WriteRoom App Reviews

I have iA writer for the Ipad and I wanted something similar. Reality is that this is a simple text editor, nothing fancy. BUT this is what i needed. This is what I love about it. I love the ability to not be distracted by my desktop or other things that can pop up. Whether I am blogging or writing a story, this little programe does help me concentrate on what I need to do… just WRITE.. I dont suggest this for people that need multiple windows open, doing research paper to use this program. If you are spell check addict, this isnt for you. If you are font/format geek, this isnt for you. If you just need to get thoughts and ideas down into words while writing on a soothing background, you can give this a shot. I really appreciate the added themes. PS Full screen is the best way to use this app.

I love the concept, and now I can use the same app on all my devices - small and large. BUT, without being able to set preferences (settings globally), it becomes much less useful, as the "small" versions integrate nicely with DropBox, and this doesnt (yet). This appears to be a work-in-progess, somewhat rushed to market, but I applaud the authors efforts, and look forward to new versions with added capabilities, and my rating will increase as capabilities increase.

I use WriteRoom when I really need to focus on what Im writing. It is a bare-bones text editor but that is the whole point. Instead of being distracted with an overly busy interface or too many formatting options, you can focus on what is important… your words. WriteRoom is also a handy tool to strip out all of the junk formatting from Microsoft Word before I paste text into my web pages. The only reason why I give this app 4 stars is because I want seamless iCloud integration with the iPad version of this app so I can write on the go.

Yes, you can input text. In black and white. And maybe, not sure, you can even change font style. To another font. Cost ten bucks. Its basically text edit without the options. It is helpful, though. You can input text and it will save.

With its simplicity and ability to emulate the ancient Underwood manual typewriter I learned to write on, WriteRoom has made it a more satisfying experience to write again. Of course I will use Word when I have to create more complicated business documents, but when just composing, this rules. I added a very old style typewriter font and the sound effects of a manual typewriter for the complete effect. Now, people around me can hear the soft sounds of typing in my office and tend to leave me alone more regularly. Sounding busy has its rewards.

I feel like I am typing on a Commodore 64 from the 80s. I love the terminal screen that i work most with. Great product! Makes it a lot easier to concentrate on my writing without all of the distractions of computer icons everywhere.

Half-way through two pages, the app crashes. Then it cant open its own docs. Frustrated would be an undestatment.

I had trouble installing the app, but once I did, I was very happy with it. I am now able to write so much more proficiently, and writing is so much easier. My favorite aspect of this program is the cursor that doesnt blink. Also, the word count is a very useful asset for writing papers, and isnt destracting, because it dissapears while writing. Thank you whoever invented this program, it is a lifesaver.

I was a big fan of this product several years ago, but it seems to be devolving and doing away with much of modern app design. Theres no Preferences pane. Theres an auto-indent "feature," useless and extremely annoying for any non-coding application, that cant be turned off. Changing the font in one document will change the font of all other documents using that theme, meaning you have to create a new theme for every new document. On the plus side, the option to universally change your background and font colors is wonderful. Highlighting the current line is wonderful. Typewriter scrolling is wonderful. The full-screen option is seamless and infinitely better than the ones packaged with Pages or TextEdit. This is an application with a lot of great options, but its somewhere between a coders application and a writers word processor, and straddles the line uncomfortably. Its also, as far as I can see, the best option out there for a simple, relatively straightforward, small-size word processor.

Its great at what it does when it does what its great at. Full screen, distraction-free writing is its forte. Interaction with the OS and other features - not so much. Full-screen is kludgy at best. Since thats the entire point of distraction-free writing, it seems like the first thing youd want to get right, but alas... It can and will cause the application to crash and be unable to re-open. Opening a document in full screen while WriteRoom is already running makes it full screen as the default desktop, making everything else on that screen inaccessible. You have to exit full screen then make it full screen explicitly for it to work. Sounds are great, but crippled: the space bar needs its own sound. Sessions are really cool, but theyre incorrectly formatted: theres no space after the headers and the first line of session data so you have to manually edit the session file or it doesnt show up in Excel correctly. There needs to be a markup export feature. I had to buy another app to parse my output. The auto-indent feature is beyond useless and annoying as hell. If someone thinks its useful, please give the rest of us the option of getting rid of it. Its a great concept but execution is pretty flawed. To be fair though, none of these stop me from using it. Mostly because Im too lazy to try and find a competitor.

Ive authored numerous books, hundreds of articles and numerous other essays and pieces. I began writing using a Smith & Corona, graduated to Enable on DOS and worked my way to Word on Mac and Windows. While WriteRoom isnt perfect for all projects, it is by far my favorite authoring program. You cant beat the elegance of its simplicity. When you want to write, and eliminate distractions and truly focus on the words and content youre creating, WriteRoom is ideal. I highly recommend the tool.

I tested 3 "distraction-free" text editors so far: focus writer, writeroom and ommwriter. Writeroom has the best balance between ease of use and "no need to tweak to much". Just open it and start typing, no need to tweak the settings like the other programs. It has a real full screen mode unlike the other programs. In particular, I like the default font size/style/background. Many theme options.

Amazing but needs basic improvements that you would expect from an OS X app, like iCloud and Autosave. Please add them ASAP, I need iCloud because I need to be assured that if my computer breaks down, I will have my writing safely stored on the cloud - without this feature, if it wont be added SOON, I will switch to Byword or iA Writer.

Wow. Ive never seen an app morph from something so elegant (version 2) into such a configuration nightmare. You can tell this author needs a developers compass because he first removed scaling in version 3.0, then had to bring it back. Also, WR used to save your workspace so you could just pick up where you left off when starting the app but no more. Periodic beach-balling requires a force quit. No rhyme or reason… this app just "chokes" at times with rich text and images. you can get text edit to do 90% of what this app does.

As a novelist, this app that advertises itself as "no frills" cant even be used because the worlflow doesnt allow for it. I really tried to use this app, but it doesnt work for me.

Id been using TextEdit for the majority of my writing (school and recreational), but I wanted a more proficient document software where I could control the page margins and such (college is very particular about papers being submitted in MLA). So, about a month ago, I purchased WriteRoom (mostly because of the price). I was disappointed. I feel like I have less control over the format of my document, as I can no longer change font, size, or italicize only a certain portion of my text (it has a meltdown whenever I try to italicize something). The full screen mode froze my computer. The one thing I really liked about the software was the live word count. As an aspiring author, I found the live word count useful for tracking me progress, and it also came in very handy during NaNoWriMo. But, beyond that, I was disappointed by this software. About five minutes ago (after WriteRoom froze yet again), I transferred my book back into TextEdit, which has proven to be more reliable.

On the Retina MBP, when you hit the bottom of the screen it jumps up and down as you type, making it basically unusable. Dont buy this apparently abandoned program until the bugs (many noted by other reviewers) are fixed (which will probably never happen!)

I love how writeroom looks and feels when Im writing. But there are too many bugs and rough edges, ultimately pushing me to look for an alternative. For example, I highlight a few words and hit cmd+i to italicize them, and *all the text in the editor becomes italicized*. Thats right, you cant italicize a small selection for emphasis. This is only one small example of a half dozen little annoying bugs. I cant believe the software authors are regular writers themselves. Its a frustrating product because it is *almost* perfect, but not quite there.

This is a very poor program. If you’re particular like me, or have OCD, this app is not for you! All I want to do is ajust the size, and boldness of text, and it can’t even achieve something as simple as that. Waste of $5.00

WriteRoom has gotten me through two thesis, several short stories, countless college and graduate school essays, and one NaNoWriMo. I recommend it highly. It creates the perfect space to forget about your computer and everything else, and fall into that headspace where everything just flows out of you. There’s no need to worry about constantly saving your document, either, as it saves as you go, and your writing will pop up immediately where you left off when you reopen the program. It works pretty seemlessly with my computer, and hasn’t crashed on me yet, but it could use more intuitive hot keys.