Author Topic: Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor [Freeware] (Read 43,710 times)

Channing · « **on:** July 29, 2011, 02:33 AM »

Hello all,

I'm glad to share Text Editor Anywhere 2 with you. It used to be a built-in feature of Listary, and now is a standalone freeware app. I rewrote it from scratch and added a bunch of useful new features.

Text Editor Anywhere allows you to edit text anywhere with your favorite text editor (and with a specified file extension). It provides a means of taking advantages of some advanced features (like auto-completing, spell checking and syntax highlighting) that are only available in an external text editor. It may also save you from webpage time-out or browser crashes.

Support all kinds of text editors
Support all applications
Support Unicode
You can pass complex parameters to the editor

It's very easy to use. Here is how I use it to edit this post in Firefox with BBCeditor by fenixproductions:

Step 1: Press Win + A whenever you need it. You can hold Win key and press "A" repeatedly to choose another file extension or edit the text with a new extension. It works like Alt + Tab.

[attach]

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:00 AM »

That looks nice!

cranioscopical · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:10 AM »

Quote

Don't hesitate to reply here if you have any questions

Press Win + A whenever you need it

Can one set a different key combination? (I have no Windows key.)

hamradio · « **Reply #3 on:** July 29, 2011, 03:19 AM »

I checked cranioscopical and it is in the options for hotkey.

Target · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2011, 04:20 AM »

FYI, the link to the portable version download is pointing to the setup exe

mwb1100 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2011, 04:27 AM »

Channing: there's a typo on the "Test Editor Anywhere" page. A section heading says: "Text Editor Anyehere - Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor".

I'll have to check this out - it looks like it'll nicely automate something that I do manually today.

Thanks!

Channing · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2011, 04:40 AM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on July 29, 2011, 03:10 AM

Can one set a different key combination? (I have no Windows key.)

Yes, you can set your own hot key in Options.

Quote from: Target on July 29, 2011, 04:20 AM

FYI, the link to the portable version download is pointing to the setup exe

Fixed now. Thank you!

Quote from: mwb1100 on July 29, 2011, 04:27 AM

Channing: there's a typo on the "Test Editor Anywhere" page. A section heading says: "Text Editor Anyehere - Edit Text Anywhere with Your Favorite Editor".

Also fixed. Thanks for your feedback!

AbteriX · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2011, 07:33 AM »

Hey! That realy rocks!

I know that feature to use your editor to modify an edit box from an firefox plugin
and the multiple choice of editors from Total Commander, but this edit text anywhere is great.
I just try it with XYplorer run script dialog to have better edit features.

Thanks for sharing.

How does this works? Some kind of DDE? SendMessage?

Also thanks to fenixproductions for BBCeditor, at last i took the change to try it out and saw this is an great helper too

Ath · « **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2011, 10:28 AM »

It takes some getting used to, but I think it's quite useful

rjbull · « **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2011, 07:53 PM »

I've been using version 1 for a while and it's completely replaced Firefox extension It's All Text!. Look forward to the new features

cranioscopical · « **Reply #10 on:** July 29, 2011, 09:10 PM »

Quote from: cranioscopical on July 29, 2011, 03:10 AM

Can one set a different key combination? (I have no Windows key.)

Quote from: hamradio

I checked cranioscopical and it is in the options for hotkey.

Quote from: Channing on July 29, 2011, 04:40 AM

Yes, you can set your own hot key in Options.

My thanks to you both

MilesAhead · « **Reply #11 on:** July 29, 2011, 10:29 PM »

Quote from: Ath on July 29, 2011, 10:28 AM

It takes some getting used to, but I think it's quite useful

Much easier once I set bbc to the top of the list.

Edit: if there's on thing that's annoying is browser crash in the middle of an edit.

Ath · « **Reply #12 on:** July 30, 2011, 08:09 AM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on July 29, 2011, 10:29 PM

Much easier once I set bbc to the top of the list.

That's what I did too

Channing · « **Reply #13 on:** July 30, 2011, 03:26 PM »

Quote from: AbteriX on July 29, 2011, 07:33 AM

How does this works? Some kind of DDE? SendMessage?

In most situations it will use clipboard for better compatibility since SendMessage only work with standard controls (e.g. it's impossible to use SendMessage to get/set text for a text area on a webpage).

rjbull · « **Reply #14 on:** July 30, 2011, 07:48 PM »

Quote from: AbteriX on July 29, 2011, 07:33 AM

I know that feature to use your editor to modify an edit box from an firefox plugin
and the multiple choice of editors from Total Commander, but this edit text anywhere is great.
I just try it with XYplorer run script dialog to have better edit features.

@AbteriX: Do you have a recent version of Channing's Listary as well? If so, try loading Total Commander and XYplorer together, but with different active directories. Next load a text editor and open its File Open dialog. Then Alt-Tab between the File Open dialog and the two file managers - and watch how the File Open dialog changes

kyrathaba · « **Reply #15 on:** July 31, 2011, 01:37 AM »

@Channing: very, very nice!

daddydave · « **Reply #16 on:** August 07, 2011, 12:08 AM »

This was the last straw for me. I could not avoid buying Listary Pro after this generous unbundling of the Edit Text Anywhere feature. It was on my to-buy list for a long time. I have a million uses for Listary and a few for ~~Edit Text Anywhere~~ Text Edit Anywhere (the post title confused me) (for example Google+ which doesn't currently provide the ability to save drafts), and their integration with every program is amazing.

Renegade · « **Reply #17 on:** August 07, 2011, 02:59 PM »

I just tried it out. MAN! That's slick! I love it!

I often write posts for DC in my text editor, EditPlus. I didn't even have to restart Opera or anything. Just unzip the portable version, and boom. I'm up and running.

Wicked cool~!

mouser · « **Reply #18 on:** August 08, 2011, 08:12 PM »

Congratulations on a nice writeup at BetaNews:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Text-Editor-Everywhere-does-what-its-name-says/1312829104

Tuxman · « **Reply #19 on:** August 09, 2011, 02:15 AM »

Wow, I didn't know Listary devs would be around here.

Great feature indeed. Now if it would also be able to store a "history" or something, it would probably make "Textarea Cache" and ArsClip redundant for me ...
Oh, and Listary's website needs some better hint to that software. Am I blind or is there no link to it?

nosh · « **Reply #20 on:** August 09, 2011, 10:25 AM »

[Deleted]

cyberdiva · « **Reply #21 on:** August 09, 2011, 02:04 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on July 29, 2011, 10:29 PM

Edit: if there's on thing that's annoying is browser crash in the middle of an edit.

I've stopped worrying about browser crashes since I started using the Firefox add-on Lazarus. I never have to think about summoning up my text editor to be sure I don't lose what I'm writing--if something goes wrong, I just retrieve the missing text from Lazarus. It's my favorite add-on. However, if I were using a browser in which Lazarus didn't work (e.g., Opera), I'd definitely look into Edit Text Anywhere.

rjbull · « **Reply #22 on:** August 09, 2011, 08:39 PM »

Quote from: cyberdiva on August 09, 2011, 02:04 PM

I never have to think about summoning up my text editor to be sure I don't lose what I'm writing--if something goes wrong, I just retrieve the missing text from Lazarus.

It's not just crash proofing. One of the great things about TEA is that you conveniently get your favourite editor to edit your posts with, so you can use macros, shorthands, whatever.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #23 on:** August 09, 2011, 11:02 PM »

Quote from: rjbull on August 09, 2011, 08:39 PM

It's not just crash proofing. One of the great things about TEA is that you conveniently get your favourite editor to edit your posts with, so you can use macros, shorthands, whatever.

That's a good point. However, 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. 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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #24 on:** August 09, 2011, 11:39 PM »

Quote from: cyberdiva on August 09, 2011, 11:02 PM

Quote from: rjbull on August 09, 2011, 08:39 PM
It's not just crash proofing.ï¿½ One of the great things about TEA is that you conveniently get your favourite editor to edit your posts with, so you can use macros, shorthands, whatever.
That's a good point.ï¿½ However, I tend not to use my text editor for most messages that I write with a browser.ï¿½ Mostly what I write in Firefox are forum posts, responses to blogs, etc.ï¿½ I don't tend to need macros, etc. for that.ï¿½ 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.ï¿½ 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.

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.