43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

Join us via RSS, iTunes, or at 5by5.tv.

”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

WriteRoom: Free full-screen writing app for OS X

WriteRoom | Hog Bay Software

O, how we distraction-prone people pine for persistent and ubiquitous full-screen mode. And it looks like the good folks at Hog Bay have come up with an elegant freeware app to help save the beleaguered writer from him or herself.

For Mac users who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text...

It's a primitive application, to be sure -- I suspect completely by design -- but it may be just what the doctor ordered if you need to get your head out of your butt and put some words on the page. I can see myself spending a lot of time in WriteRoom.

[ via RickP_in_AZ on the board ]

FARfetched's picture

There are a couple of...

There are a couple of other Mac-centric (well, Unix-centric, but the two run together these days) ways of getting the same thing.

1) Maximize a Terminal window, type (minus the quotes) "cat > file.txt" at the prompt, and start typing your text. Press Ctrl-D when finished. This is the real virtual typewriter -- once you've entered a line, there's no going back to edit it. If you want something slightly more luxurious, try the "pico" editor. Type "man pico" at the command line to see how it works.

2) If you have your login set up where you type both your name & your password (instead of clicking on a user name), enter >console with no password. This puts you into a text-only mode, white text on a black screen, with a login prompt. Enter your user name & password where prompted, and then type "cat" or "pico" as above.

For the other kind of operating system, you could reboot into safe mode and use "edit."

 
EXPLORE 43Folders THE GOOD STUFF

Popular
Today

Popular
Classics

An Oblique Strategy:
Honor thy error as a hidden intention


STAY IN THE LOOP:

Subscribe with Google Reader

Subscribe on Netvibes

Add to Technorati Favorites

Subscribe on Pageflakes

Add RSS feed

The Podcast Feed

Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »