Application of the day: TED Notepad

Wordpad is nice, but even Wordpad has some annoyances and sometimes you just want a basic text editor that opens fast and has a small memory model .

Good old Windows Notepad is a good option, but actually leaves a few needed text functions out of the mix.

Looking on sourceforge.net, my favorite place to find little, efficient, free Windows widgets, one finds quite a number of text editors, some modeled after ancient command-line editors such as EMACs and pine, which were popular before and during the MS-DOS days. These offer some nostalgic value for some folks, but have a very arcane command structure and are generally not graphic-based (commands are typed into a command line with key combinations for shortcuts). That's a little too stripped down for me!

The notepad replacement of choice for me is called the TED Notepad, version 5.0.2. It offers the same look and feel as the Windows Notepad, plus adds these features:

• Does not modify the registry, and hence is "portable," meaning it can be run from a USB drive
• Nine permanent clipboards
• Provides hotkey for almost every function
• Supports Unicode
• Has an option while installing to actually replace "notepad.exe" (Note: if you do this, windows or your anti-viral software, or both, will complain!)
• Quick exit by hitting ESC
• Better search capabilities
• Autocompletion as an option
• More features than I can name here

Select the link above and take a look at TED - a worthy replacement for good 'ole notepad!

Mike