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Ia writer for ipad5/3/2023 ![]() And sub-folders are also necessary for efficient organisation.Īnother snag with iA Writer is that there is no iPhone version. When you are working with several different text applications, it’s essential to have all your documents in one folder. The result is that all your documents will be at top level in the Writer folder.įor my money, this is a major disappointment after enjoying the flexibility of other plain-text editors. Unfortunately, you are restricted to one Dropbox folder (compulsorily called “Writer”) and the application does not permit sub-folders. The alternative, moving documents around via iTunes is far inferior and you will certainly want a free Dropbox account if you adopt iA Writer as your preferred writing tool. IA Writer syncs automatically via Dropbox, in common with most other popular text editors. Notesy, among others, offers this choice and I much prefer working with wider margins and a shorter line length. Disappointingly, though, there is no option in landscape to increase the width of the margins to make the text more manageable and easier to read. In common with all text editors, iA writer works in both landscape and portrait mode. ![]() This is an extremely useful addition and avoids the need to stab the text with a finger and, often, end up with the cursor in the wrong place. There is also a smart parenthesis key which adds opening brackets and then closes the parenthesis using the same button.įinally, on this additional row of keys, there are buttons to move the cursor back and forth one character at a time. The standard iOS keyboard is enhanced by the addition of a top row of keys for frequently-used characters (- : ” ‘) and, usefully, buttons to move back and forth word by word. ![]() So if you need to make any major changes you have to exit focus mode. The ubiquitous iOS copy and paste dialog isn’t called up when you press the screen. I really like this approach, although the focus mode does not allow any form of editing other than backspacing and navigation. The rest of the text is greyed out and you can concentrate entirely on the current words. In focus mode you find the true unique selling point of iA Writer, the focus on the sentence under construction. Note how the Markdown hash symbols are shown as simple text and compare with the effect in the Mac application window belowFocus mode The iPad full-screen view showing the focus mode in action. ![]() To the far right of the toolbar is a lock icon which, strangely, is what you use to change to the second, full-screen “focus” mode. There are slow readers and there are fast readers. I am not convinced by the rather artificial time-to-read function. In addition there is a “time-to-read” value (which the authors cite as an improvement on pagination or other forms of index) and a word count. In standard mode there is a top toolbar with icons to call up the documents list, add a new document and share by emailing the text or copying the full text. IA Writer joins a bunch of similar products in offering a clean, editing environment with the option to go full screen if you wish. If you are happy with a white background and Nitti Light type you don’t need to look further. Fortunately the chosen font, Nitti Light, is attractive and suits me because it is non-variable in width and makes for easy editing. They claim it is a sparten setting and they’re not far wrong on that-it’s a true case of one size fits all. There are no options to change background, pen colour or font or, even, text size. To achieve this end there is minimal customisation. IA Writer aims to offer a very focused, distraction-free environment for serious writing. I purchased iA Writer for the iPad some weeks ago but hadn’t got down to evaluation. But to have both desktop and iPad apps from the same vendor is an interesting proposition. Most plain-text note applications for iOS have no desktop version, although it is an easy matter to use TextEdit, WriteRoom or one of the many other plaint-text editing progams for OS X. When I read that Information Architects’ iA Writer¹ for iPad had a desktop companion I felt duty bound to download and try them out.
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