Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor [Freeware]

[rjbull]

I tend not to use my text editor for most messages that I write with a browser.  Mostly what I write in Firefox are forum posts, responses to blogs, etc.  I don't tend to need macros, etc. for that.  I'm usually content with whatever input mechanism the forum or blog provides, which often includes things I can't do with my favorite text editor, UltraEdit, such as use colors, bold, etc. 

-cyberdiva (August 09, 2011, 06:02 PM)

Originally, I think (maybe Channing will correct this) TEA was expected to be used for exactly that.  I use Notetab Pro as my editor, and have macros (what it calls the clipbook) to help posting the code into DC.  I grant I can't see the effect as one could in e.g. BBCEdit, but I know it's there.  When I want to put in a URL, for example, it will pop up a little form asking for the URL itself and then the text, which makes it easy.  I'm sure you could do the same with UltraEdit...

So I guess what I'm saying is that for me, the Lazarus add-on provides the one thing I really need: backup in case my message goes poof.

-cyberdiva (August 09, 2011, 06:02 PM)

That's very valuable, but TEA does it as well.  As all its temporary files go into a single directory, I periodically archive them up, though that's probably an excess of zeal.

Text Editor Anywhere - Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor

[cyberdiva]

I wasn't arguing against TEA, I was merely saying that I didn't feel any need for it, since I was content using the input mechanism available in each forum or blog.  The only thing I need is what Lazarus provides: backup in case of loss.  Since that's the case, I'd rather just use a FF add-on, rather than install yet another program. 

[rjbull]

I wasn't arguing against TEA, I was merely saying that I didn't feel any need for it, since I was content using the input mechanism available in each forum or blog.

-cyberdiva (August 10, 2011, 03:57 PM)

I wasn't, so that's the difference 

I'd rather just use a FF add-on, rather than install yet another program. 

-cyberdiva (August 10, 2011, 03:57 PM)

You might like to know that TEA can be portable, which might occasionally be helpful.

[cyberdiva]

You might like to know that TEA can be portable, which might occasionally be helpful.

-rjbull (August 10, 2011, 04:13 PM)

Yes, that's a good point.  Thanks for pointing it out.

[rjbull]

What keeps me from using a full fledged editor with spell check and yadda yadda is the word wrap.  If I put in carriage returns it's going to be messed up in the board post.  Better to use something designed for forum posting like BBCEditor. It's suprising how few(or maybe I just haven't sampled enough apps) free editors have spell check and easy to enable/disable word wrap, not to mention forum tags.

-MilesAhead (August 09, 2011, 06:39 PM)

The underrated Crimson Editor has both spell check and essy word-wrap, plus a column mode, multiple level backup/redo and lots of other features, though not forum tags.  Most people nowadays will go for something else, but someone in the old Yahoo! Group said that he put a copy of Crimson Editor on every client machine so that he would have an at least competent editor any time he came back to use that machine.

There exist other options for free spell checking - e.g. tinySpell or mouser's own Clipboard Help+Spell.

[Edit 2011-08-11, 21:41] Come to think of it, you could put in forum tags with, say, a template as a Permanent Clip in ArsClip, or by using templates in Konrad Papala's Ka Type In, both of them free.  You won't get to see the results without pressing Preview in DC, but you can at least put the tags in conveniently. [/Edit]

[TucknDar]

Excellent program! Really helpful. And excuse this rather uninformative post, I just had to try a combination of TEA and BBCeditor

[David.P]

Hi forum and Channing,

I'm trying to use shajul's WYSIWYG BBCode Editor together with TEA but for some reason the text is not transferred back to the textarea (e.g. here).

This editor uses a (proprietary?) file format called *.bbs (which is actually html-based).

From the first post I gather that the text should be transferred back to the textarea from the editor also by Alt+Tab, but this also doesn't seem to work.

Any hints greatly welcome,

Cheers David.P

[rjbull]

@David.P; Just to check, you are Saving the file first, before Alt-Tabbing back to the Web form?

I should add, TEA fails to transfer text one way or the other for me fairly frequently, but I can't get a handle on it.  If it doesn't transfer text back the the Web form, I often add a space, backspace over it again - so the editor thinks the file's been changed - re-save it, and usually the next Alt-Tab back again transfers the text.

It seems to work better with some forums than others.  DC works well.  Fountain Pen Network, not so well.

[cthorpe]

Looks interesting.  I will have to play with it a bit to see if it is something that I am going to keep around.

Typing this in Boxer, so we'll see what happens when I save.

C

[x16wda]

Interesting - TEA is similar to Dolphin Text Editor Menu (which I like a lot) but a slightly different take on the idea.  I upgraded to Listary Pro  the same day I tried it out, but didn't check out the rest of the web site.