WriteInOne 1.3

By Harry {doc) Babad

Introduction

“A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files. A text file (or plain text file) is a computer file that contains only ordinary textual characters with essentially no formatting. Text editors are often provided with operating systems (e.g., Apple’s TextEdit) or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code.” [Wikipedia]

As noted on the Softpedia website “Many people, like me, feel that they cannot write in a simple ‘text editor’, because they think it’s not good enough for them, which is an arguable point to say the least. Apple includes in OS X a small application for writing text that has been aptly named TextEdit. It is not a word processor and, for this reason, many avoid it like the plague, because they feel it is not good enough, and it usually tends to only be used when viewing the read-me of various applications.

“Of course, there are people who prefer the simple functionality of such a program, and although TextEdit is quite simple, there are other programs out there that take after it, going a bit further, but not by much… such as WriteInOne [WIO].” http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/mac/WriteInOne-Review-35370.shtml

My interest in the program was alerted by the following description I read somewhere on the Internet. “WriteInOne is a simple text-editing program, with almost identical in features to TextEdit. It does however have a bit of a different approach to handling multiple documents. While it cannot match up to a word processor in terms of features, it is a simple tool that can be used without any hard disk or memory bloat. It is not a replacement for a dedicated program for web designing or software coding.”

Getting Started

Drag the application to your applications folder, click on it and you’re ready to use it. To add the files to work with to the application, just drag them onto WriteInOne’s icon, in the dock. Bingo, a new entry is added to the left side of the application’s window. It’s a shame that you can’t add files directly to the left hand pane in the main window, but I’m being nit picky.

Many Documents – One Window — When it comes to plain text documents, WriteInOne has almost the exact functionality of TextEdit. Feature for feature, even the menus are the comparable. The one big difference is that in WriteInOne is that everything takes place in just one window. If you want to work on a second document, you just click on it in the left pane of WriteInOne’s main window. [It’s like the sidebar in apple finder windows. I was a bit surprised that there was no preferences pane, but then realized I did not need one.

As you can see above, I added a number of files to the application, edited them (no you can’t see that in the image) and saved the revised copy. I was able to print, print to PDF or otherwise use the resulting edited document in the normal fashion.

Features

WriteInOne can serve as an editor for both software or web text content [e.g., HTML and PHP]. The formats supported are HTML, PHP, TXT, RTF(D), and doc. In addition, you will be able to open an endless number of documents. [I only tired a half-dozen, I don’t need endless.]

One useful aspect of this program is that you don’t have to routinely save your documents. You can save your documents when you want! The application automatically memorizes your document’s data. It also allows a preview of your web documents. Considering how messed up MSW’s auto save features are, this in itself is a huge benefit.

• MSW — For example, need a small edit to be made on your Word document? No need to bother with launching Microsoft Word. Do it in WriteInOne. However if you make more than minor edits, you’ll like mess up some of the document formatting. [Yes, but my MSW is always open since it’s my main productivity tool.]

• RTF(D) — Editing support for RTFD implies the fact of being able to integrate images in your text. This too worked, wonderful. On the other hand when I imported MSD Word documents containing images into the program, the pictures were lost. But then, a RTFD is not a .doc.

A Few Peculiarities of this Program

• Working With Existing Documents — When you add an existing document to WIO, it remains where it originally was on your hard drive, Apparently WriteInOne links or perhaps shadows it. Any changes you’ve made become part of that original, when saved. [Saving only applies to a document, not the entire contents of the application window.]

• Creating New Documents — These are created in your application folder and show up as an untitled text document. When you save that item, you have the chance to appropriately name it, locate it and establish the file type. You can move the save file to another location, WIO keeps track of where it’s found.

Okay, so what happened when you move the selected files to the trash? It tells you so. Then WriteInOne gives you a saving feature.

And even if you’ve trashed the items, you get like magic, to save the deleted files [Save As] to a new location.

As noted in the Softpedia review, “A major difference between WriteInOne and TextEdit is that it can edit HTML and PHP files. This goes beyond simply opening them up and typing in them, although admittedly not by much. It does not color-code the tags, or have smart auto-completion options, or anything else that a dedicated application does, it just has a simple Live Preview function that lets you view the resulting text you are typing, as you type it.”

One Problem and Two Wishes

The Problem — As I mentioned above, if I close the WriteInOne application window I can’t reopen it. To get it back I must first quit the application and then restart it. Voila, it reappears. So just shrink the window, don’t close it.

Multi-Document Find and Replace, Please – I’m sure many users would find a universals reach and replace function useful This was noted in a Softpedia review on Version 1.1, but is not yet available in version 1.3

A Help or Read Me File — It was no problem for me in a few hours to figure out how to best to use WriteInOne’s features and learn its idiosyncrasies. But for the rest of us, a bit of help would be welcome. I’d be pleased if the developer extracted what was needed from this review, to create such a file in English.

Conclusion

Tiger users should love this lightweight and fast text editor. It supports TextEdit-like text formatting and edits both rich text and Word formatted files. This simple to use application is more functional that TextEdit and costs the same. It’s free! The file browser with content preview is a welcome addition to the features of TextEdit.

I’ve given this application a 4.5 macCs despite, not being able to reopen it because what it does, it does simply and with elegance. It also stops me trashing a file accidentally and I never have to save anything when using the product.

I don’t know what I’d use it for, but I don’t either program of create web pages. I don’t use text edit now, nor have I ever used any of its predecessors.

Recommendation

If the functions of the product work for you download it and enjoy its interface. After all it’s free.