PSPad is a superlative alternative to ultraedit, it’s packed with a great deal of features and is free of charge for any person and company.

Feature List

• Open several documents in a tabbed interface.
• Search and replace in project files / open files / selected directory.
• Find and replace string using regular expressions.
• Create and delete bookmarks.
• Supports spell check.
• Auto generate and insert GUID, for instance: ['{92275857-22C8-44AB-B92F-F3C89CB9458D}'].
• Display line number, ruler.
• Toggle between hex mode and plain text mode.
• Record and play macro for batch job.
• Compare and display difference between two text files side by side.
• Several useful tools built in: ASCII table, color select, eyedropper, clipboard monitor, hash generator( MD5, SHA1, MD4, RIPEMD160 ), lorem ipsum generator.
• Supports projects, templates, syntax highlighting, etc.
• It’s built with a variety of templates: abp, as, asp, asx, c, cbl, cs, css, hta, html, js, pas, php, pl, psc, rex, rss, sh, vbs, vhd, wml, x3d, xhtml, xml, xq, xsl, xul.
• Increase/decrease font size using ctrl + mouse wheel.

Conclusion

PSPad is an excellent text editor for general users and source code editor for programmers and web designers, but it lacks the support for large text files, this is same as ultraedit and notepad++. Feel free to check out HxD or LTFViewr, the former one is a stunning large file viewer and editor, the later one is an amazing large text file viewer.

PSPad works on most Windows operating systems including Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Download it from CNET or the developer’s website.

Notepad++ is an open source text editor for Windows, Notepad++ is full featured, highly customizable and extendable.

See also: PSPad, another excellent full function text editor.

Feature List

• Multiple tabbed interface.
• Find / Replace word in opened files or the directory you specified, supports filters and regular expression.
• Supports full screen mode.
• Zoom in / out with Ctrl + Mouse wheel up / down.
• Record and run macro.
• Syntax highlighting and syntax folding, the following languages are supported: C / C++ / Objective-C, C# / Java / Javascript, XML, CSS / HTML, ASP / PHP, SQL, Pascal, Perl, Python / Lua.
• Compare and show difference between two text files.
• Supports plugin.
• Fully customizable: it allows you customize keyboard shortcut, color style, font style as well as popup context menu.
• Create / delete / cut / copy / paste bookmarks.
• Open file in read only mode.
• Supports a variety of languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, etc.
• Spell checker.
• WYSIWYG: what you see is what you get.
• Drag and drop.

Notepad++ supports Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 95 / 98 / NT / 2000 / 2003. ( 32bit and 64 bit )

Download it from CNET or SourceForge or the developer’s website.

Crimson Editor is a free, open source, lightweight and easy to use all-in-one text processing program for Windows. See also: PSPad, Notepad++, Large Text File Viewer, Large Text File Editor.

Feature List

• Tabbed editing window.
• Supports column mode.
• Find / replace words in files, regular expression is supported.
• Toggle bookmark, navigate to previous / next bookmark with keyboard shortcut.
• Spell check.
• Custom font, color, line spacing.
• Encoding types supported: ASCII, Unicode( little endian, big endian ), UTF-8( with BOM or without BOM ).
• File formats supported: DOS format, Unix format, Mac format.
• Allows you convert tabs to spaces or vice via, or only convert leading spaces to tabs.
• Unlimited undo and redo.
• Add and manage any file into one project.
• Print and print preview.
• Record and replay macros.
• Syntax highlighting, the following computer languages are supported: c/c++, java, asp/php, python, matlab( free matlab alternative ), css, sql, html, perl, etc.
• Split window vertically / horizontally.
• Insert date, time, file.

Crimson Editor works on all Windows operating systems including Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Download it from SourceForge or the developer’s website.

Notepad2 is an alternative to Windows Notepad which provides many useful features to you including syntax highlighting, zoom in / zoom out, rectangular selection, file encryption, bookmarks, etc.

Feature List

• Lightweight, fast, easy to use.
• Revert file to last saved state.
• Open text file in read mode.
• Regular expression search / replace.
• Sticky window position; Always on topmost; Minimize to system tray.
• Customize font, foreground color, background color of comment, keyword, identifier, string, number, operator, preprocessor, target, variable, alias, cmdlet, regex, function name, class name for the following languages: C / C++ / C# / JavaScript / Python / SQL / CSS / Html / PHP / XML / LUA / Ruby, etc.

Notepad2 works on all popular Windows OS including Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Download Notepad2 from the developer’s website or cnet.com or Google( 64-bit ).

EditPad Lite is a free for personal use program that is designed as alternative to Windows Notepad, it’s lightweight and deadly simple to operate.

Features

• Open and edit multiple open documents on different tabs.
• Drag and drop.
• Unlimited levels of undo and redo.
• Set on topmost.
• Reopen recently used files.
• Supports minimizing to system tray.
• Supports double byte character systems (DBCS), UNIX / Mac / Windows / DOS text files.
• It has an option to install as portable application.
• Auto indent, word wrap, show line numbers,
• Convert selected texts to uppercase or lowercase.

EditPad Lite is simple and easy to use, if you prefer full-function text editors, please check out NotePad++ or PSPad.

EditPad Lite supports Microsoft Windows 7 / Windows XP / Vista / 2000 / Me / 98.

EditPad Lite is a 3.1MB download available from CNET and the developer’s website.