Text editor windows Archives

This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Built in file system browser/tab

It would be good to add this feature to the comparison tables. Codewrite has it, and I've just found jedit does, but strangely enough this doesn't seem to be that common for such a simple thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.106.236.86 (talk) 15:57, August 25, 2007 (UTC)

Related to this, I would also like to see "tags" searching feature comparison, that is, editors that can easily jump to the definition or use of any symbol, based on the programming language support provided by the editor. --A D Monroe III (talk) 16:17, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Nano on Cygwin

Currently, Nano is listed as an editor that doesn't run on Windows. However, Cygwin packages for the old version do exist at http://mirror.calvin.edu/cygwin/release/nano/. Since JOE is already marked as an editor that runs on Windows, could anyone please test these packages and update the page if they actually work? Or, is the lack of the Cygwin packge for the latest stable version of Nano a sufficient reason to say "it doesn't run on Windows"? -- Alexander Patrakov 07:03, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

There's a natively compiled version of nano for windows, for stable 1.2 and probably coming soon for stable 2.0.0 :) -- Dustin Howett 12:18, 08 November 2006 (EDT)

IE's modifications

I hate to say it, but I'm tempted to revert IE's modifications of the tables, mostly because the modifications haven't been carried through to be consistent on all the tables, but also because I think they looked better before the modifications. -- Heptite(T)(C)(@) 23:29, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

It would help to know which of IE's modifications you're talking about, and which version it is that you're claiming looked better. And if we're going to revert anything, we should be careful not to revert any corrections/updates to the information itself. (IE ended up reverting at least one correction - maybe several - so it might take a bit of work.) -- Smjg 15:32, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry... I mean the edits starting at 12:03, 2 October 2006 and ending with 06:12, 5 October 2006 (a couple of edits by others are mixed in), plus another at 13:30, 13 October 2006. You're correct that it would have to be handled carefully. The question is whether to carry through some or all of IE's changes to the rest of the tables, or go back to the way they were. -- Heptite(T)(C)(@) 22:22, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

I've finished (and fixed) what IE started. Hopefully I didn't introduce any problems. -- Heptite(T)(C)(@) 07:42, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Merge tables

This article is a wonderful resource, but surely some of these tables could be combined somehow, so readers didn't have to scroll up and down constantly to make comparisons. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.193.63.155 (talk • contribs) 06:44, 1 December 2006 (UTC).

I don't understand you. If all tables were merged in only one, it would be really confusing to look at them. (unless, of course, the first column and the first row would be always visible) --CrazyTerabyte 01:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I merged the information in one CSV-file (separated with semikolon) like this - you can take this into MS-Excel and filter there out your preferred editor :

Acme;Rob Pike;1993;Plan 9 and Inferno;;Free;LPL, (OSI approved);Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;No;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;?;?;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;;;No;Yes;No
AcroEdit;SungDong Kim;1999;0.9.18.82;Delphi;Free;Freeware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;5;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
AkelPad;Shengalts A.A.;2003;04.01.2004;C++;Free;Freeware;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Alphatk;Vince Darley;1999;08.03.2003;;$40;Proprietary, with BSD components;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [57];No;?;?;;;;;;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
AptEdit;Brother Technology;2003;04.08.2001;C++;$44.95;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Aquamacs;David Reitter;2005;01. Jun;C and Elisp;Free;GPL;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [75];Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
BBEdit;Rich Siegel;1992-04;9.0;;$125, $49 educational;Proprietary;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [58];No;No [59];Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Bluefish;Bluefish Development Team;1999;1.0.7;;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [1];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;26;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;Yes[38];Yes;Yes;Yes[39];No;Yes[40];No;Yes;?;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;?;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Caditor;Caglow;2008;02. Mrz;C#;Free;AFL;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;3;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;;;;;;;;;;;;Yes;No;No;No;;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Carbon Emacs;;;;;;;;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Coda;Panic, Inc.;2007;01.06.2001;;$99;;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;?;Some [6];?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;FTP, SFTP, FTP+SSL;?;?;Yes;;;;;;;;;;;
ConTEXT;ConTEXT Project Ltd;1999;0.98.5;Borland Delphi;Free;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;22;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Partial[16];Partial [17];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No [60];No;?;?;?;?;?;No;?;No;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Crimson Editor;Ingyu Kang;?;03. Jul;;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Partial;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Crystal C/C++;SGV Sarc, Inc;1999;4.00;C, embedded C, C++;$249 onwards;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
CRiSP Editor;Foxtrot Systems Ltd, Paul Fox;1990;09.04.2003;;$99;Proprietary;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Diakonos;Pistos;2004;0.8.6;;Free;MIT;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;?;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;?;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;No;No;;;?;Yes;?
e;Alexander Stigsen;2005;1.0.30;;$34.95;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Plugin[18];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No[61];Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
ed;Ken Thompson;1970;unchanged from original;;Free;/;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;;;No;Yes;No
EditPlus;Sangil Kim;1998;03. Okt;;$35;Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes[41];Yes[42];Yes;Yes;Yes[43];Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Editeur;Jean-Pierre Menicucci;1992;05.03.2004;;$28;Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;?;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;Yes;No;No;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
EmEditor Professional;Emurasoft, Inc.;1997;08. Feb;;$39.99 (1-user);Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Outdated (6);Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;7;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin[19];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin [44];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
epsilon;Lugaru Software;1984;13. Jun;C;$250.00;proprietary;No;Yes;Yes[2];Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
gedit;GNU Project;2000;2.22.3;C;Free;GPL;Yes;No;Yes [3];Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;82;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes [21];No;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;?;Plugin;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;Yes[45];Yes;Yes;Yes [62];No;?;No;Yes[69];?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Geany;Enrico Tröger;2005;0.15;;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;21;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Plugin[20];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
GNU Emacs;Richard Stallman;1984;22. Mrz;C and Elisp;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin [9] [10];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Gobby;0x539 dev group;2005;0.4.7;C++;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?; ?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;?;?;?
JED;John E. Davis;1992;0.99-18;C;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;?;?;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
jEdit;Slava Pestov;1998 (?);04. Feb;Java;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Plugin[22];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;No;?;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;Plugin[76];Yes [77];No;Plugin.;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
JOE;Joseph Allen;1988;03. Mai;C;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [4];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;4;Yes;Yes;No;No[11];Yes;Plugin[23];Partial[24];No[25];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;?
Kate;KDE Project;2000-12;02.05.2004;;Free;GPL;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;50 fully / 18 mostly [4];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;?;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Komodo Edit;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;No;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
KWrite;KDE Project;2000;04. Mai;;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [5];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;?;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
LE;Alexander V. Lukyanov;1997;1.13.8;C++;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [4];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No[26];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No[46];Yes;No;No;No[63];No;Yes;Yes;?;No;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;;;Yes;Yes;No
Metapad;Alexander Davidson;1999;Mrz 51;;Free;Freeware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;Partial[27];No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;?
MultiEdit;;;;;;;;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
mined;Thomas Wolff;1992;2000.14;C;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [6];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No [12];No;No;No;Yes;Yes [28];Yes [29];No;No;Yes [47];?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
MS-DOS Editor;Microsoft;1991;2.0.026;;Bundled with MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows;Proprietary;No;;;;;;;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;?;?;Yes;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;?;;;Yes;?;?
Nano;Chris Allegretta;1999;2.0.9;C;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;No;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
NEdit;Mark Edel;1991;05. Mai;;Free;GPL;Yes;Partial [4];Yes [3];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Plugin[30];Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;No;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Notepad;Microsoft;1985;6.0;;Bundled with Microsoft Windows;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;?;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;No;No
Notepad++;Donho Don Ho;25.11.2003;05.01.2004;C++;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;43;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Plugin[31];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin;Plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes [48];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;with plugin;with plugin;with plugin;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes
Notepad2;Florian Balmer;2004-04;2.0.18;C++;Free;BSD license;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
ne;;;;;;;;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
NotesHolder;;;;;;;;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
NoteTab;Eric Fookes, Fookes Software;1995;Mai 61;;Free, $10 Standard, $20 Pro;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;No;Yes;2 windows;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Partial [49];?;?;No;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;?;No;Yes[64];?;?;?;?;?;No;?;No;?;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;?;?;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
nText;Paul Kenny;2008;;Java;Free;GPL, (OSI approved);Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
nvi;Keith Bostic;?;Jan 79;;Free;BSD license;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;?;No;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes [80];No;;;?;Yes;?
Pico;University of Washington;?;Apr 64;;Free;Proprietary;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;No;?;?;?;?;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;No;No;;;?;Yes;?
PolyEdit;PolySoft Solutions;1998;5.0 Preview Release;;$27.95;Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Programmer's Notepad;Simon Steele;1998;2.0.6.1;C++;Free;BSD license;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes [32];Yes [32];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [50];Yes [50];Yes;Yes [50];Yes;Yes [50];No;No;Yes [62];No;Yes [65];No;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
PSPad;Jan Fiala;2002;04.05.2003;Borland Delphi;Free;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;36;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;with plugin;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Q10 (text editor);Baara Estudio; ?;01.02.2021; ?;Free;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;6;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;?;?;?
RJ TextEd;Rickard Johansson;?;4.521;Borland Delphi;Free;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;14;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
RText;Fifesoft;2003;0.9.9.6;Java;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;17;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes[81];Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
sam;Rob Pike;1980s;Plan 9 and Inferno;;Free;LPL, (OSI approved);Yes;;;;;;;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
SciTE;Neil Hodgson;1999-03;Jan 77;;Free;HPND;Yes;Yes;Yes [3];Yes;Yes;Yes;No;;Yes;Yes;Outdated (1.72);Yes;Outdated (1.62);Yes;Outdated (1.67);Outdated (1.63);Yes;Yes;39 [5];Yes;No;No;Yes [13];No;No;Limited[33];No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;No;?;No;Partial[70];?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Scrivener;;;;;;;;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
skEdit;Sean Kelly, skti;2002;03.06.2001;;$24.95 for a Lifetime license;Proprietary;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes [66];?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
SlickEdit;SlickEdit, Inc.;1988;11.0.2;;$299;Proprietary;No;Yes;Yes [3];Yes;No;Yes;No;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Smultron;Peter Borg;2004;03. Mrz;Objective-C;Free;BSD;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;13;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
SubEthaEdit;TheCodingMonkeys;2003;02.06.2003;;$35 for commercial use;Proprietary;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [34];Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;?;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TaterEdit;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;?;;;;;;Yes;No;Yes;No;;;;;;;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TED Notepad;Juraj Simlovic;2001;05.03.2001;;Free;Freeware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;?;?;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;;;;;;;?;?;?;?;?;No;?;No;?;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TextEdit;Apple Computer;2001;01. Apr;;Bundled with Mac OS X;Proprietary[citation needed];No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;18;?;?;Yes;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;?;?;?;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TextMate;MacroMates;10.10.2004;01.05.2007;Objective-C++;39;Proprietary, with MIT components;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Partial;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [51];Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;?;Yes;No;No;No;Yes [75];No;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TextPad;Helios Software Solutions;1992;05. Feb;;$32.40 (£16.50);Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Outdated (4.7.3);Yes;Outdated (4.7.3);Outdated (4.7.3);Outdated (4.7.3);Outdated (4.7.3);No;9;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;Partial [83];Partial [83];;;Yes;Yes;Yes
TextWrangler;Bare Bones Software;?;02. Mrz;;Free;Proprietary;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;?;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
The Gun;Steve Hutchesson;?;3.0f;Microsoft Assembler (100%);Free;Freeware;No;;;;;;;;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
The SemWare Editor;Sammy Mitchell;1985-11;04. Apr;;$99;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes [52];Partial [53];No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;No;No;Yes *[78];No;Yes;?;?;?;No;No;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Twistpad;Carthago Software;2006;Jan 64;Borland Delphi;$19.95;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
UltraEdit;IDM Computer Solutions;1994;14. Okt;;$49.95;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;No;7;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [35];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes
UNA;N-BRAIN, Inc.;2008;1.0;Java;Lite free, Full $300;Proprietary;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;;;;;;;;;;Yes;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
VEDIT;Ted Green, Greenview Data;1980;6.15.2;Assembly and C;standard $89 , Pro64 $239;Proprietary;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;No;1;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin[36];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [54];No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;No [71];No;No;Yes;No;No;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Partial;Partial [84];;;Yes;Yes;Yes
Vim;Bram Moolenaar;1991;07. Feb;C;Free;GPL - compatible;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;25;Yes;Yes;Yes [14];Yes [15];Yes;Yes [37];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Plugin [55];Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes [72];Partial [73];?;Plugin [79];Plugin [79];Plugin [79];Plugin [79];Yes;Yes;Yes;No [85];Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes
XEmacs;Lucid Inc.;1991;21. Apr;C and Elisp;Free;GPL;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;?;Yes;Yes;?;?;Partial [86];Partial;;;Yes;Yes;Yes
xPad;;;;;;;;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Zeus;Xidicone P/L;1995;3.96q;C and C++;$69.95;Shareware;No;Yes;No;No;No;No;No;No;Yes;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;?;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes;Yes [67];No;No [68];Yes;Yes [74];No;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;No;Yes;Yes;;;Yes;Yes;No
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.35.231.16 (talk) 14:13, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Latest Stable Version

Is this really helpful at all? Comparison of version numbers is pretty worthless to an end-user. A latest-version-release-date column would be much more useful (perhaps with the version number in parenthesis), so a reader could see at a glance which editors are still under development. Twiin 06:09, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

More or less agreed. Unfortunately, like the 'latest version' column, it will be difficult to maintain. Wikiwalk 18:54, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I'd say don't bother - anybody can click the main article and see the status. Or have popups or something too. — RevRagnarok^TalkContrib 19:48, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree -- version numbers are useless to our readers, and accessible at a single click to the main article about that editor. Would just showing the *year* the latest version was released be adequate? (Does every editor under active development release a new version every year?) --68.0.124.33 (talk) 00:28, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

I think it would be more useful with just the year -- it indicates whether there is active development. CRGreathouse (t | c) 08:38, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Not every program under active development releases a stable version every year. (That tends to reflect who the developers are, more than the program). Tedickey (talk) 12:03, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but if the last stable release was 1993 there's a good bet it's not under active development. CRGreathouse (t | c) 12:21, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Sure - but there's going to be some intermediate date where you'll disagree, e.g., 3-5 years, which isn't that far-fetched for a large system under development. Tedickey (talk) 12:40, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Right, people will come to different conclusions. But we don't need to care what they will conclude -- we just provide the information. CRGreathouse (t | c) 16:10, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

I agree that date would be much more useful than the version number shown now. I guess year would be enough ( as in the "First public release" column now is in most cases). And it might reduce the number of edits a bit, too. But what would be a suitable title for the column (preferably not too long)? --PauliKL (talk) 14:06, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Large File Editing Comparison

It would be beneficial to compare these different software packages based on how they handle large (4GB+) files. If the editor has a filesize limitation based on the hardware it is running under, if the editor has a performance degredation working with files over 100MB if the filesize is doubled/tripled, and if the editor caches the entire file that is being edited in memory or only segments of the file. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.240.172.194 (talk • contribs)

This may be something that is too subjective and WP:OR. — RevRagnarok^TalkContrib 16:51, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

There is nothing subjective about whether a program insists on reading an entire file before allowing you to view any of it (mosts modern file editors do this). This is a key issue in trying to work with Very Large Files. -69.87.200.124 12:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately such information is not available for most editors. Hopefully some computer magazine does a benchmark some day, but Wikipedia is not place for benchmarks. --PauliKL (talk) 17:31, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Adding of HippoEDIT

Hello I want to update article with text editor HippoEDIT (www.hippoedit.com). Is this Ok? --KefirX 21:31, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Because nobody complains, I have updated the article. All changes are marked as "Adding HippoEDIT". --KefirX 00:03, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Dear Transfinite, can you please explain me why you have removed my updates "Adding of HippoEDIT" of article "Comparison of text editors". Please describe this in examples, taking one of other editors in the list. --KefirX 11:33, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The article on HippoEDIT was deleted November 9, 2006 as spam [1] and has not returned. The editors in this list should have associated articles, otherwise they do not belong here. If you can show HippoEDIT passes WP:SOFTWARE, I won't have a problem with it. I'll be removing the other editors with red links fairly soon.

Hello Transfinite, maybe it would be more polite to return information about HippoEDIT to the article and delete it together with other editors having red links. When you would start to do so. This would be politically correct.--KefirX 22:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm looking through all of these, and trying to figure out which ones are notable. It's probably going to be a piece-meal affair, instead a massive deletion. --Transfinite 02:29, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Keep the same order of editors each list of features

It would be beneficial to have the same order and number of editors in each list of features comparisons. I tried copying and pasting these lists into a spreadsheet - to make one comprehensive list of editors (with many columns across) only to find the rows of names for the editors didnt line up.

Georgerai 13:10, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Georgerai (talk • contribs) 13:08, 12 February 2007 (UTC).

Just fixed all tables. Your wish is now granted. :) I just hope all other wikipedians keep this page clean. --CrazyTerabyte 01:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Smart indent

Arnero 06:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

portability, bi-directional

• I miss a comparison of portability, ie. no installation is required and stores the settings in the same directory from which it launches. When you move the app from one pc to another on a USB flash, the settings goes with you. Storing the settings in the Registry or Home directory violates this. Requirement of specific dynamic libraries violates this.
• I miss a comparison of bi-directional editing, which is required for all right-to-left languages.

May these be added or at least started, please? Thank you. 195.113.33.33 10:08, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't think enough people care about bi-directional support to warrant a section on that. It takes up a lot of space. 24.106.212.86 (talk) 15:31, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

removing spam and non-notable editors

I have removed all entries, which articles were deleted as spam or non-notable. I hope no one is really going to hate me for that, although I already know they will.. :-))) There are, however sections with no links at all. It is really hard to identify spam there. Please, help me add links to those as well so that we can remove the rest.. Thank you. 195.113.33.33 11:11, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Seems like a reasonable step to take. However, you accidentally deleted EditPad and EmEditor, because whoever wikilinked them did it incorrectly. I went through behind you and restored them. :-)--SarekOfVulcan 11:24, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about that.. It was a mess and shit happens. Thanks for fixing. 195.113.33.33 11:44, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, I disagree that links should be added: I'd rather go through and remove links from all but the first reference, per the MOS.--SarekOfVulcan 11:25, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, it is the only way to prevent spammers to add programs there and to keep clean track of what is and what is not having a page, isn't it. Tell you, delete entries from those non-linked lists was way too complicated to be done regularily. Also note, that pages are being deleted these times more agressively, therefore, we will have to do this clean-up again in few days or weeks. 195.113.33.33 11:44, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

I've just fixed all tables. I haven't checked the links of most of these software, but now all of the tables have the same set of programs and all names have the same links. It is less messy now. --CrazyTerabyte 01:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Another clean-up.. 195.113.23.172 10:34, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

TextEdit & WebDAV

TextEdit has been flagged as not having support for WebDAV. I don't agree with this; Mac OS X supports mounting WebDAV volumes. It would be insane for application writers to specifically add WebDAV support given this excellent WebDAV support already exists. This probably applies to all Mac editors, unless they are somehow incompatible with it. --Steven Fisher 14:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Large file viewing

Almost all modern text editors read the whole file into memory in order to work with it. This makes even just browsing/viewing large files awkward and slow -- sometimes impossible, if they do not fit into memory. So, a person wanting to view a large text file may need to use a hex editor, because some of them are able to browse through large files directly, without having to load the whole file into memory first. Some hex editors are probably better than others at displaying text nicely. See "Maximum file size" and "Partial file loading" columns in Comparison of hex editors. Are there any particularly good guides to "Viewing large text files"? -69.87.200.124 12:35, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Three free portable ones are listed here: [2]

• "Universal Viewer Free (formally ATViewer) is a file viewer that supports many different formats like text, binary, rtf, images, videos, audio, etc. One nice feature is that it can open large text files very quickly without eating memory. One downside is that there is no editing of these files, but useful if you have to go through large log files."
• "DAMN NFO Viewer is an utility for viewing text files containing ASCII art (eg. NFO and DIZ files). The viewer displays graphical block characters correctly, and automatically detects and displays hyperlinks/email addresses as clickable links."
• "Large Text File Viewer is designed for viewing large text files. It uses little memory and is able to open very large files (> 1GB) instantly. Background file indexing makes browsing even faster. It also allows the user to perform high-speed complex text search by means of plain text or regular expression."

-69.87.199.227 18:52, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

"Protocol support"

What exactly does this protocol support section mean?

Is any command-line editor automatically one that "supports" editing over the SSH protocol? If not, what would be the URI specification for editing files over SSH?!

How does a text editor implement editing over the HTTP protocol, via POST, or?

This whole idea of a network support in editors sounds really strange, and too niche to be relevant. File managers usually have code to transparently access files over the network: basically editing a local fetched copy and having it transparently uploaded back to the remote location, it's confusing to call this a text editor feature as such. --Joy [shallot] 16:46, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Good point. jEdit claims it has native support for HTTP, but how does it do the writing? Windows XP transparently fetches HTTP URLs already. Also, the SSH section needs to be split into SFTP and SCP. jEdit supports SFTP, but not SCP. Komodo IDE supports both. Dandv (talk) 11:57, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

CUA and other human interfaces

Having a column that shows if an editor follows a user interface standard such as Common User Access would be helpful. This would probably go under 'Document interface' and maybe also 'Key bindings'. Chiok 18:10, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

you gotta be kidding: editors like emacs and vi have been around for decades, from before even DOS or Macintosh UI guidelines! They don't follow any user interface rules other than what need made them support. They're worlds on their own and that's a Good Thing. Otherwise, how would we know that there's better paradigms for text editing out there other than basic notepad-like cut'n'paste? 189.27.9.184 06:28, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

EditPad

I think that there is a Text Editor missing in the comparison, namely EditPad. I use EditPad Lite (the freeware version) and I like it a lot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.2.223.189 (talk) 16:14, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

I've been using it for a quote long time, too, before I switched to Notepad++... I don't want to install it only to add its features to the table, but maybe anyone...? It's great compared to Notepad2 and others. --77.187.47.113 (talk) 09:59, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. EditPadPro is definitely my favorite for pure text editing, and has many of the desirable features. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.60.48.210 (talk) 18:58, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Xemacs and UTF-8

I have been told that version 2x.4 is the last stable version of xemacs and it is not UTF-8 compliant on windows, when it is in linux. 21.5 is a beta which should be UTF-8 aware including on windows.

As a consequence isn't the table comparison in main article false? xemacs should be reported as not compatible with UTF-8, or only partially. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.41.137.29 (talk) 16:29, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Multiple vs Single document interface

How come some editors are market to have both single document interface and multiple document interface? Aren't those mutually exclusive? Single document interface is the old method where you can only have one document in each window. Multiple document interface allows multiple sub-windows. If the software support multiple document interface, it does not have single document interface.

And what is the difference between "Single document window splitting" and "Window splitting"?
PauliKL (talk) 17:07, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Since nobody has given explanation to these, I suggest that "Single document window splitting" column will be removed. In "Single document interface" column, mark "No" for all the editors that have "Yes" in Multi Document Interface columns ("Overlappable windows" or "Tabbed document interface"). Or alternatively, change the column title to "Multiple instances of program" or something like that (which is not the same as Single Document Interface).
PauliKL (talk) 09:46, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

That seems logically. The only thing is that you'll get two columns which are each others counterparts. Maybe its better to have a column "Window interface" which states 'single' or 'multi' and maybe 'multi-tabbed'? --Løde (talk) 09:37, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that people usually understand this "Single document interface" column as "Multiple instances", so I guess that would be more appropriate heading for that column. (Those people who claim SDI is better than MDI usually assume that an MDI program can not have multiple instances.) Removing the column may not be a good idea, since it does give some additional information. It seems that there are actually some editors that do not support multiple instances. However, this may require some explanation, since some programs (such as Microsoft Word) only mimic an SDI program with multiple instances, while in reality there is only one instance of the program running.

There is still no explanation on why there are two columns, "Single document window splitting" and "MDI: Window splitting". I don't see how window splitting would be connected to MDI and SDI. I assume this "window splitting" refers to an ability to show two different parts of a single file by splitting a window. So I suggest to remove one of these columns, maybe the last one, and rename the first one to just "Window splitting".

-- PauliKL (talk) 16:34, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Now I changed the title of the first column. Did not remove the last column (Window splitting) yet. I added notes below the table to describe the first two columns. I think it would be good idea to have the explanations near the table. However, it seems to mess up the numbering of notes on the bottom of the page somehow.

-- PauliKL (talk) 17:14, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

It isn't connected to MDI and SDI as such. It's two different ways in which window splitting can be used. Single-document window splitting means that the window can be split to show two areas of the same file simultaneously. MDI window splitting means that the window can be split to show two different files simultaneously.

Having just one "Window splitting" column has been tried before. The apparent discrepancy that arose is what led to the desire to distinguish the two forms of it in the first place. The distinction should be preserved. -- Smjg (talk) 17:24, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

But you do not need to "split" window to show multiple documents. Normal way to open new document in MDI is to open a new window for it.

Or does this "MD window splitting" mean non-overlapping windows? Like on Notepad++ for example? In that case, I think most editors have false information in this column. I think non-overlapping windows and overlapping windows are mutually exclusive. So if the editor has overlapping windows, it does not have "MD window splitting".

BTW, Notepad++ has window splitting, but it does not have overlapping windows nor tabbed document interface AFAIK, so the information in the table is wrong. And with window splitting, only 2 documents or 2 views to the same document can be viewed. So the window splitting support should be marked as "partial" for Notepad++.

-- --PauliKL (talk) 18:19, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

How do you work out that overlapping and non-overlapping windows are mutually exclusive? You miss the point. Some editors provide splitting a single window (which may be the main window or an MDI child window, depending on the editor) as one means of viewing multiple documents, and overlappable windows as another means. There are at least two possible approaches to this:

1. The application main window can be split into panes to view two documents side by side or one above the other, but the user also has the option of viewing them in overlappable windows if he/she prefers. This is distinct from the behaviour of the Tile command in most Windows MDI apps, which arranges the overlappable windows without changing their state. I'm not sure OTTOMH whether Eclipse supports overlappable document windows, but if it does, then this would be an example.
2. Individual, overlappable document windows can be split, and a different document can be open in each pane. Thus overlappable windows and MD window splitting can be used simultaneously. I've a vague recollection of the Borland C++ IDE having such a facility.

-- Smjg (talk) 17:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I guess it is theoretically possible that an application could have both overlapping windows and non-overlapping windows. But does such an application exist? After all, there is no much point having non-overlapping windows if you do have overlapping windows. Does any of the editors in this list actually have them both? I doubt that.

-- PauliKL (talk) 19:58, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Of course there's a point. Some users may prefer overlapping windows, and others may prefer to split a single window. There are a few advantages to the latter if all you're doing is viewing two documents side by side or one above the other. The two modes of operation may also be suited to different circumstances. It's like how TextPad 5 offers the choice of overlapped windows or tabs. For all we know, TextPad may well add MD window splitting in a future version. But whether such apps exist at the moment, it's a separate issue from that of whether an app has SD or MD window splitting, which is what I was originally talking about.

But if you still think some of the information in the table is wrong, then add {{disputed-section}} or {{dubious}} as appropriate, and make a clear statement here of why you think it's wrong. -- Smjg (talk) 18:34, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Unicode text editors other than Notepad

Template:Table Unicode

I suggest a more detailed table listing the types of Unicode support available in various text editors. The section in the comparison article called "Encoding support" or "Unicode support" is very limited.

The chart needs to indicate the default settings for support of Unicode. Also it needs to indicate whether a program supports editing in Unicode formats, or just preserving existing Unicode files when opening them.

Regular Notepad that comes with the Windows operation system will allow some Unicode editing but it has many other limitations.

I am trying to find a variety of freeware, shareware, demoware, and trialware that will allow me to easily copy, paste, and edit Unicode characters.

I am talking about Unicode characters for languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, etc.. To see how many language character sets are installed on your computer, see what shows up when you go to this page: http://yudit.org/cgi-bin/test.cgi

The above interlanguage links are from commons:Category:Diagrams.

Notepad2 does not support pasting in Unicode into new windows at its default settings as does regular Notepad.

This caused me some irritation when trying to copy, paste, edit, and move around interlanguage links. One can't just copy the above interlanguage links into a new Notepad2 window. One ends up with a bunch of question marks (?) replacing many of the characters.

One has to change the default settings for encoding. Even then only some of the characters show up no matter what default settings are selected in "File menu/encoding".

Also Notepad2 does not support Unicode filenames. It will not open files with Unicode filenames. From its FAQ [3]: "Are filenames with Unicode characters not supported? No, they aren't, as Notepad2 internally is an ANSI program (yet Windows 9x is no longer supported). Only filenames containing ANSI characters from the system ANSI code page are supported."--Timeshifter (talk) 16:49, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean by "default settings for support of Unicode"? How are you expecting to paste unicode characters in a new file in editor, if you have not told to the editor that it is unicode? Configuring your editor to create UTF8 or UTF16 files by default is not a good idea. Wast majority of text files are 8-bit, so if you use unicode as default, you will have wrong encoding most of the time. And we have already seen how much trouble it causes when some people use UTF8 in e-mail or Usenet postings. If you want to create Unicode file, you can use "Save As" and select the encoding. You have to do that anyway to give your file a name.

"Unicode support" means that the editor can edit and display Unicode characters (assuming the required font is installed). If it can not, there should not be "yes" in the UTF8 and UTF16 support columns of the table.

"Preserving existing Unicode files" is not Unicode support, it is a basic requirement of a text editor. A text editor must not change anything in a file unless the user commands it to do so. With a text editor, you can always load and save a file, and be sure that the new file is an exact copy of the original.

It seems that some editors are claimed to have Unicode support, but in reality they just silently convert UTF8 or UTF16 files into their internal 8-bit format, thus destroying any characters that are not included in the 8-bit character set. If a "text editor" meshes Unicode characters, it does not have Unicode support, but in addition, it is not even a text editor. Maybe this should indicated somehow in the table.

In addition, there could be a separate column to indicate if the editor can convert Unicode characters if required.

But why did you chage the name of the table from "Encoding support" to "Unicode support"? Unicode is not the only encoding. Since there is room in the table, I think there should be columns at least for ISO 8859, OEM (DOS, or Code page 437), and EBCDIC.

PauliKL (talk) 18:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. Maybe we can remove the ASCII column and create a separate table for it and the non-unicode encodings you mentioned.

Out of curiosity I tried pasting in the interlanguage interwiki list into a Google Mail window. All the characters showed up fine.

You sound like you know more about Unicode than I do, and could probably make a Unicode table that broke it down more clearly.

According to your definition of Unicode support it looks like Notepad2 does not support UTF8 or UTF16. I could not figure out a way to paste in the interlanguage interwiki list into a new file no matter what the default settings were for encoding. Notepad2 is a quick download and install. Maybe you can test this out more. I may not be doing this correctly. --Timeshifter (talk) 07:59, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I downloaded Notepad2 and tried it. If I just start Notepad2 and paste UTF-8 text, it does not show correctly. Obviously the default is 8 bit ANSI charset. I did not find a setting to change the default. But when I selected UTF-8 from File -> Encoding menu before pasting the text, the text shows correctly (depending on the font selected, of course). I do not have a font that contains Korean characters, but several other languages (such as Russian and Arabic) were displayed correctly with Microsoft Sans Serif font.

It seems that when you paste UTF-8 text from Windows clipboard into an application that uses 8 bit text buffer, Windows automatically converts the text into the character encoding (e.g. Western) selected for the font used. In this process, any characters that are not included in the character set are replaced with question marks. So you lose the non-ASCII characters, even if the application itself would preserve them.

As for the table columns, I think it is better to have only a single table for all the encodings. There are already so many tables on this page. And there is lots of room for more columns. Perhaps there should be separate columns for Unicode editing and Unicode conversions. Or alternatively, those editors that only convert Unicode should be marked to have "Partial" Unicode support.

PauliKL (talk) 17:44, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

You may need to install the East Asian languages. I don't know. Can you see all the characters when you paste the text into plain old Notepad? If not, then you may need to go to the "Regional and Language Options" control panel (if using Windows XP), and then the languages tab. It is easy to install everything by checking the boxes.

Maybe the section can be titled something like "Unicode and other character encodings".

I can't see the Korean characters in Notepad2 either. No matter the encoding default setting done previously at "File menu/Encoding/Default".

There is a Notepad2 FAQ here:

http://www.flos-freeware.ch/np2faq.html

Please see the section titled "How do I select the proper character set?". It is here:

http://www.flos-freeware.ch/np2faq.html#q9

It says: "Select the character set (script) matching your local encoding from the font dialog, as in this screenshot. Alternatively, the character set can be entered manually, but only for the Default Style and 2nd Default Style items, as demonstrated in this screenshot."

From the first screenshot I see that "Arial Unicode MS" is used. So I tried it at View Menu/Default font. This time when I pasted in the interwiki links, all the characters showed up (including the Korean characters). --Timeshifter (talk) 01:00, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

I added the columns for ISO 8859, OEM (DOS), and EBCDIC. The ASCII column is quite redundant, since obviously all editors support ASCII. So perhaps it could be removed.

It should be noted that to support the encoding, the editor must be able to actually edit the text, not just display it. So configuring the editor to use an OEM (DOS) font in Windows does not give support to OEM character set, since the keyboard would not work correctly. If the DOS version of the editor uses DOS character set and Windows version uses Windows (ISO) character set, then both DOS and ISO character encoding support should be marked as "partial". Or perhaps "yes2"?

--PauliKL (talk) 14:32, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Table width

On 4th of January 2008, Steppres "Changed table widths to auto to correct layout problem when viewed in IE".

What problems were those? I viewed the earlier version with IE 6.0, and I did not see any problem.

But after the change there are problems both with Firefox and Opera. On IE, the tables are still 100% width, but on Firefox and Opera the tables are narrow (as they should when is set). This causes problem for example with the table Document interface. The first table header line (which is actually a separate table) is squashed and the columns are not in correct position. In addition, the caption of this table (and many other tables) is squashed to the width of the narrow table.

I believe that and sould not be set at the same time. In a way, the narrow tables might be considered better, but they cause formatting problems (especially since can not be used with sortable tables). So I think it would be better to use 100% width.

PauliKL (talk) 17:06, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Plugins and 3rd party add-ons

For many editors, there is "Yes" marked for many features that are only available as 3rd party add-on or plugin. Most users do not even know where to obtain those add-ons and thus do not have them available in the editor. I think such add-ons should not be marked as standard feature of the editor.

I suggest that the template yes2 would be used for features that require add-on or plugin. This creates a table cell with light green background. Then use ref to explain how to obtain this add-on. See Template:Yes.

-- --PauliKL (talk) 18:44, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Column description

I think more explanation of the columns couldn't hurt. Two new columns were added recently ("Function list" and "Symbol database"). For the first I have no idea what this could mean, the second only has a wiki link without description about what this means exactly for text editors. Furthermore the columns "Text shell integration", "Graphical shell integration" and "Macro" mean very little to me. Is there some enlightened person who can help here? :) And not only here in thee talk, but on the page itself. --Løde (talk) 13:53, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Me too thinks that more information would be needed. Originally, there were no information at all. I have added some notes below the tables, but I don't know if that is the best way to do it. Maybe the text size should be smaller, as in footnotes? Anyway, I will add some more notes for those items I am familiar with. --PauliKL (talk) 15:56, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Syntax highlighting and code folding

Forgive me for proselytising a bit, but one feature that I really like about EditPad Pro is that it handles syntax highlighting by using regular expressions. I've been looking for a free alternative so I don't have to buy it, but all of the other text editors I can find do not use regex-based syntax highlighting (aside from Emacs, and I'm not that crazy ;-)). Instead they use rather primitive keyword-matching and "start tag and end tag"-matching. For purposes of folding in particular, this is terrible when it comes to HTML, since <h1> through <h6> do not have closing tags -- they end at the start of the next header or at the end of the document.

Would it be unreasonable to update the "Syntax highlighting", "Code folding", and "Text folding" columns of the table to identify the actual nature or mechanic of how it supports it? Maybe "Full" would mean total lexical customisation of the syntax via scripts/regex, "Most" would mean customisation of keywords, quotes, etc. but the end user cannot define new lexical constructs, "Partial" would allow changing the colours of stylesheets for a hard-coded selection of languages only, and "None" would be, well, none of the above. --Jtgibson (talk) 01:17, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually, <h1> through <h6> have closing tags that are not optional—they must be there.[4]. A few tags in the past—such as <li>, <tr>, <td>, etc.—had an optional close tag, but they are now required for XHTML, and preferred for HTML 4.01.

As to other editors that have regular expression based matching, even those have to have some way to indicate start/end of regions, even when using regular expressions. Vim's syntax highlighting engine (which is how it implements the syntax based variant of its folding) has several options, including keyword matching, regular expression matching, and regular expressions to define the start/end of regions.

-- Heptite(T)(C)(@) 05:36, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, and sorry for the lateness of the reply, but I meant "a closing tag at the end of the block they define". I know they have closing tags on the line they're written on. I mean more specifically that they're not nested tags: you don't wrap the section they define <h1 section="My Section">...entire contents of section...</h1>, but rather they're simple anchors that have their own block level, and don't include the following HTML that in human-readable terms is a part of that section. --Jtgibson (talk) 11:25, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Downloadable?

Here I am at home, with work to do on web pages and only the missus' Mac available. It only has Apple's raher horrible editor, and I'm connected via dial-up. So forget the "bare bones" (ha ha) TextWrangler, which is the wrong side of 10MB. I've just downloaded the latest version of something called Smultron to support 10.3.9; the download was palatable at 3MB. Anyway, I wonder if there might be an additional section on compact packages, easily downloadable in situations such as this. -- Hoary (talk) 07:01, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I don't think an additional section would be needed. And how would you decide if the package is "compact" or not? However, it would be a good idea to add a column for the (smallest) size of download package in the 'Overview' table. One problem with this is that the sizes may not be comparable to each other. Some download packages contain documentation, others do not. (And with a new software, you probably do need documentation.) Some free programs may even not have a help file at all, and you need to search the web or Usenet for any documentation. Documentation can take more space than the actual program. For example, the download package of the Windows version of VEDIT (which is one of the most powerful and feature rich editors available), is only 1.8MB, and that includes full help files. However, if you want to have the documentation as PDF files, that adds another 3MB to download size. So maybe there should be two values: the size of smallest download package, and the size with documentation. --PauliKL (talk) 09:18, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Gobby

Is there a special reason why Gobby is not part of this list? For me it is a valuable editor, since it is (as far as I knew before reading this page) the only cross-platform collaborative text editor (SubEthaEdit is good, but sometimes we have to take notice of those not-mac-users). I seem to remember that Gobby was on this page earlier. Trondtr (talk) 06:59, 8 August 2008 (UTC).

Done. Thanks for pointing this out. Because of your comment, I've added Gobby (and also Q10). (I have no idea if Gobby was here before). --68.0.124.33 (talk) 00:39, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Carbon Emacs

Shouldn't the section on Mac specific editors also include [Carbon Emacs:http://homepage.mac.com/zenitani/emacs-e.html]? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.209.166.130 (talk) 11:40, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

This (like most of the) comparison-topic is largely promotional in nature - there's no Carbon Emacs simply because no one's decided to show how it compares (or not) against others Tedickey (talk) 12:14, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Inclusion of specialized editors

Coda has an editor, but from the description (a) the editor by itself is non-notable, "based" on SubEthaEdit, and (b) not a general-purpose text-editor but one specific to HTML. Tedickey (talk) 11:00, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Coda should be moved to Comparison of HTML editors (if it is considered to be notable). --PauliKL (talk) 08:10, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Tutorials

How do I...

-> Continue with the advanced topics!

Q: How do I Copy files?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Set the source directory in one panel, and the target in the other
2. Select the files you want to copy, either with Insert or the mouse (Ctrl+Click)
3. Press F5 or click the Copy button
4. You may now change the destination directory
5. Click OK
6. The files will now be copied

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Q: How do I delete or undelete files?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Select the files you want to delete, either with Insert or the mouse (Ctrl+Click)
2. Press F8 or Delete, or click the Delete button
3. Click OK
4. To undelete, right click on the Delete button
5. Choose 'Open'
6. Select the files you want to undelete
7. Right click on them
8. Select 'Restore'

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Q: How do I pack files with ZIP?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Select the files you want to pack, either with Insert or the mouse (Ctrl+Click)
2. Select Files - Pack from the menu, or press Alt+F5
3. Choose the packer you want to use. ZIP is built in
4. Click OK
5. The final archive file appears in the target pane

Q: How do I unpack files?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Open the archive file with ENTER. If it's a self-extracting EXE, open with Ctrl+PageDown.
2. Select the files you want to unpack, either with Insert or the mouse (Ctrl+Click)
3. Press F5 or click the Copy button
4. Click OK
5. The unpacked files appear in the target pane
6. There is also a second way to unpack files:
7. Place the cursor on an archive. You may also select multiple archives.
8. Chose Files - Unpack
9. You can decide to unpack only specific files, e.g. *.txt
10. Click OK
11. All selected archives will be unpacked to the target directory

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Q: How do I view files with the built-in viewer?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Place the cursor on the file you want to view
2. Press F3 or click the View button
3. You may also select multiple files, then switch through them with 'n' and 'p' buttons
4. Use Shift+F3 if you want to view the file under the cursor while other files are selected

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Q: How do I edit text files?
A: Follow these steps, or try our animated tutorial

1. Place the cursor on the file you want to edit
2. Press F4 or click the Edit button
3. The default Windows editor notepad.exe will be launched
4. You may define a different editor in Configuration - Options - Viewer/Editor

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Q: How do I change file attributes?
A: Please follow these steps:

1. Select the files whose attributes you want to change
2. Choose Files - Change Attributes from the menu
3. Here you can set the Archive, Read only, Hidden, and System Attributes
4. You can also change the 'last modified' time stamp of the file(s)
5. Click "Recurse subdirectories" to change attributes of files in subdirs too
6. Click OK
7. Warning: Total Commander doesn't show hidden/system files by default, but you can enable them in Configuration - Options - Display - Show Hidden/System files

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Q: How do I rename files?
A: Please follow these steps:

1. Select the files you want to rename
2. Press Shift+F6, or Shift+Click on the RenMov button
3. If you selected only one file, you can modify its name directly
4. If you selected multiple files, you can rename them using wildcards. * stands for all remaining characters, ? for a single character. Example: *.bak renames the extension to .bak, and leaves the name unchanged.
5. Press ENTER to rename the file(s).

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