Distraction free word processing software (like WriteRoom, OmmWriter, etc.) seems to have increased in popularity lately. LibreOffice could benefit from this renewed interest in distraction-free word processors by providing the kind of functionalities that these softwares offer. LibreOffice already does that, to a certain extent, with its full screen mode. However, several enhancements could be done to this functionality so that LibreOffice would be more appealing to the distraction-free software lovers. May be a "distraction free view" could be added, which could be like the fullscreen view, but with some additional features like an always visible word count and writing goal, background/font color themes that could be easily changed, etc.
Totally second this one. Distraction-free writing, that is, a product that occupied in true full-screen the whole visible area and leaves nothing to show except the actual virtual paper -- is very important for some kinds of writing, including creative writing. And especially for people that are easily distracted by 'what's that app doing in the background, is the download finished or not'. A nice model is the Microsoft Word distraction-free mode, which features a virtual wood bench on which is situated the virtual paper. On MacosX the menu hides over the top part of the screen. If I could get Microsoft Word to get a dark background for the paper, I would use it, as the distraction-free mode is definitely appealing. But the white paper is killing me, blows my eyes off. And LibreOffice does have some advantages, others than its being free and open source. On the other side, using a basic, styleless word processor that only has distraction-free mode as main feature is not so great either. So if LibreOffice had a decent distraction-free mode, it would be awesome. The current full-screen mode is not pretty and not that functional. There is a toolbar hanging around, I don't know where to put it. On Macosx, some shortcuts don't work anymore when in fullscreen, like search, ctrl-3 for applying style 'Heading 3'.
Just posted a comparison of distraction-free modes: http://obiecte.blogspot.fr/2012/11/a-comparison-of-distraction-free.html
LibO never had such a feature. changed version to 3.3.0. set status to NEW.
I also want to add my vote to this. Libreoffice would improve greatly if it had such feature. I use alternative distraction-free editors, but, in the end, I save the files in odt in order to work the final edition on libreoffice. Having such feature would cut the middleman.
