Writer.app - 1.4.3

"I still wish this had the use of the delete button and a spell check. I would even pay real money for this."

Darn. I *knew* I should have released a pay version. ;)

With 1.2, you can now move the mouse to the top of the screen, go to the Preferences menu item, and turn the option to have "more modern text editing features." It'll take effect right away.

(You can't use the standard command-, shortcut to reach the preferences because I figured that might be more inclined to be (mis)used when you should just be writing away.)

The Spelling menu is still in a hidden menu, but if you enable the more modern text editing features you can use the standard command-: and command-; to go to the next possibly misspelled word.

A quick response to a couple of the comments.

Regarding point 1 - and this is a secret, just for you VersionTracker folks, so don't let it out into the wild, but if you mouse up to the top of the screen to make the menu appear, and click and hold down on the menu, and keep dragging and holding as you mouse over the Help menu and then out over to the right, past it, you'll find a hidden preference panel, on which is an option to turn on a really annoying typewriter sound every time you type. :)

The reason the preferences are hidden is because this app is supposed to help those people who have real trouble focusing, and apps with too many toggles and widgets would just drive them to further distraction.

And to the guy with the Writer.app name comment, fair enough. I'd done a quick search on the name to see if anyone else was using it, but Open Office didn't come up.

As this is a drafting tool, primarily (I wouldn't expect any serious writer to use this as their final, let's-ship-it-to-the-editor editor), I don't know how much of an issue this is. I guess we'll see.

The Help menu item gives the basic overview of how the tool is expected to be used - it's based on an idea that only allowing people to go forward may help them meet deadlines. Or something like that. Personally, I've found I make a lot more typos than I ever would have thought, and the strikethroughs on my screen don't let me fudge those facts at all... possibly coming in further releases would be the ability to export a little more seamlessly to Tinderbox or Mellel or Word or Ulysses, or one of the other writer's tool, where you're more likely to do your "final draft" than the initial pass at a story or novel or what have you.

Feedback and comments welcome, though, for post-November releases.

As someone who owns several manual typewriters, I have wanted an application exactly like this one for a long time.

As the other comments say, it lacks basic word processor features, but that's the point, isn't it?

A couple of features I would like to see in any future updates:
1. Optional key sounds. Sometimes (but not all the time) I want to hear the clacking.

2. Font choices. Yes the font it uses is good, but there are some better typewriter fonts out there and the ability to choose a different one would be great.

Wow, it really is just like a typewriter, no spell check, no edit, no delete, no white out. Not sure I want to travel that far back in time though.