How ZenFocus works
A writing desk that stays on your machine
No account, no upload, nothing to install.
ZenFocus is one page with one job: put a clean sheet of paper in
front of you and keep the rest of the browser out of the way.
Everything on this page happens inside this tab — there is no
account to create, no server that receives your words, and no
analytics watching what you type. The trade is worth knowing up
front: drafts belong to this browser on this device, not to an
account you can sign into from anywhere.
Where drafts are stored
Every draft is a record in this browser's local storage,
under the key bnw_zenfocus_docs_v3. The sidebar
list, each title and each word goal are saved the same
way. Nothing is uploaded: no request leaves the page
while you write.
Because that storage belongs to the browser, the drafts
are tied to this browser and this address. A private
window starts empty and forgets on close, and clearing
site data or browsing history takes the drafts with it —
so export anything you would hate to lose.
Autosave, and what “Saved” means
A moment after you stop typing the draft is written to
storage. The chip beside the counts shows that last
write and its time, and shows Saving… while a
write is still pending.
Ctrl/Cmd+S forces a save at once, and
if you close the tab with a write pending the browser
asks first.
Word goal, counts and read time
Words, characters and read time are counted as you type.
Read time assumes 200 words per minute — a comfortable
pace for most readers, though you can measure your own
with ReadPace, which turns a
one-minute test into a personal figure you can plan
around.
The word goal belongs to the open draft: set it in the
sidebar and the bar under the counts fills as you
approach it. Added today counts only what this
draft gained since you opened it today, so deleting
text brings it back down instead of flattering you.
Export, print and import
Export writes the draft to a file named after its title,
as plain text (.txt) or as Markdown (.md) when you have
been typing Markdown — ZenFocus never invents markup you
did not type. Print / Save as PDF uses a print
stylesheet that drops the toolbars, the sidebar and this
guide, so only the writing reaches paper.
Import reads a .txt or .md file you already have and
opens it as a new draft in this tab. The original file is
left exactly as it was on disk.
Find, replace and focus mode
Ctrl/Cmd+F opens find and replace.
Enter jumps to the next match,
Shift+Enter
to the previous one, and All replaces every match
in the open draft. Focus hides the sidebar, header and
footer for one uninterrupted page;
Esc brings the chrome back.
One desk, a few quiet neighbours
ZenFocus is the writing half of a small set. Time your
sessions with
TimeBox,
inspect structured notes with
JSONView,
set a cover palette with
Palette, or
do quick arithmetic in
QuickCalc.
Bravest New World is the
shelf they live on: browser tools that need no account
and no tracking.
