Instead its menus are key-activated: F5 brings up the Help menu, F6 brings up the Preferences window, and so on. JDarkRoom, while only slightly less flexible than WriteRoom, initially appears to be extremely basic due to the lack of any menu bar or friendly graphical interface. The main difference between JDarkRoom and WriteRoom is the user interface. Both programs are capable of a wide range of color combinations. So you could pretend you’re working on an Apple ][ with green on black, or typing in Doogie Howser’s diary circa 1989 with white on blue. Both programs also let you alter aspects of the appearance, namely the background color and text color. There are no formatting palettes, rulers, or other interface elements to distract you. Both simply present a cursor on a solid colored field. The programs are nearly identical when in fullscreen mode. All that back and forth is a pain in the butt. Still, being able to copy and paste from multiple documents before returning to fullscreen mode to edit would be useful in JDarkRoom to do the same thing you have to copy text, enter fullscreen mode, paste, then exit fullscreen mode to do it again. WriteRoom’s approach is more useful if you need to work between programs simultaneously, though presumably if you’re using WriteRoom or JDarkRoom it’s precisely because you want to reduce multitasking. However, when you leave JDarkRoom’s fullscreen view, only a small dialog asking you to click OK when you want to reenter remains visible, while with WriteRoom the document appears in what looks exactly like a TextEdit window. Both programs reduce your screen view to just a solid colored background with the text and cursor on top.īoth programs also have normal window modes, to enable users to switch to other applications without having to quit first. #WRITEROOM LICENSE CODE#I discovered two very similar programs: JDarkRoom from Code Alchemists (freeware) and Hog Bay Software’s WriteRoom ($24.95). Word Processing circa 1987 - Writing being my main occupation, I began my search by trying to find a minimalist word processor. #WRITEROOM LICENSE HOW TO#Thus, I needed to figure out how to induce tunnel vision to the task at hand. The problem for me isn’t so much that I don’t know when I’m wasting time, or that a certain site is zapping productive energy, it’s that I get off track in the first place. I also considered taking measures to block my Internet roaming – a principal offender in my time wasting – but decided I’d probably ignore anything that told me how much time I was wasting or turn off whatever was keeping me from where I wanted to go. What I needed was a way to reduce the amount of visual noise I was exposing myself to, and to transform my desktop and screen into a more Zen-like state. According to a 2005 study conducted by the research firm Basex, I’m not alone: interruptions now consume 2.1 hours a day, or 28 percent of the average person’s workday. If I see an email message enter my Inbox, an iChat window pop up, or a Twitter account update, I simply must check it out. I should note that, as an artist, I’m principally a visual person: I learn best by looking at pictures, and I work most sluggishly when there’s too much in my line of sight. I decided to search for tools I could utilize to reduce distractions. #WRITEROOM LICENSE FULL#So where did I find myself a few months ago? On the TidBITS editorial team, with news to research, articles to write, and a desktop full of wildly entertaining time bandits. It was only there, in the bowels of the university, that I was able to get any serious writing done. Even the bookshelves lining those monastic spaces were unable to tempt me given their investigations of geological dullness and computational obscurity (subjects, I’m sure, that would titillate a more scientifically inclined mind). In college I discovered the glory of the engineering library’s basement: a pseudo fallout shelter whose bare bulbs dangled over solitary study cells, with nary a distraction in sight for an aspiring art major. I’ve always been an easily distracted person. #WRITEROOM LICENSE ARCHIVE#
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