June 15, 2011 at 21:36Relaxing text editors for Linux
Ubuntu itself doesn’t have it, so they asked me to post it. I think the article will be useful.
Last year, an article about the "relaxing" text editor Ommwriter was published on Habré . The specific visual shell could not fail to attract graphomaniacs, who needed complete immersion in the process of writing text. Unfortunately, at the time of the publication of the article by the habrayuzer langolf (and, by the way, still), not a single version for Linux was released.
However, this does not mean that Ommwriter analogues do not exist. I was quite surprised to accidentally learn about the existence of many programs suitable for this kind of graphomania. Therefore, I prepared a short review of the “focus on writing” text editors for Linux.
Foreword
Before writing an article, I identified some criteria that allowed me to more or less objectively reason 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);
- sound of keystrokes;
- background music;
- ease of installation.
At the end of the post, a summary table with all of these items will be presented.
I note that I installed all the software in the Ubuntu 11.04 system with the second Gnome on board.
Catlooking writer
Installation via deb package. No extra gestures are needed, which significantly distinguishes Catlooking Writer from some of the programs below. I allow myself to note that being in search of software “for the soul” you can easily discard products with an uncomfortable, complex, or poorly described installation.
The author of this editor is our compatriot Alexey Sychev. The site contains a video with a detailed description of the functionality of the program.
Everything is very simple - a word counter, two types of font, three sizes, four background images, save, minimize and close buttons, resizable text field. Saving to txt.
There is no way to customize anything for yourself. Autosave is turned on every 1 minute. All. There is nothing else. There is no music, the sound of keys. But isn’t this enough - someone would have enough of such functionality: installed, opened and written.
Web site
Koalawriter
On the program page, a * .tar.gz file and instructions are offered.
I note right away that KoalaWriter is a sub-abandoned project, the first and last release of which dates back to August 2010. It is possible that the author wrote a program for himself, which works for himself, and stopped on this.
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 + select your own picture. Music and key press sounds are included. You can adjust the transparency of the text field.
The obvious flaws are the hard-installed autosave for 3 minutes. You cannot change individual text elements. Save only in txt format.
This editor is also quite simple, but I would call it an extended version of Catlooking Writer.
Web site
marave
After a little torment with the installation, I found a pretty good editor that can play streaming radio. Unfortunately, the list of stations cannot be expanded directly from the program interface. In the same way, you can set your background and sounds.
With a typical ommwriter interface, marave supports themes and styles, syntax highlighting, and some kind of 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. Perhaps I am underestimated or too crooked. In any case, marave will find its user, take a word - the program is good enough.
Web site
Focuswriter
The developers of this editor took a slightly different path in building the interface. Above and below are drop-down menu panels.
Top:
Bottom:
I note right away that FocusWriter has the ability to change individual text elements: bold, bold, italics, alignment, and much more. The settings menu is quite extensive: autosave, text input settings, statistics and error correction (there is no Russian dictionary).
FocusWriter supports themes. As can be seen from the screenshots, I already set a dull landscape. There is no music, but the creative process is sounded by the clicks of a typewriter. Supported file formats: txt, rtf. Installing from ppa does not cause any problems.
Web site
TextRoom
Seeing such a minimalistic interface, I thought that writing about this program is not necessary. However, when you press the F1 magic key, the possibilities are fully revealed:
I'll start with two noteworthy tools: ScratchPad and MiniFlo Mindmapper.
The first is a regular notebook. I've never used such tools, but notepad in a text editor is very convenient.
The MiniFlo Mindmapper is a pretty fun 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 that to outline a small plan for 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 few people keep their music collection in ogg.
Under the F10 key is a nice function for saving a document in Google Docs.
All the basic features of a text editor are implemented with the same hot keys.
You can embed images in 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 give a summary table to simplify the perception.
In the end, I’ll say that my choice fell (it’s easy to guess) on TextRoom.