When I first started writing as an adult back in the early 1990s, I first used a typewriter, then moved to Word Perfect when I bought a PC. IA Writer has two main attributes that set it apart: simplicity, and plain text purity With its simple aesthetics and no-nonsense setup, I immediately felt at home. The developers did away with this several years ago, which I think is a shame, as this added a subtle layer of interest. I also liked the paper-like texture used as a background in the early days. Reader, I’m easily distracted and love typewriters.Ī pure writing app, it lacked customisation options, and had a beautiful monospace font. I was immediately attracted by its typewriter-like interface and lack of distractions. I’ve owned a copy of Writer since its first lunch in 2010. Here’s my experience with Writer from Information Architects, and how I use it now. It's fantastic for composing blog posts using Markdown, or just writing the next chapter of your book in regular text.įor $5 on iOS you really can't go wrong the $30 Mac app doesn't offer anything more (other than the larger screen space) that the iOS versions do, but I look at the Mac version as supporting further development, and of course it's great having all the same documents right to hand on both platforms.I’ve mentioned iA Writer in several previous posts, which indicated the app deserves coverage of its own. The focus mode and other features really help with getting into the flow, and the lack of Word's labyrinthian options means you focus on writing first, editing later. Writer hits the right balance (for me) of a simple interface but there's just the right amount of tools. but it's just TOO plain-text for some things. I really enjoy using iA Writer on iOS thanks to its cloud sync with the iPhone and Mac version. There might be a thesaurus app that does that it’s a great idea if there isn’t. Is there an editor that, as you type, automatically looks up the word you just typed in the Thesaurus and displays alternatives (as opposed to autocompletes) on the Touch Bar? Word processors and slick presentation packages are how you present your problem solution to a wider audience. Whiteboards and text editors are where you really solve the problem. Using IA Writer as a prelude and set-up process for what will eventually become a document ready for publication is similar to using a white board (or mind map) to coelesce concepts for what will later turned into a PowerPoint/Keynote presentation. The longer you can stay away from being bothered by fonts, formatting, visual presentation, and typical document overhead clap trap the better quality of thought you'll get around what really matters - communicating your ideas or concepts. If you veer off into the weeds on your train of thought or coherency it's cheap to start over and/or hack up what you've already done. Best of all they are low investment in terms of your time and effort. Simple editors like IA Writer don't get in the way of your thinking or impede the stream of consciousness with fickleness. I may be old fashioned, but I like to start documents in a simple text tool like IA Writer or Textastic and later move the text to a full fledged word processor only after I've captured the essence of what I'm trying to communicate in the document. I actually prefer tagging over autocorrection. IA Writer will still mark misspellings and you can right-click on the flagged misspellings to select a correction. You can start a sentence with lower case using IA Writer if you uncheck the "Correct Spelling" setting in Editor preferences.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |