Growly Write is a simple but feature-rich word processor.

Perhaps the word processor you've been using has 100 times as many features as you need. Or it won't work the way you want it to -- too many views or too few, and nothing makes any sense. Or it looks as if it were designed back when computers displayed text in green letters on a black screen. Growly Write is something else entirely: fresh, capable, and simple. But not too simple. The range of documents you can create in Write is staggering: multiple columns, chapters with different layouts, pictures that flow with the text or pictures that text wraps around, drop caps, tables, lists, links within a document or to web pages, borders simple and complex, and a complete toolkit of text formats. But everything is easy to find.

The section on the right of the screen shot above is the format panel. It lets you change the appearance of everything in the document, without ever getting in your way. No obscure commands, complex and ugly modal windows, tiny indecipherable icons, or hunting through menus. If you want to format something, this is the place to go. The tabs at the top let you choose what to modify: text, paragraphs, tables, lists, pictures, what have you. They reconfigure automatically to match whatever you've selected. Within each tab the properties are broken down into small, easy-to-understand groups. If you don't use styles, for example, just close the style group and you'll never have to see it again. But when you do need a certain format, you'll never have to wonder where it is. If you're just typing and you don't want to think about formatting right now, simply close the panel.

Sometimes you need to concentrate on making your document look great, but for most documents it's the words that matter most. When you want to focus on the text, use the draft view (vs. the page view shown above).