An editor worth a try | Bangkok Post: tech

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The open-source boffins have put out a new version of Notepad++, which many computer users consider the single best editor ever made for a Windows computer, at any price.

One of the nice features of Notepad++ is its ability to find all instances that you have used a word or phrase in your document.

Ver 5.6.7 is a smooth, simple but feature-filled editor, able to handle many documents in many languages at once, and providing a huge of number of helpful features.

As the name implies "Notepad plus-plus" is a souped-up version of the the Notepad program that comes free with Microsoft Windows. But that is not a fair description.

Like Notepad, Notepad++ handles straight-text files, with no formatting, pretty fonts, headlines and so on. All editors, by definition, let you concentrate on the words without the pretty formats that a word processor can give.

This editor has been around for several years, and most nerds rate it as five-star. There have been no major bugs for years, and the open source community ensures that minor bugs are dealt with quickly.

It is an amazingly small download of 3.2MB, considering what it can do for your documents. And the basic editor comes with numerous options to add-on programs including a a spell checker. And yes, it's all entirely free.

The program can basically load unlimited numbers of text files for reading and editing. It can display them in tabs or in split screens, and one of the nicer touches allows you to show two parts of a long file for editing at the same time.

Search-and-replace text can go up to around 400 words - one of the recent features added - and as the screen shot shows, you can find numerous cases of the same word or phrase in any document or collection of texts.

It speaks Thai and pretty well all major languages, including Chinese and right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew.

Once you have written and edited a document in pure text, you can paste it into your word processor to make it pretty. An editor keeps you focussed on the task at hand.

Everyone needs an editor. For many, Notepad is sufficient. For those dealing with words or program code, Notepad++ is definitely worth a look.

You can look at the many features of Notepad++ and consider downloading it at notepad-plus.sourceforge.net.