Text Editors

Text Editors
Desired Features:
 * column edit mode
 * hex edit mode
 * syntax highlighting
 * spell check
 * shell integration

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Articles

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Best Text Editor - DonationCoder.com - http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/TextEditor/index.html

Features: Speed Column Mode Tab Implementation Clean User Interface Find/Replace Wrapping, Tabbing, Indenting, Formatting, Converting File Support Hex Mode Detecting Changed Files User Tools Macros / Scripting - Projects Templates Bracket matching Syntax Highlighting Code Folding Custom Hotkeys and Menus Spell Check Options Show Hidden Characters
 * Unlimited Undos

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Rectangular selection or column mode - the best text editor feature ever. - http://dave.thehorners.com/tech-talk/programming/227-rectangular-selection-or-column-mode-the-best-text-editor-feature-ever

"I'm writing this page because I've spoken to many fellow co-workers that haven't yet heard of the column mode (or sometimes called rectangular selection...maybe even vertical selection) feature available in many nice text editors. If you don't know what rectangular selection is...and you are a programmer, then get ready for a wonderful tool to put in your toolbox. This information has saved me hours of text editing time. Column-mode in a text editor allows you to select text on a column by column basis not line by line."

UltraEdit
Pro:
 * column edit mode
 * hex edit mode

PSPad
Pro:

Con:
 * missing true column mode (delete ok, missing insert) - http://pspad.nlift.com/issues/1/better-column-mode/
 * Scroll bar is not Fitt's compatible!

Features:

PSPad is a freeware programmer's editor for Microsoft Windows operating systems, useful for people who:
 * work with various programming environments
 * like highlighted syntax in their source code
 * need a small tool with simple controls and the capabilities of a mighty code editor
 * are looking for a tool that handles plain text
 * want to save time - PSPad offers rich text formating functions
 * need tool what offer user extension capabilities
 * want to save money and still have the functionality of professional products because PSPad is free for commercial and government purposes too

Has a "portable" and an "installer" version.

.* WARNING * - make sure to decline all extra apps offers during PSPad install.

Note: Hide Tool Panel to hide the huge waste of space panel on the left of the text area.

Question: How do you enable spell check?

Hex edit: View -> Hex Edit MODE (is there a keyboard shortcut?)

Column mode:
 * icon in status bar, next to save icon
 * To get a sort of insert column mode, select the column mode, press Alt+i, enter the desired text in "At lines Begin", select "Before Character Number", and manually enter the character number listed to the right.

Crimson Editor
"Free Text Editor, Html Editor, Programmers Editor for Windows"

SciTE
Scintilla and SciTE - http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html

"A free source code editor for Win32 and X"

Notepad++
Notepad++ Home - http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

"Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Based on the powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment."

JEdit
does do true column editing

Cons:
 * Slow!

nEdit
??

Geany
Column Mode

MadEdit
??

RJ TextEd
RJ TextEd - http://www.rj-texted.se/

Tagline: "The Unicode Source editor"

"RJ TextEd is a full featured text and source editor with Unicode support. It is also a very powerful web (PHP, ASP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS) development editor. The functionality extends beyond text files and includes support for CSS/HTML editing with integrated CSS/HTML preview, spell checking, auto completion, HTML validation, templates and more. The program also has a dual pane file commander, as well as a (S)FTP client to upload your files. Below is a small list of features available. For a full list check out the features section. RJ TextEd is released as FREEWARE. However, if you find the program useful I would appreciate a small donation."

Features:
 * FREE
 * Spell checking
 * Auto completion.
 * Code folding.
 * Column mode.
 * Multi edit and multi select
 * Advanced sorting.
 * Handles both ASCII and binary files.
 * CSS and HTML wizards.
 * CSS and HTML preview using internal IE, Firefox 4 and Chrome browsers.
 * FTP and SFTP client with synchronization.
 * File explorer, text clips, code explorer, project manager...
 * Convert between code pages, Unicode formats and text formats.
 * Unicode and ANSI code page detection.
 * Open/Save UTF-8 encoded files without a signature (BOM).
 * Unicode file paths and file names.
 * HTML validation, format and repair.
 * Tools available like syntax editor, color picker, charmap...

ConTEXT
ConTEXT - http://www.contexteditor.org/

Pros:
 * Supposedly has really good column mode?

Cons:
 * "ConTEXT has not been developed for a long while. This is because ConTEXT was originally written using Delphi which requires a licence for users to develop with the components used. A new thread has been created on the forums to discuss the best way forward for ConTEXT."