Notepad is one of the few tools that is been a part of Windows operating system and which have not been evolved since its initial release. Notepad is simple to use and lacks many features / enhancement. So it is always better to look for a replacement, which will overcome all known issues of Notepad.
Why Replacement?
Notepad has some disadvantages, which is known to everyone who uses it frequently. Here is a quick list of them.
- Doesn’t have support for multiple document interface
- Doesn’t display line number (this is harder part for programmer / debugger)
- Doesn’t support syntax highlighting
- Doesn’t support larger files
- It is after all Microsoft product 🙂
To overcome these and other disadvantages many programmers looked into developing better tools that will be as simple to use as Notepad, yet offer additional features and enhancements that were left out of the original Notepad.
Couple of weeks back I wrote about my favorite notepad alternative and I asked my readers about their favorite too. Thanks to the readers who have given their views about their notepad alternative.
Top 5 Notepad Replacement
Here is the top 5 list of notepad replacement. I bet you will love at least one 😉
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and an effective Notepad replacement. Notepad++ supports several programming languages. The features include syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, multi-document, drag and drop, full regular search support etc., It also has include advanced macro recording and playback feature. Moreover Notepad++ has most of my readers vote and it is the well-know replacement for Notepad.
Programmer’s Notepad is free, open source, text editor with special enhancements for Programmers. Programmer’s Notepad is a project featured in Source Forge, which comes in as one of the best notepad replacement for programmers. The main features include book marking, code highlighting / folding, no limit to file size, tabbed document support, project management feature and much more. Programmer’s notepad is my favorite choice for Notepad replacement.
PSPad is freeware code editor and wonderful notepad replacement. PSPad offers main features like rich text formatting, mighty code editing features, project management, syntax highlighting, auto-correction, HEX editor, text difference, spell checker, macro recorder and many more. PSPad also has inbuilt FTP functionality which is a plus for Web developers and Bloggers. PSPad is more advanced of all editors mentioned here. If you are looking for full functional and feature rich editor then PSPad should be your choice.
Notepad2 is a lightweight, free and open source text editor. Notepad2 is a full functional Notepad like editor with syntax highlighting. It is also based on Scintilla source code editing component similar to Notepad++. The features also include drag and drop feature, regular expression search, syntax highlighting for most of the languages. Notepad2 is best suited for persons who need simplicity like Notepad and Code highlighting feature for fun programming.
MetaPad is a small, fast and completely free text editor. It was designed to completely replace Notepad since it includes all of Notepad’s features and few extra features. The features include tool bar functionality, WYSIWYG printing, auto indenting etc., It is also been said it consumes less amount of memory than Notepad. So even if you like to stick with the simplicity of Notepad; you can very well try MetaPad.
I have complied the list with the help of my readers feedback and my thanks everyone.
Are you able to spot your Notepad replacement?
I use Notepad 2. It does most of my work. 🙂
dEEPAK – Great. I have a company 😛 Programmer’s Notepad is my choice too!. BTW, Thanks for the link love!
Haris – Notepad 2 is a simple alternative to Notepad.! Hope you have found your Notepad replacement as well! BTW, Thanks for stopping here. and come back.!
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Hey Ben, I am finally back!!! Hope you have had a breather without me, but hey, I dont plan on being absent too long!
Seeing that you asked if I wanted any help with hosting, yes I do! Can you recommend a good host for me?
My needs are:
500MB webspace(I need to host only 3-4 WP blogs)
3-5GB bandwidth
oneclick WP is not wanted
multiple FTP acc.
98% uptime(mine’s a small blog, so downtime doesnt matter)
customer service is not important.
easy upgradability, in case of a digg/slashdot/reddit effect.
price: hopefully less than $6 p.m
Sumesh – Great to have you back.. You’re correct was chilling out a little bit 🙂 lol! BTW, we will talk about hosting off line. I’m leaving you a message in MBL.
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Thanks for the info.
I only knew about notepad++.
Sunil Parmar – Hope you tried out others by now!
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is the criteria that ‘pad’ has to be in the title of the app?,, what about ultra edit?
cottage – Very interesting observation, I never noted it! Well… it might be true since it is replacing another ‘PAD’ 🙂 I use ultra edit frequently, but not in list since it didn’t have word *FREE*..
For some reason I just love NotePad and I don’t think I could ever give it up! It’s just too nice and simple and I wouldn’t want anything more!
Aseem Kishore – I agree the fact it is simple! Yes, If you get everything you want out of it then Notepad will work for you.! Else you can give others a try which give little more than NotePad
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i don't use notepad since i found out about metapad. nice collection you have here.
and what about scite ?
Syahid Ali – Thank you.
djabas – yes, it is one of the good option too.
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Call me crazy…. but I’m still paying for ultra edit nothing better in the free world.
http://www.ultraedit.com/
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The following Notepad replacement program has been overlooked called:
RogSoft NotePad+ 1.11
Information and downloadable links are here:
File
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Text-editors/RogSoft-NotePad-plus.shtml
More Information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B
I have used Programmer’s Notepad for about 2 years now. I find it is great for Web coding (php, html, css etc) and I have also used it to write small Java/J2ME applications.
I actually found this article after I tried googling for a programmer’s notepad alternative… After reading this, I think I will just stay with PN2…. if it aint broken, don’t fix it :D.
A couple of things that could be fixed in PN:
*(x) HTML – tags which don’t need to be closed (i.e. , ) Shouldn’t generate a close tag… Auto closing is useful but it’s annoying if you forget the slash on non-closed tag.
* CSS could be color coded when it is embeded in HTML. At the moment you can get the color coding in external css files but not if you write css in tags (unless you select the CSS doc type from the toolbar then change it back to HTML when you are done).
Otherwise… for a free program, excellent value!
I love Notepad++. It is my default editor for everything except html which I do in Dreamweaver. However, today Notepad++ wouldn’t open a file because it was too large just like Notepad. Ugh!! I never realized that Notepad++ had the max file size limit like Notepad. Well, thank you for this list because it gives me at least one other to try, Programmer’s Notepad which is the only one listed that has the unlimited file size feature mentioned.
Thanks Again.
Check out Emerald Editor (http://www.emeraldeditor.com/) formerly Crimson Editor. It contains all features like the others mentioned here, and among open source editors, only this one contains the column mode editing.
Cool Thanks. Just downloaded Notepad++, yes, it’s awesome.
Thanks for the list of alternatives…
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In case you are still interested in other notepads, see TED Notepad, http://jsimlo.sk/notepad/
🙂 Very similar to Metapad and perhaps also to Notepad2.
Notepad++ is my all time favorite.