uFocus is a distraction-free writing application that allows you to open plain text files and manage them inside libraries. Looking for an alternative to those heavy word processors? Seeking for freshness? You are on the right place to start.
uFocus is available for Mac, iPad and iPhone.
In order to provide a clean writing environment that lets you easily type your stories, uFocus only supports reading and writing to plain text files. The interface is unobtrusive: the title bar only appears when moving the mouse to the top of the window. You can use Auto-Markdown to easily add headings, quotes, ordered and unordered lists, italics and bold. You can then export your documents to HTML or PDF and print them.
With a two-finger swipe to the right you can open the sidebar, to which you can link any directory. This way you have your own library always at hand and you can quickly open your most frequently used documents. The popup button at the top of the sidebar allows you to switch between libraries. Libraries are also a handy way to structure your work. For example, if you’re writing a novel you may create a subfolder and keep a separate file for each chapter. If you write a diary, you may create a file for each new day. If you have a blog … you get the idea.
uFocus comes with a series of modi that can assist you in staying even more focused. You can activate the highlighting mode, where all the text but the current sentence or paragraph fades out. You can automatically scroll the text when you get on a new line while typing. You can enable typewriter sounds. And if your greatest temptation is always to edit your text instead of writing, you can disable text deletions and replacements.
There’s a dark theme, which is especially useful when you write in a dark environment. There’s a couple other built-in themes and a basic theme editor to add your own. If you want to keep track of the word or character count, you can pin them to the bottom of the window. In fullscreen you can hide everything else that may interrupt your creative flow. And, of course, iCloud, autosaving and Versions are supported as well.
When you enable Auto-Markdown, you can also take advantage of the live outline view to quickly navigate to any of the headers inside your document.
That’s it. If you have any problem to report or a suggestion for a new feature, I’m always happy to help!
I wish you all the best in creating wonderfully exciting stories!