The default dimensions-usually, just a portion of the screen-suggest jotted notes more than outlined tome. They are not the size of anything but themselves, no implied page. But whatever you're writing, the same logic applies: It doesn't matter how things look while you're typing it out because text only comes to life when it is read.Īnother underrated advantage of more spartan text editors is that they are not letter-size. After all, this is text that's meant for elsewhere, maybe it's the code that makes a website run, maybe it's the bones of a blog post. These programs, often favored by programmers, deal with text in a purer form: as characters stored as bytes of data with no formatting, no page size. I mean TextEdit or Notepad, or any other simple text editor that prioritizes the text you write over the illusion of a virtual page. Of course the words won't write themselves, but word processors and other self-styled 'productivity' programs can make it feel like they just might, leaving you to fiddle with settings while you wait for it to happen.īut take heart: This is not the only way to write. To have page layout options to mess with.Īnd that's just it: It's all too easy to be drawn to distraction and the ability to procrastinate by changing type size and margins while blocking out the Twitter window underneath. To want the blank page to feel like a window into endless opportunity instead of overwhelming emptiness.

To want encouragement and spell-checking, Comic Sans and Times New Roman and Adobe Garamond Pro. It's easy to want it all from your word processor.

What is notepad ++ compared to word