Heart Writer

I use a variety of different text-editing apps for different situations. Pages for essays, PlainText for note-taking in most cases, Notes Plus for taking notes in other cases, and a few others for small niche uses. Heart Writer is going to be added to my arsenal and will most likely take over a good portion of my text-editing time.

When I sit down to write longer bits of text (not essay long, but anything longer than a short email), I normally whip out my Apple Wireless Keyboard and start typing. The reason I’m partial to a wireless keyboard is not for typing speed (I type almost as fast on the virtual keyboard), but the speed it adds in other ways. Copying and pasting is easier with a wireless keyboard, as is highlighting sections of text and navigating the document in general. Heart Writer makes all of these features almost as easy as with a keyboard and even adds a few that I didn’t think of.

Heart Writer’s keyboard comes with preset buttons that actually work as five buttons in one. Tap the button and the middle function is used. Drag from the middle to one of four corners to use the other functions. These presets include a Tab, Copy, Paste, All, Cut button and an awesome parenthesis and slash button to name a couple. Even better, Heart Writer allows users to create their own presets. And not just single button presets, it allows creation of

the five point button. As a test, I created a preset with my name in the middle and my 148apps email, AIM name, Facebook link, and Twitter address for the corners. It works great! I can only imagine the endless uses I will eventually come up with for the custom preset buttons. Other presets include easy navigation around the document (like skipping to the top or bottom of a page).

Heart Writer includes Dropbox and Google Docs support as well as exporting via email.

Now on to my problem with the app - there’s no tutorial or help file available whatsoever. After checking the Heart Writer website, I found a tutorial video that explained almost everything. But the user shouldn’t be required to go outside of an app to learn how to use the app. Certain features aren’t quite immediately obvious. For example, in order to save, the Dropbox, Google Docs, or Email button must slide to the left. I didn’t realize this until I watched the video. I’ve contacted the developer about this problem and asked if a future update will include a tutorial. I received a reply that help documentation will be added to the next version being submitted to the App Store next week.

Barring the lack of tutorial, I’ve been looking for one text-editor to “rule them all” and I think I’ve found it.