BlackWord

After a fresh install of Windows you most likely go online to grab tools for the type of work you need to perform. Chances are you’re also looking for an alternative text editor to what default Windows features provide. In case you don’t want things to get too complicated, BlackWord is a slim, intuitive text editor you can use.

A great deal of flexibility is provided by the lack of an installer. This makes it possible for you to carry the application around on a thumb drive, along with the text documents you create, and need. Just make sure that the computer you use it on is equipped with .NET Framework, because it’s a required component for functionality.

As the name might suggest, the main window shows up with a dark theme, but not much different from a standard layout. Most of the space is where all text input goes, with a toolbar for file management, and text customization operations, as well as a status bar with a few info fields, and page arrangement options.

Text customization options allow you to change the type, style, color, and size of the selected text, but also to add attributes like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough. Moreover, you can insert JPG pictures in your project, but it can’t be set to wrap behind text, and you might have a bit of trouble positioning it in the document.

It’s all fun and games until you want to save, or even load a text document. This is because the application only supports its own BW file format for import, while export options allow you to also save as DOC besides BW.

All things considered, we can say that BlackWord isn’t far from delivering the set of features it intents to. Writing benefits from different alignment and customization options, but with the lack of support for even common text files like TXT and RTF, practicality has a lot to suffer.