For years, Microsoft Word (or Google Docs) has been the default choice for almost anyone who needs to write something longer than a grocery list. It’s familiar, powerful, and packed with features. However, it can also feel overwhelmingly busy. Toolbars stack on top of toolbars, formatting ribbons wait to jump out at you, and there always seems to be another menu or option you’re not using.
Eventually, I realized I needed something simpler, which is what led me to FocusWriter. Once you’re in this app, the interface (UI) disappears completely, leaving you alone with your words and a blank page to write. After months of using it every day, I can confidently say it has changed the way I approach my writing sessions.
- OS
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Windows, Linux, MacOS
- Developer
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Graeme Gott
- Price model
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Free (Open-Source)
A hideaway interface that actually disappears
Writing is a bit easier when the screen stops asking for your attention
The first thing you notice about FocusWriter is what you don’t see. When you launch the app, you’re greeted with a clean writing surface and nothing else. The menus, toolbars, and formatting options stay completely hidden until you need them. Move your mouse to the top of the screen, and the menu bar appears. Hover near the bottom, and you’ll see your word count and progress indicators. Move your cursor away again, and everything vanishes again.
This hideaway interface isn’t just an aesthetic choice. When I’m working in Word, my eyes drift constantly toward the toolbar, and I’m tempted to adjust the fonts or line spacing before I’ve even finished writing a paragraph. FocusWriter removes that temptation entirely. The interface stays invisible until I intentionally bring it forward, which keeps my attention centered where it should be—on the text.
The app also supports customizable themes that change the entire atmosphere of your writing environment. I’ve stuck with the default Writing Desk theme because it has a warm, personal feel (almost like writing by hand at an actual desk), but there are several built-in alternatives, including Bitter Skies, Spy Games, Gentle Blues, and Old School.
You can even import your own custom themes. Each theme shifts the background, text color, and visual tone, which, I think, changes the writing mood.
Choosing a theme might not seem like a major detail, but it does influence your focus. Once I settled on a look that felt right, I stopped thinking about the interface altogether. These days, I spend less time arranging my workspace and more time actually writing, which is what I wanted all along.
Daily goals and on-the-fly statistics
Feedback that helps you keep going without breaking your flow
One of FocusWriter’s standout features is its built-in progress tracking. You can set daily writing goals based on word count, pages, or time spent writing, and a small indicator at the bottom of the screen updates automatically as you type. It’s accurate, but it never interrupts your workflow.
To set a goal, hover at the top of the screen and open Settings -> Preferences, then head to the Daily Goal tab. Once you lock in your target, FocusWriter takes care of the rest in the background.
At first, I didn’t think I needed something like this. I was accustomed to sitting down with vague intentions, such as “get started on chapter two and hopefully finish it.” That kind of open-ended goal makes it easy to lose track of time or stop early because it feels like you’ve written enough. FocusWriter forces just enough structure to keep me accountable. Watching the progress bar fill gives me a clear signal of what I’ve accomplished, and I usually push a little further to see it reach the end.
Beyond word count, FocusWriter tracks characters, sentences, paragraphs, and pages. You can choose exactly which metrics appear in the footer, though I keep them all visible. And of course, everything stays hidden until you hover at the bottom of the screen. If you need to meet specific length requirements or want to understand your writing output better over time, this unobtrusive feedback is incredibly helpful.
Essential features without the bloat
Everything you need to write, and none of the features that get in the way
Because it presents itself as a blank sheet on a calming background, you might assume that FocusWriter is bare bones. It isn’t. It includes all the features you actually need to write, without the excess you’ll never use.
Spell-checking is built in and works quietly, placing a subtle red underline beneath misspelled words. If you find even that distracting, you can disable the Check spelling as you type option in the Spell Checking tab under Preferences. Rich-text support allows for bold, italics, and other basic formatting when necessary, and find-and-replace is easily accessible through the Tools menu. You can even customize smart quotes if you prefer a specific quotation style.
FocusWriter also automatically restores your last session when you reopen it, so you never lose your place or have to remember what you were working on. You can save your writing locally in multiple formats, including ODT, FODT, DOCX, RTF, TXT, and plain TEXT. If your preferred format isn’t listed, you can easily convert it using a free file converter app for Windows. And just like Word, the app prompts you to save before closing, which prevents accidental data loss.
If you work across multiple machines, FocusWriter even offers a portable mode. By creating a Data folder in the program directory, you can run the app directly from a USB drive with all your documents and settings intact. It’s a thoughtful feature, even if I personally don’t need it; I’m usually just working on one PC and sharing finished files when necessary.
What FocusWriter doesn’t include is just as important. There are no grammar checkers suggesting alternative wording, no AI assistants trying to predict your sentences, and no cloud-sync pop-ups asking you to sign in with your Google account, which is a risk. It’s writing software that respects your workflow, rather than trying to control it.
If you want to write more often, this is the app you need
I’m not suggesting you abandon every powerful word processor out there. Those tools have their place, especially when you need extensive formatting or collaboration features. But power isn’t always the priority. When the goal is simply to get words on the page, whether you’re drafting an article, outlining a story, or free writing your thoughts, FocusWriter outperforms Word’s complexity by staying out of your way.
This app has made me a more consistent and productive writer, not through flashy features or AI-driven prompting, but by removing the friction between my thoughts and the screen. If you’re tired of negotiating with your writing processor instead of actually writing, FocusWriter might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.