Have you ever been distracted by your desktop? Notifications, post-its, reminders, folders with weird names, background pictures? All this stuff can easily distract you and prevent getting focused.
If you are a writer and you need to be concentrated on the current draft, Focused is very helpful. When you run Focused you are in front of a full screen application, which shows you just a text box. This prevents you from having a look to other windows or tools that are potential distractors.
The only thing you’ll see is just your text. Try it!
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Because “The first key to writing is… to write” (Finding Forrester).
Here is a showcase of Focused.
Focused – Demo from funkyboy on Vimeo.
Focused is an Adobe Air application, which runs on Mac, Linux and Windows. To run it you need to install the Adobe Air runtime.
Focused is an open source project, released under the new BSD license.
If you want to contribute drop a comment below or refer to the source home.
Hello,
I really like the idea of this, as it’s true that you can get distracted easily with all the agents and other stuff popping up on a windows desktop , which mostly do nothing to aid concentration.
I am a technical architect by profession, so frequently have to work on large documents, but a crucial feature of most technical writing is the ability to see multiple documents on the screen at once. It’s also useful to be able to make certain docs smaller or minimize them and/or change the size of their windows/viewports on the screen.
I suppose you could just open lots of notepad windows, but i like the idea of an otherwise blank worktop, but with the ability to hide the other nonsense…
Maybe the future of this app, esp if you want to make it commercial, is a way to lock multiple apps in certain positions on the screen and be able to hide everything else ? Maybe you could merge that into the ‘virtual desktop’ idea, so that with a hotkey, it is possible to switch back to email/chat/IM/web browsing/google, etc.
I really like the idea, but for me to use this actively, I’d need to be able to look at :
- an outline view, maybe somewhere in the same document, but it’s handy to have it in a corner of the screen, for reference
- other document windows
- a CMS window, e.g. sharepoint or stellent
- the main document should be able to dominate the screen, and the app should ideally work across mutliple screens, etc.
The idea of staying ‘focused’ though is great.
Good luck and keep up the good work !
Regards
Jo
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
Reminds me of the WriteRoom app for Mac, but running on AIR means it’ll work for PC too ;)
@Jo Sorry, I forgot to approve your comment. Thanks for the feedback and for the followup discussion that we had via email.
@Tony Thanks! The inspiration came exactly from WriteRoom. To be honest I remembered I found a great app on Mac to write with no distraction, I forgot the name and then I decided to build one similar :)
Thanks a ton, funkyboy. I just posted my review: http://www.flex888.com/1012/stay-focused-without-entering-the-writeroom.html
Add a spellchecker! It’s a ‘must have’ in order to use this app. successfully no matter who you are, and what you’re using it for.
I used to use Darkroom for the PC, which is about the same thing (just a wall of black, with green text, and nothing else). Having a cross-platform and less…Apple II-esque version is better, though. Thanks!
@Robert Myers thanks for the feedback. Spell checking is one of the first items in the todo list: http://code.google.com/p/focused/wiki/TODO
@Ben thanks!
It would be nice if it blacked out multiple monitors – one of mine is still distracting me :-)
I like the look of this very much. I wonder if you’ve seen Khoi Vinh’s Blockwriter concept? I’d love a version of your app that includes his concepts, such as disabling delete and/or cursor movement, forcing the user to keep moving forwards.
http://blockwriter.com/
Also, a clock and live word count would be awesome, but I understand the need to keep these things simple!
I was excited to try this, only to realize there is very limited support for RTL input. I was actually surprised when CTRL+Shift didn’t align the text to the right, but even more when the order of words typed in Hebrew was reversed: reversed was Hebrew in typed…
Works great for English, though, and very nicely designed. Great job.
@/ good suggestion. didn’t think of that. added to the todo list. thanks for the feedback!
@andrew Never heard of blockwriter before. That is really in the Forrester’s style! I think live word count, though useful, can be distracting. I’ll put it as a command in the edit menu.
@Tal formatting is not supported at the moment and I think it won’t. I understand the need of some formatting, but an extreme perspective (like mine) also format commands are distracting. I am thinking of implementing two modalities: writing and formatting. In the former you can just type text, like now. The second modality will allow formatting (and modification) of already typed text. what do you guys think?
ps: will check the issue related to the Hebrew language.
An almost perfect app! A cross-platform, ultra-minimal full-screen ascii editor; exactly what I’ve been looking for. I just can’t work out a way to do ‘save as…’, is it not implemented yet? Ctrl+Shift+S does a kind of double-exclamation point. I’m on a Vista machine right now, is that an error?
Thanks for making this, I appreciate it.
PS: Please don’t add formatting! If this app breaks away from pure .txt format docs, I won’t be able to use it any more.
@josephalford Save as shortcut is not implemented yet. It will be added in the next release. Thanks for the feedback!
PLEASE DON’T ADD ANYTHING!. I see a lot of request from people wanting more bells and whistles. I think they are missing the point–this tool is for distraction-free composing. Do all your formatting and spell checking in your final, formatting application. Let FOCUSED be what it is–an elegant looking version of NOTEPAD (my favorite text editor, until now.)
I really like this application, since I have to do a lot of writing, at it really comes in handy to have a lightweight, customizable app. I agree with the comments that it needs a spellcheck, but that’s all. Lightweight is great.
One thing, though. On my mac, the menubar is still visible on the top. It’s not horribly distracting, but still, it’s a bit that makes you a bit less… focused.
@Ryan thanks for your feedback! Spell checking is already included in the current (private) beta. I didn’t find a way (yet) to hide the menubar on macosx.
On Mac OS X 10.5.6 Leopard…
The app is great to write in, but it can’t see or open its own saved files, which open up fine in TextEdit. Is this an oversight or bug?
@Dan that feature is not supported yet. thanks for the suggestion!
@Jo; I think the thing you’re interested in is what’s called a Tiling Window Manager
Odd, I’m using Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex just like in the video intro, but it doesn’t cover up the system tray or the menubar on my screen(which are the most distracting parts!). A Compiz issue, maybe?
@Andrew I have tested focused only on “standard” Ubuntu 8.10. Compiz was off. Did you update to Air 1.5.1? Probably that could solve the issue. If it does not, please let me know. Thanks.
Nice clean app!
I’ve updated it locally to support real full screen. FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE supports complete keyboard input for AIR apps. My change also lets you drag the window to any screen and then make it fullscreen.
Drop me a line and I’ll happily submit my change.
Font smoothing!!
And I don’t know if its 100% black, but it actually hurts a bit.. anyway to do a nice 82%?
@Michael Thanks for the feedback.
You can choose the font you like from the settings. Some are better rendered
according to the OS you are running. For example I find “Charcoal CY” very
smooth and easy to read om MacOsx.
As for color, there will be an option to choose it in the next version.
I stumbled across focused today. It is the first Air application that I have ever liked! Very nice.
I do have one issue though. In Mac if I press the esc key I exit full screen and focused becomes a small window. This is as it should be. The problem is that I cannot find a way to get it back to full screen without restarting the app. Is there currently a way to get back to full screen? If not, could you add it?
Thanks for making a very nifty piece of software.
I verified the bug. I will include a go to full screen button in the next version. Or prevent resizing when esc in pressed. The modification will be included in the next version. Thanks for reporting!
Funkyboy,
Very nice and clean application. I am really digging the AIR apps. Love the simplicity of the software. Forces you to focus on writing and nothing more.
I am running on a Winodows XP and have had two issues.
1. When I hit CRTL+S to save I don’t get a save as file type. it just saves the file without an extension. this is an issue since reopening a document Focus is looking for a TXT extension on the file.
2. The font settings don’t stick. I’ve installed this on two computers and have experienced the same.
Over all. Thank you for a very wonderful application. I’ve used darkroom as well but would very much love to use an application like this instead.
@javi will check the issues you reported and let you know. Which version of adobe air have you installed? I assume you have xp service pack 3 and the latest version of focused. If not, please let me know. Thanks for the feedback.
This is a really awesome application. I get distracted by just anything on my computer. There is only one thing that I hope to see is that instead of just characters, I’m hoping to see the word count too. I don’t mind rereading and proofreading, etc, but even I’m too lazy to count the words (or at least copying and pasting it into an actual word document). But other than that, I agree with what the previous poster said about not adding too much things to it. I’ll be using this when Nanowrimo comes around in November. :)
Q10 was also a really good text editor, alas, it is only available for windows.
@javi I verified the bug you reported. Fixes will be included in the next release. Thanks.
Basta, I love this app.
@ karen basta?? thanks!
This is a pretty nifty application. I’m using a Linux distro, so that’s a plus in my book. Also, it kind of reminds me of the days before Windows, et. al., when all you had was a blank screen with which to work. I don’t write very much, but I’ll definitely use this should the juices start flowing.
The best ideas are the simplest…please don’t fill it up with ‘features’.
I write songs, tech research and other reports and it’s a good tool for just getting focused when the ‘puters jumbled screen gets distracting.
It works just fine as it is but a file extension/ability to save as .doc/odt/rtf would be good, though.
Gary
When I change my font size settings and go back to the app the settings reset back to 9
Thanks for the feedback!
Which OS are you running?
By “go back to the app” you mean you close it and reopen?
I can’t get the font setting to keep the setting I have chosen. It always reverts to the default. What am I doing wrong?
@Terry. Probably nothing, but let’s find out: which OS is yours? I assume you have installed the lastest version of Focused (0.8) and the latest version of Adobe Air (1.5.2)
I also find this app really useful, and I agree with most folks here that it should be kept as simple as it is now.
However, I have two small requests:
1) At least on my computer (Windows XP, Danish locale) the shortcut for “delete one word”, ctrl-backspace, doesn’t quite work. It does delete the first word, but then a small square appears in stead of the word, and subsequent key presses do nothing. I guess it could be an encoding issue? It would be nice to have it fixed since deleting words character by character with backspace sort of ruins the create flow (at least for me).
2) I guess this could be seen as a feature request, which would negate my first statement, but here it goes: Ctrl-z/ctrl-y for undo/redo would come in handy, too.. :-)
@Jonas Thanks for your feedback.
I iill try to reproduce the “small square” bug and fix it.
Undo/Redo in on the Todo list.
Glad you like Focused.
There is a new version upcoming. Stay tuned.
Hi there – thanks for releasing under the BSD license! one small issue for me is that Focused leaves my secondary screen open. It would be great if it would just black out other screens.
Secondary monitor blacking out is implemented since version 0.7. If it does not work for you can you please tell me your setup? Os, air version and version of focused installed. If you like you can send an email to spreadingfunkyness AT gmail.com
thanks for your feedback!
Love the program. Great work! Is there a way to adjust the line spacing from single to 1.5 or even 2 spaced? It could make it much easier to read large blocks of text.
Thanks!
@TB Thanks for your suggestion! Will investigate how to implement this feature.
You should make it possibly to copy text from Focused into onto the clipboard. I am using Focused on Debian Linux, and I like typing a rough draft in Focused and then editing in OpenOffice, so this feature is key. When I try to copy now, it just says “error reading from clipboard.” So far the only alternative I’ve found is looking at the file on the command line using “less” and then copying that. This works ok, but there is “^M” for every blank line in the file.
Thank you
Another suggestion: you could add in hidden features such as those in TextRoom
In TextRoom you press Ctrl-P to get to basic settings, so they are out of the way.
@Erik thanks for reporting a misbehavior. I noticed the same happens in Ubuntu. I suspect this is an issue of Adobe Air, since on other OS Focused works as expected. I will investigate. In the meantime, what if you open the txt file with OpenOffice?
As for settings at the moment we are concentrated on essential features.
@Erik I confirm it is an Adobe Air/Linux affaire. In practice on Linux the content you copy “disappears” from the system clipboard if you close the application. The only workaround I see is to save the file with Focused and reopen it with a program of your choice.
Cesare,
I’m experiencing serious lag when typing for the characters to show up on the screen. I’m on a brand new HP laptop with a dual core processor, 4GB RAM. I’ve used Focused on much slower machines. Any idea on the cause? Thanks much! (Running Win 7 64, NVIDEA GeForce 8200M G)
I have replicated the same behavior on Win 7 32 bits. The lag grows proportionally to the length of the text. I will dive into this issue and will let you know.
Thanks for reporting.
@Kevin I have tried the new Adobe Air 2.0 (still beta) and the performance is fine, I don’t experience any lag. Since it will be released soon I will focus on other important updates
Hi, I’m unable to install. It says “the app could not be installed because the installer file is damaged. Try obtaining a new installer file from the app author”….any clue?
Thanks!
@Victoria Thanks for reporting. Few questions: which operative system are you using? Which version of Adobe Air have you installed?
Hi, thanks for replying.
I’m on a Windows 7, 64 bit machine with Air 2.0.3.
be well…
@Victoria I am quoting from Adobe KB.
“This error may occur during installation if the user has turned off User Account Control (UAC) operating system feature and is a standard or restricted user. From Control Panel, Open UAC and enable it. A reboot maybe required, once complete, re-try the installation.”
Can you try this? If you are still having the same error please let me know.
I too am getting the error: “app could not be installed because the installer file is damaged. Try obtaining a new installer file from the app author”
I am using Mac OS 10.6, Adobe AIR 2.0.4.
Follow up: I can get 0focused-0.5 and focused-0.6 to install, but 0.7 and .8 throw the same error.
I am happy with 0.6, but I have to ignore the “Update Available” screen. I guess I can turn that off.
Thank you for creating this app. Very helpful.
@Paul Thanks for reporting. I will try to replicate this issue and will let you know. How are you installing the app, .air file or .zip?
Hi!
The same problem: “the app could not be installed because the installer file is damaged. Try obtaining a new installer file from the app author”.
Version 0.6 works fine, but 0.8 and 0.7 are not installed.
The error occurs regardless of whether UAC is enabled or disabled.
I’m on a Windows 7, 64 bit machine with Air 2.5.
Thanks!
@Igor thanks. How are you installing the app? .air file or zip?
I installed .air file. Link to .zip file is unfortunately not found.
@Igor I will look into this and let you know. Thanks
Thank you
@Igor @Paul I have released an updated version, 0.8.1. That should fix the problem. Let me know. Thanks.
Cool!
Thank you!
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