Arch Linux

aardwolf

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2005-07-23

Posts: 304

Looking for non-tabbed plain text editor (kwrite became tabbed)

Hi,

Kwrite used to be a simple single-document editor, but changed to become tabbed so doesn't open documents in separate windows (it doesn't even let you immediately type upon opening its window now, showing a welcome screen instead).
While I use many tabbed editors/IDE's, there are purposes where I don't and kwrite filled that role for me.
Why kwrite was changed like this is beyond my understanding, since they already had kate for the more complex features.
Others I know, like gedit, are also tabbed.

Is there any good purposefully single-document plain text editor with the following features?

- single document: if you open another one, it opens in another window/process of this text editor
- has all the features you expect such as find and replace including separate "whole word" and "case sensitive" settings
- remembers last opened files and uses file dialog well integrated with showing your bookmarked directories
- has both an always visible menu and always visible toolbar, with buttons such as save, undo, redo in the toolbar
- doesn't replace the default window borders of your chosen desktop environment with its own (removing window titlebar etc...)
- is not planning to change much but to stay as is, but remains supported

(I found a "top 23" article for linux text editors, and none satisfies, either they're tabbed, or have no toolbar, or are for the terminal which is yet another usecase)

Thanks!

Last edited by aardwolf (2022-12-21 20:40:52)

Morn

Member

Registered: 2012-09-02

Posts: 886

Re: Looking for non-tabbed plain text editor (kwrite became tabbed)

You could try leafpad, although it lacks a toolbar. But otherwise it's close.

rab0171610@gmail.com

Member

Registered: 2022-11-05

Posts: 20

Re: Looking for non-tabbed plain text editor (kwrite became tabbed)

One hint for avoiding the welcome screen and to enter text editing mode immediately is to start from the terminal with the new document name.  For example:

kwrite new.txt

I have not used this for kwrite per se but it works with the sister app kate.  It will still be tabbed but only the one tab will be open, so it will work much as it did before.  You can always change  the .desktop file in your preferred desktop to launch such a command instead of just 'kwrite'.   That way when you click on the icon in the app menu, it will launch kwrite and open a new blank document for editing.   You can then start typing immediately upon the program opening.