Distraction-free writing on the iPad
Review: PlainText for the iPad
If you are a blogger or a writer, you never know exactly when inspiration hits you. Example: I just had the idea to write this review a minute ago, but I’m traveling by train from the South of the country. Far away from my computer. However, I do have my iPad with me and an app called ‘PlainText’. Here is my review.
Dropbox integration
PlainText is a basic text processor that has one particular advantage over a lot of other text processing apps: it integrates with DropBox. Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) is a free service that allows you to create a folder that synchronizes its content between all your computers and mobile devices.
Once I have finished both this article and my journey back home, I can fire up my computer and continue to edit this document. It will be there, waiting for me in my Dropbox folder. The next time I will open the file on my iPad, it will be updated with all the latest modifications.
Interface
The interface of PlainText is simple, but effective. I am not fond of the yellow background or the ugly font of Apple’s standard notepad app on the iPad. I prefer Plaintext’s white background and easy to read, elegant font (Georgia).
You can use the app in landscape or in portrait mode. There is a button that allows you to change a few basic settings, an icon to create a folder and an icon to create a new document. In landscape mode, a list on the left shows you the articles currently in your Dropbox PlainText folder.
TextExpander
Plaintext also works with TextExpander (not free) which lets you insert big chunks of predefined texts by entering a few letter combinations. I have yet to try that out, but I’m hearing good things about it.
The best thing about PlainText is that it is free. Eventually, the free version of the program will be ad-supported, but there are no ads yet.
Download
You can download the app for free by searching for ‘PlainText’ in the iTunes app store. You can read more about the app on the developer’s website: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/plaintext
What is your favorite software for writing or blogging? Let us know in the comments!
Great post Father,… I need to look into using DropBox, but I have found myself using Google docs for all of my parish and events functions. While strolling through twitter and finding this tweet, Adobe placed a link to some new apps for the iPhone and iPad,… Adobe and Apple, …. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/adobe-ideas-1-0-for-ipad/id364617858?mt=8
When will Apple catch up and have automatic updating for those who us Me.com! Apple has great ideas, but often falls behind everyone else. This is something that should have been involved in MobilMe’s last major update!