WriteRoom 4.0 (Preview 403)

jessegrosjean · September 17, 2026, 6:59pm

Here’s the WriteRoom 4.0 Preview (Please don’t share widely).

Note: This release expires in 14 days! Help me make it better and get the bugs out. I would love you help publicizing it once it’s ready, but please not yet)

Goal: WriteRoom is a place at your computer, but away from it.

Towards that goal I spend a lot of time on the DEC terminal simulation and sounds. Trying to make it feel like a place away from your normal computer screen. I hope you enjoy it, but if you don’t there are settings!

Second goal, super fast and low level text editor. WriteRoom can be more then just a jump to fullscreen mode. It’s also a pretty unique Markdown editor that can stand on own. If you edit markdown a lot please give it a try even if you don’t want distraction-free writing. Let me know how it goes!

Gorgonzola · September 18, 2026, 3:49pm

This looks beautiful!

I might be doing something wrong, but switching to markdown mode doesn’t do anything for me.

Possible cause; I clicked the ‘Don’t ask again’ checkbox on first switch. I tried resetting all settings but that doesn’t solve the issue.

Will explore a little more!

complexpoint · September 18, 2026, 4:37pm

Tell us more ? It seems to be markdown-sensitive by default here.

(with some display options)

You mean the New Document extension option ?

Gorgonzola · September 18, 2026, 5:06pm

No, when I do File → Switch to Markdown, it doesn’t switch to markdown. Syntax doesn’t receive highlights and top bar still shows ‘Plain text’ as filetype. This is also true if I use a keyboard shortcut. I get a prompt to switch to md but that doesn’t happen.

complexpoint · September 18, 2026, 7:53pm

I find that if I:

open a sample.txt containing the single line hello world
select the substring “world” and try to bold it

I see this:

Clicking the blue button, I find that the file is now sample.md (the blocked format has not yet been applied)

Now that I am working with Markdown text, I can go ahead and apply the format.

and pause for a moment to enjoy the curved monitor effect

( or toggle between the two extensions and file types with ⇧⌘T File > Make {Plain, Markdown} Text

Gorgonzola · September 18, 2026, 8:47pm

Strangely, that doesn’t seem to work for me. If I:

Create sample.txt in TextEdit, save
Open sample.txt in WriteRoom, I see the filename change to .md, but WriteRoom will still treat it as plain text:

What works for me is opening an existing .md file. That will get recognised as markdown and show syntax correctly.

Might be related to OS. This is Golden Gate I’m running.

complexpoint · September 18, 2026, 9:20pm

Tahoe (26.6.2) here, with a single app ( @ttscoff’s FileRouter) set as the default application for both .txt and .md

Some side-effect of a growing inflexbility, or sandbox vigilance, on Apple’s part, about using different applications to work on the same file, or with the same file extension ?

Apple quarantine warning - Bike Outliner - Hog Bay Software Support

( The FileRouter solution to that is working well here. I haven’t tested it on macOS 27 )

Gorgonzola · September 21, 2026, 7:56am

I think that could be the case. If I change the default app for .txt and .md files to be WriteRoom, the filetype will switch normally inside the app.

Not sure if I want a separate app to handle file defaults for me. Seems like an overkill solution with marginal benefits for my use case.

EDIT: I set file defaults back to what they were. But now WriteRoom changes filetype as expected (still writes the com.apple.quarantine attribute, though).

jessegrosjean · September 21, 2026, 6:43pm

Please try in latest release here.