FocusWriter

FocusWriter is a free word processing or text editor application that offers its users a simplified writing environment. It is simple application that will help users focus on their writing and thus increased productivity. The name of the application is based on one of the characteristic feature of this application, which is its USP too. The application is free to download and licensed under GPL, which allows users to freely use the application without being able to extract the source code.

Features

FocusWriter is a comprehensive word processor application that allows users to have a distraction free writing environment. Although this application doesn’t support much word formats, inspite can be a handy tool. It is a freeware and comes packed in a 32 MB Portable package. There are no limitations in the application as it is free entirely. As the application is portable, users can have a copy of in their respective portable drives to be used anywhere they go. It does not require adding certain registry entries in the Regedit manually, thus simplifying the process. Its user interface is though simple and distinct comparing to the other applications of the same community, the main components of the interface includes a menu bar and certain tool bar.

The main feature of the application resides in its interface, which has an ability to hide all the controls, toolbars, menu bar, etc. when writing. This feature gives the users a distraction free writing environment and user can focus on writing alone. On the basis of this feature the app was given its name. The menu can also be brought back by moving the mouse pointer near to the margin or to the edges of the screen. There are not much file support added to this application, and following file formats are supported in this application as TCT, ODT and RTF. Any of these file formats can be imported to or exported from this application, and besides these formats none of the other formats can be edited, which is quite a drawback of the application.

Comparison

FocusWriter is a word processor application, and such applications are specifically designed application to act as a replacement application to the Microsoft Word. There are many other apps of the same type such as Atlantis Word Processor. When comparing on the basis of features, FocusWriter lags in many features. It also lags in having some basic functions too such as file format support such as DOC, DOCX, etc.

Conclusion

FocusWriter is a small utility application developed for Windows that allows its users to have a distraction free writing environment. The main feature of this application is its interface that automatically hides unnecessary controls and tool boxes to have writers focus only on the program. Besides this feature, there are no other notable features that this application adheres.