![]() ![]() The standard iOS keyboard is enhanced by the addition of a top row of keys for frequently-used characters (- : ” ‘) and, usefully, buttons to move back and forth word by word. So if you need to make any major changes you have to exit focus mode. The ubiquitous iOS copy and paste dialog isn’t called up when you press the screen. I really like this approach, although the focus mode does not allow any form of editing other than backspacing and navigation. The rest of the text is greyed out and you can concentrate entirely on the current words. In focus mode you find the true unique selling point of iA Writer, the focus on the sentence under construction. Note how the Markdown hash symbols are shown as simple text and compare with the effect in the Mac application window belowFocus mode The iPad full-screen view showing the focus mode in action. To the far right of the toolbar is a lock icon which, strangely, is what you use to change to the second, full-screen “focus” mode. There are slow readers and there are fast readers. I am not convinced by the rather artificial time-to-read function. In addition there is a “time-to-read” value (which the authors cite as an improvement on pagination or other forms of index) and a word count. In standard mode there is a top toolbar with icons to call up the documents list, add a new document and share by emailing the text or copying the full text. IA Writer joins a bunch of similar products in offering a clean, editing environment with the option to go full screen if you wish. If you are happy with a white background and Nitti Light type you don’t need to look further. Fortunately the chosen font, Nitti Light, is attractive and suits me because it is non-variable in width and makes for easy editing. ![]() They claim it is a sparten setting and they’re not far wrong on that-it’s a true case of one size fits all. There are no options to change background, pen colour or font or, even, text size. To achieve this end there is minimal customisation. IA Writer aims to offer a very focused, distraction-free environment for serious writing. I purchased iA Writer for the iPad some weeks ago but hadn’t got down to evaluation. But to have both desktop and iPad apps from the same vendor is an interesting proposition. Most plain-text note applications for iOS have no desktop version, although it is an easy matter to use TextEdit, WriteRoom or one of the many other plaint-text editing progams for OS X. More on that in the coming months.When I read that Information Architects’ iA Writer¹ for iPad had a desktop companion I felt duty bound to download and try them out. I probably won’t, either, because I’m stripping down my Mac software selections as well. But make sure it is a distraction-free grain of salt.Ģ I have yet to try the Mac version. 2 All in all, it’s a solid program that delivers on what it promises.īut it just doesn’t do it as well as the first app that I looked at.ġ As a result, I’d take my review with a grain of salt. ![]() Clean Writer is also available for the Mac platform through the Mac App Store. 1Ĭlean Writer is less costly than ia Writer, so it is a solid choice for those not willing to pony up the dough for my current app of choice. ia Writer seems (ironically) cleaner than Clean Writer in how it presents its writing environment. The problem is that I prefer ia Writer in terms of execution of the same idea. All in all, it delivers a minimal amount of distraction to let you get up and write. Some of the latest features developed for Clean Writer includes Dropbox sync, which works well enough (although I couldn’t get some text files to open) and you can now adjust margin sizes to best suit what you’re writing. You can disable auto-correct as well, much like ia Writer does when you put it in “Focus Mode”, all from the Settings gear located at the top right corner of the app’s screen. Unlike ia Writer, you can adjust font size and style (including inverting the screen colour so that the text appears white…or “hacker” green). And while I’m not necessarily disappointed by it, I’m also not thrilled with it, either.Īnd that’s not because it doesn’t deliver the goods. The second writing app I put through the paces in my ongoing experiment to find the best writing app for my iPad was Clean Writer. ![]()
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