I have recently discovered Q10, a minimalist, yet feature filled fullscreen text editor for Windows. By having a screen full of text, it removes all distractions from the screen and forces you to look at what is important. The software boasts several features such as an alarm, customizations, statistics, notes, a spell check version, small size and a portable version for USB sticks.
Although it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Office, it does allow some one to just sit down and write. Which I think is very important. By being presented with just the text and nothing else the user is forced to write something down and since it is full screen it prevents the annoying distractions of email, IM, facebook, youtube, etc. By using this you are more likely to write but also write better.
Clearly it isn’t designed to write an entire book but for a short essay where you want to get your ideas down first or for that blog post it is perfect.
Check it out and see if it makes a difference for you.
