When it comes to writing apps, less can be more. The fewer options there are on screen, the more you can concentrate on your writing. At least, that's the theory embraced by WriteRoom. WriteRoom isn't the only distraction-free writing app, but it is one of the simplest. It doesn't cost much, either. Some may find, however, that it's so light that it doesn't include the necessary tools for building a substantial project from your writing, such as a book or a screenplay. You won't find a library or file folder view, nor is there space to keep notes on scenes or characters. WriteRoom is, therefore, best for one-off pieces of writing. It's a good Mac writing app, but Scrivener and Ulysses are both better choices.

Price and Platform

At only $9.99, WriteRoom is among the lowest priced apps for writers. It's for Mac only—there's no Windows app, no web app, and no mobile apps either. There used to be an iPhone app, but it's been discontinued. You can only use WriteRoom on the Mac on which it is installed. There isn't a whole lot to the app, as mentioned. There are no libraries, templates, story maps, character sheets, or other tools for organizing your writing. There are formatting options for files you save to rich text, but they are tucked neatly up in the menu bar. You won't see them floating around the screen, enticing you to click on them.

One of the most closely comparable apps is iA Writer ($29.99 at Apple.com) , which costs the same. Like WriteRoom, it's a distraction-free, Mac-only writing app. But iA Writer does have a $3.99 iOS app, as well as a free Android app, which means you can easily work on your files when you're away from your Mac. iA Writer also has a few neat features that help you bring pieces of your work together to build something greater, which WriteRoom doesn't have. Additionally, iA Writer supports Markdown, which in a nutshell means getting bare bones formatting through simple inline code, like putting asterisks (*) around a word to make it bold. WriteRoom does not support Markdown, and it would be a better app if it did.

The top three writing apps, Final Draft ( at Amazon) , Scrivener, and Ulysses, cost more, but they offer a lot more in terms of functionality.

Final Draft (for Windows and macOS) runs $249.99. You can install it on two machines for that price. Unlike many other writing apps, Final Draft is designed specifically for professional screenwriters. One of its main features is that it helps writers format their scripts to industry standards, using all caps and centered text to identify different parts of the script, for example. Final Draft is highly specialized and not something you'd buy on a whim. Its companion iOS app sells for $9.99.

Scrivener ($49.00 at Scrivener) costs $45 for the desktop app (for Windows or macOS) and $19.99 for the iOS app. You can install the desktop app on as many machines in your household as you like, as long as they are all of the same platform. Scrivener, which uses WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) formatting, works well for many different genres of writing. It includes a range of tools for organizing, rearranging, and exporting pieces of writing to a larger work. WriteRoom doesn't have these tools.

Finally, Ulysses costs $44.99 (for the Mac-only app), with a companion iOS app selling for $24.99. Like WriteRoom and iA Writer, Ulysses takes the less-is-more approach. You can tell from looking at it that it has been designed to remove many distractions. And it uses Markdown rather than stylized formatting. Even though it minimizes distractions, Ulysses (Free at Apple.com) still includes a library, places to house reference material, and other features that WriteRoom doesn't have but that many kinds of writers need.

Getting Started

Launch WriteRoom for the first time, and a Welcome page appears. It's a simple document with only 120 words. It provides the briefest introduction to the app, and you're on your own from there. You won't see any tutorials, sample content, or templates. If you're jonesing to write undisturbed, you'll get there quickly in WriteRoom.

By default, when you create a new file, you get a blank white editing window. Type, and black monospace font (typewriter-style) appears. The file names itself Untitled. A word count appears next to the name. You won't see any save options or additional windows for applying style, much less a Ribbon interface like the kind you get in Microsoft Office apps.

WriteRoom does have a little more to it, but all the options are kept hidden in the menu until you select them. The window is small, taking up only a portion of the screen. By selecting full screen view from the Window menu, you can swing into a view that puts the type in white and the entire rest of your screen in gray. When you stop typing, a word count appears in the bottom right corner. But it's invisible while you're composing. Absolutely nothing else shows up in this view. You can't even escape it by pressing the Esc key. You have to move your cursor to the top of the screen until the hidden menu reappears and then select out of it (or use a keyboard shortcut).

You can customize the word count feature so that it displays any combination of line count, word count, character count, and the amount of time you've spent working on a document. Or you can hide them all. Other options let you turn on live spell-checking, grammar-correction, and autocorrection.

If you need to keep track of the time you spend on any writing job, there's a neat feature that automatically creates a spreadsheet and logs the amount of time you've put into each file during each session. The app also does a great job of storing past versions of the file, in case you need to restore a previous copy.

You can change the whole appearance of the screen by switching Themes. A few are included, and you can download others from Hog Bay Software's site. One looks like an old green screen computer terminal. You can modify a theme by choosing a different screen font or by opening a customization menu. If you're willing to find or create the needed sound files, you can even assign sounds that will play when you type a letter, delete something, or press Enter. For an app that's supposed to be distraction-free, and largely is, it sure does offer a lot of window dressing here.

Plain Text, Rich Text

By default, WriteRoom creates plain text files. Plain text means no formatting—no italics, no bold type, no headlines. It's just words, saved in the standard .txt format that any text-based application can open. If you want text formatting, you have to convert to rich text format (.rtf), a file format that's readable by all word processors. With an .rtf in WriteRoom, you have all the power to stylize your text using formatting options found in the menu. You can also easily create tables, bulleted lists, numbered lists, and so forth.

One minor annoyance is that if you want to convert an existing document from plain text to rich text, WriteRoom creates a completely new, untitled .rtf document containing the text of your original .txt file, and you have to save the new file with a new name. I would have preferred this feature to work like Apple's TextEdit, which simply replaces the first file with the second, ensuring that you don't end up with two different documents, as you do with WriteRoom (and, to be fair, with most other word-processing apps).

WriteRoom relies on the built-in powers of macOS to handle document formats. You can use WriteRoom to open Microsoft Word and other standard document files. An imported Word file will preserve basic formatting, and WriteRoom can edit it in rich text mode. Features like tables and lists are preserved, but not multiple columns. The point is that you can use WriteRoom to open a Word document if you want to concentrate on it without the distractions of Word, and you can still return to it in the Microsoft app later.

What's Missing?

The big thing missing from WriteRoom is a library. With WriteRoom, you save your files locally on your computer. When you want to open them, you use a typical file chooser window to locate them. It may not sound like you're missing out on much with WriteRoom until you consider the alternative option. Scrivener and Ulysses use the alternative method. They both have a left pane (you can hide it while writing) where you store and can see all the files you've created. It's a typical folder view, and because it's integrated into the writing app itself, you can move files around easily while getting a sense of how a larger work is coming along. For example, if you have folders dedicated to different chapters or scenes, it's easy to move files among them while seeing where all the other files land, too.

Writers use folders for other reasons, too, such as storing reference material. In Scrivener, Ulysses, and Final Draft, getting a quick glimpse at your reference material doesn't require sifting through many dialog boxes to search for and open files. Writers also sometimes use folders to indicate different states of their works, such as drafted, edited, and completed. Again, having those folders in the context of the writing app provides big benefits and efficiency because the writer can drag and drop the files without exiting the app or getting distracted.

Another piece missing from WriteRoom is support for collaboration. Google Docs remains one of the best apps for collaboration, in part because it allows real-time co-authoring. A few other office-grade word processors offer it, too. WriteRoom has nothing of the sort. Final Draft is the only writing app I've seen that isn't a full word processor to offer support for collaboration, but even there, editing is limited to one author at a time.

Another minor feature that would be helpful but isn't in WriteRoom is a preview before exporting to PDF. With Markdown language, and especially with longer documents, it helps tremendously to check that the formatting will appear how you intend it to before spitting out files.

Simple and Inexpensive

WriteRoom is a simple and inexpensive distraction-free writing app. It's only available for the Mac, however, and it offers no companion apps at this time, which means you can't continue editing files on the go. iA Writer brings a little more power in the form of Markdown language and mobile apps, while providing a similar, minimal experience. If you're serious about getting a writing app for long-term use and for projects that comprise multiple files, try Ulysses for Mac or Scrivener instead. And if you're a screenwriter, invest in Final Draft.

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