Kodobo is a minimalistic, distraction-free, creative writing environment. We have designed it as simple as possible—with no bells, whistles, or frills—so it won't get in the way of your creative process.
In crafting the name "kodobo," we unapologetically borrowed bits from both the English and Japanese languages:
- ko — from Japanese 心 (kokoro), meaning “heart” or “mind;”
- do — from Japanese 道 (dō), meaning “way” or “path;”
- bo — from “boundless” and 墨 (boku), meaning “ink” (by extension, "writing").
We like to think of kodobo as "a mindful path of boundless writing."
The creative process is not a "thinking" activity. Rather, it is a "flow" in which obstacles to creativity (including thinking and other distractions) are gently removed or reduced, and the tranquil, non-thinking mind is given free rein to move, explore, and express.
To this end, a distraction-free writing program (DFWP) should eliminate distractions that might encourage the writer to engage in other activities while writing. Kodobo does this by providing a zen mode in which even basic controls fade from view while writing, leaving visible only the writing window and the creative flow of words. Other features—including basic formatting such as bold, italics, and underline—have been intentionally left out.
Importantly, editing also is not a part of the creative process, since it is a thinking activity and serves as an impediment to the creative flow. Therefore, anything that would encourage a writer to "live edit" their work should be eliminated.
Additionally, things that might be annoying or taxing to the eyes or the mind can create hurdles the creative flow most overcome. These elements should also be eliminated as much as possible. For example, keeping the writing window small and the cursor at eye level help to achieve this goal. Even kodobo's interface design has been kept as simple as possible. We used a dark yet pleasing grayscale pallete with one exception: the beautifully subtle, yet elegant gold cursor | in the writing window!
Kodobo is designed with this philosophy in mind. Only features which encourage the free, forward flow of creative thought are included. We believe you will find this to be the case, but please don't take our word for it. Try it yourself by downloading the free 7-day trial!
There are lots of other "distraction-free" writing programs. Why another one?
Agreed. There are many distraction-free writing programs (DFWPs) available, and many of them are quite good.
However, not every tool is perfect for every writer. In addition, in our opinion, many of the available DFWPs have
far too many features to be useful for most writers who want a simple, clean, and function interface for creative
writing.
So... while kodobo may just be one more DFWP on the market, we believe it fills a niche that none of the
other available programs fill—a minimalistic, elegant program that encourages ONLY creative writing FLOW.
Try it yourself by downloading the free 7-day trial!
What is "Zen Mode" and how does it work?
Zen-mode is the heart of the kodobo program. It is a true, distraction-free mode where only the writing window and the words that flow from your creativity are visible on the screen. When you click the zen button, here's what happens:
- Kodobo fills the screen, eliminating distractions such as the Start bar, etc.
- Only the essential controls will be visible (but these will disappear!) so you can adjust your settings if needed.
- When you start typing or stop moving your mouse, those essential controls will fade to invisible and only your typing window and your creative flow will be visible on the screen.
- If you need to use those controls while in zen mode, just move your mouse, and they will fade back into view.
- If you need to get out of zen mode, press Escape, F11, or click the Return button. Any of those will return you to the standard mode.
What's the point in having a small "window" for writing?
You can actually make the writing window almost any size you want in kodobo. However, we do suggest keeping your window relatively
small for a couple different reasons. First, having to many words visible on the screen can be distracting and encourage the
writer to start doing "live" editing of their writing. This is a significant roadblock for creative flow. According to the
kodobo philosophy, you should edit your work until you have finished writing. And really, you should do that editing in a
different program—not kodobo!
Second, especially by limiting the vertical size of the writing window, you can keep the cursor where your words actually
appear as you type them at your eye line. In most word processors and text editors, the cursor will end up at the very bottom
of the page, which is not an optimal place for your writing to occur. Many distraction-free writing programs (DFWPs) incorporate some
kind of "typwriter mode," which keeps the cursor at eye height. This is a much more natural place to write on the screen. Not
only will it reduce your eye strain if you write for any period of time, but it will also reduce the unconscious distraction
of the annoyance of writing at the bottom of the screen. So, we suggest setting the window height at the perfectly comfortable
height for you and then letting your creativity flow onto the screen!
Why isn't there a "Save" button?
Saving your work by clicking a button can be distracting and does not fit well with the kodobo philosophy.
Kodobo allows the writer to set the auto-save feature to save their work as often as every 5 seconds (we recommend every minute or 30 seconds).
In addition, any time you click outside of the writing window or close the program, your work will be automatically saved.
So, you don't need to worry about intentionally saving your work—you can just let your creativity flow! With that said, for those who feel they
"must" save their work manually from time to time and would find it distracting not to do so, you many press CTRL+S to save your work at any time.
Why can't I "Save As"?
Kodobo is meant to be a tool for creative writing flow,
not a file manager. This might seem like a small thing, but we felt that including this feature would not fit with the kodobo philosophy
of eliminating all but the most essential features. If you need to rename or create a copy of one of your files, you can simply use the Windows
Explorer or your favorite file manager.
Why can't I use bold, underline, and italics?
Briefly, we believe that adding these
elements of markup to a text can cause a writer to slip—however momentarily—out of creative flow. If needed, these markup elements can
be added to the text during the editing process, which of course should take place in a different program—not kodobo!
For more information about this and similar questions, see the kodobo philosophy.
What's the difference between a ".kdb" file and a ".txt" file?
The only difference between a ".kdb" file (the official kodobo file) and a ".txt" file (a standard ASCII text file) is the file extension.
You read that right. Why would we do that? We wanted to make it easy for you to distinguish the content you create in kodobo from other text
files on your system.
You can easily just change the .kdb to .txt if you want to do that. Also, you can create your projects as .txt files
if you find that easier. We use the standard ASCII text format so you will be able to seemlessly open your kodobo files into a word
processor for the editing phase. You are welcome.
For which operating systems is kodobo available?
Currently, kodobo is only available for Windows PCs. However, we are currently working on a Mac version, which we hope to have
available soon. Shortly after that, we plan to work on a Linux version. Stay tuned. If you are interested in a version of kodobo
for either of those operating systems, please email us at vertechsoftwareus@gmail.com
and let us know. This will help us as we prioritize our development time!
If you have additional questions about how kodobo works, see our
help page.