ilys vs Focus Writer

This is the best program ever. I wrote 4000 words in one day when in the past I was lucky to get down 500 because of how much of a perfectionist I was being and constantly editing as I went. The 4000 words I threw down were certainly terribly written, but I really don't care because *the words are down and moving the story forward*! This is the best tool for compulsive editors during NaNoWriMo. I can make the writing good later, but for now, getting the words on the page using this program might actually make me successful this NaNo. Thank you thank you thank you.

- Vanessa Nielson

ilys forces me to get something down. I have a tendency to try and edit as I write, which means it can take me hours to write something even fairly short, and in the end I am not happy with the result. With ilys I know that I can't change anything until I reach my word goal. Also, the simplicity of the site really helps to minimize distractions.

- Tori H.

ilys helps with my writing when I'm having trouble focusing. It's great how it makes the whole screen dark and shows only one letter at a time so I can't go back and edit or get distracted by other tabs. I also like the word count feature. Knowing I have to write a certain number of words before I can edit them keeps me going until I reach the goal.

- Jansina @ www.rivershorebooks.com

"Does what it says, and does it well." PROS -It lets you choose a background -It lets you choose your preferred language for spellchecking -It really does let you focus more on your work than everything else -It auto-hides the task-bars, for better concentration -It has themes -It counts words CONS -The default 'typewriter sounds' found under preferences can be very annoying at times, and I found it better to disable it SUMMARY The program does what it says, and does it well. It has a few features of a heavier text editor like OO Writer or MS Word, but it's lightweight like wordpad, but most importantly, you can hide the task-bars to save writing space, instead of having to remove the task-bars which is a pain when you want to change settings.

- Sphint Jan 18, 2011

"Easy to use, no gotchas" PROS - Everything stays out of your way until you need it - Great themes and customization - Portable file formats (Open Document, RTF, plain text) gives you flexibility and choice - Italics and bold actually look like italics and bold, something not always present in other full-screen writing programs CONS - If you don't pay attention, it's easy to miss the menu bar. Just move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen. This isn't really a con, but I'm pointing it out here and in the summary below so that no one else misses it (like the guy that gave this program one star because it had no menu). SUMMARY NOTE: Access the menu bar by moving your mouse cursor to the top of the screen. Everything else is pretty self explanatory. I recommend a good font, such as Deja Vu Sans Mono or Consolas, and choosing a color scheme that's comfortable and readable for long term use. Use a dark background and not-too-bright font faces, bring the font size up a little if you need to, and write.

- S.Hall Aug 27, 2013

"I really like this! I'm glad I found it." PROS This is a small simple program but has great features to help writers. It has the top two things most people want in a word processor; a spell checker and a word counter (counts pages, paragraphs and characters too). It lets you choose your own pictures for the background theme, etc. I like the typewriter sound effect, but it can be turned off if you don't want it. You can set up a word limit per page. I really like that you can set up a daily goal of writing a certain number of words or set up a timer for a certain amount of time allotted for writing. It lets you know what percentage of your daily goal has been met so far. That's cool. CONS None that I can think of. SUMMARY I almost skipped downloading this program because it only has a 2 and a half star rating. Some guy gave it a one star. I'm glad I checked it out for myself because the guy obviously didn't read what the program is about. The whole point is to hide the menu so the writer can focus on writing; hint thus the name of the program "Focus Writer". The program may have been changed since he downloaded it, because now there is a menu that is hidden at the top, but you can get to it and minimize or exit the program without a problem. This is a good program for basic, quick word processing. But it's really great for people who write and want to improve or increase writing skills.

- sandiesays Jan 16, 2012