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The Non-Notepad(MS) Thread!

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TaoPhoenix:

Sometimes I like "simple" - "low level" programs that sorta do a few things ultra-simple. (But then I want features! Though it's just features behind the simple interface.)

So this week I finally left Notepad as my favorite no-nonsense text pad. In too many cases it wasn't handling line breaks properly. So today I went to the "complicated" WordPad for text files!

So I'm just curious what other people use for the simpler side of text processing. RTF is okay in this thread too, but I am purposely leaving off the page MS-Word Doc/Docx/ and other higher end needs.

I haven't gone off to one of my pet "surveys" - I am pretty sure in my other years I drifted across at least 5 text editors that did different things. This was just a 5 minute switch to "always open with wordpad" after 100-too-many lines quit formatting properly after some cut and paste op.

Thoughts? Ben Stein Fans?

mwb1100:
What do you mean by "wasn't handling line breaks properly"?

Instead of notepad, I use notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) or notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) - a couple of lightweight, free text editors.

And instead of fighting against Windows to actually replace c:\windows\notepad.exe and c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe with notepad2, I use:


--- ---ftype txtfile=c:\util\notepad2.exe "%1"
ftype inifile=c:\util\notepad2.exe "%1"
ftype inffile=c:\util\notepad2.exe "%1"

to associate the majority of file extensions that should open in the simple editor.  Now when I double click on a a .txt file in explorer, it opens in notepad2.  Microsoft's notepad is still on the system, but it never gets launched.

TaoPhoenix:
mwb, I'm not sure what that code does - usually I go to rightclick/open with/always use this program if I'm reassigning stuff. Does your code help when two programs "fight" for the extension and don't want to give it up?

TaoPhoenix:
What do you mean by "wasn't handling line breaks properly"?

Instead of notepad, I use notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) or notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) - a couple of lightweight, free text editors.
-mwb1100 (June 21, 2013, 02:10 AM)
--- End quote ---

I've seen Notepad++ before, and again on a 17 second look, it's got "too much of the wrong hardware" in it. Like handing me a flying car - yay flying car, but I'm not rated for flight, so all that stuff doesn't do me any good! (I don't program).

So Notepad2 it is - not yet sure what all those "little tweaks" do yet, but A, I don't need a ruler (though it might be in there), and B, the "whitespace counter" is a great initial selling point, so away Wordpad goes!
:Thmbsup:

DC 1 - MS 0 again! : )

mwb1100:
I think this code is just a command-line-way of doing what you're doing with the right click menu. "ftype" (and its associate command "assoc") are standard Windows commands for manipulating file type registrations. I just have those lines in a batch file in my utils directory so I don't have to do much hunting or mousing around when I set up a new machine.

I suppose it would make it easier to get things back the way I like if another program 'stole' those extensions, but that hasn't happened in my experience.

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