Rough Draft

Rough Draft (formerly First Draft) is a writing tool designed to help you focus on your initial ideas and leave revising and editing for later on. The utility applies the same technique one would use when writing with a pen: you simply strikethrough, and move on.

 

Beautiful writing tool that is focused on the user

To help you get started, Rough Draft comes with an onboard tutorial that takes you through all the major functions. It is advisable to acknowledge it at first launch, but you can always go back via the Help menu.

 

Rough Draft comes with very few customization options, but you do get to change the font style or

size

, the window transparency, the visibility of the placeholder button or of the writing prompts.

 

In the bottom area of the app’s main window you get to see a word counter, while in the Settings panel you have the option to set a word count goal: Rough Draft will let you know when you have completed the goal.

 

Rough Draft also enables you to toggle between a light and a dark theme for the user interface, which is great if you tend to write both in the day and at night time.

 

Work on first drafts and export the documents for revising and editing

Rough Draft also works out as a document management tool: you get to organize your projects into predefined categories, or create your own.

 

When you start working on a new project, Rough Draft’s window automatically switches to the writing mode. Note that the app’s window can be zoomed in or out, but there is no full-screen support.

 

What’s more, Rough Draft comes with a collection of writing prompts that can help you get started when you find yourself out of ideas.

 

In the Rough Draft Write mode, all the elements you want to be deleted are actually strikethrough, so you are still able to see them. However, when you export the text, those items are completely removed.

 

On the other hand, Rough Draft also provides support for setting image, video, quote, chart, or other types of placeholders so you