Relaxing text editors for Linux

I don’t have ubuntu myself, so I was asked to place it. I think the article will be useful.

Last year, Habré published an article about the “relaxing” text editor Ommwriter. The specific visual shell could not fail to attract graphomania, who need to be fully immersed in the process of writing text. Unfortunately, at the time of the langolf habraiser article (and, incidentally, still), not a single version for Linux came out.

However, this does not mean that Ommwriter analogues do not exist. I was quite surprised to find out by chance about the existence of many programs suitable for this kind of graphomania. Therefore, I prepared a short review of “focus on writing” of text editors for Linux.

Foreword

Before writing an article, I outlined some criteria that allowed me to reason more or less objectively about such programs. List:

• work with various formats;
• the ability to change individual elements of the text;
• optional autosave;
• the ability to change the background to your own (without dancing with a tambourine);
• the sound of keystrokes;
• background music;
• easy installation

At the end of the post will be presented a summary table with all these items.
I note that all the software was installed by me in the Ubuntu 11.04 system with the second Gnome on board.
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Catlooking writer

Installation via deb-package. No unnecessary gestures are needed, which significantly distinguishes the Catlooking Writer from some of the programs listed below. I will allow myself to notice that being in search of software “for the soul” it is easy to discard products with an inconvenient, complicated or poorly described installation.


The author of this editor is our compatriot Alexei Sychev. The site is a video with a detailed description of the functionality of the program.
Everything is very simple - word count, two types of font, three sizes, four background pictures, save, minimize and close buttons, resizable text field. Save to txt.

There is no way to customize anything. Autosave is enabled every 1 minute. Everything. There is nothing else. No music, no key sound. But isn’t it enough? Someone will have enough of this functionality: installed, opened and written.
Web site

KoalaWriter

The program page offers a * .tar.gz-file and instructions.
I will note right away that KoalaWriter is a forgotten project, the first and last release of which dates from August 2010. It is possible that the author wrote a program for himself that works quite well and stopped there.

The interface, like Catlooking Writer, is pretty similar to Ommwriter. It is possible to select the desired font from the drop-down list, several landscape backgrounds + a choice of your own design. Music and keystrokes are included. Provides for adjusting the transparency of the text field.

The obvious drawbacks are rigidly installed autosave for 3 minutes. You can not change individual elements of the text. Save only in txt format.
This editor is also quite simple, but I would call it an enhanced version of Catlooking Writer.
Web site

marave

Having suffered a bit with the installation, I found a quite good editor, able to play streaming radio. Unfortunately, the list of stations cannot be expanded directly from the program interface. Similarly, you can set your background and sounds.

Possessing a typical ommwriter interface, marave supports themes and styles, syntax highlighting, and some plugins. Good set for good text.

On my old laptop, the program periodically slowed down and, in the end, I still could not save the text to a file. The “Save as” window was empty. Probably, I didn’t set anything up or was too crooked. In any case, marave will find its user, believe in the word - the program is good enough.
Web site

Focuswriter

The developers of this editor went a little different way in building the interface. Top and bottom - drop-down menu bar.

Top:



Bottom:


I note immediately that FocusWriter has the ability to change individual elements of the text: bold, bold, italic, alignment, and more. The settings menu is quite extensive: autosave, text input settings, statistics and error correction (there is no Russian dictionary).

FocusWriter supports themes. As you can see from the screenshots, I have already installed a dull landscape. There is no music, but the creative process is voiced by clicks of a typewriter. Supported file formats: txt, rtf. Installing from ppa does not cause any problems.
Web site

TextRoom

Having seen such a minimalistic interface, I thought that it was not necessary to write about this program. However, it was enough to press the magic F1 key, as the possibilities were fully revealed:


I'll start with two noteworthy tools: ScratchPad and MiniFlo Mindmapper.


The first is the usual notebook. I have never used such tools, but a notepad in a text editor is very convenient.


The MiniFlo Mindmapper is a pretty funny thing from the GTD area. Drawing up "mental maps" in the form of flowcharts. But I do not know why this tool is needed in a text editor. Is it possible to sketch a small plan of his future novel?

The next option is called "MusicRoom". This is nothing more than a built-in music player that only supports ogg format. Playlists will not work. And very few people keep their music collection in ogg.

Under the F10 key there is a nice feature for saving a document to Google Docs.
All the basic features of a text editor are carried out by the same hot keys.

You can insert images into the text. And, perhaps, the most important distinguishing feature of TextRoom is the ability to save in html and odt (in addition to txt and txr - its own format).
Web site

Conclusion

I reviewed five different editors. In the descriptions in some places I could forget about my criteria, therefore I provide a summary table to simplify perception.

Finally, I will say that my choice fell (it is not difficult to guess) on TextRoom.

If someone considers it necessary to send the author an invite for his efforts, and I believe that the efforts were not in vain (I would have sent it myself, but it would have ended). Write inbox.