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Return of the Son of the best *free* Windows Text Editor
superboyac:
I actually started with Notepad Pro as my first "different" notepad, years ago. It was good, but after seeing all the other ones available, it doesn't really stand out. I also tried Crimson for a while, which was also good, but there were some weird things about it that I don't remember right now, and it was kind of slow.
widgewunner:
... If I still had to write a lot of text, though, I'd just go back to my DOS editor, VDE, because it's WordStar-style. ...-rjbull (November 14, 2010, 10:58 AM)
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EditPad-Pro has a one-click setting for wordstar key bindings. (Don't know about the free EditPad-lite version however.)
rjbull:
EditPad-Pro has a one-click setting for wordstar key bindings. (Don't know about the free EditPad-lite version however.)
-widgewunner (November 14, 2010, 07:37 PM)
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Those WinGUI editors I've briefly looked at that claim WordStar bindings fail miserably, with a trivial subset of features. The problem is that important WordStar keys like Ctrl-C, Ctrl-X etc. were pirated by Gate$ for Windows itself, and hardly anybody seems brave enough to address the issue. By far the best one I've seen for WordStar emulation is WSedit, freeware by Dr. Martin Vieregg. I'd be interested to see any discounts on EditPad-Pro, however, given how many people seem to like it. Perhaps that's a faint hope for now, with a new version about to come out.
EditPat-Lite, when last I looked at it, only had the Help file for EditPad-Pro, as a teaser, presumably. I don't think it had anything significant in WS emulation.
Hmmm... better park my hobby horse...
widgewunner:
Actually, the WS emulation is pretty full-featured (including the Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+S etc). From the EPP6 help file...
Wordstar Navigation Keys
EditPad Pro supports the classic for people who are used to them. WordStar is an old word processor that used Ctrl+Letter key combinations to navigate through the document. WordStar was created at a time when most keyboards did not yet have separate arrow key blocks. Note that many of these navigation keys conflict with standard Windows shortcut keys. E.g. Ctrl+S is the standard Windows shortcut for File|Save. In WordStar, Ctrl+S moves the text cursor one position to the left, just like the left arrow key.
You can enable the WordStar navigation keys in the Keyboard Preferences. When enabled, they are recognized by every full text editor control in EditPad, such as the main editor, the search box, the replace box, the clip editor, etc.
The shortcuts with Ctrl+Q are two-key combinations. First, press Ctrl+Q. Then release the Q key and press the second letter in the key combination. Whether you press Ctrl along with the second key or not makes no difference.
Cursor movement keys
Key combination Action
Ctrl+S Moves the text cursor one position to the left.
Ctrl+D Moves the text cursor one position to the right.
Ctrl+E Moves the text cursor one line upward.
Ctrl+X Moves the text cursor one line downward.
Ctrl+A Moves the text cursor to the start of the previous word or the end of the previous line, whichever is closer.
Ctrl+F Moves the text cursor to the start of the next line or the end of the current line, whichever is closer.
Ctrl+R Moves the text cursor up an entire screen.
Ctrl+C Moves the text cursor down an entire screen.
Ctrl+W Scroll down one line. Cursor moves up one line unless it is already at the top (configurable).
Ctrl+Z Scroll up one line. Cursor moves down one line unless it is already at the top (configurable).
Ctrl+Q, S Moves the text cursor to the beginning of the line (configurable).
Ctrl+Q, D Moves the text cursor to the end of the line.
Ctrl+Q, E Moves the text cursor to the top of the screen.
Ctrl+Q, X Moves the text cursor to the bottom of the screen.
Ctrl+Q, R Moves the text cursor to the start of the file.
Ctrl+Q, C Moves the text cursor to the end of the file.
Editing commands
Ctrl+I Insert a tab character.
Ctrl+N Inserts a line break.
Ctrl+G Deletes the character to the right of the text cursor.
Ctrl+H Deletes the character to the left of the text cursor.
Ctrl+T Deletes the part of the current word to the right of the text cursor. If the cursor is not on a word, all characters to the right of the cursor up to the start of the next word are deleted.
Ctrl+Q, Y All the text on the current line to the right of the text cursor is deleted.
Ctrl+Q, T All the text on the current line to the left of the text cursor is deleted.
Ctrl+V Toggles between insert and overwrite mode.
-EditPadPro
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superboyac:
I don't mean to sound rude, but what is the big deal about Wordstar? I looked it up on Wikipedia and didn't get a feel for why people want these features. Isn't it just a matter of having customizeable keyboard shortcuts?
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