choice running thanks to a speedy dual-core processor and plenty of RAM.

For a lightweight solution, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is a free, no-fuss and fairly effective yet simple security tool that won’t bog your PC down too much. It provides protection against viruses, spyware and other malware and is regularly updated to detect the latest threats.

Using an antivirus alongside this solution is also possible, and from a personal standpoint my number one choice is Avast! Free. Not only will it play nicely with MSE but also updates itself daily (only notifying you once the update has been applied) and provides some pretty powerful features including a sandbox mode that allows you to open files in a safe, virtual environment.

I’d recommend it as a “minimalist” solution mainly because it can be configured to suit your needs, and toned right down if need be. There’s no annoying pop-up adverts, very little required in the way of maintenance and it also comes with an optional browser plugin which helps identify untrustworthy websites and displays a rating in search results.

That browser plugin can certainly help you make more informed choices when browsing the web, and that’s exactly what you want to be doing if you’re not using an antivirus, or simply have the bare minimum. If a dedicated antivirus is too much then don’t forget about the good number of online virus scanners that allow you to check your PC for problem without installing a thing.

Which brings us on to browsers. Whichever you choose, make sure it’s the latest version and keep on top of updates. It’s really what you do with your browser that makes the difference here, and while none are watertight; security is top priority these days. Plugins (especially Flash) should be regularly updated too, as should browser extensions (which you want to be picky about).

Last but not least PeerBlock is another optional security measure, and a fairly lightweight one at that. It controls what your computer “talks” to over the internet by blocking certain “bad” I.P. addresses and is totally configurable to your needs.

Be Careful

You could go all-out and download all manner of additional security programs, enable mail scanning and run Ad-Aware every night, but simply being careful online will save you hassle. Not opening dodgy files and email attachments from people you don’t know (or even those you do) is a good start.

Heeding browser warnings about suspected phishing or malware sites is always recommended, but also make sure to check URLs when signing in to banking or other important accounts. Webmail services like Gmail are a great alternative to desktop email applications and provide that extra layer of spam and virus detection before the malware even touches your PC.

You can even route existing POP3 accounts through Gmail and do everything from your browser, which eliminates the need for additional mail scanners. Be wary of USB sticks that aren’t yours as these can become vessels of disease just waiting to infect your PC. Oh, and if “Microsoft” calls then there’s a good chance they’re trying to scam you so be extra careful with the software you install.

Finally keeping the software you regularly use updated is paramount. This includes the OS itself, so don’t slack on updates. Other applications can also develop vulnerabilities so these are important too.

Conclusion

At the end of the day all this advice probably sounds very familiar. You could argue that all these things should be done even if you’re running at DEFCON 1. Regardless, if you are tempted to skimp (and I use the term lightly) on security you’ve got to be extra careful.

Personally I think this kind of caution will breed safer computer habits than a “don’t worry, Security Centre 2012 Pro and 20 spyware scanners take care of everything” outlook ever would – especially since there are so many threats no amount of security can guard against. What do you think, gang?

Image Credit: Abraham Williams

Outline Ideas & Collaborate With Others On The Minimalist Notebook Knowcase

Saikat Basu — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:30:30 +0000

In an increasingly busy world, one could do with less clutter. That perhaps explains the trend towards minimalism. From how you design your house to the kinds of apps you use, minimalism is the new buzzword. If you are looking for a collaborative online service that’s minimalistic without giving up its purpose, consider Knowcase (Beta).

Knowcase is a free online web application that helps you capture your ideas, to-do lists, top-of-the-mind notes, and sundry other bits of data. More than an idea capturing online ‘notebook’, it is also a collaborative tool for sharing what you need to with other individuals or teams. We had covered it briefly before in – Knowcase: Minimalist Notebook to Store & Organize Notes, Lists & To-Dos Online.

Note-taking apps are a particular breed that lends themselves well to simplicity and minimalism. Knowcase follows the rule to the tee. It is free, fast, and easy. But does it follow all the ABC’s of minimalism, note-taking, and collaboration? Let’s sign-up and find out.

Sign-up is a six-second affair. No unwanted boxes to fill out. No email confirmation of your registration.

The Clean Look

There are two obvious ways to decide if an app is simple or you need to dive deeper to understand it. The Settings often show what options you have to customize the app. Complexity goes up with too many options. Knowcase gives you only one – changing/updating your log-in info.

The interface of Knowcase is also self-explanatory. I bet taking one look, you too can make out what it’s all about. I didn’t find a link that said ‘Help’ or ‘Instructions’ anywhere.

Capturing Information

If ideas and thoughts overflowing from the top of your head; make them spillover on Knowcase. Double click and enter the topic headline where it says – Enter topic name.

You can create your list by simply entering text and pressing enter. Alternatively, you can enter new text items by clicking on Add text. Don’t worry about the correct order or hierarchy now. Just keep on populating the list. We take up organizing the data into outlines and hierarchies in the next section.

Knowcase lets you create as many topics you want. You can move through each topic from the list on the right column. You can delete unwanted topics by making the topic active and clicking on the Remove this topic link at the bottom.

Organizing Information

Organizing all your jot-downs within a topic into proper outlines and hierarchical lists is easy.

The simplest list on Knowcase is a ‘To-Do’. To-do’s are linear lists which you can mark off with a check when you finish them.

Any other list can be organized topics and sub-topics structure by clicking on the Outdent and Indent buttons. You can reorder the hierarchy by simple drag and drop of the individual topics.

Collaborating with Individuals or Teams

Collaboration is one of the key features of this simple app. You can share your topics and list with your team members using an email invite. Topic items are tagged with the names of the respective team members. Viewing or editing privileges can also be set for each shared member.

You can download (or backup) your notes as text or OPML files.

Potential Uses

With Knowcase there is absolutely no learning curve. That makes it a perfect platform for use in no-frill team environments like schools where students and teachers can use it for collaborative activities. The to-do tool can be used to prioritize tasks. Knowcase and its hierarchical note taking feature can be used to create outlines without a fuss.

Outlining is another way to brainstorm and a useful alternative to the more three-dimensional mind-mapping. Though, Knowcase is not a power note-taking or outlining tool, its appeal lies in simplicity. We have covered quite a few to-do and note-taking apps. Which one is your pick?

5 Ways To Reduce Menu Bar Clutter [Mac]

Habib Alamin — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:31:36 +0000

We’ve covered some Great Tips and Tools For a Clean and Minimalist Mac Desktop before. This time, I’ll be focusing on specifically the menu bar. Due to my small 13″ MacBook Pro screen, which has even less resolution than the 13″ Air, I am forced to look for any way to clear the screen, such as making elements smaller in browsers, so I can fit two applications side by side.

Safari, Firefox and Mail all have quite a lot of menu items, especially since I added the Debug menu in Safari. I looked at the application with the most menu bar items and cut down all the icons on my menu bar, so they will not overlap this specific app. In my case, this happened to be Firefox, which cuts me down considerably more than, for instance, Chrome does.

So I looked at some solutions to cut down on the clutter up there, while still retaining all of the functionality. This was what I got.

1. Hide Menu Bar Items

Hiding menu bar items can seem trivial, but there are lots of apps you don’t really interact with and they don’t share any statuses, so why do you need to see them in the menu bar? You may want to use them all the time but not close them down. So this makes some apps a great candidate for hiding. On my system, I hid ScrollReverser and a myriad of other background apps I want always on, such as Alfred, QuickSilver, TotalFinder and others.

Just right click the icon, or click it if that brings up the contextual menu, then find the option to hide it. Sometimes, this may be in the application’s preferences instead. Just find this for each application you want to hide. It may seem tedious, but at the end, you’ll find a lot of space cleared, which you can enjoy or use for applications that do demand interaction.

2. Remove The Spotlight Icon

This may seem drastic, but like I said, no functionality is ever lost. If you don’t need this, you can also turn it off, but for those that do need it, remove the icon by entering this in the Terminal if you’re on Leopard:

sudo chmod 0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app

If you’re on Snow Leopard, you can use this:

sudo chmod 600 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search

Then enter this to see the changes:

killall SystemUIServer

So how do we replace this functionality? Well, apps like Alfred and QuickSilver can replace it if you want, and are much better than Spotlight, but if you want exactly the same functionality as Spotlight and don’t mind paying, Launchbar (€24 / $35) is very popular for going way beyond Spotlight, but also has an integrated Spotlight function. Don’t turn off Spotlight if you want to use this though, just hide the icon.

3. GeekTool

One thing that takes up a lot of space is the clock. Clear this and you could fit several more apps in there. I have found one way to do this. Just download the free GeekTool app and open it in System Preferences. Now drag a shell to the desktop and where it says, “Command” enter this:

date '+%A, %B %d, %Y, %I:%M:%S %p'

Set it to refresh every 1 second. You can remove the :%S and set it to refresh every 60 seconds to get a minute clock, which is less processor-intensive.

This will create a Geeklet on your desktop that tells the time and date. Hide the menu bar clock, and pin the Dock to the left of the screen, using this Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start

To return to the middle or pin to the right, replace start with middle and end, respectively. An alternative way is to use a Dashboard widget to tell the time.

One disadvantage to the GeekTool approach is that when watching movies full-screen, you cannot put your mouse to the top to check the time. But if you have a Mac laptop sold at or after October 2008, there’s a simple solution. Just swipe upwards with four fingers to see the GeekTool shell on the desktop. Otherwise, you can set up a screen corner to activate Exposé.

For more on GeekTool, check out Jeffry’s brilliant article.

4. SlimBatteryMonitor

What can be said about the default Apple battery indicator? Well, it takes up a lot of space, especially when it’s “calculating” the time remaining to run out of juice. To remedy this, just download and install the free tool, SlimBatteryMonitor. Set the icon shape to horizontal in the preferences and that’s it. Now, remove the default battery indicator by dragging it off the menu bar. You now have a much smaller battery indicator.

We’ve covered this before.

AppleDisplayScaleFactor

This is a rather volatile solution, but if you want to use it, you can make all text in the OS smaller, including the application menu bars, using this Terminal command:

defaults write -g AppleDisplayScaleFactor 0.9

This will make all text 90% of normal size.

Changes will take effect on all apps launched after the command issued. Restart Finder by typing in:

killall Finder

Or you can Force Quit it, by bringing up the Force Quit window, using ?+?+esc. Now just click Finder and click Relaunch.

You cannot arrange Desktop icons in View Options if you decide to use this method. The icons on the far right will go even more to the right, until they are hidden.

Conclusion

Now that you’re done, fill up that empty space with these menulets.

Has this finally helped you with all those out-of-control menu bar items? Have you found that you don’t use a lot of the items and quit them? Do you have any other solutions? What apps are you adding in the menu bar, now you have the space? We appreciate any comments below.

Google Calendar & Gmail’s New Look: How You Can Preview [News]

Angela Alcorn — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:31:32 +0000

Google have recently been rolling out a new design for Google Calendar and Gmail, sporting a minimalist theme. The new look of the Google services is designed to match the recently released Google+. The Google+ design is reported by Techcrunch to have been created by original Macintosh designer, Andy Hertzfeld.

The Gmail blog says that this is “part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products” and that changes are intentionally being rolled out slowly in order to incorporate user feedback on the design.

For many users, the new look in Google Calendar is already available. Users have the option to use the new look or revert to the classic look (by clicking on the settings icon and choosing “Use Classic Look“).

For Gmail users, the new look can be enabled by using the “Preview” or “Preview (Dense)” theme from the themes tab in Gmail settings.

The new looks are a very minimalist design, to match with Google+, featuring plenty of whitespace and simple Google colours.

What do you think of the new design? Will you be rushing to use the new themes? Why or why not?

Source: Gmail Blog

The Minimalist Suite: Your Favorite Web Apps, Simplified

Justin Pot — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:31:55 +0000

Remove the clutter from Gmail, Facebook, Google Calendar and Google Reader. The Minimalist Suite is a series of extensions for Google Chrome that simplifies the interface of these major web apps.

“You live in webapps,” says the homepage of the Minimalist Suite, “Make them yours.” These extensions live up that ideal, allowing you control of what does and doesn’t show up, while also allowing you to change the color schemes and more of these sites. This is perfect for netbook users, who are always looking to save space on their tiny screens, but even desktop users will appreciate reduced clutter in their lives. There are a plethora of Chrome extensions out there that aim to reduce clutter online, and Greasemonkey scripts offer even more ways to strip elements from webpages.

What makes the Minimalist Suite different? Well, first of all, it’s really easy to use. A configuration page allows you to pick what you want to see and what you don’t, and you don’t need a degree in computer science to understand the options. Additionally, unlike other such extensions, you have full control. Which elements of a web app this extension removes is entirely in your hands, so you won’t lose access to the features you love while removing the interface elements that annoy you. Developer Ansel Santosa clearly knows what he’s doing.

Clean up the websites you spend the most time looking at, quickly and easily. All Google plugins work with both the consumer versions and the Google Apps versions, or at least did in my tests.

Overview

Head over to the Minimalist Suite and install the plugins you’re interested in. When you do, you’ll notice a grey icon in Chrome’s address bar; this will only show up when you’re on a site Minimalist Suite can edit.

Click this button to bring up your configuration options. Explore the checklists and you’ll see all the custom options explained clearly. If you’re unsure what element a particular checkbox will modify, hover your mouse over it:

A picture will show you what part of the page is being talked about. Obviously the elements that can be removed depend on which service you’re editing.

There is an experimental sync feature for all settings, which makes clever use of Chrome’s built-in bookmark sync to surpass Chrome’s lack of support of extension setting syncing. Very cool if you use more than one computer regularly and want these settings to follow you.

Minimalist For Gmail

If you’re a Gmail user, it’s likely the thing you spend the most time looking at. For good or for ill, email is the central hub of the modern workflow.

Minimalist for Gmail allows quite a bit of control over the Gmail interface. Highlights include:

Hiding the entire header, including the Gmail logo and search. Click the top of the window to bring it back, so you don’t lose any features.
Add attachment icons to emails.
Hide the annoying “Mail/Contacts/Tasks” menu.
Hide Chat completely.
Hide Gmail’s footer.
Much more; browse all options here.

Minimalist For Facebook

Remember when Facebook was clean and utilitarian? Me too, but those days are long gone. Luckily there’s Minimalist for Facebook, which cuts through the crap and presents you with the information you’re looking for. Be warned: this is a beta extension, so use at your own risk.

There are a lot of things you can control here. Highlights include:

Change the color of Facebook’s top bar.
Block updates from applications and pages.
Remove the (largely useless) right bar from Facebook.
Hide the Facebook logo.
Show large photos when you hover your mouse over a thumbnail.
Much more; explore all options here.

Minimalist For Google Calendar

A calendar should, ideally, just show you what’s coming up and stay out of your way. With Minimalist for Google Calendar, that’s possible.

Highlights include:

Hide the top bar; bring it back by clicking the top of the window.
Hide any navigation buttons you never use.
Hide left sidebar; perfect if you only use one calendar.
Much more; explore all options here.

Minimalist For Google Reader

Can’t live with your RSS feeds? You might well be a Google Reader user, then. Strip down unused Reader interface elements with Google Reader. Highlighted potential changes include:

Remove or hide the header to save vertical space.
Hide the navigation so you can focus on just reading.
Hide all icons, or dim them.
Hide right toolbar.
Much more; Explore all options here.

More Coming?

I’m a netbook user, so these extensions are perfect for me. What about you? Do you like being able to remove elements from webapps, or do you prefer not to mess with things? Fill us in below, in the comments.

Want your favorite program to be made minimal? As it turns out you can vote for your favorite candidate. Highlights include Google Voice, Wikipedia and Remember The Milk, so fans of any of these sites should vote now.

3 Minimalist Twitter Clients For Mac Users

Nancy Messieh — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:30:55 +0000

Twitter’s latest move stopping developers from creating new Twitter clients wasn’t met with much warmth, and we’re not surprised. Part of Twitter’s success was based on the fact that so many applications, clients and third party sites were able to build themselves around Twitter’s resounding success. And there is certainly no limit to the number of clients available to access the site, leaving a lot of us constantly on the look out for the perfect client.

While Twitter for Mac seems to have cornered the Mac market, there is something to be said for having options to choose from. If you’re looking for a simpler, barebones, minimalist Twitter client, there are a few options available for Mac users. Whether you’re looking for a simple, easy-to-use client like Itsy, the slightly more elaborate HelTweetica, or even the unique Ambientweet, there is no limit to the way that you can choose to access Twitter with these clients.

Itsy

Itsy stays very true to its name, with tiny buttons to access your home feed, replies, messages and a search window. When any given feed is updated, a small white dot will appear on the icon, and growl notifications to let you know when you’ve received a new message or reply.

While you can perform searches, Itsy prides itself on ignoring Twitter’s trending topics, so if you’re the kind of person who gets annoyed by them, this is the minimalist Twitter client for you.

To create a new tweet, click the little button on the right hand side of the window, the compose window will drop down allowing you to type your tweet. When you aren’t replying to tweets, or sending new updates, it disappears. While Itsy has a native url shortener, if you want to share images with your followers, you’ll have to use another client.

From your home feed you can reply to, retweet or favorite tweets. Unfortunately, the only retweet method available is the native Twitter retweet, so if you want to retweet and add your two cents, you’ll have to rely on copy and paste.

Images shared on twitter through Twitpic and Yfrog amongst others are visible in your timeline.

In addition to some of the more standard features, Itsy also adds themes to its arsenal. There aren’t too many to choose from but it’s nice to have the choice between a light or dark theme to suit your own taste.

Itsy is great to use to follow your feed and interact with the people you already follow but it does lack some basic features. You can’t access tweeps profiles. Clicking on a username redirects you to their web profile in your browser. That also means you can’t follow or unfollow users, can’t add them to your lists, or access your lists at all.

Itsy is available for Mac OS X 10.6 in the Mac App Store, and for Mac OS X 10.5 as a direct download from the developer’s website.

HelTweetica

HelTweetica is another barebones Mac Twitter client, but it has a few extra features that aren’t found in Itsy. You can access your home feed, replies, messages and favourites from the menu. In addition, you should also be able to access your lists, although in our experience, they didn’t load. When you’ve received a new reply or message, the relevant feed will be marked with a red dot.

Images from various services including Instagram and Twitpic can be viewed in-line in your home feed.

To create a new tweet, click the compose button and a new window will open in which you can add an image, shorten your URL, and geotag your tweet. When sharing images you can choose to do through a variety of services including Twitpic, YFrog and Posterous. URL Shortening can be done using is.gd, TinyUrl or Linky.

You can interact with other tweeps by replying and retweeting, as well as adding tweets to your favourites. A nice touch they’ve added is giving users the choice between using the “Old” retweet method where you can add your thoughts to a tweet, or the “New” retweet method which retweets the entire message to your timeline as is.

Another way in which HelTweetica offers more options than Itsy is the ability to view a users profile within the app. Clicking on a username will open a window with the user’s bio, location, number of friends and followers, Twitter join date and their latest tweets. From here you can also follow or unfollow users.

HelTweetica supports multiple accounts, but lacks basic growl notifications. Other features include threaded conversations, which also open in a separate window, and the ability to delete your tweets. HelTweetica requires Mac OS X 10.6, and is also available as a free iPad app.

Ambientweet

Ambientweet takes a very different approach to other Twitter clients and is not in any means meant to replace your main Twitter client. If you prefer to access Twitter using your browser, Ambientweet may serve as an interesting accompaniment. With Ambientweet you can’t really follow your timeline. Instead, the window floats on top of all other windows displaying only one tweet at a time as your feed refreshes itself. At any given time, you can glance over and see what the latest tweet in your feed is. From there you can also reply, retweet or add it to your favorites.

Ambientweet also gives you a quick and easy way to update your status without any extra bells and whistles.

Ambientweet is not without it’s glitches. If you keep a close eye on the app you might see several tweets are sometimes repeated. That said, you can control the speed at which the app refreshes, anywhere from between 1 to 600 seconds.

What is your favorite minimalist Twitter client? Let us know in the comments

QuietWrite – A Web-Based Minimal Writing App That Saves Your Writing Online

Justin Pot — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:31:43 +0000

A simple, web-based text editor that stays out of your way so you can write. QuietWrite offers this, and an online place to store the documents you’re working on. Whether you’re working on a blog post, a chapter in your novel or simply your grocery list, QuietWrite is a great tool if you want no-nonsense document editing with an attractive, cloud-based backend.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but MakeUseOf kind of likes minimal writing tools. Perhaps it’s just writers writing about writing, but in the blogging age tools that are useful for writers are useful for just about everything. Distractions being everywhere, it’s nice to write in an application that stays out of your way and lets you write. We recently profiled FocusWriter, a minimal writing app you can customize. We even taught you how to turn Office 2007 into a minimalist text editor, although you can be the judge of how well that works.

If you want distraction-free writing in your browser however, I highly recommend QuietWrite. Set your browser to full screen and get ready to get things done.

Getting Started

Starting isn’t all that complicated; just head over to QuietWriter.com and click the “Start Writing” button. When you do you’ll be presented with your workspace:

This is your main work area, and there’s not much to it; writing is all you can do here. Spell check is provided by your browser, assuming your browser offers it. Formatting isn’t possible. A word count can be found if you move your mouse to the top section of the window:

The best thing about this tool? It’s constantly saving your writing. As you type the information is sent to the cloud, meaning you could continue working even if something terrible happens to your computer. To take advantage of this feature, however, you’re really going to want a login account.

You can preview your document. This may seem useless in a minimal editor, but if you’re like me it isn’t. You see, I write my blog posts in HTML, and QuietWrite is actually the first editor that allows me to preview how my code will look before I copy it over to MakeUseOf. Having access to a quick preview function is a great way to spot mistakes.

User Accounts

Creating a login account couldn’t be simpler. When creating a document, move your mouse to the top of the window. Here you will leave an email address and a password and be done. You can now save your documents and retrieve them later. This is an excellent way to have access to your work regardless of where you are. Heck, it’s even a great alternative way to get writing done on the iPad.

You can also “publish” your writing, useful if you’re looking for a quick place to share something with a lot of people. Heck, there’s even an “explore” button you can use to find articles written by others, which is kind of neat.

Customizing

Like the concept, but not a big fan of the color scheme? Don’t panic; you can customize the look of your writing area, to a certain extent. Move your mouse to the top of the browser window, then click “settings.” Here you can change you look:

This being a browser, you’re limited in terms of font selection. Colors however, are pretty much any you can imagine.

Conclusion

I like this one. It’s minimalistic writing, brought to the cloud. You can use this to discreetly work on creative projects in the office, or for keeping your writing in the cloud so you can access it anywhere. Unlike WriteSpace, it works on every browser and syncs with the cloud.

What do you think? Is this a worthwhile tool, or just yet another minimal writing application? As always you can fill us in; type your thoughts in the box below.

5 Services That De-Clutter The Web For Readers

Justin Pot — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:31:39 +0000

The web is a very cluttered place. Everyone is competing for your valuable attention, so they fill their sites with ads, social media buttons and countless other distractions. If you’d rather your attention was devoted to the article you’re currently reading, though, consider removing everything from the screen except the text you’re currently reading.

There’s a variety of free web apps and browser extensions out there to help you accomplish just that, and all of them are free. If you’d like your reading to be more peaceful, one of them is right for you. Everything here is free, so you might as well try them all and find out what service you like best.

ReadAbility

You could argue this is the original tool for this job, and it’s good at it. Working on any browser with bookmarks, ReadAbility is installed by dragging a bookmarklet to your shortcut bar. Then, when you’re reading an article on a particularly busy site, you can simply click your bookmark to remove all formating. Nice!

There are even plugins for Chrome and Firefox, both of which allow you to customize the look and feel of pages you make readable. Check out Readabiliy.

Safari Browser

If you’ve got Safari, you’ve got a simple way to reduce online clutter while reading. One of the useful features of Safari 5 is the “Reader.” Based on ReadAbility, this plugin provides a simple way to just see the article you’re reading. Click the “Reader” button in your taskbar and you’re good to go. It even parses multi-page articles to one page, meaning you don’t have to keep clicking “next page” to keep reading. Brilliant!

iReader

Want something like Safari Reader in Chrome of Firefox? You’re in luck! You can download iReader, an extension for decluttered reading in Chrome and Firefox. Like Safari’s Reader, iReader parses multi-page articles for you. Unlike Safari’s Reader, you don’t have to use Safari. Nice.

Instapaper

More than a way to remove distractions for an article, Instapaper is a way to manage your bookmarks and reading list. Heck, it even offers you an iPhone app, a Kindle subscription and an ePub download, meaning you can read your saved articles on practically any device. If you’ve got such a device, you’ll love Instapaper. Even if you don’t, though, it’s a pretty great tool for saving articles you want to read later – and reading them distraction-free.

NotForest

This one’s pretty. Like Readability, installation is as simple as dragging a bookmarklet to your toolbar. Unlike Readability, you can quickly and easily change the text and background color: just select from the options at the top-right. It doesn’t seem to support pictures at all, but it’s still a great option to check out if you’re not quite happy with any of the above plugins and tools. Check out NotForest right now.

Know of another? Please, share it below. As usual, also feel free to ask anything about how to use these plugins, because I like to help.

FocusWriter – Minimalist, Distraction-Free & Beautiful Text Editor

Justin Pot — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:31:50 +0000

Looking for a simple, beautiful place to do your writing, but can’t find a program that does the job? Focus Writer is fast, works on every platform and can look pretty much however you like.

Microsoft Word somehow became people’s default writing tool, but in many ways it’s not right for the job. Its functionality is based around everything but actual writing: publishing, inserting pictures, laying things out and other periphery concerns. If you want a no-nonsense place to simply write, without any distractions, you need another program entirely.

This is particularly true if you’re writing for the web, because none of Word’s formatting translates to HTML very cleanly when it comes time to post.

To this end we taught you about OmmWriter, a zen distraction-free writing app for Mac, highlighted minimalist text editors for Linux and even hosted a battle of the minimalistic text editors. But we’ve never featured FocusWriter, a brilliant program for Linux, Mac and Windows that can make writing not just distraction free but also beautiful.

Best of all, this program features support for Rich Text and smart quotes, uncommon things in the world of such software.

Features

Perhaps the main thing that makes FocusWriter different from other minimalistic text editors is the presence of a hidden toolbar and file menu. Move your mouse to the top of the screen and you’ll see it:

Here you can do all of the standard menu-kinds of things, such as saving, searching opening files or changing your preferences. There’s even a timer tool, perfect if you want to ensure you spend so many hours a day writing.

There’s another toolbar at the bottom of the screen:

Here you’ll see a live count of your words, as well as tabs for all the various documents you have open. I personally use this to stay on top of all the articles I’m currently writing for MakeUseOf.

Themes

It’s also worth noting that FocusWriter allows you to make it look pretty much however you want. You can save your themes, and even export them in order to share them with friends. Pick a wallpaper or background colour, set the margins for your text and change the font; there’s a lot of possibility here. Save as many themes as you like, but don’t waste too much time: you’re supposed to be writing.

strongbad_email.exe

Having said that, the real reason you’re reading this is to set up a writing program that looks like Strong Bad’s famous Lappy. This, of course, will make you awesome.

Setting up Focus Writer to look like the most email-checking computer around is easy; you need only to download this font and combine it with this picture. Create a new theme, and play with the settings to make it look like this:

Now any boring thing you’re writing is super great. Congratulations!

Installing FocusWriter

Want to get started? Find downloads for Mac and Windows on Focus Writer’s website, as well packages for Arch, Gentoo and Ubuntu Linux.

Be sure to let us know what you think about the program, and perhaps even share any nifty themes you develop!