There is a lot of software that lets you write “distraction-free” at the moment. It’s a hot category. A quick look through the Mac App Store reveals a half dozen of those apps, at least. There are one or two that I like, and in general, I think Mac apps are headed in that direction anyway. The forthcoming Mac OS X Lion will offer a full-screen mode for many apps, which means that even a standard text editor could become “distraction-free” with a click of a mous
This type of interface is also coming to WordPress next month. You will be able to click a button in your editor – when editing any text on your site – and be able to see your text without any interface at all. This is exciting news for us, because the WordPress admin interface can feel rather cluttered. When you have a lot of writing to do, you don’t want to be looking at menus, categories, tags, SEO options, and more. You will need that interface when you’re ready to publish, sure, but you don’t want to see it when you’re trying to concentrate. All you’ll be looking at is the post title and body text, in a column that’s not too wide to work in. As it should be.
It’s fitting that this appears around the same time as Lion. It means that you can take Safari (or Chrome) full screen, and you have the same functionality as an app you would pay for. Better yet, WordPress still saves your work-in-progress while you’re writing. If something bad happens, you can come back to WordPress and your text will still be there, in draft form. You can finish it up and publish.
We think this improvement – along with a number of others – will make next month’s WordPress 3.2 a very exciting release for WordPress users, which includes many of Needmore’s clients. We’ll be sure to post some tips and tutorials when it comes out, but you can always get in touch if you’d like to sit down with us in person and chat.
