TextPad
Encyclopedia
TextPad is a text editor
for the Microsoft Windows
family of operating system
s.
First released in 1992, this software
is currently in its fifth major version. It is produced by Helios Software Solutions.
, a clip library is known as "snippets
".
TextPad comes with a number of pre-defined clip libraries, including ANSI characters, HTML characters and HTML tags. A very useful clip library is the Clipboard History. This is a list of previous Clipboard contents. So even though the standard Windows Clipboard can only hold one piece of information, the TextPad Clipboard History Clip Library can access a whole history of entries. See also clipboard manager
s.
You can create your own new clip libraries, and there are many clip libraries available.
The release of TextPad 5.0, although a welcomed upgrade by many, received a large amount of criticism. TextPad 5.0 was seen as "beta quality" by many users, needing further development before release. Only a month after the release of TextPad 5.0, Helios Software Solutions released version 5.0.2 which either fixed issues introduced in TextPad 5.0 or reintroduced features from version 4.7.3. The release of version 5.1.0 reintroduced other features from version 4.7.3 together with a German user interface.
Another criticism is that, as of version 5.2.0, TextPad is not Unicode
compatible, even though it offers UTF-8
and UTF-16
as encodings in which files can be loaded and saved. Characters not available in your system code page
are changed to question marks.
tool for power users to make the same changes to a set of text files in a folder hierarchy.
Full-featured trial versions of TextPad and WildEdit are available for evaluation
, but neither program is advertised as shareware
.
Text editor
A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
for the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
family of operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s.
First released in 1992, this software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
is currently in its fifth major version. It is produced by Helios Software Solutions.
Features
Key features include:- The ability to maintain block indents
- Automatic code indentation (see indent styleIndent styleIn computer programming, an indent style is a convention governing the indentation of blocks of code to convey the program's structure. This article largely addresses the C programming language and its descendants, but can be applied to most other programming languages...
) - Regular expressionRegular expressionIn computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
based search and replace, including multiline regex - Macro recording feature to facilitate complex text transformations and data processing.
- Macro feature supports multiple regexRegular expressionIn computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Abbreviations for "regular expression" include "regex" and "regexp"...
searches (and replacements) within a macro
- Macro feature supports multiple regex
- Syntax highlightingSyntax highlightingSyntax highlighting is a feature of some text editors that display text—especially source code—in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. This feature eases writing in a structured language such as a programming language or a markup language as both structures and...
(extendable to many different languages) - Ability to call external programs (such as compilerCompilerA compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
s)- Regex matching can be used to jump to a line number in a file given in the output from external programs (e.g. to locate the cause of a compiler error)
- Automatic integration with JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
JDK, if JDK is already on the machine
- Large file support
- Support for editing multiple files, with tabbed document selectionTab (GUI)In the area of graphical user interfaces , a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents...
- Block select mode
- Synchronized scrollingScrollingIn computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
of multiple files - Clip libraries – snippet managementSnippet (programming)Snippet is a programming term for a small region of re-usable source code, machine code or text. Ordinarily, these are formally-defined operative units to incorporate into larger programming modules...
for reusable portions of text to insert into documents - Clipboard historyClipboard (software)The clipboard is a software facility that can be used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations...
– Allowing TextPad to function as a multiple clipboard tool - Bookmarking of lines, therefore allowing users to copy specific lines (e.g. log file error messages), and then paste them to another document.
Clip Library
The Clip Library is a TextPad sidebar that allows users to store small items persistently, and then use them easily. This is done by double clicking clip names in the Clip Library sidebar. In other editors such as KomodoActiveState Komodo
Komodo Edit is a highly regarded free text editor for dynamic programming languages. Introduced in January 2007, with the release of version 4.3, Komodo Edit is built on top of the Open Komodo project...
, a clip library is known as "snippets
Snippet (programming)
Snippet is a programming term for a small region of re-usable source code, machine code or text. Ordinarily, these are formally-defined operative units to incorporate into larger programming modules...
".
TextPad comes with a number of pre-defined clip libraries, including ANSI characters, HTML characters and HTML tags. A very useful clip library is the Clipboard History. This is a list of previous Clipboard contents. So even though the standard Windows Clipboard can only hold one piece of information, the TextPad Clipboard History Clip Library can access a whole history of entries. See also clipboard manager
Clipboard manager
A clipboard manager is a computer program that adds functionality to basic clipboard usage.All existing window managers provide only one buffer, overwritten by each new clipping....
s.
You can create your own new clip libraries, and there are many clip libraries available.
Support
Helios Software Solutions offers support with TextPad, although it is requested that you "exhaust every other option" first. There are also FAQ and Tips sections on their website which will solve most users questions. It is suggested that the best way to receive support is to post on the TextPad Forums, where most of the support is from the user community.Criticism
A lot of the criticism about TextPad is related to the practices of Helios Software Solutions. After the release of TextPad 4.7.3 on June 4, 2004 the only statement that was released from Helios Software Solutions was that "TextPad is still in development". This had led many to believe TextPad was abandoned. Almost 3 years after the release of TextPad 4.7.3, TextPad 5.0 was released on March 3, 2007. In the release announcement it was stated that TextPad 5.0 is the "first of a planned series of upgrades to TextPad this year." There have been regular updates since then.The release of TextPad 5.0, although a welcomed upgrade by many, received a large amount of criticism. TextPad 5.0 was seen as "beta quality" by many users, needing further development before release. Only a month after the release of TextPad 5.0, Helios Software Solutions released version 5.0.2 which either fixed issues introduced in TextPad 5.0 or reintroduced features from version 4.7.3. The release of version 5.1.0 reintroduced other features from version 4.7.3 together with a German user interface.
Another criticism is that, as of version 5.2.0, TextPad is not Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
compatible, even though it offers UTF-8
UTF-8
UTF-8 is a multibyte character encoding for Unicode. Like UTF-16 and UTF-32, UTF-8 can represent every character in the Unicode character set. Unlike them, it is backward-compatible with ASCII and avoids the complications of endianness and byte order marks...
and UTF-16
UTF-16/UCS-2
UTF-16 is a character encoding for Unicode capable of encoding 1,112,064 numbers in the Unicode code space from 0 to 0x10FFFF...
as encodings in which files can be loaded and saved. Characters not available in your system code page
Code page
Code page is another term for character encoding. It consists of a table of values that describes the character set for a particular language. The term code page originated from IBM's EBCDIC-based mainframe systems, but many vendors use this term including Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle Corporation...
are changed to question marks.
WildEdit
Helios's program WildEdit is an interactiveInteractivity
In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:...
tool for power users to make the same changes to a set of text files in a folder hierarchy.
Full-featured trial versions of TextPad and WildEdit are available for evaluation
Evaluation
Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards.Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice,...
, but neither program is advertised as shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
.