Many a times we curse the inefficiency of Windows notepad because we are unable to use it properly. The majority of users use Notepad because of its simplicity as majority of their work consists web page designing, coding, article writing, styling pages and many more things.
You must have felt that the default Notepad is slightly inefficient because it cannot handle too large text files, even spreads, and break text when loading your text file even after you have saved it. However, when the better and best options are available then why stick to the average one.
There are many text editors, which consist of extra features and can be used efficiently and the best part they are free.
Here are the list of 4 Best Text Editors That Can Replace Notepad Efficiently, which have become so popular that have replaced the Windows Notepad.
The most widely used replacement for Windows Notepad; Notepad++ has become the best resource for website and software designers.
Features include:
• Numbered lines
• Highlighted syntax.
• Fully compatible and efficient for creating C++, java, VBScript, PHP,CSS,HTML and a long list of other scripting languages.
• The best editor for the HTML and CSS file editing.
• Tab feature so can open multiple files hence is less cumbersome when you have to look at many files at same time.
• Specialty in basic commands such as TextFX; which allow to change case, switch quotation marks, sorting of lines by case, word count and many more.
• The best part is that it supports 16 different character sets so it will not be any problem if you are a Chinese or English, or like Hebrew.
The best part is that you’ll still feel that you are using Windows Notepad because of the resemblance of Notepad 2 with the original notepad:
Features are:
• Numbered lines
• Highlighted syntax.
• Easy to replace the original Notepad; simply remove the original Notepad file and place the Notepad 2 file.
• Easily used for the following HTML, XML, PHP, ASP (JS, VBS), CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, C/C++, C#, Resource Script, Makefiles, Java, Visual Basic, Pascal, Assembly, SQL, Perl, Python, Configuration, Files, Apache Config Files, PowerShell, Batch Files, Diff Files
• Drag & drop ability to manipulate text so No need to even press Ctrl+C as this is available both for inside and outside of Notepad 2
• Search and replace basic expression
• Useful shortcuts for line, block editing
• Rectangular selection (Alt+Mouse)
• Brace matching, auto indent, long line marker, zoom functions
• Support for Unicode, UTF-8, Unix and Mac text files
• Open shell links
This is the best notepad for multipurpose use just like the Swiss army knife. TED notepad is a run file meaning that you just need to open he .exe file, as it does not need any installation so it can be taken into flash drives.
Features include:
• Auto completion.
• Refined search and replace.
• Shortcuts and hot keys for most usually used features.
• Supports coding in Unicode and UTF-8, allowing you to write for UNIX and Mac.
• Has Unicode character in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Bulgarian and Arabic as well as English.
• Saves your settings into an INI file — put that on the flash drive with the .exe, and your preferences will load every time.
Features included:
• Syntax Highlighting for lots of languages, configured with schemes
• Multi-language user interface
• Unlimited number of schemes supported, powerful syntax
highlighting supporting both user-defined and built-in schemes
• Text Clips provide smart templates for text insertion
• Code Folding/Outlining
• Docking windows for: File Browser, Open Files, Text Clips, Tool Output, Find in Files results
• Regular expression search and replace (full perl syntax)
• Excellent external tool support with user-configurable
output matching – click on errors and warnings to jump right to
the place in the file where they were generated
• Split Views
• Bookmarks (both numbered and plain)
• Export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF
• Code definition browsing and navigation (using Ctags)
• Non fixed-width font support
• Projects and Project Groups with multi-level folders and file system mirroring
• Scripting with Python
• Extensions support for developing add-ons with C++
• Support for UTF8, 16 and various file encodings
• Support for windows, unix and macintosh line endings
• Tabbed MDI interface, with multi-level split views
• Word-wrapping
These are the best free Notepad solutions that will increase your dedication towards the Notepad and your work.
It might be possible that they miss something you are looking for but still they are the best and the most efficient. If there are more softwares just like these then please do share with us and we will share them with everyone else.