I'm a real fan of "distraction-free writing," having purchased, used, and loved Hog Bay Software's . So far I find Pages' new full screen mode to be a welcome addition to the program.

In full screen mode, Pages hides everything but what's essential. All inspectors disappear as do the formatting and menu bars at the top of the screen. All you see is your document set on a black background. Just below the bottom of your page are a live word count on the left and your current page number on the right in an "x of x" format.

If you want to use the formatting bar to adjust your font selection, size, alignment, spacing, and so forth, moving your mouse to the top of the screen reveals the formatting bar from which you can make those changes. If you need more formatting options, both the line spacing and list buttons have a Show More... menu item that, when selected, opens a single inspector palette; from there, you can make any changes you want.

In the spirit of not being entirely distraction-free, the iTunes' mini-player floats nicely in the black area of the screen and allows you to adjust volume, and skip tracks without kicking you out of full-screen mode.

Merging matters