FocusWriter 1.9 Simple Word Processor Adds Heading Shortcuts

FocusWriter 1.9 has been released, bringing a handful of workflow enhancements and maintenance updates to the popular distraction-free writing app.

For those unfamiliar, FocusWriter is an open-source writing tool designed to provide a clean, immersive drafting environment. Instead of cluttering the screen with toolbars and panels, the interface stays hidden by default, allowing your document to take center stage.

What’s New in 1.9?

The most notable addition is keyboard shortcuts for headings, making it faster to structure documents without navigating menus. Headings now also automatically clear when you press Enter, improving the editing flow when working with formatted sections.

Under-the-Hood Improvements

Beyond visible changes, FocusWriter 1.9 includes several internal updates:

• Migration to KDSingleApplication, a Qt-based library that ensures only one instance of the app runs at a time, replacing the previous single-instance implementation
• Codebase cleanup, including removal of shadowed variable names
• Updated translation link
• Bug fix restoring sound effects for smart quotes, which were previously not playing correctly

FocusWriter remains a cross-platform application, with Linux packages available for major distributions such as Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu.

It’s worth noting that FocusWriter is not intended to replace a full office suite or desktop publishing tool. Its focus remains simple and clear: distraction-free writing, basic formatting with headings, word count tracking, and daily writing goals.

For full technical details, refer to the official changelog.