Remember when a word processor was like a computerised typewriter? When the screen was mostly empty, so you could get on with your writing without being continually distracted? And when there was loads of space for your text?

Sadly, over the past few years, word processing software has become incredibly powerful but very difficult to use. The amount of screen space available for actual text is drastically reduced, to be replaced by ribbons, menus, scroll bars, status lines, toolbars and the like. Most of which you don't actually need, 90% of the time.

That's why I rather like Focus Writer. It's a minimalist word processor. About as minimalist as it's possible to get, actually. The screen contains a background texture (which you can customised), a sheet of virtual paper on which you type, and absolutely nothing else. There's a menu bar, of course, but it only appears when you move your mouse to the top of the screen. It's the same with the scroll bars, which only appear when your mouse is at the side.

Focus Writer has some useful features. It keeps track of how many words you've written during each session, and you can set goals if you have a deadline to meet. It even opens where you last left off, which is something that Microsoft Word only managed to do in the 2016 edition.

Focus Writer is free, and a new release was published last week. So you may want to update your copy if you're already a user of the program. If you're not, start with the portable Windows version for simplicity, which is a 40 MB download. The program is malware-free according to VirusTotal and Web of Trust.  Read More