ilys vs Focus Writer
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Sir Richard BransonMost popular feedback for ilys
I’d heard about ilys, this amazing online program that lets you only see one letter at a time of the words you’re typing. You can’t see what you’ve already said, which helps you focus instead on what you’re going to say. This puts you in the flow. It lets your creativity jump ahead of your internal editor and crank out the words without worrying about typos and spelling errors. If you like to take your work to the local coffee shop, but don’t want people to be able to see what you’re typing on the screen, give ilys a try. You can pour out your deepest, darkest secrets in the company of strangers, and no one will ever be the wiser. ilys offers a free trial of 3,000 words to everyone. It’s simple and quick to sign up, easy to use, and might just help you get 50,000 words down in less than 30 days so you can win NaNoWriMo this year. At the very least, you’ll get your first draft done much quicker with ilys.
Articles by Kathy Edens
About ilys
Ilys is a special piece of writing software that much values editing but also understands when and where it belongs. Not editing as you go is one of the most popular bits of writing advice. Ilys agrees with this, and they have taken steps to prevent you from carrying it out. You tell Ilys how many words you wish to write before you start a writing session. You cannot amend, edit, or even delete anything after you've started writing until you have reached your word count target. Only until you've accomplished the objective can you begin editing. Before achieving the goal, not only are you physically unable to make any modifications, but your writing is also invisible. The peek button allows you to quickly glance, but while you're writing, everything but the last letter you entered remains hidden. When our imaginations are at full strength, writing can be a ton of pleasure. This exquisitely pleasing state of being is commonly referred to as a peak experience because it is uncommon and difficult to come by. We've found that by teaching ourselves to let go of our inner-editor while allowing our creative-genius to run wild with unrestricted expression, we may easily and effortlessly experience this state of flow. The goal of ilys is to help you develop this flow so that your writing can burst through the boundaries that have previously contained it, unleashing a flood of dormant creative potential within you. Tell Ilys how many words you wish to write before you begin. Then start writing and realize that your only option is to keep writing. Before reaching your desired word count, you cannot go back, remove, or alter anything. You can only alter your wording as you like once you have accomplished your goal. Do not misunderstand us; we, the inner-editor, fully understand the crucial part it plays in the writing process. We also think that the time to shine comes AFTER the invention phase, not before or even during. The amount and caliber of your written work will significantly improve as a result of keeping these phases apart.
Most popular feedback for Focus Writer
FocusWriter was the weakest writing app I tested. It’s nothing else, but just an alternative to Microsoft Word. It’s literally a text editor. That’s it. There are many other alternative writing tools like the world’s leading spell checker Grammarly. There isn’t anything special that I could mention other than the fact that it’s the only writing software (in this test) which is absolutely free. However, you pay the price by not having all the essential features you saw in the above applications like versioning, storyboard, writing templates, etc. So, does it have anything good that could make it worth at least for a trial? Well, there are some plus points.
Daniel Midson-Short
About Focus Writer
A straightforward, noise-free writing environment is FocusWriter. The application uses a hide-away interface that you may access by dragging your mouse to the boundaries of the screen. This keeps the program's appearance and feel familiar while still allowing you to focus entirely on your job. It has been translated into other languages and is available for Windows and Linux. A simple text editing application called Focus Writer was created with folks who are easily distracted in mind. The program enlarges to fullscreen so that you can only see its interface. Focus Writer is open source, multiplatform, and free. It provides real-time statistics for words and paragraphs, dictionary support, tabbed organization, and the option to establish daily goals. The ability to customize the interface's backdrop, text, papers, and other elements with different colors to better fit your needs and foster the ideal writing atmosphere is another of the feature's most intriguing aspects. If you're looking for a solid writing tool, Focus Writer is what you need.
ilys reviews
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
Focus Writer reviews
"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
Pros & cons
ilys
| Pros |
|---|
| Ilys doesn’t let you see the words you have written |
| This allows you to focus on what you will be writing next and not what you have already written |
Focus Writer
| Pros |
|---|
| Straightforward user interface |
| Completely free! |
| Better Customer Service than any other apps |
| Can run on Mac, Windows & Linux computers |
| Cons |
|---|
| No writing templates |
| No way to save previous versions of a copy |
| Cannot share content and collaborate with others |
| Traditional ‘Cut and Paste’ method |
| Limited export formats |
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