with a flair for the drsmatic i decide to write on Tom Hanks’ Hanx Writer App. It’s amazing really. I love the feedbsck of the keys. Takes me bsck ti typing class on our msnusl typewriters. I’m deliberwtely lesving my mistakes so everyone will know hiw horrible my typing rewlly is. Of course, the keyboard is s kittke crsmped even on my huge Ipad Pro. it tskes a little getting used to. vI’m hoping my sccuracy will improved as i get used to the sensitivity.
The punctustion keys sre sadly hidden in the menu behijd (oh this is awful) a button menu on the keyboard, like every other mobile device keyboard. so thwt tskes away from it a littke (oh for heaven’s sake).
No I’m going to type with my Bluetooth keyboard. ah. there we go. Much better. the onscreen keyboard just takes too much for me to get used to right off the bat. But nothing is lost in using the smart keyboard, I’m happy to report. There is still that beautiful feedback.
Why is it so much more enjoyable to type this way? I’d love to really understand the psychology behind using a. “manual” typewriter. I must say, the intro to this app spells in out quite nicely in lovely prose that inspires one to write, but beyond just this romantic view of writing, I’m not clear on the distinction.
I do know there is this flow that happens when you a re engaged with the sounds and feel and instant gratification of seeing the page move side to side then down each row. It’s sort of like mowing the lawn. Definitely a mesmerizing and fulfilling quality about it.
I’m sitting here on my bed with my IPad typing away at 1am like who needs sleep – I’ve blog posts to write! Huzzah! and all that.
I look back over what I initially wrote up there, and it looks like one of those Facebook tests to see whether you can read the paragraph that mixes up all the letters in a word except the first and last. You’re REALLY smart if you can. Facebook says so.
You may ask yourself, why use this app at all when there are more fluid and feature-rich text editors and well, why not just use your browser for blogging, etc. You’ll definitely run into difficulty trying to export your content to a format you can then IMPORT into your blog. I had to export this document into a pdf, then convert the pdf to a .pages file [using another app] then copy and paste into my browser text editor.
That’s way too many steps and much too cumbersome for a blog post. You’ll find this app better suited to journaling and writing manuscripts for print and PDFs.
In fact, when I talked to people about this app, they looked at me a little perplexed and indeed did ask, “why?” My response is simple, the experience. Maybe it’s the artist in me that loves to “feel” what I’m doing, to compare my own moments to those of others not only in the present but in past generations.
The human experience is not something to escape but embrace. There are times to homogenize, and simplify, and there are times to dive head long into something that will ignite imagination, just because. I feel inspired to write using this app. That’s reason enough for me to love it.
I’m sure I answered NO questions you had about this app. I hope you enjoyed reading this “review” anyway. Give the app a try, Hanx Writer. This isn’t an affiliate review, and it’s free in the App Store. Let me know what you think in the comments below. I look forward to reading your thoughts.
Note: I purposefully did not correct my typing mistakes in this post so you could see the learning curve involved in typing it out.