Here’s a list of 5 distraction free writing software for Windows 10. What I’m talking about are basically text editors that work full screen, without any or very little menus, no Windows taskbar, notifications, etc. With these applications you’ll be less tempted to open up a web browser, chat window, or something else that would distract you from doing actual work, in theory at least. Nothing is full-proof if you decide to procrastinate, but having a distraction free text editor is at least something. Let’s have a look at how exactly it is that they work.
CreaWriter
CreaWriter is a distraction free writing software for Windows 10. It’s just 5MB in size but comes with some very interesting features. For starters, it has its own relaxing background music, to help you improve focus.
Upon launching the application you’ll notice that it starts full screen. It has a nice beach themed background. Editing area is in the middle of the screen and it’s transparent. What little menu options there are can be accessed on either side of the editing area. Options become visible only on mouse hover. TXT and RTF document formats are supported. Note that all the options are configurable, including the background music that’s played, background image, transparency levels, text colors, etc. Donor version of CreaWriter supports additional features, like basic text formatting.
Get CreaWriter.
Dark Room – distraction free writing software for Windows 10
If the what little options that CreaWriter offers end up being too distracting for you, then you might want to have a look at Dark Room. I’ll admit it, when writing this article I ended up tweaking CreaWriter (background songs, image, colors, transparency, etc.) for good 5 minutes. Without even realizing that I entered the realm of procrastination.
Now Dark Room is another full screen distraction free software for Windows 10. It’s portable and other than the 4 buttons in the upper right corner of the screen, there aren’t any menus to distract you when writing. Most of the usual options for opening files, saving, accessing the find tool, undo/redo is hidden away behind the usual keyboard shortcuts. What little options there are allow you to change default text font, size, color, width, background color, and that’s about it. Other more interesting features include auto save, multi monitor support, right click context menu integration and more. Only TXT documents are supported.
Get Dark Room.
Also have a look at Free Portable Text Editor With Syntax Highlighting: fxite.
WriteMonkey
WriteMonkey is a portable distraction free writing software for Windows 10. Many more options are available here. They are hidden away behind the right click context menu. Keyboard shortcuts are of course also available.
Default layout and colors of the editor (pictured above) are completely customizable. Available features include things like document bookmarks (for quick jumps to a specific line), timed writing (notification tells you when you’ve been writing for 30 minutes, for example), word count, spell checker (with online dictionary lookups), auto save, markup support (Markdown, Extra and WikiCreaole) with highlighting, printing support and more. Only TXT documents are supported.
Get WriteMonkey.
Q10
Q10 is basically a cut down version of WriteMonkey. It’s a portable and full screen distraction free writing software for Windows 10. All the more interesting features found in WriteMonkey are kept, while at the same time keeping things more simpler.
Only the bottom status bar is available. In the status bar you’ll see character/word/page count, document name and the time of last save. Everything is accessed through keyboard shortcuts. For example, to open up preferences, you need to type in Ctrl+P. Layout of the editor, font type, size, color, everything is customizable. There are versions of Q10 with and without spell checker, auto correct is also available. Typing sounds and effects can make it seem like your typing on a typewriter. Auto save will make sure everything is automatically saved every X number of minutes/paragraphs. Only plain text TXT documents are supported.
Get Q10.
Also have a look at Download Free Full Screen Text Editor For Windows: Q10.
Typewriter
I included Typewriter on this list because it goes to a whole new extreme when it comes to being being a distraction free writing software for Windows 10. There are just a few basic keyboard shortcuts that work.
For example the user can open/save files (TXT format is supported), change the background/font colors (two themes are available, green text over black background and white background with black text) and of course the full screen work mode (Ctrl+F). That’s pretty much all the options. There’s practically nothing else that can distract you while using this software.
Get Typewriter.
Conclusion
Out of the 5 distraction free writing software for Windows 10 from the list above, the ones that I liked using the most are WriteMonkey and Q10. WriteMonkey offers a lot of interesting features, and lots of them can also be found in Q10. Others are also not that bad, depending on what you need. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment down below.
