Focus mode and sprints
Focus mode takes everything off the screen except the words and the bar at the bottom.
Getting in and out#
Click Focus in the bottom bar, or press Ctrl+Shift+F. The Focus mode command in the View menu works on the Write tab only; on any other tab it is grayed out. Press Escape or click Write to come back out.
In focus mode there is no top bar, no sidebar, no side panel, no section title, and no scene controls. A closed panel does not slide in at the window edge here. The bottom bar keeps showing the running word count, the section’s or the book’s (click it to switch), and it fades while you type and after three seconds of a still mouse. It comes back the moment you move the mouse or hover over it, so the sprint timer is always one move away. The free trial reminder, in the last three days of the trial, stays out of focus mode.
Red spelling lines are hidden in focus mode. They come back when you leave it.
Outside focus mode the page does the same thing in a milder way. See A calm page.
Leaving the writing view turns focus mode off, so you can never end up on another page with no way back.
Typewriter scrolling#
Turn this on in Settings under Focus mode and sprints. The line you are typing stays in the middle of the window instead of walking down to the bottom.
Dimming the other lines#
Turn this on in Settings under Focus mode and sprints. In focus mode, every paragraph but yours fades, and so does every other scene. The fade follows your cursor. The page comes back to full brightness while the cursor is out of the text, for example while the sprint timer is open. It is off by default.
The sprint timer#
The timer sits in the bottom bar. Click it to open it.
- Choose 5, 10, 15, or 25 minutes and the sprint begins at once, or type your own number and press Start. The icon beside Write for (minutes) says the timer stops if you close FoxQuill.
- Pause and Resume stop and start the clock. Reset throws the sprint away.
- While it runs, the bar shows the time left and how many words you have written since it began.
- The word count is net. Cutting more than you write shows a negative number.
When the clock reaches zero, the bar glows, and the timer says the sprint is finished and shows how long you wrote for, how many words, and your words per minute. New sprint starts another. Every finished sprint is saved, and the Statistics page lists them.
A sprint follows you between sections of the same book. Opening a different book ends it. Closing FoxQuill ends it.
Turn on a short sound at the end of a sprint in Settings.