Write Monkey Provides Portable Distraction Free Writing
Windows only: Visually WriteMonkey is a dead simple text editor with a strong emphasis on distraction free writing. Under the hood it’s packed with handy features to make writing easier.
WriteMonkey is a portable text editor which runs by default in full-screen mode with a simple black background and green text, like Darkroom on Windows and Writeroom on the Mac. Unlike the previous two applications, WriteMonkey has quite a lot going on behind the scenes. There is a progress bar you can toggle on and off to serve both as a simple motivator or as a word counter if you’re writing towards a set amount of text. There is also a timer which can be attached to the progress bar. WriteMonkey supports bookmarks within the text and has a text repository, a permanent clipboard attached to the document you are working on which allows you to save snippets of text.
If you forget any of the multitude of features you can hit F1 to bring up a reminder menu or hit F11 to toggle out of full screen mode and access the menus in a more traditional manner. The default format for WriteMonkey is plain text, but the basic formatting and text markups can be exported to Word or HTML. WriteMonkey is freeware, Windows only and requires .NET Framework 2.0+. Write Monkey [via gHacks]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Using this makes me feel like strongbad, writing up an email.
This makes me feel as if I am in the movie 'War Games'!
matt925b
I just can't get it to work in fullscreen. My taskbar stays visible no matter what I do.
If it wasn't for that glitch I would happily ditch Q10 for this. Some features are great.
(And yes, I do have the last .NET framework installed).
Daniel Pellizzari
gvim sans menus and other GUI elements could also be considered relatively distraction-free.
[vim.org]
-Jason
jasonp
If you like this type of thing, check out Q10. It also comes in a portable option.
[www.baara.com]
Something that may actually stop me alt + tabbing to Chrome...
littlemissellie
@roachfiend: agreed...every time I see new Darkroom/Writeroom clone for windows I still never see a post for Q10 on Lifehacker? It's a great program that, although hasn't been updated in a while, still does a great job!
@jasonp: +1 for gvim!
This is nice, but I still prefer Q10. It's basically the same thing, but what made it a winner for me is that it's 100% portable (you can even dl a *.PAF installer for your portableapps.com suite)
mandin82
Q10 vs. this Write Monkey thing:
Q10 doesn't require .NET Framework, but it lacks window mode AFAIK (only works full-screen).
Write Monkey does require .NET and has the window mode and bookmarking feature.
However, Q10 has a notes feature where all the text written after a ".." (two periods) are labeled as notes and can be accessed through CTRL+H , so that's an alternative to the text snippet-saving clipboard thing that Write Monkey has.
Both have progress bars, timers (called alarm in Q10) and word count features.
Now I'm starting to sound like a Q10 promoting salesman.
Wow.
@roachfiend: Yeah. Q10 is a sweet little app.
This reminds me of Doogie Howser, where he'd do his computer journal at the end of every day.
DigablePlanet
@DigablePlanet: This will bring back memories:
[twoogie.com]
@roachfiend: i <3 Q10
@roachfiend: And Q10 does not need .NET. That's a plus. I avoid .NET like the plague.
Those with Macs should look at WriteRoom, which is mentioned above:
[www.hogbaysoftware.com]
And it they're interested in a terrific, full-featured writer's tool that also includes a full-screen mode, they might want to try the award-winning Scrivener:
[www.literatureandlatte.com]
InklingBooks
You can also do this with Sublime Text by pressing Shift-F11!
sublimetext.com
cheadd
Very handy, but I'm concerned that WriteMonkey makes 215 individual writes to a config file on C (I have it running on D) upon every exit... I use an SSD as my primary drive, so tons of writes are best avoided.
MichaelTV
@roachfiend: I love love love Q10
a must have for college ppl like me who get distracted easily on the computer...
urbanturban666
The spooky thing about the trend towards simplified, uncluttered writing tools is that people are busily trying to recreate Wordperfect 5.1. If only I could get that program to run on Windows Vista my life would be complete.
why not just use NOTEPAD?! am I missing something?
Suzanne Brown
on NotePad: stuck with default colour background and font colours (often hard on eyes). always aware of the taskbar or other things going on.
Problem with Write Monkey: requires .NET 2.0 This reduces true portability. I therefore use Q10. Without spellcheck is a single 357k file that keeps settings in an .ini file. True portability. Most other features of Write Monkey are there. [www.baara.com]
Cornflower
on NotePad: stuck with default colour background and font colours (often hard on eyes). always aware of the taskbar or other things going on.
Problem with Write Monkey: requires .NET 2.0 This reduces true portability. I therefore use Q10. Without spellcheck is a single 357k file that keeps settings in an .ini file. True portability. Most other features of Write Monkey are there. [www.baara.com]
Cornflower
@DigablePlanet: Super; now I can't get that stupid little theme music melody out of my head while I'm working here.
bbinder
@Suzanne Brown: i actually dled writemonkey... the main diff is that writemonkey goes fullscreen... so you arent distracted by tray icons and widgets and other open apps staring at you from the taskbar... and it has word wrapping defaulted to on so that you dont keep typing in a huge line... the word counter is awsome when you have specific objectives to write to (like a 1000 word essay). and i find the dark screen with bright lettering easier to look at for hours on end...
urbanturban666
@Cornflower: +1 for q10...i did a side by side and i like q10 allot more...just disable sounds and its good to go...
urbanturban666
@Nabeel: being able to turn off full screen would be awsome...
urbanturban666
@cheadd: sublime is great for coding but kind of overkill for writing...
urbanturban666
Once upon a time I wrote on an old DOS laptop, and life was good.
These days, I want to go back to that full-screen, distraction free writing, but I find that not having bold and italic text on demand turns into a huge and aggravating distraction.
mye
Thank you guys for mentioning Q10; it's the best!
spiralout987
@urbanturban666:
Don't tell me, I'm not really a Q10 developer.
(oh shit, I messed up)
Q10 is great, but unfortunately its a dead app. I still prefer it over writemokey though.
Joel Andrew Caleb Ponder
@mye: Nevermind, Writemonkey now uses ctrl-b and ctrl-i to automatically mark text with * and _, and properly exports the markup to your default word processor. Close enough for me.
You have won me over, Writemonkey.
mye
What's up with you guys? I just tried WriteMonkey, and discovered it have everything I missed in Q10, and more. And what's up with Q10 development - nothing seem to happen there...? Bye Q10, hello Monkey!
turbotape
@Nabeel: You might wanna check out WriteMonkey's regular expressions thing. And markup export (I don't think Q10 has this?). And layout customization (paragraph spacing, line spacing, marguins, etc), replacements, and loads of other preferences. When not maximized, you actually get a menu for your preferences. Now I'm starting to sound like a WriteMonkey salesman.
Wow.
turbotape
There's some talk here about .Net. I think I'd use it if I thought it would provide a major advantage, some great big feature that isn't in my install of Windows right now.
What I really dislike is the idea that people should install .Net just to help out other people who preach it as a developer framework, not as something the end user could really benefit from. It's like they're saying... "get .Net. You need it... don't ask why... just give us developers a reason to keep playing with it... we need you to justify us....so just download it.... you need it... etc" They can stick it.
Back to the topic. Get Q10 if you want the feel of an old word cruncher. It's a neat program.
paintbox