Text Editor for Writers: JDarkRoom
by Jacob Russell on July 04, 2008
I’ve been looking for a text editor since having to give up WordPerfect 5.0 for DOS… I hate MS-Word. It’s a business application--not for writers. Certainly not for writers of very long documents. Add to that, how cluttered the Windows screen environment is. When the words are slow in coming, it too easy to be distracted--
CLICK, and I’m playing a game chess. CLICK and I’m checking the progress of Tropical Storm Bertha, CLICK and I’m seeking how many new visitors have been on my blog…
JDarkRoom is a simple full screen text editor. I mean, full screen. Even the bottom panel with the clock and Start and tiny icons--gone. Black screen. Green text (you can change fonts and font colors).
Nothing there but the words. And the dark screen is much easier on the eyes. A blessing for anyone with even a touch of ADD.
Takes 5 minutes to figure out the commands. (F5 gets you a help menu).
F1 for a new document
F6 change color/font
F7 or Ctrl-F for search
F9 - set margins.
Ctrl-L word/line count
Ctrl-S Save
And if you need to get to your browser, Alt-Tab will switch you to the Windows screen.
That’s it. You can use your mouse scroll to cruse the document.
And it’s free. (donation requested). Uses Java so works on all platforms: Mac, Windows, Linnex.
Have to save your file as .txt. But once the document is written you can open it in Word and format--since almost everyone insists you submit work as Word docs. Even simpler: Ctrl-C to copy your last session or days work, and paste it into Word.
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