This is true even if you’re a newbie up against the software world’s leading heavyweights.” –Radically simple designs always win iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be for creating commercially successful interfaces, applications or services. It has won a lot of fans by doing one thing very simply and its creator, Oliver Reichenstein, has likened it to a scalpel in a world of Swiss army knives. “One of the most successful iPad wordprocessing apps over the past couple of years is iA Writer, a simple tool that gets rid of all the options, font choices, distractions and corrections that come with more elaborate programs. Cut the modifiers to tighten your prose and sharpen your verbs to make your sentences pop.” –The 10 Best Apps For Your New Mac But the app doesn’t stop there it can also help you write more clearly with a syntax feature that highlights adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs and other terms. iA Writer Pro takes this principle and extends it to the screen, wiping away other apps and menu bars to free users of distractions. “For writers, whether they be students, professionals, or aspiring authors, nothing is as liberating (or intimidating) as the blank page. The app also has some traditional word processing tricks like find and replace, and you can export your text in a format that is compatible with other word processors, including Microsoft Word.” –Now You Can Write the Great American Novel on the Subway To preview the final result, there is a visually neat mode that shows what the document would look like if printed in a traditional book format.

Another clever option with iA Writer is that you can highlight adjectives, nouns, verbs and the like in different colors, which may prevent overdecorating of text. This works similarly to how your eyes stay focused on the words you have just typed on the paper when using a traditional typewriter.

The app’s cleverest feature is its “focus mode,” which fades out everything else in your document other than the line or paragraph you’re working on. The app borrows the look and feel of its writing interface from a traditional typewriter, including the font you type in. “For a writing app with a simpler interface check out iA Writer, which has little on-screen clutter like buttons and controls. Reviews Three times Apple AppStore App of the Year.

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