Request: basic text editor [resolved]

[webfork]

To keep track of tasks, I've been using Google Docs recently after an enormous amount of frustration with both Word 2010 and LibreOffice handling of bullets and numbered lists. It turns out if you try to indent and re-indent a few times, the whole program goes insane and starts at 1/2 way across the screen by default. It's very frustrating.

At a friend's recommendation, I found Google Docs was very good at this. Unfortunately, due to external problems, I now can't use Google Docs either and it's proving impossible to find an alternative that has that level of ease and simplicity.

Key needs:

• Bulleted lists and simple, easy to use indentation
• Very stable and/or frequent autosave

Bonus points for:

• Working like an outline editor (e.g. nested lists with 1, A, ii, etc.)
• Smooth and easy HTML import (since that's the current format I'm using)
• Hotkeys for both indentation and lists
• Tabbed interface

I would be thrilled if it was portable and freeware, but at this point what I'm working on is really important and its okay if it's payware and/or requires an install.

Any ideas? Does anyone else keep track of all their tasks like this?

[tproli]

I'm using ToDoList and it is fine for me. Its comment panel has simple text and rich text editor.

Perhaps this doesn't fit 100% to your needs but it is great for keeping tasks.

[Craunch]

Treepad might be able to do what you are looking for.

But it sounds like you are trying to do a bit more than simple task management so I'm wondering if something like PiggyDB might be of use. Although it doesn't seem to fit what you say you are looking for very well, it might fit in with what you are trying to do.

[Midas]

Don't have a ready answer to your query, webfork, but as a last resort, you could try a) converting your HTML to RTF using any of the free online converters or b) use Pandoc to convert into DOCX and then edit the resulting files with Jarte (be sure to set it to 'minimal layout' from the get go, if you want to make it easy on yourself), which fits the rest of your requirements, including saving back to HTML...

[Ruby]

EPIM has a nice To Dos with the added benefit of syncing to mobile devices Android and iOS:



~Ruby

[tproli]

EssentialPIM is great but I felt it way too slow (mainly the email part).

[webfork]

This is awesome -- thanks for all the suggestions. PiggyDB's screenshots look very intriguing so I'll likely test that option out first and then evaluate the others.

[Midas]

Treepad might be able to do what you are looking for.

If you found this interesting, you might want to take a look at Treeline, too -- I was an old Treepad fan back in the day, but Treeline works with Treepad files and is way more powerful, although documentation is scarce (IMHO, the dev isn't very keen on building a community...).

Stores almost any type of information, including plain text, HTML, numbers, dates, times, booleans, URLs, etc.

[tproli]

KeyNote NF?

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=755

[webfork]

might want to take a look at Treeline, too

I'll check that out as well, thanks.

KeyNote NF?

Unfortunately in my testing it was really crashy and hasn't been updated in a few years.

[joby_toss]

Just noticed DTPad featured on Softpedia.
It is portable, but requires .Net 4.0.
You should take a look, maybe it has the features you're searching for.

[webfork]

Old thread update:

Resolution: After a LOT of testing, I ended up going back to LibreOffice using several tweaks that I made to get it working the way I wanted. I'm hoping to put together a video breakdown on this as there were quite a few steps.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions here.

---

Also a note about one of the programs I tested:

PiggyDB

Requires Java and a web browser, but this is definitely the future of software: natively web-based, collaborative, and very simple/clean. Looks like it can run on almost any device with a browser. It can just as easily be run locally as from a server and, although it seemed to be watching edits and changes, it didn't have a changelog for individual entries (it's not tracking them like a wiki).

Note that it only exports to an XML file (one I'm not sure other tools could easily read) and takes up 16 megs (I expected more due to the included web server).

[webfork]

PiggyDB might be of use.

Noticed that PiggyDB is at v. 6.15. I keep meaning to test it out and see how it's changed since the last time I tested but at this stage, I'll just have to mention the update and see if someone else gets to it.

http://piggydb.net/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-too ... gydb.shtml

[abacusFanboi]

'PiggyDB' and 'DTpad' (delirium tremens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens). Programmers have a sense of humor.

[webfork]

Key needs:

• Bulleted lists and simple, easy to use indentation
• Very stable and/or frequent autosave

Rather strange workaround for the Microsoft Word nested bullets bug that spawned this thread: use PowerPoint speaker notes. Seriously. It handles nested bullets perfectly and then you can import them into Microsoft word without any oddities. I made HUGE edits to a large Word doc using this technique with none of the usual fear I get with Word's nested bullets.

PowerPoint is obviously VERY limited otherwise, but it's a better way to work if I can't run LibreOffice on a given machine.

Edit: Adding a screenshot of what I'm talking about: