WhizNote - Free Text Editor and Note Organizer Software for Windows

WhizNote - Free Text Editor and Note Organizer for Windows

Version 3.5.8 for Windows Vista, XP, 98SE, 2000

How nice it would be if Notepad remembers a new text file type (extension) as soon as you edit it. But it doesn't. WhizNote has such nice features. For example, the following picture shows how WhizNote on my system has learned the new text file types after I edited several types of files with it.
File Open Text File Choices

Read more about what other nice features WhizNote has as a text file editor.

WhizNote as a Text File Editor--what is different from other text editors

Before you use WhizNote for text editing, you should read these tips to know how it is different from other text file editors (like Notepad) that you may have used. You can also see a Flash Demo Movie showing some of these text file editing features. See the demo "Text file editing and using WhizMenu for HTML editing" in the Demo section later on this page.

Since WhizNote was primarily developed as a note organizer, its File Menu is a little different from text editors like Notepad. To edit text files, you need to use the menu "File--Text File." Ignore the top menu items "Open WhizNote" and "New WhizNote" which are related to note organizer files. But when you start editing a text file, the menu changes to become almost same as a Notepad menu.
Instead of the file menu, I recommend you to use the toolbars button as shown in the following picture.
Recently used files: If you see the File menu picture, notice that the recently used text files appear at the bottom of the file menu so that you can quickly reopen them. This feature is missing in Windows Notepad.
A nice tip and feature in this regard that I use most often: If you want to open another text file not on this list, just open a file on the list which is in the same folder. This makes that folder the current folder so that when you use the "Open Text File" button, you don't have to locate its folder.
Intelligent learning of file types that I use! This is an extreme convenience feature that makes WhizNote a pleasure to use for text file editing. How often you go to open a text file with Windows Notepad and are frustrated to find only TXT files listed there. You need to do some more clicks to see other types of files and then select a file which is not of type TXT. WhizNote is much smarter than that. Once you have open such a non-TXT file, edited it and save it, WhizNote remembers the file type. Next time, you will automatically see those file types in the list. For example, the following picture shows a File Open screen in my copy of WhizNote. You can see that WhizNote has learned about other file extensions that I use and is showing me a list of all such files.

You can also explicitly add a file type to the list of file types in WhizNote by the menu "Tools--Add Current File Type to File Open list."
Multiple Window Editing: You can have several text files open for editing. While that may not be a unique feature, the next feature "remembering the desktop" is related to this and is unique.
Remembering the desktop: This is another great feature that is switched off by default. To switch on this feature, click on the menu "Options--General Desktop Options" and switch on the option "Restore desktop on startup." Once you do that, WhizNote remembers all the open files along with their window and editing cursor positions and restores them when you start it next time. This is a great way to resume your work especially if you like working with many editor windows open.
Unique web authoring features: The features that I am about to describe are meant for the advanced users who know about authoring HTML with text editors like Notepad.
1. HTML Markers: You can select some text and quickly enclose it in an HTML marker, for example, bold. But it doesn't stop there. You can customize it heavily and add your own markers with features to even position the caret. This feature is so useful that I have described it in detail starting with a section called "Text Templates" that you will find later on this page.
2. Test HTML page: If you are editing an HTM or HTML type page, you can quickly load it in a browser for testing. For this, please click on the menu "File--Reload HTML File in Browser" as shown below.
3. Testing other types of web pages: What if you are editing a page which does not have a file extension of HTM or HTML. For example, you are editing an aspx page (asp.net). How do you test such pages? You have a local web server that can load such pages. For example, I have a Cassini web server where I test these pages. The base address for this web site on Cassini is "http://localhost:50185/". In WhizNote, I can set this base address on the Tools menu. I click on the menu "Tools--Set Website Root URL" and enter it.
  
  I also need to enter the folder location of my web site root in the menu "Tools--Set Website Root Directory."
  
  Once I have set the above, clicking on the same menu "File--Reload HTML File in Browser" loads my aspx page in the browser. How convenient! You can follow a similar procedure for use with php, shtml or other types of files but you may need different web server products for local testing. Since you are reading this, I assume that you know what I am talking about.
4. Clicking "include virtual" values: Once you have set the web site root directory as described above, if you click on the values of "include virtual" type statements, the target file also opens in WhizNote for editing which is very convenient. The only exception is a TXT file that opens in Notepad. I plan to fix this in future.
5. Clicking SRC and HREF values: When you click these in WhizNote, if the target file type is associated with a program in your Windows system, that program opens up the file. For example, JPG files might open in a graphics program and a complete web site url will open in a browser. If the value is a folder, it doesn't work. I need to fix this too to take up an index file within the folder depending on some settings. The point is that this feature is at times useful to quickly test a value.
Text Templates: This is another power feature that you won't find in any other text editor. The editor allows you to customize its right-click menu to insert custom text with sophisticated template features. I call this feature WhizMenu. To see a WhizMenu, just right-click on an editor. You will see a menu like this:

You can read various items on the menu to understand how it works. But you don't need to read it if you just want to insert HTML markers for web authoring. Just read the tip described next.
HTML Markers: We have provided WhizMenus for html authoring with WhizNote. You need to switch to that WhizMenu. Please follow this procedure to switch.
1. First right-click on the editor to get the WhizMenu as shown above.
2. Click on its menu WhizMenu--Switch to WhizMenu File.
3. Select the file "WhizMenu HTML."
Once you do that the right-click menu on the editor will change to this:

You can see HTML markers on this menu. For example, to make some text bold, select that and click on bold to include it in html markers.
Fully customizable: The above menu is fully customizable so that you can add more markers. To see how all that works, please read WhizNote help index on "WhizMenu." Once you use it, you will realize its power. There are features to even position caret within the inserted text.
More advanced HTML WhizMenu:We have even included an advanced HTML WhizMenu contributed by John Barrington. Just follow the same procedure to switch the WhizMenu but this time select the file "WhizMenu, more detailed, for html authoring."
Author a web page with WhizNote: Even if you don't know any HTML, you can have fun with WhizNote by creating a web page. I recommend that you see a Flash Demo Movie "Text file editing and using WhizMenu for HTML editing" in the Demo section later on this page.