computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

, a full-screen writing program or distraction-free editor is a

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...

that occupies the full display with the purpose of isolating the writer from the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

(OS) and other

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a ...

. In this way, one should be able to focus on the writing alone, with no distractions from the OS and a cluttered interface. Often, distraction-free editors feature a dark background and a text field, with lighter colored text. However, most distraction-free editors include customisable user interfaces. Some editors support rich text editing.

List of full screen editors

Free and open-source

Freeware

Proprietary

Features

Rich text support

Some distraction-free editors support rich text editing. These include CreaWriter, TextRoom, and WriteRoom. In some cases, this feature turned off per default and must be set by a user.

Syntax highlighting

Currently, only a few distraction-free editors support

syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that is used for programming language, programming, scripting language, scripting, or markup language, markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in differe ...

. CodeRoom is an open source project with the purpose of creating a distraction-free code editor with customisable highlighting schemes. The latest version of Marave supports syntax highlighting.

Sublime Text Sublime Text is a text and source code editor featuring a minimal interface, syntax highlighting and code folding with native support for numerous programming and markup languages, search and replace with support for regular expressions, an in ...

supports a distraction-free full-screen view. Packages exist for

GNU Emacs GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU ...

that turn off various features and reformat the display to a distraction-free layout while retaining syntax highlighting and other features familiar to Emacs users.

Aids to writing

Word count is a common feature in these editors. Other aids can include spell checkers, auto-corrections and quick text templates.

Other Features

Many of the programs include timers to pace writing. FocusWriter and WriteMonkey, among others, include typewriter sound effects.Comparison of Fullscreen text editors

References

{{Reflist Text editors