FocusWriter is an app that delivers a distraction-free workspace to work on your stories while working from a customized theme. These themes control how the app behaves, such as the kinds of fonts you use, margins, background images, and more. But, how do you create a theme?
Themes for FocusWriter aren’t that difficult to create, and they can add an extra layer of engagement. For example, I love using rainforest, space, beach, and other imagery to get me in the mood to write.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a basic color if that suits your writing habits better.
Create a New FocusWriter Theme
In this tutorial, we’re going to go over the functions in FocusWriter and how to set up your theme. It’s not difficult, and it creates a unique writing experience.
Step 1: Access the Themes Function
From the top toolbar, click the palette icon to open the themes area.
This will open the Themes window for FocusWriter.
Step 2: Create a New Theme
Click on the Custom tab and click the “New” button on the right.
NOTE: From this window, you can also duplicate, edit, delete, import, and export your themes.
Step 3: Set Up the New Theme in FocusWrite
Give your new theme a name so that it’s easier to find later. Afterward, go through each section of the theme to customize its appearance.
Also, keep in mind that the preview window on the right will show you what your changes look like before saving them.
Text
You have three options here: color, font, and the color of the underline when something is misspelled. The important thing to keep in mind is whether the font is going to be easily visible on the page. That’s because you can change the color of the typing surface as well.
Window Background
The window background is the area of FocusWriter that is not the writing page. You can leave it as a default color or add custom images. You can also change whether the image is zoomed in, titled, centered, stretched, or scaled.
This is completely up to you. In this instance, I’m changing the background to another tropical forest view. It’s already sized to the same resolution as my computer screen, so I won’t have to make any adjustments.
Text Background
The text background is essentially the writing page itself. You can change its color, adjust the opacity, where the page is on the screen, and its width.
If you want a simulated page, then you’d leave the background color as white and an opacity of 100%.
In my case, I like being able to faintly see the image behind the page. However, I also want to see the text that I’m writing. So, I’d start with an opacity of 85%. Any more than that and I risk losing the text in the background image.
Round Text Background Corners
The Round Text Background Corners function simply rounds the corners of the page. It’s perhaps one of the more optional settings in this tool, as most probably don’t care about the corners.
However, once you select it, you can make the curvature of the corners more pronounced by adjusting the Radius pixel settings.
Blur Text Background
This function blurs the image that is behind the text and under the page. If you use an image as I have, blurring it might provide less of a distraction, as the details can be faded out.
You can adjust the blur by using the Radius function and changing the pixel depth.
In my case, I am changing the blur radius to 35 pixels.
Text Background Drop Shadow
You can choose to add a drop shadow to the text background, as well as its size and color. Doing so makes the page a bit more pronounced against the actual background image or color in FocusWriter.
In my example, I am setting the radius to 32 pixels and leaving the other default settings.
Margins
If you don’t like the full-screen writing surface, you can set margins in the theme of FocusWriter. You can adjust the margins to deliver a similar layout to what you’d find in Microsoft Office or other writing apps.
The first Window margin adjusts the top and bottom of the writing surface. In a nutshell, it’s how tall the writing surface appears on your monitor.
The Page margin is where the text appears on the page from the outer edges. The higher the number of pixels, the further away the text will be from the edge of the page.
Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all number if you’re trying to input an inch for the margins, which is common on various writing platforms. However, I’ve found anywhere from 70 to 90 is pretty close.
Keep in mind that not everyone uses the same resolution of monitor. So, what works for me might not be enough for you. Use the preview window to judge a good distance from the edges as the preview window updates in real-time.
Line Spacing
Line spacing is just as it sounds. You can select from single, 1.5 lines, double, and proportional. If you plan on printing the manuscript for editing, perhaps the double spacing will be more logical.
If you set the spacing to “Proportional,” you can adjust the percentage of the spacing manually.
Paragraph Spacing
Under Paragraph Spacing, you will see the options to change the width of tabbing, how many pixels separate each paragraph from the top and bottom, and a checkbox to indent the first line.
I don’t like the default 48 pixels of FocusWriter for the tab width, so I am going to change mine to 20 pixels for this example theme. That way, it’s not nearly as much of a gap when I hit the tab key.
Step 4: Save the Theme
Once you’ve finished making your changes, click the “OK” button on the bottom right of the theme window.
The theme will save, and FocusWriter will immediately change to your new layout.
If you don’t like the appearance or feel like you need to make further changes, click the Edit process and make your adjustments.
If you’re happy with the custom theme, click the “Close” button on the window and start writing.
Export Your FocusWriter Theme
If you want to export your theme from FocusWriter to back it up or share it with others, go into the Themes window as we did before.
Select the theme you want to share and click the “Export” button on the bottom right.
This should launch your computer’s save file window. Save the FWTZ file somewhere easy to locate.
NOTE: The FWTZ file is relatively small, but it’s still a good idea to ZIP it if you plan to upload the file to a website or online sharing folder. Zipping a file helps protect it from malware and other alterations.
Import a FocusWriter Theme
To import a theme, click the palette icon and open the Themes window.
Click the “Import” button from the FocusWriter window.
Find the FWTZ file and open it in FocusWriter.
The theme will be installed in the writing app and will automatically update the layout.
Do Themes Really Matter When Writing?
You don’t necessarily need a visual theme while writing your manuscript. A lot of writers are perfectly content with the basic visuals of apps like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
It all comes down to personal preference.
However, I’ve found that I’m a bit more engaged while writing if there is a theme in the background. This is especially true if I change to a theme that is relevant to the story.
Yet, you can simply have the basic color backgrounds and whatnot without the flair in FocusWriter if you just want to hammer out the manuscript.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what works best for you.
You Can Get Quite Creative with FocusWriter
The number of options for creating a custom theme in FocusWriter gives you an opportunity to generate something unique. You can tile pet photos in the background, show your children pictures, or relax with photographs of nature.
As long as you have the image on your computer, it can be added to FocusWriter. Not to mention being able to print in a variety of fonts.
There is quite a bit you can do with a theme in FocusWriter. The best part is that it’s a free writing app.
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