Notepad and WordPad Replacements Are you looking for more capabilities than the default Notepad in Windows? Would you rather use a graphical text editor in Linux, rather than the built-in vi? There are many options for useful text editors out there. Some employ a tabbed interface, such as Jarte (which is based on the WordPad word processing engine and integrates easily with ), (which also has the automatic backup), and (which can also calculate the value of mathematical expressions entered in the program).
On my Mac, I can provide an input, and get an MP3 TTS file with no user intervention in-between, for my #1 scenario, below. I perform this only with Open Source tools, too, except for the 'say' command. I've long taken advantage of Mac's Text-to-Speech integration. Sublime Text is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.
Jarte, EditPad Lite, and Notetab Light are all only available for Windows. Jarte is also available as a portable program. Typically, and it’s a keyboard intensive program with no graphical user interface (GUI).
A good text editor for Windows that has hotkeys available for its 312 text-processing functions, innovative features, and timesaving tools is, which is also available as a portable program. Is also available for both Windows and Linux, and is customizable. It also includes a file compare utility and a file manager. You can also add to Emacs, which is a personal information management and outlining tool. If you prefer text editors with GUIs, and are both good options and are available. Vim is essentially the graphical version of Vi. For help editing text files in Vi or Vim, see our.
Is a Notepad replacement for Windows that allows you to edit many text files quickly from within Windows Explorer and has enhanced functionality for dealing with DIZ and NFO files. It can also display ASCII art correctly. Another ASCII text formatter for Windows is, which can also convert text to and from HTML and clean up emails (remove all the “” symbols, etc.), and search and replace by words or multiple paragraphs. Programmer’s Text Editors There are many text editors that provide useful functionality for programmers.
Most support syntax highlighting for many programming languages, multiple document editing, and are extendable with plugins. Some also allow editing of remote files through FTP. Not only supports syntax highlighting, but also matching bracket highlighting for most popular programming languages. It also has a hex editor, macro recorder, and a differencing tool. PSPad also easily integrates with the free version of the.
Also supports bracket highlighting and macro recording. It also supports syntax folding and is highly customizable through plugins using the included plugin manager. Both PSPad and Notepad are only available for Windows. The cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) editor, supports syntax highlighting for over 200 programming languages and auto indent, as well as a differencing utility, an FTP browser, and block selecting. It is also extendable using plugins and macros, and there are hundreds of plugins and macros available through the built-in plugin manager feature. For Windows supports syntax highlighting using schemes, both built-in and user-defined, code folding and outlining, a tabbed interface with multi-level split views, and the ability to export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF. If you like the Vi editor in Linux, but prefer a graphical editor that also serves well as a programmer’s text editor, and are good options.
They both provide Vi emulation, as well as support for syntax highlighting in many programming languages and code folding. Editra has a tabbed interface, allows block (un)commenting and (un)indenting, and is extendable using the built-in plugin downloader/installer.
Komodo Edit supports background syntax checking and contains a toolbox with shell command integration, macros, and code snippets. Both Editra and Komodo Edit are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Other options include the following:. – A very small editor for Windows containing a directory tree view window. – A small and fast IDE for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X that supports code folding, code navigation, a build system, and a plugin interface.
– A fast, light-weight text editor like Notepad for Windows with syntax highlighting and runs as a portable program Microsoft Word Replacements There are also free programs that act as replacements for Microsoft Word. They can be used as text editors, but they have more formatting features than simple text editors.
You can add images and tables, change fonts and color, and insert hyperlinks. Runs on Windows and Linux and can read and write OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, and HTML web pages. It has advanced document layout options such as tables, bullets, numbered lists, images, styles, footnotes, and endnotes.
It even has a Mail Merge utility like Microsoft Word. You can extend AbiWord with a variety of plugins, which can be selected when you install AbiWord. A is also available that you can run from a USB flash drive. Is a small rich text editor for Windows with a high performance rate that allows you to easily create impressive documents. Minimalist Text Editors If you get distracted when you write by the plethora of features in text editors and word processors, you might want to try one of the so-called “minimalist” text editors out there. They are “no-frills” editors that either don’t offer any formatting features or many of the other features of modern word processors, and even third-party text editors, or the features are hidden until you want them.
Without all the fancy features staring you in the face, you can concentrate on the task of writing. Below is a list of some of the minimalist text editors we found. – Available for Windows, requires.NET Framework 2.0, and is available as a portable program. – Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
– Available for Windows and as a portable program. – Available for Windows and as a portable program.
– Available for Windows and as a portable program. – Available for Windows and Linux. – Available for Linux. – Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, and as a for Windows You can even download for free and run it under in Windows.
If you want a simple text editor with the ability to count down from a set word count, try for Windows. If you have to write a certain number of words, yEdit2 can make it easier. Secure Text Editors You can also use a text editor as secure place to store private information. There are several text editors that either include encryption as a feature or are specially designed for securely storing text., mentioned in the Programmer’s Text Editors section above, allows you to add encryption functionality using the plugin, which is available through the. SecurePad will encrypt selected text in the current document or the whole document.
Is a small, simple method for securely storing chunks of information in files. For example, if you purchase a download-only program, you can use LockNote to store the product key or serial number that goes with that program in the same folder, so you always know where to find it.
– Available for Windows and as a portable program. CryptoTE– Available for Windows and Linux, and as a portable program for Windows. – Available for Windows as a portable program. – Available for Windows. – Available for Windows and as a portable program LaTeX Editors Do you write a lot of scientific papers, documents, or books?
If so, there are several text editors that allow you to easily use TeX/LaTeX (document markup language and document preparation system) through a graphical interface to create mathematical content and structured documents like academic articles, theses, and books. – Available for Windows and as a portable program. – Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. – Available for Windows. – Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X and as a portable program on Windows and Mac OS X. – Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X Novel Writing Editor There’s even an editor that’s meant for writing novels, called, available for Windows. It breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you to keep track of your work.
However, yWriter5 does not suggest plot ideas, character names, or write any part of your novel for you. The creative task of writing is still up to you, yWriter5 just makes it easier. One more text editor to mention is, which is an easy-to-use text editor you run directly on the command line. Nano is installed by default in Ubuntu and many other Linux distros, and is easier to learn than Vi or emacs.
In this weeks edition of Damshe and I will be talking about using the built in text editors on both the Windows and Mac platforms. It is true that there are other more feature rich options for word processing but there are also two very capable free solutions on both Windows and Macs. So get your writing hats on and lets talk some text editing. WordPad On Windows Whether you are writing a post for your blog or taking notes at a meeting, we all have a need to work on a document at our computer.
One often overlooked yet powerful document editor for Windows is. Yes, I can here you all now “what about Microsoft Word?” Take my word for it, we will cover MS Word in the future. I want to introduce you to WordPad for a specific reason though. It is free and comes already installed on your Windows machine. WordPad also has some very nice features for the casual writer, who doesn’t need to track changes and perform some of the more advanced functions that come with MS Word. WordPad can be found in the Start menu under All Programs, Accessories, WordPad; or just do as I do and type Word in the Search Field, select WordPad and press Enter. As expected, upon opening WordPad, you are presented with a blank document where you can begin typing.
Pressing the Alt Key opens a ribbon, much like what you would see in many other Windows applications. The primary sections in this ribbon are: The Home Tab, a View Tab, Help and an Application Menu. We will start with the Home Tab. Here you have such functions as Cut, Copy, Select All, and a few more editing options.
You also have some Insert options like Date, Time and so on. To navigate to the different functions in this tab, press the Down Arrow to enter the tab then use the Left or Right Arrows to move through the options. You will also find Formatting options which contain options for setting the Font size and style, line spacing and justification, and a host of other options. Next is the View Tab which allows for controlling Page Zoom, Word Wrap options and whether or not to display the toolbar on screen. The Help button is a shortcut to the Windows Help documentation. Then there is the Application menu. This is a menu, not a ribbon tab, so you must press Space to open it and reveal the options there.
These options include, Open New Document, Open Existing Document, Save, Save As, and options for printing. I will leave the typing up to you, but you will want to save your work. Pressing Control+S will open the Save dialogue where you can name your document, select where to save it and select the file type.
The default file type for WordPad is “Rich Text Format” or imply RTF. You also have options for Plain Text,.TXT, MS DOS text, and Unicode text.
If you have applied any formatting, like page justification, a different font style, or bold and highlighting, you may want to stick with the RTF format. RTF usually maintains all formatting applied during editing. Plain text however, may lose some of this formatting. WordPad prompts you with a helpful dialogue if you choose plain text, alerting you to this fact. I usually go with the plain text option which allows for more cross-platform compatibility. Although, RTF documents can usually be opened in most applications that are considered document editors on Windows and the Mac.
There are even a few document editors on iOS that can handle RTF documents. Now that you know about this hidden gem for writing documents on Windows, Scott will tell you about the option found on the Mac. Text Edit On Mac is the built in text editor on the Mac. It is a very capable word processing application and for most people it will be the only word processor that you will need.
With Text Edit you can open documents in Rich Text Format(RTF), Plain Text formatted documents and even the ever popular Microsoft Word format. You read that right. You can indeed open and read Word documents, but you cannot edit the document in the Word format.
In order to create and edit Word documents on the Mac you must purchase either MS Office for Mac which is not accessible to the blind user, or Apple’s Pages which is accessible. There are other text editing applications on the Mac platform that can read and write in the Word format but those are beyond the scope of this article. To work on a document in Text Edit you first need to open the program. You can do this by either locating the Text Edit icon in your Dock and then press VO+Spacebar, or you can go into your Applications Folder and locate the program and open it from there. When you open Text Edit depending on your settings Text Edit may open with the last document that you were working with opened. You can change this behavior by going to System Preferences and choosing iCloud and unchecking Documents and Data. When you do this Text Edit will now open with a blank document.
It is important to note that if you do this that you will no longer get document synching via iCloud, so if you like to have your documents appear on both your Mac and your iOS device then you will need to leave this setting enabled. Once you have Text Edit opened you can begin typing out your document. As you type if you misspell a word your Mac will attempt to auto correct. You can identify an error because you will hear a bubble sound when your Mac offers some suggestions. To use one of the corrections just press the down arrow and you will hear VO read the first suggestion.
VO will also spell out this suggestion. Once you hear the word that you wish to use press the Enter key to accept it. There are several keyboard commands available in Text Edit and the best way to discover these is to review all of your menus in the program. To do this just press VO+M. This will take you to the Menu Bar. This is a horizontal menu that goes across the top of your screen.
These are the menu items in Text Edit. Apple Menu: This is always the first menu item on the Mac. Text Edit: These are application specific settings such as Preferences and the About Text Edit information.
File Menu: These are options such as New, Open, Save, Duplicate Document along with some others. Edit Menu: These are options such as Undo, Paste, Copy, Cut and the like. Format Menu: In this option you have options like Text,Font, make Rich Text if the document that you are viewing is a different format and a few others.
View Menu: There are only 3 options in this one. They are Actual Size, Zoom In, and Zoom Out. The last two items are Window, and Help. In the Windows item you have options like Minimize and Zoom, and in the Help Menu you have the Text edit Help documentation.
After you have finished writing your document you need to save it. To do this you will press Command+S. You will notice that this is almost the same keystroke as in Windows. On a Windows machine you press Control+S to save.
This similarity will continue with other word processing commands on the Mac. To Copy on the Mac you press Command+c and on Windows you press Control+C. To Cut the text on a Mac you press Command+X, and on Windows you press Control+X. On the Mac to Paste you press Command+V, and on Windows you press Control+V, and final on the Mac to Select All you press Command+A, and on Windows you press Control+A As you can see there are a lot of similarities between the two platforms in this regard. The only real difference is that in the Mac instead of using the Control key for these commands you use the Command key. I truely hope that this introduction to text editing on the Windows and Mac platforms has been enlightening for you. If you like reading these weekly posts that Damashe and I are doing then you may also enjoy reading our Thursday post that our team writes up each week.
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