A month ago we released V1 of the Ommwriter Beta version. We finally got our act together and have just released Beta v2 of Ommwriter. This v2 contains bug fixes as well as a couple of new features that some of you asked for.
NEW FEATURES
1. Word Count: For all of you bloggers, journalists, for whom every word counts.
2. Auto-save. For all those undesirable moments, when Murphy’s Law kicks in. In those desperate circumstances you can now recover most of your lost work (backed up every 3 minutes). In times of need, you will find this file in “Library/OmmWriter/OmmWriterBackup.omm”
BUG FIXES
If you are technically inclined or just interested in seeing what bugs have been fixed then this list will make a lot of sense to you. Thanks Oriol.
1. Fixed bug with core i7 machines (newest iMacs) where “ffil” font (char counter) fails to load and makes OmmWriter crash at startup
2. Opening a file would not ask to save currently opened file before replacing textview contents. Fixed.
3. Error/confusion prone keyboard shortucts (like + p) removed.
4. Removed 10.5.5 limitation, will now launch on Mac OS X 10.5.0 and beyond.
5. Script font missing a few animations at different sizes (x, r, etc.). Fixed.
6. Script font missing some characters (any two-step input char, like accented chars) when typed in between other chars. Fixed.
7. OmmWriter will now save all files as UTF-8, and will do its best to open/import files with other encodings.
NOTE ADDED 18/12: If you try to open Ommwriter files created using V1, you may get garbled text. Please check out the blog post above for the workaround.
8. Pressing minimize button twice could cause app to disappear and become unreachable. Fixed.
9. Save panel appears twice. Fixed.
10. More detailed “Save before exit” / “Open file and lose changes?” alert panels.
11. Disappearing “Save before quit?” / “Open file and lose changes?” panels when switching to another app without answering to panel question. Fixed.
12. Document scrolls back to top when opening a file.
13. Scrollbar redraw/recalc when deleting text by selection.
14. Scrollbar redraw/recalc when loading a file.
15. Tweaked insertion point to be more precise on different fonts/sizes combinations. Much better!
16. Minimized “CharAnimationLayer transparency ignored” bug on Mac OS X 10.5 by making the CALayer disappear when not in use.
17. Much better user experience when dragging the text box around the edges of the screen. Won’t get trapped as much.
18. Improved typing speed for handwritten/script font. Won’t lag behind as much.
19. “ + TAB” and then “ + Q” when OmmWriter is not in focus on an unsaved document could cause the UI to stay transparent or somewhere inbetween transitions. Fixed.
20. Fixed bug where name cropping (file extension) could occur on the “Save As…” panel.
21. Changed misspelled words attributes (greyed out words instead of red underline).
Happy and creative holidays!
It’s nice, I like it.
However I noticed that some imported (old) documents were shown as all Chinese. It’s truly in the spirit of meditation ;-) but I think there is a bug in the text encoding auto detection. I haven’t made extensive tests but it would appear that this happens to texts in Windows Latin 1 format whereas those in UTF-8 are imported without problem.
Any news on other than mac version ?
Dear Christoph. Absolutely right. This one slipped through the net. Highlights the importance of doing extensive backward compatibility QA testing. We have posted a workaround which we hope should work.
[...] Qui i dettagli. [...]
[...] Ommwriter beta 2 → [...]
Why the Beta v2 starts when I boot my mac? PS. I love Ommwriter! good job guys. tom
Very beg you, please make a version for Mac OS 10.4
Dear OmWriter crew,
I can’t thank you enough for coming up with what I think is probably one of the best and most useful pieces of freeware that I have ever seen.
How is it that the most creative people are always Mac people?
It is early morning here in Florida, the sun is barely up, I am sitting in my darkened office, with only the monitor for lighting and I am using OmWriter for the first time. Wow, what a Zen experience!
I dare to suggest that if ever you decide to add more background pictures stay away from colors, stick to black and white, it is hard to explain why but there is something to it. Please consider trying some Japanese ink drawings as backgrounds and perhaps also some Samisen music, whale songs would also work very well, I think that would work and enhance the whole OmWriter experience.
Thanks again,
Rolly
How can I use word count?
Thnx Dr Shock
Beautiful product. Granted, a few more features will be needed to make it generally appealing, but please resist feature creep to keep it simple. Force every feature to justify itself and its place in your interface. Keep up the good work.
DrShock: the word count shows up at the bottom of the text area.
To the Ommwriter crew: thank you! The application is amazing and makes me want to dedicate more time to writing.
Thanks guys, great work, Zen Bliss..
If such a thing is possible, I, too, would like to see a version for 10.4.x (or earlier), even if it’s a ‘cut-down’ version.
Hello. OmmWriter is amazing tool. Can I ask some wishes for further versions? First of all, can You please make selection of word count or chars count (with or without spaces) – it’s very important to count chars instead words in many cases. Next – it’ll very nice to read DOC/RTF files (only text, ignoring all styles, fonts, cross references and macros). And, please, add +3 for font size, because +2 is too small for new 27″ iMacs. Thank You! Regards, Alexey.
[...] il word processor che aiuta a concentrarsi visualizzando uno sofondo apposito, è giunto alla sua seconda versione beta nei giorni [...]
Hi,
OmmWriter is great idea, guess Omm is from Om (sanskrit word). Why not port this idea of tranquil effect of full screen, music and keyboard sounds to popular editors like VI (GVim), Emacs, and other editors. It would be great to have this effect with editors we have spent time to master (like Vim.) This not to diminish your efforts on OmmEditor but along with if you can provide plugins for other editors, it would be awesome.
Cheers,
Santhosh R.
Great application! And very Mac!
One question, I’m not seeing the greyed-out text for mis-spelled words, that is mentioned in the list of fixes (#21 in that list). Not a big deal to me, just wondered.
Veeery cool application, I like it a lot! :)
Is there a possibility to add “character-count”? In most cases I have to count characters and not words… It could perhaps happen, if you click on the “counter”.
Hi, thank you for an excellent piece of software. I love the ambience created and find it excellent for creative writing. Three suggestions for features I’d like to see: indent on first line of paragraphs, and line spacing control (i.e I’d ideally like more space between lines). Also the ability to import one’s own background images, if pos.
Thanks again, best regards
David Griffin
Hi there,
I love Ommwriter and am already using it
Of course having my own background images in there would be nice (it’s been covered in the FAQ but I need to emphasize it) since I have lots of images that I find stimulate my creativity
I know it’s hard to maintain the balance of simplicity and features but personally I would find it nice to have a jot box (essentially just another writing box) that I could put somewhere and write reminders, notes, outlines and URLS to incorporate into my writing project. It could be optional and behave identically to the first one….. or not :)
I love your philosophy though and I think I can expect great things from you.
Cheers,
Matt
Lovely Ommers,
As so many have asked already, may we please have a version for Windows? I know the official answer, but this would help me more than you could possibly know. It’s such a fantastic program, I’ve recommended it to all of my Mac using friends. But please please please can we have it for Windows sometime soon?
Love,
Amanda.
I have just domnloades Ommwriter
and je l’aime déjà.
merci d’avoir fait ce si joli traitement de text.
Love your product – it is perfect for my writing, which I am doing slowly. But some times I just open your software for the meditative music!!
I think you deserve a good reward! If you would like, I am willing to offer you 50% off on custom made shirts from my store. Just write back to me.
Many thanks for this wonderful product.
Max
Love it. Don’t change anything. iPad version planned?
I love this program. The background is very calm. The music is complex and yet serene at the same time. And I LOVE the typing sounds. My mind is able to focus and words flow.
Occasionally, I would like to be able to change the music and the background. But when that happens, I just turn off the music in the program and tune into my favorite internet radio channel, which plays meditation music. All in all, it would be hard to improve on what you have done.
Congrats!
PC user here… very jealous… shared it with my mac friends… have seen it in action, think its GREAT… way to go!!
I WOULD LOVE to see a PC version!!!
Love it. Don’t change anything. [2]
The odt from Open Office comes to mind. Please consider adding a one-touch button to convert output to PDF!
Also in queue for the PC version!
Best of Luck & Success!
how about water? very calming. I live on the Venetian lagoon….agree about the Japanese influence, black and white etc, but the motion of seawater can also inspire without making you sleep or distracting…
I love this program! Thank you so much. It runs perfectly.
I’m so blissed out here I would happily pay for this app – particularly if it had some facility for semantic styling – IE heading 1, 2, 3 etc some bullets..? I realize this might run counter to the simplicity ethos, and for narrative writers irrelevant- but for those of us who have write ‘working’ documents – particularly for the web – this is somewhat essential. Maybe such extra functionality could be out of the way hidden in keyboard commands – or (less ideally) use an existing markup syntax? Personally this is more imporant to me than pdf output – because omm isn’t really about presentation – its’ all about meaning – and the ability to copy /paste to another app, or a web content management system – with structurally meaningful headings would I think be consistent with omm’s place in the typoverse. Thanks~!
Hi Tim, I often write for web as well. My formatting language of preference is Textile (used in notably in the 37signals apps, like Basecamp and Backpack). But I’ll use Textile even in plain text as it is very easily readable (unlike html). When the text is finished one can either use iTextile to convert your text locally on Mac, or a free Backpack or Writeboard account. At Foliovision, we keep thinking about writing a simple regex to convert from Textile to HTML but never seem to get around it, as the other workarounds are good enough.
I wouldn’t want to see a bunch of fancy formatting added to OMM writer, although an interface for plugins to convert for output might be quite nice. That way the Markdown and Textile and others could all be kept happy and the OMM developers could continue to live fulfilling lives away from the bustle of the myriad formats out there.
Good luck! Alec Kinnear
Speaking of formatting and parsing, it would be great if this comment system could be upgraded to take into account paragraphing…
…without requiring html p tags.
I would definitely add my voice to those who ask for a version for MacOSX 10.4. Think of it as preventing the obsolescence of older Macs, helping to stay green, by not throwing them out. Even an older mac like a G3 or G4 can run a program like Ommwriter. I’m using it now on a G4 Powerbook, albeit using 10.5, and it runs very well thank you.
Very nice app for the Mac. Great idea, nicely implemented. Still a bit sparse, if that can be said of a Zen-like program. Keep up the good work.
pleaseee a PC version or an ipad version!!!
This would be nice(r) on an iPad.
This is best text editor ever invented on this earth.
Ohm. Perfect in its simplicity. I am so grateful. Namaste.
what do you guys think about being able to open several text boxes? that way you could cross-edit or merge different texts… i find that quite helpful when editing poetry, for instance
Can you guys work on a windows version or collaborate to create one? I loooove ommwriter (and gave it a positive review on my site). :) Unfortunately I only use macs at work and I’d LOVE to bring the experience home. Thanks :)
I love ommwriter (and gave it a positive review on my website!). Can you guys work on creating/collaborating for a windows version? I only use macs at work and would *love* to bring the experience home. Omm mani padme hum! ~Jenny
Will have to be said to the paste around and throw the whole lot else. In case you occur to attend the festival itself, perhaps the one roughly jewelry do this, you’re going to find.