Fill-up the Blank

[074] ... [Technology]

Another day, another topic. It's easier said than done to find a thing to write about. The mind goes blank and not very encouraging to stare at the blank screen, though the keyboard with twenty six alphabets offers countless possibilities.

But I realized even blankness has something to offer when just fiddling around the browser bookmarks without a purpose or looking out for something in particular. One such turned out to be Blank page that lay hidden, and I don't recall when it got marked as a favorite. It's just a page-deep online service that offers an input field to type. It has a built-in spell checker, offers dark mode and can switch over to full screen if you need to concentrate, and can show the word count as you type.

Strangely there is no About section to explain itself. I had to search for a better description: A simple text editor for creative writing. All your content is private and nothing is ever stored on a server. Be sure to save your text somewhere else when you're done.

I made it a point to try out by writing this piece on it. Before you start typing there seems to be a way to configure time limit and word goal if setting a target for yourself. There's a toggle button to preview as a webpage, and I was surprised it supports Markdown codes, and obviously the HTML tags.

May be some would wonder if not question on the need or purpose of such that only offers an input field without saving when each device comes with basic text editors. I guess some writers may find it useful for the typewriter like feel without the toolbar or menus coming between. You can always save in other ways, like use the Share or Send to while in preview mode on supporting browsers or print to PDF besides copy & paste. For something that's Ad-free, a clean, non-intrusive interface with top controls that only appear on mouse-over, it's a pretty good experience for a quick draft.

Interestingly, your content won't disappear even if refreshing the page, or opening the site in a new tab, obviously having got saved to and read from the browser cache temporarily. From that angle, it may be wise to clear the text or still better replace with something else before closing the browser if accessing from a public computer. This might however be useful if on your own device to get back the content when the cache is not yet cleared.

Correction: There's a Blank page icon on the top-left which I was afraid to click thinking it would replace the typed content to start fresh, But when tried on completing this, it actually toggles to display what the service is About as mentioned above.