Editor

Android simple generic text editor. The app is available from F-Droid and here

Issues

There have been a number of issues raised on this app where users have obviously not read this README, looked at the documentation, or looked at old closed issues. Please read the README, read the docs, and look at the old issues before raising another one, you can search the issues from the box at the top.

Large files

Editor loads the whole of file to be edited into memory. It will not load large files which would cause performance issues or cause the app to crash. Please do not raise issues about the Too large dialog shown when attempting to load a large file.

This is a fairly simple generic text editor which may be used standalone or to show or edit any sort of text file from another app. If you select a text file in a file manager or similar app you will be offered the option of using this editor along with whatever other apps you have installed that can show or edit a text file. Files will initially be opened read only, long touch on the display or touch the edit item in the toolbar to enable editing.

There are five toolbar items which may appear:

• Edit – Edit the current read only file
• View – View the current file read only
• Save – Save the current file if modified
• New – Start a new empty file
• Open – Open a text file using a chooser

And on the menu:

• Open recent – Pop up a list of recent files
  • Clear list – Clear list of recent files
• Search – Interactive search of text using a regular expression
• Find all – Find all recent files containing search text
• Save as – Save the current file with a new name
• Go to – Scroll to selected position in file
• Print – Print current file
• View markdown – View markdown in browser or html viewer
• Charset – Change the current character set, shows current set
• Options – Select options
  • View files – Open files read only for viewing
  • Open last – Open last opened file on startup
  • Auto save – Save the current file on app pause
  • Word wrap – Limit text width to screen width and word wrap
  • Suggestions – Text input and spelling suggestions
  • Highlight syntax – Highlight programming language syntax
• Theme – Choose theme
  • Light
  • Dark
  • System
  • White
  • Black
  • Retro
• Text size – Choose text size
  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large
• Typeface – Choose typeface
  • Monospace
  • Proportional
• About – Show version, copyright and licence

Edit

Edit the current read only text.

View

View the current file read only.

Save

Save the current file if modified.

New

Start a new empty file. Use the Save as item to save the new file.

Open

Choose a file to open from the chooser dialog that pops up. The parent folder will be the first in the list. See File Chooser. The file will initially be read-only. Touch the Edit toolbar item to enable editing.

Open recent

Choose a file from the list that pops up. As above the file will initially be read only. The last entry, Clear list, will clear the list.

Save as

Use the dialog and the Save button or the Storage button to use the android file manager to save the file.

Search

Enter search text in the field that pops up in the toolbar. The first matching item will be highlighted. Use the search button in the keyboard for find next. The exact regular expression syntax used is in the android documentation for Pattern.

Find all

You may find all recent files that contain the current search text. This menu item will only appear while the search widget is active. A dialog will pop up with a list of matching files. Touch an entry to open that file. You may repeat this or refine the search text to find the desired file.

Go to

Select position in the current file on the horizontal seek bar in the dialog which will pop up.

Print

Print the current file. If you would like the output highlighted, you will need to scroll slowly through the whole file to give the app a chance to highlight it. Caution – Attempting to print a large file on an older device with limited resources may cause the app to stop responding.

View markdown

You will be prompted to choose a viewer for an html file containing the encoded markdown from the current open file. If the text contains no markdown the result will be the same text.

Shortcuts

You may create a New file or an Open file shortcut in the launcher. The New file widget will create an shortcut to open a new file in Editor. The Open file widget will pop up a dialog showing the file chooser. You may choose a file or use the Storage button. You may cancel and fill in the name and path fields, or edit the name or path fields after choosing a file. Use the Create button to create the shortcut. Note – content URIs returned by the android file picker will not be resolved.

Regular expressions

Explaining regular expressions used in the text search is beyond the scope of this README. There is at least one book devoted to the subject. Use (?i) for case insensitive search.

Character set

The current character set is displayed under the current file name. The character set is optionally detected when a new file is read. It may be changed by selecting the Charset item in the menu, which shows the current character set. See Character set.

Highlight syntax

If the current open file is a C, C++, Objective C, Go, Java, Javascript, Python, Shell script, Swift, CSS, HTML, Org or Markdown file, the keywords, classes comments, strings, etc will be highlighted. See Syntax Highlighting.

Mode line

If a line of text is found within the first or last two or three lines of the file which matches the mode line pattern, the mode of the editor will be changed after the file is loaded. See Mode line.

# ed: [[no]vw] [[no]ww] [[no]sg] [[no]hs] [cs:u] [th:l|d|s|w|b|r] [ts:l|m|s] [tf:m|p]

Word count

The file word count and character count are shown in the toolbar. Due to the algorithm used, the result may differ from that produced by other utilities.

Extended selection

If the file being edited is not a plain text file, selections created by double tapping or long touching on the text will be extended to enclosing delimiters (brackets, quotes) on the same text line.

Text size

Text size may be changed from the menu or by pinch or expand gestures on the text or by doubletap and swipe. The response to gestures on large files may be slow or delayed.

Unsaved file

If you touch the new, back or open button, and the current file has been modified, you will be prompted whether you want to save it, else the editor will just exit or open a file chooser. The current file may be saved on app pause using the menu option. The scroll position and name will be remembered for the last 10 files opened.

Changed file

If a file has changed in storage while it was open in the editor, if you attempt to save it, or the app is resumed, you will be prompted whether to overwrite or reload the file.

Default file

If there is no open file any text entered will by default be saved in Documents/Editor.txt. This file will be loaded on start if it exists. Use the Save as menu item to save it elsewhere.

Shared file

Text files opened or shared by another app may be viewed and edited. Some apps may share files or text using a content URI that is not resolvable to a path to a file in storage. In that case the editor will read the file into a new file. The Save item will save the file in the original location if possible.

Note – Apps that share files will usually only give another app read permission. Use the Save as menu item to save the file elsewhere.

Keyboard shortcuts

When using an external keyboard, some keyboard shortcuts are implemented:

• Ctrl+E – Edit mode
• Ctrl+Shift+E – View mode
• Ctrl+N – New file
• Ctrl+O – Open file
• Ctrl+S – Save file
• Ctrl+Shift+S – Save as

SD cards

Android allows removable SD cards to be used like a USB stick or as part of the device storage. Files opened using the file chooser on a removable SD card may not save successfully using the save button. Use the Save as menu item and the Storage button to save it using the android file manager. Alternatively use the Storage button on the file chooser dialog to open the file using the android file manager. See File Chooser.