Filed under: Software, Productivity
WriteRoom 2.0 goes official

We reported a WriteRoom 2.0 beta from Hog Bay Software early last month, and the company has now announced an official release. Version 2.0, as you might remember, brings with it rich text editing, a live word count, saving documents wherever you please and a standard text/rich text storage format and more. In addition to an official version release, WriteRoom's price is now $24.95 (up from its previous 'free' and $14.95-while-in-beta prices).
WriteRoom 2.0 is a Universal Binary, and a free demo is available.
Thanks everyone who sent this in.

![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Don Parr said 5:05PM on 1-04-2007
David, you forgot to mention WriteRoom 1.0 remains available and "Free," for those that do not want or need the extras version 2.0 provides. For those susceptible to sticker shock, give it a reasonable evaluation period - say a week - and I think you'll agree, it is easily worth the nominal fee being asked.
Reply
Billy K said 5:05PM on 1-04-2007
Wow. Isn't $25 kinda steep for an app that is basically TextEdit with fewer functions and an Apple II wrapper?
Reply
Preston said 5:16PM on 1-04-2007
"Wow. Isn't $25 kinda steep for an app that is basically TextEdit with fewer functions and an Apple II wrapper?"
Not only that, but all the features listed in the summary are included for free with Cocoa's NSTextView. You could make your own full-screen app that surpasses WriteRoom in a single evening. What a rip-off.
Reply
Macster said 5:18PM on 1-04-2007
"Apple II Wrapper", that's comedy gold there. Made me laugh.
I actually prefer the black background with green or grey text. It's easiest on the eyes, plus it has the benefit of being lower power on LCD (I'd think at least). I have everything setup that way, TextMate, iTerm, etc.
Reply
Jesse Grosjean said 6:07PM on 1-04-2007
What features does Text Edit have that WriteRoom is missing? WriteRoom's implementation isn't all that simple, please download it and check out the details before dismissing it as a evenings work. Took me 6 months to decide on and implement all the features together with users in the Hog Bay Software user forum.
For those of you who've taken the time to bash WriteRoom I would hope that you could at least take the time to read my response.
http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/node/2016
Thanks,
Jesse
Reply
Marc Orchant said 10:55PM on 1-04-2007
If you haven't tried this app you're in no position to bash it. Preston - go write yourself an app and post a link. We'll let you know how your evening's work stacks up to the effort Jesse has put into not only building WriteRoom but engaging in an excellent conversation with people who, like me, appreciate a nicely crafted bit of code and write for a living (or at least take writing very seriously).
What is the big deal about $25.00? You can blow that on a movie for two with a small popcorn (no drink). If I had an app as useful as WriteRoom instead of every worthless movie I've blown $25.00 on (usually more), I'd have more software than I'd know what to do with.
Oh wait, I do have more software than I know what to do with. And, in spite of the fact that I can almost always just ask for a reviewer's license, I prefer to buy licenses for the software I end up using – especially when it's the result of one guy with a vision.
Rock on Jesse! How's that app coming along Preston? C'mon dude – we're waiting to check it out.
Reply
Ted said 9:08AM on 1-05-2007
All of you who are complaining about the price might want to check out the developers blog where Jesse posts a work-around hack for the licence - making the application licence free and thus costing nothing.
Reply
Jakob Nilsson said 11:33AM on 1-05-2007
I´ve been using Writeroom 1 for a while now, and I absolutely love it! Version 2 seems to fix most of my issues with it (like the ability to save my texts where I want to), and I´ll gladly pay 25 for it. I´ll download it tonight.
Reply
vanlandw said 4:44PM on 1-05-2007
Don't shoot the messenger but there is a Windows alternitive to WriteRoom called Dark Room. FYI for Windows readers interested in this application as well. Free.
http://they.misled.us/dark-room/
Reply
Don Parr said 7:13PM on 1-05-2007
Thanks to vanlandw for sharing that. In addition, Dark Room for Windows will also require Microsoft’s .Net Framework 2 - also available for Free from Microsoft’s site.
Reply
south said 3:16AM on 1-06-2007
Your comments: i paid for the beta and i have no regrets about the money i spent. WriteRoom is one of those apps that does one thing and does it well,
and as someone who does a lot of writing, I can say it's turned work back into
fun again.
Reply