DOWNLOADING FREE EDITORS

DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING FREE EDITORS TO YOUR COMPUTER

There are many free editors available on the Internet. You can download one of these tools and use it to write your source programs.

One of the best totally free editors that works in Windows is called Notepad++. You should use Google to find out from where you can download Notepadd++. After you have downloaded the setup or installer file, you should just run it.

Below you can find instructions for downloading, installing, and activating some of the older free editors. (Some of this information may be out of date.) I suppose below that the installation files are stored in a folder (directory) named D:\freeware. (If you prefer, you can use some other folder to store the editors, but then the advice given below is not accurate.)

NOTEPAD2 EDITOR

Notepad2 is a new free editor that seems to be a nice editor since it has so-called syntax-highlighting capabilities for several programming languages. Notepad2 imitates Notepad, the standard Windows editor, but Notepad2 has better features for editing source programs. To download Notepad2 you should first click on the link below Page for Notepad2 When the page for Notepad2 is being displayed, you should select under the title Downloads the link that downloads the Notepad2 editor. Do not select the link that downloads the Notepad 2 Source Code. The file that you should download is notepad2.zip, and you should save the file to the folder D:\freeware.

To make the editor work, you must unzip the file notepad2.zip. A .zip file contains other files in a special compressed format, and unzipping means that the files inside the .zip file are extracted to some folder (directory) on your computer. In the Windows XP operating system unzipping can be done by just clicking the file’s icon. You should thus select My Computer > Local Disk D: > freeware > notepad2.zip. In the unzipping process it is important that you select Extract all files, and I recommend that you extract the files to the folder D:\freeware. A successful unzipping produces files named Notepad2.exe, Notepad2.reg, and Notepad2.txt to the D:\freeware folder.

After you have the Notepad2.exe in the D:\freeware folder, you should create a shortcut to the file in the following way. First minimize all windows of your computer screen (desktop), and then click with the right mouse button an empty place on the screen (desktop). Then select New > Shortcut. When the Create Shortcut window appears, select Browse .... When the Browse For Folder window appears, select My Computer > Local Disk D: > freeware > Notepad.exe and click OK. Click Next in the Create Shortcut window. You may create a name for the shortcut. Click Finish, and an icon for the Jen's File Editor appears on the screen (desktop). By clicking on the icon you can activate the editor.

The Notepad2 editor works like Windows programs usually work: the File menu exists to open and close files, the Edit menu is for Copy and Paste operations, etc. On problem with Notepad2 is that you cannot simultaneously open several files with it. To work with several files simultaneously, you have to invoke several instances of the editor program. This can be achieved by selecting File > Launch > Empty Window.

I recommend that you configure Notepad2 so that you select View > Tab Settings ... and you put 3 to the Tab Width field that specifies how many spaces are inserted to the text when the tabulator key is pressed. You shoud also select the box "Insert tabs as spaces" and click OK These selections ensure that no tabulator characters enter the program text. The tabulators can be problematic if you edit your program with another editor, or you want to print it on paper.

JENS' FILE EDITOR

Jens' File Editor is a program editor that I have used during several years, and it seems to be working reliably. To download Jens' File Editor you should first click on the link below >Page for Jens' File Editor On the page that is displayed you should click on the link that says "The current version here ..." The file that you should get is named jfe_e.zip, and you should save the file to the folder D:\freeware.

To make the Jens’ File Editor work, you must unzip the file jfe_e.zip. A .zip file contains other files in a special compressed format, and unzipping means that the files inside the .zip file are extracted to some folder (directory) on your computer. In the Windows XP operating system unzipping can be done by just clicking the file’s icon. You should thus select My Computer > Local Disk D: > freeware > jfe_e.zip. In the unzipping process it is important that you select Extract all files, and I recommend that you extract the files to the folder D:\freeware.
A successful unzipping produces a file named jfe.exe to the D:\freeware folder.

After you have the jfe.exe in the D:\freeware folder, you should create a shortcut to the file in the following way. First minimize all windows of your computer screen (desktop), and then click with the right mouse button an empty place on the screen (desktop). Then select New > Shortcut. When the Create Shortcut window appears, select Browse .... When the Browse For Folder window appears, select My Computer > Local Disk D: > freeware > jfe.exe and click OK. Click Next in the Create Shortcut window. You may create a name for the shortcut. Click Finish, and an icon for the Jen's File Editor appears on the screen (desktop). By clicking on the icon you can activate the editor.

The Jens’ File Editor works like Windows programs usually work: the File menu exists to open and close files, the Edit menu is for Copy and Paste operations, etc. You must open a file with the editor, before it lets you configure itself through the Settings menu. I usually change the standard configuration so that I set the font to Courier New 10. I recommend that you ensure that "Soft tabs" is selected in Settings > Tabs, and you put 3 to the field that specifies how many spaces are inserted to the text when the tabulator key is pressed. Selecting "Soft tabs" ensures that no tabulator characters enter the program text. The tabulators can be problematic if you edit your program with another editor, or you want to print it on paper.

EditPad Lite EDITOR

Still one possible free editor for your use is called EditPad Lite. I have used EditPad Lite during several years, and it seems to be working reliably. To obtain the EditPad Lite editor, you have to click on the link Page for EditPad Lite editor >with your Internet browser. That page is for buying the EditPad Pro editor, but you can also find a button to download the Lite version of the editor. When you download the editor, you should get a file named SetUpEditPadLite.exe, and store it in the folder (directory) D:\freeware or some folder for temporary files on your computer. Then you should execute the downloaded .exe file to perform the actual installation. You can execute the file by selecting My Computer > Local Disk D: > freeware > SetUpEditPadLite.exe. The installation program automatically creates a shortcut through which you can start the editor program.

The EditPad Lite editor works in much the same way as the Jens’ File Editor. You may not use EditPad Lite for any commercial purposes. Also the EditPad editor should be configured so that when the tabulator (Tab) key is pressed no tabulator characters enter the text. This can be achieved by selecting Options > Preferences > Editor, ticking "Pressing Tab inserts spaces instead of tab characters", and putting 3 to the numerical fields.

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