I came across a neat writing app recently, called JotterPad. I've installed it on my phone, so that I can write on the move as well as read on the move.

Using Jotterpad I've been able to write articles while on the train and waiting in the doctor's surgery. It's true that I could simply text articles using the Notes app that came with my phone, but Jotterpad has a couple of features I really appreciate as a writer.

The most important of these is the word count, as shown here:

The word count function in Jotterpad is very useful.

You can also obtain more statistics:

The reading time estimate is quite useful I think.

You can also change the appearance of the document. This doesn't affect the formatting itself, just how it looks on the screen. It's not essential, but it's definitely a nice-to-have:

More importantly, you can keep drafts on your phone, or sync them with cloud applications like Dropbox.

You can save the text in various formats, but some of these are available only in the premium version. I have tended to save mine as text files or in rich text format:

Finally, you can share the document in various ways. I've mainly just emailed it to myself, but I could have opted to post it on Linkedin or even directly to my blog:

All in all, one of the better apps I've tried out. I may buy the premium version one of these days, but certainly for now I think the free version has enough functionality for my needs. The most important thing is that, whereas I used to think that I could only use time on the move for reading, Jotterpad has made it much easier for me to write on the move as well.

Now I've no excuse for not writing that 200 page blockbuster!

Information: I think Jotterpad is available only for Android. Just look in Google Play.