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Q10 is a minimalistic full-screen text editor
Oh, I know. What a novel idea, right? A plain-text editor which takes up your whole monitor and tries to bring back some of that 'old-school' feel while letting you focus on content rather than form. Never been done! It's not like we've ever seen DarkRoom, and WriteRoom, and PyRoom, and ...
So what's the point for yet another contender in the surprisingly crowded space for freeware text editors which do very little?
So what's the point for yet another contender in the surprisingly crowded space for freeware text editors which do very little?
Well, this particular editor does very little, but it does it very gracefully. Note how subjective that is. I'm not trying to be objective; I know some of you may disagree. I'm just saying that Q10 is one classy text editor. It seems like quite a bit of thought went into which features to include, and which to leave out.
What I like about Q10:
- The handy "info bar" shows me statistics about my current document, but only what I want to see. Looks good, too.
- It lets me set goals and time-based alarms, for writing bursts.
- I can easily configure text area margins and paragraph/line formatting (I know Darkroom does text area margins too, not sure about the paragraph/line formatting).
- Has a chic help card.
- Stays out of my way.
One major issue (the only one so far) with Q10 on my system: spellcheck simply does not work. So caveat emptor, at least on this one point. I don't count it against the editor because it uses ASpell, so it may be a bug in ASpell for all I know. And besides, I nver makes typos anyway!
I'm not saying that this is the best full-screen editor. I think there's no such thing, really; it's an incredibly subjective thing. But Q10 does feel very well-made, and that's why it's my full-screen editor of choice.
At least until something better comes along.
I'm not saying that this is the best full-screen editor. I think there's no such thing, really; it's an incredibly subjective thing. But Q10 does feel very well-made, and that's why it's my full-screen editor of choice.
At least until something better comes along.
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsPhil SheardFeb 4th 2010 11:54AM
Downloaded the portable version after reading the review and really like it. The typewriter noise is retro but gives a nice sense of feedback when writing with music in the headphones. I use Writeroom on the mac and Darkroom on PC, and Q10 to darkroom already.
Thx for the review
sine909Feb 4th 2010 12:27PM
I've been using this app for a while now, it's great. I honestly have no complaints about it, and agree that the typewriter sound option is a nice touch.
adwamFeb 4th 2010 1:25PM
I haven't used any of the alternatives but I've been using Q10 for a while now to help with university work. Its plain and simple, cuts out everything you dont want to see, and just has the info bar at the bottom with the few bits you do want. I love the typewriter sound too, it gives me a sense that im actually progressing with my work.
Atanas BoevFeb 4th 2010 12:51PM
I like Q10 a lot, especially the portable version, which I can use at work. I find the typewriter sound a bit annoying, because it is slightly delayed, but I can turn that off.
My only complaint is lack of support for multiple monitors. Writeroom on Mac does not di this either, but still. At work I have dual display setup, and its of little use to have only one display dark :) Ultimate thing would be multi-column text on both displays.
MarkBFeb 4th 2010 1:45PM
If you're on a 8-bit nostalgia kick, I'd definitely suggest the Mario sound scheme: http://www.baara.com/q10/downloads/supermario.zip
Replaces the typewriter tick-a-tack with sounds from Super Mario Bros.
Tal ShafikFeb 4th 2010 6:22PM
I used Q10 until I found Writemonkey. Try it. :)
http://writemonkey.com
Erez ZukermanFeb 4th 2010 7:25PM
Wow! WriteMonkey looks _super-cool_! And it actually works with Hebrew -- awesome!
I am definitely going to try it, and if I like it I'll write another post soon. Thanks for the tip, Tal!