Ed Bott's Microsoft Challenge--5/18/2000

MED
http://www.utopia-planitia.de/indexus.html

unlimited multiple open files
multiple views of the same file
powerfull search & replace options
undo/redo
column block select
matching brackets
syntax highlighting
macros
and lots more

Try Win32Pad: http://gena01.lk.net/prog/win32pad.shtml

Features:
-Filesize is not limited to 64k
-Recent Files feature
-Revert feature
-Able to read UNIX style text files
-Find/Replace
-Full Intellimouse support
-Shows current location,# of lines, file offset, file size
-Goto Line #
-Shows Insert/Overwrite
-Can change Font Color, Size, Characterset, etc.
-Able to Hide/Show Toolbar and Statusbar
-Able to open files by dropping them from Windows Explorer
-Able to minimize Win32Pad to the System Tray
-Can handle quoted command line parameters
-Can automatically use the actual filename instead of the 8.3 combination
-Can Insert Time/Date
-Can change Background Color.

editpad 3.5.1
It can be found at
http://www. jgsoft.com

* EditPad can open as many files at a time as you want.
* You change between the open files by clicking on their tabs.
No hassle with heaps of overlapping windows.
* If you run EditPad again when there is already an instance running,
the file(s) you wish to edit will be opened by the existing EditPad
window.
This means there will be at most one EditPad window open,
which will save you from a lot of task switching.
* If you do need more instances, simply pick View|New editor
from the menu.
* If you wish, the EditPad window stays on top of all other windows
* Block functions:
Save parts of your text to disk
Insert a file in thecurrent text
* Specify many print settings: font, margins, headers/footers,
line spacing, etc.
* Reopen menu that lists the last 16 files opened.
* Configure the open and save dialog file filters.
* ANSI <=> OEM (DOS ASCII) conversion.
* MAPI suppor

Try EDITPAD from www.jgsoft.com. It does everything I need. Best features:

Easy config - Options to install itself as default for TXT, in SendTo, in SYSTRAY, in StartMenu, etc - easy to change in |Options|Configure|.

Open multiple docs in 1 session

Displays ROW/COLUMN - great when you're trying to prepare a text table for programatic use

Like Notepad, tiny, fast, no extra features. Use a Word Processor if you need more.
------------
Tom Merritt
EdgeTech, Inc.
tmerritt@edgetech-msc.com

NoteTab Light
http://www.notetab.com

File size unlimited
Multiple files with tab access
Seamless Notepad replacement
Extensive clip and macro capabilities
Integration with HTML
Extreme configurability
Free

Ed, I use and recommend a program by IDM Products called "UltraEdit".

checkout http://www.ultraedit.com/products/features.html for a list of its features because there are too many to mention

and http://www.ultraedit.com/downloads/index.htmlfor the UltraEdit download

Give it a go! Because i know i certainly couldnt live without it.

Ben

http://www.textpad.com

I've found TextPad to be an excellent replacement for notepad. Not only does it support text files and HTML but also JAVA.
Multiple files open at one time
Supports several languages, including double bit characters
Autoformatting and color coding when programming in JAVA and HTML

SHAREWARE

EditPad (v. 3.5.1)
http://www. jgsoft.com

I was just introduced to this recently by a co-worker. Killer features:

- open multiple files at once (provides tabs at the top to switch between files)
- Move between files using the View menu or keyboard shortcuts
- right-click on the open folder to get a list of files recently accessed
- clears obsolete or all recently accessed files
- can set preferences for file saving and printing
- only one instance runs at a time unless you specifically choose to open more then one (View > New Editor)
- Quick conversion between uppercase to lowercase to title case
- ability to e-mail the file from within EditPad
- Close one or all files
- Easily move or rename the file

Ed,

I vote for a little app called Metapad. For a notepad replacement, I do not want a large program that has "tons" of features. I want a program that will load instantly. Metapad has several cool features that are listed below, but there are 2that I really like:
1. You can close metapad instantly by hitting the ESC key.
2. You can set it up to pass the currently loaded file to your "big gun" text editor if you need to do some fancy editing. This can be tied to a keystroke. In my case, I use CTRL-L which pulls up TextPad (my "serious" editor) with the file I had open in Metapad and also closes Metapad.

Here are the other Metapad features:
Persistent window placement
Dirty file notification (see screenshot)
Intelligent Find and Replace
External viewer support (e.g. web browser)
Usable accelerator keys (Ctrl+S, Ctrl+N, etc.)
Dual customizable font support
Optional Quick Exit (Esc key)
Configurable tab stop setting
Auto-indent mode
Go to Line/Column
Seamless UNIX text file sup

TextPad
http://www.textpad.com

Features include:
* Macros
* Multiple favors of ASCII supported(e.g., PC & UNIX)
* Excellent search tool (works like grep)
* Multiple files open simultaineously
* Block select and editing
* Bracket matching
* Bookmarking
* Clip libraries for HTML characters & tags; ANSI characters; control characters; DOS characters
* Multiple view settings (line numbers, white space, etc.)
* Multiple document classes (e.g., C/C++; HTML; Java; Text

Without a doubt the replacement should be
textpad, downloadable from http://www.textpad.com. It includes such powerful features as advanced searches, macro capability, syntax highlighting for html, etc, the ability to save files in PC, Mac, and Unix formats, the ability to select "columns" as opposed to traditional selecting methods, a spellchecker, and many, many other powerful features not found in most other notepad replacements, very inexpensively. I have used it for years and it as never disappointed me.

Created by David Mead, the UltraEdit product is very best editor available. The 32-bit version has some great features, such as:
* Syntax highlighting
* Project/Workspace support
* Column/block mode editing
* Hexadecimal Editor
*Comprehensive macro support
* Disk based text editing
* Insert/fill columns
* Insert line numbers
* Sum columns/selection
* FTP client built in to give access to
FTP servers with multiple account
settings and auto logon & save
* Send Mail
* Search/display/formatting features
* User configurable features
* Other features too numerous to list

The site is at www.ultraedit.com

The color coding and column edit alone make this product indispensible, andthe other features are icing on the cake. I've used this product for years in its various incarnations, and have not had the first problem with it. It just keeps getting better and better with each new release.

Two thumbs up for UltraEdit32.

http://www.softwarecenter.net/texturizer/

Three pages (printed) of features with the simplicity of Notepad's interface. Enough said.

Personal File Editor PFE 1.01 by Alan Phillips.
http://www/lanc.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe

I think Mansfield Software's KEDIT is fantastic! It is quite similar to the VM/CMS product called XEDIT, for any of you mainframe fans, but is enhanced with many functions not possible on big iron. It includes things like sort, search for arbitrary character strings, conditional search and replace, block moves/copies, and automatic text colorizing.

One of its most powerful features is the ability to write macros. These mini-programs enable it to automate virtually any task. I have usedthat extensively, and it has saved me hours of time, and enabled some things to happen that couldn't be done otherwise. It has baled me out on more than one occasion.

You can link to them at www.kedit.com. Itis my "don't leave home without it" software.

metapad. Gotta be. Small, slick, fast, free. Barely 32K in size.

http://members.tripod.com/~aadavids/

From the Website:

"metapad is a small, fast (and completely free) text editor for Windows 9x and Windows NT with similar features to Microsoft Notepad but with many extra (and rather useful) features. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepad's features and much much more."

The list that follows give you an idea of the features it has beyond Notepad's paltry offerings. metapad also follows more closely the Win applications GUI model. Check out the readme file at the metapad site for a rundown of all of its features.

Persistent window placement
Dirty file notification
IntelligentFind and Replace
External viewer support (e.g. web browser)
Usable accelerator keys (Ctrl+S, Ctrl+N, etc.)
Dual customizable font support
Optional Quick Exit (Esc key)
Configurable tab stop setting
Auto-indent mode
Go to Line/Column
Seamless UNIX text fi

I replaced Notepad with NoteTab Lite from http://www.notetab.com. Why? #1 it's free. It has unlimited capacity, up to your available memory. It has macros included to figure almost anything. Who needs Excel? :-) There is a user community and additional libraries of macros for almost everything else. I answer tech support questions by email and it comes in handy to have all the FAQs available with one click or user defined keystroke. I made my own libraries of Windows95, Windows 98 and Windows NT FAQs. Its a great place to store all those little one line tips you come across so often. You can open multiple files, see your file storage folders in the QuickList instead of opening files via the File | Open dialogue. This program can insert HTML, strip HTML, insert formatted text as HTML using the

Ed,
I would suggest using Notetab Light vice Notepad. Notetab's extremely impressive features include the ability to edit extremely large files and open as many files as your memory will allow. You can open links in your default browser, calculate mathematical expressions, program it to add specialized features, create your own toolbars to run your own macros, create simple outline documents, convert text files to web pages, strip tags from HTML documents, send documents as e-mail, capture text copied to the Clipboard, view detailed text statistics, etc.
A unique feature is the Editor Clipbook. This is a flexible tool for handling text clips, which can be anything from a single character to a large chunk of text.
Upon installation Notetab will ask you if you want to replace Notepad, as the default editor, and automatically perform this task. Numerous third party add-ons are available to increase the functionality of this gem. The link to the website is www.notepad.com.

THIS IS THE EDITOR INCLUDED WITH QDOSW95. MY FAVORED FILE AND EDIT MANAGER OF ALL TIME
UltraEdit / UltraEdit-32 - v4.40

The editor for all your editing needs.

UltraEdit is an excellent replacement for NOTEPAD and a lot more,
with support forunlimited file sizes, 100,000 word spelling checker,
full HEX editing capabilities, configurable syntax highlighting
for programmers, column editing. UltraEdit has all the features
you will need. UltraEdit handles multiple files at once, even
if they are multi-megabyte files. It is Disk based and only requires
a small amount of memory, even for very large files. UltraEdit-32 is
designed for Windows NT and Windows 95, and UltraEdit is designed for
for Windows 3.1. One fee allows use of both products.

Standard Features:
- Disk based text editing
- No limit on file size, minimum RAM used even for multi-megabyte files
- Multiple files open and displayed at the same time
- Column mode editing!!!, Insert columns/ delete/ cut/ add sequential

Ed,

Like many others, I like EditPad. It is quick, simple, effective and virtually FREE.

You can get it at: http://www.jgsoft.com/
as well as numerous other shareware sites.

Features include:

-EditPad can open as many files at a time as you want.
-You change between the open files by clicking on their tabs. No hassle with heaps of overlapping windows.
-EditPad adds new files to the current instance unless you specifically tell it to open a new instance.
-Block functions: saveparts of your text to disk and insert a file in the current text
-Specify many print settings: font, margins, headers/footers, etc.
-Option for keeping the EditPad window on top of all other windows.
-When you close an unsaved file, EditPad will either warn you, automatically save the file or do nothing.
-Reopen menu that lists the last 16 files opened.
-EditPad puts an icon in the system tray that remains visible, even if EditPad is closed. This way you have easy and fast access to EditPad, without the n

eNotepad from Edisys software
http://www.edisys.com

Tabbed interface for multiple file opens.
Explorer-like directory navigation.
Color-coded text when editing HTML, CGI, and ASP files, just like a regular development GDI.

There's much more, but these are the features that I like the most.

don@vistainfo.com

For a lighweight tool I recommend Programmer's File Editor (PFE). It's free and very functional giving advanced features like macro recording (and editing) and automatic indentation; an excellent productivity tool.
For more advanced functionality I recommend Emacs or even Micro Emacs (Umacs) from GNU. Again this editor is free, but it is highly extensible using LISP. There have probably been macros written for syntax checking HTML and linking to a browser to render the page.

This may not meet your criteria, but I swear by it... For 10 years now I've stuck to the same text editor, BRIEF by UnderWare, Inc. True it was released May 1989, but it has been invaluable to me. Its name come from "Basic Reconfigurable Interactive Edit Facility", and it is just that. It is built out of basic editing functions, which are then controlled by scripts to provide ADVANCED functions. You can change the key asignments to anything you like, change the default functions, write your own functions, or record a macro and playback with a single keystroke. I have many hands-off scripts which perform multiple transforms and exit without touching a key. It works with multiple files simultaneously, does linked windows (scroll 2 buffers together), it also has file type specific compiler calls and will position the cursor to locations of errors.
Unfortunately I can't find any updated versions of this wonderful DOS editor, but I still use it in Win 95 and just reconfigure it or write new functions w