Zen Writer

Tools in general have always been improved to make work efficient. Writing has its own tools and one of them is the computer which, given the proper applications enhances this technique. Zen Writer is a handy utility and tries to bring a new experience to writers.

The main idea behind this concept is to put a simple interface at your disposal with nothing to distract your and lose precious inspiration. The main window represents your workspace with a featured blank sheet of paper on which to unleash your imagination.

All available tools you can use are found on the sides as highly detailed icons. Everything looks pleasant enough and truth be told, there is not much else you can do except writing, so you can focus on work.

Overall the application leaves a pleasant visual impression, with high resolution textures and stylish icons. All necessary tools, such as font type and color, alignment, as well as a spell check option to assure you that the writing experience is maximized.

You are not limited to a number of words or characters, but there is no implemented field that displays at least the total number of pages, which can get slightly frustrating. You can only make use of text, because the application does not support image insertion.

One of the biggest disappointments is that you are only able to export your work to the application specific format, even though you can import some of the most commonly used text file types. Moreover, only one document can be opened at a time, hitting the “New” button asking you to save work because it gets closed.

Zen Writer tries to bring the writing experience to a new level, but it's only impressive on the visual side. For what it can offer it takes up pretty much space on your hard disk drive making it only a one night stand. It's fun and easy to work with but it's not really what you use for professional purposes.