Improved searching

The word is already out. There will be a second searching mechanism available in the next version allowing a user to search for two things at the same time. Well, not exactly. The user may define two phrases simultaneously and use them alternatively.

This should be enough to search quickly for a specific well-used phrase occurrence right next to some rarely-used phrase. For example, you want to search for a word name after an id 12345. There are hundreds of name-s in the document byt only one such id. You want to search for ids like this repeatedly. Well, define a second search for name then find a desired id and hit second search... There you are, instead of scrolling again and again.

There is a Select to next feature, which selects all the text along the searching. This povides a quick way to select variable phrases by defining from and to. For example, you want to select all the text between two tags, e.g. <td> and </td>. Define the first search to the </td> phrase and then second search to the <td> phrase. Then, hit second search followed by Select to next.

Note: The second search does not use a dialog to enter a phrase. It is based on a search for selected text basis. There is, also, no second replacing mechanism.

Recording macros in a notepad replacement?

More and more people ask about recording macros, or at least key strokes. But I do not know how to implement them. Not technically, but efficiently. Recording keystrokes? And which one? Just those running tools? And what about their dialogs then?

There was also an idea of a simple scripting language, in the means of "do this", "repeat that x times", "goto this line", "exit if end of file", "exit if not found", ... simple enough, isn't it? Maybe as an external plug-in, a loadable dll..

Any ideas?

Cleaning up the menu

I have not paid much attention to the menu items as I like keyboard more than mouse. Unfortunatelly, over the past few releases, the menu has grown a bit and was barely shaked up. I have found and received several criticisms about that and would like to put the menu right. At least a bit.

I have created Search menu and moved all Find, Replace and Look For (new second search feature) items there. The Edit menu is, however, still quite crowded. I am unsure about organizing it into sub menus, cos they prolonge mouse navigation. And I do not want to create too much top-level menus also.

Any ideas?

New Goto dialog options

Several feature requests created an idea about adding new options into the Goto dialog.

• Option to jump relatively to the curent position. While checked, goto dialog will move by the given lines or characters forward instead of jumping to the exact position. By this, a user will be allowed to step through the document easily.


• Option to select along the way. While checked, goto dialog will extend the selection to cover a new given position as well. If a selection is already present, it will not be de-selected.

Translating notepad replacement into other languages?

Seems to me that more and more people ask for localized versions of TED Notepad. Several people already offered their help with translating into their native languages. I decided to do some preparations for that.

I have several other things in mind first. I want to release version 5.0 first, which is already being tested. Then I would like to do, what is necessary for the translating. Any ideas?

If you are interested in translating TED Notepad, please, contact me. I think I will create a group of translators, similar to the group of testers.