My writing ecosystem is powered by Dropbox.Īs I have written on several occasions in the past few months, I also spend a lot of time writing and researching in Evernote. In my workflow, there is a distinction between apps “for writing” and tools for quick “note-taking”, but in order to minimize the effort required to keep everything in sync and tied together, I set out to make sure the differences of such tasks could coexist within a single ecosystem. I like iA Writer and Byword, but I’m saving that kind of apps for another article. I think this difference is blurring with time, but there are still several apps that are clearly focused on distraction-free, long-form writing, like iA Writer and Byword, whereas the ones I tried for this article belong to the note-taking/Markdown/Dropbox generation of text editors. Two months ago, I noted how there seemed to be a distinction between text editors focused on long-form writing, and the ones stemming from a note-taking approach. With better Dropbox integration, the app could go from good to great.Ever since I wrote about my new year’s resolutions to work smarter using better tools, compared my favorite iOS text editors, and shared some of my workflow techniques on Macdrifter, I thought it would be appropriate to share a bit more about the activity that takes up 80% of my work time: writing.Īs I wrote in my comparison of iOS text editors: But it’s an elegantly simple way to write on the iPad, clearly built with writers’ needs in mind. Of course, it’s an iPad app, and there’s a glistening Home button present at all times that’s eager to help distractible writers procrastinate the day away with just a tap, so I wouldn’t suggest you assume that iA Writer could cure your focus problems. I appreciate its attempts to help writers focus. txt extension plain text files ending with an extension like. (It’s especially silly that when you enable syncing for the first time, the app syncs its default “About Writer” and sample “Alice in Wonderland” documents.) Also annoying is that iA Writer doesn’t sync with Dropbox automatically you need to trigger that action manually. Your files must be in UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding, and they must be named with a. If you enable the Dropbox linking, the app creates a Writer folder in your Dropbox account, and all the documents you store in the app are synced to it. You can indeed link to your Dropbox account painlessly, but you either sync all your iA Writer files, or none of them. The app also offers Dropbox integration, but I find its approach lacking. I found those all useful when using the virtual keyboard, though I too frequently tapped the right arrow at the top edge of the keyboard when I was aiming for the Backspace key. There are virtual keys in place to skip forward and backward one word at a time, a few frequently used punctuation marks, and left and right arrow keys. The on-screen keyboard includes a couple extras atop the iPad’s standard display. Stay Focused: In Focus Mode, iA Writer removes the header, the scroll bar, and other features, graying out all the text except for the three current lines of text you’re writing. It’s obviously not a mode to leave enabled at all times (since it prevents you from navigating the document in full), but it’s a great tool in the writer’s arsenal when you feel blocked as you attempt to finish writing a paragraph or section. It also grays out all the text save for the current three lines of text you’re writing in. Focus mode removes the header, along with the scroll bar, the ability to tap to move the cursor, spellcheck, auto-correction, and copy/paste. You tap a lock icon in the header to toggle Focus Mode. If singular attention is your goal, a unique Focus Mode may help. The constant time reminder keeps you on task the word count lets you know whether you’re approaching your target. Thus, in many ways, iA Writer is an easily-distracted writer’s dream.
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