It may "support" docx files, but apparently it cannot produce them unless you have Word 2007 installed on your machine.

It's a nice piece of software, but I think the program description needs to make it clear that the docx writing function is dependent on having Word 2007 already.

A neat little app, and I really like the novel approach they've taken with the interface.

Unfortunately, due to a limitation inherent to wordpad, you can't display formatting marks/invisible characters such as spaces and carriage returns, and that's a deal-breaker for me.

After the first time running Jarte as you said, I found a key added into registry says I've opened "Welcome.rtf". Is there anyway to avoid this?

And what if I don't create the ini file?

Keeps crashing when I try to export as "html".
Worked fine 'til I inserted a table into the document although some formating doesn't seem to carry over, eg., highlighting, bulleted text.

review of jarte 3.3
http://snsays.com/46/jarte-33/

A problematic editor that still delivers on some important elements. Despite these flaws, the program is very feature-rich, friendly and powerful. One of the best text editors I've seen.

Although I didn't like the interface, its a step up from crappy Office '08 "ribbons." Would be confusing for the average user sitting down to type something. Fortunately, you can set it to "minimal" and it works just like a very clean text editor.

Also, I couldn't make the program connect to the Internet to check dictionary, theasaurus, and encyclopedia entries. A pretty serious bug considering this is a pretty easy function for software.

Fixed the program connect issue mentioned in previous comment -- was my machine, not Jarte.

Not truely portable, as it depends on Microsoft Office compatibility packs and viewers to read doc and docx files, and office pack to write doc and docx.

When switched to the minimal interface Jarte is so perfect for the limited screen size and resources of netbooks that it might almost have been written with them in mind. I use it on an early Asus eeepc 701 with a 7 inch screen and it's brilliant and incredibly nimble in that environment.

I've been using Jarte since 3.0 on and off. I used to maintain on my system MS Office, Lotus SmartSuite, OpenOffice, Lotus Symphony and WordPerfect. Over a period of time, a couple of years I traced what apps I actually used and found WordPerfect was at the top of the list. Since then I have discontinued and removed OpenOffice, SmartSuite, Symphony and even MS Office leaving me with WordPerfect and Jarte. Jarte, especially in the current 4.1 version is great as a note taker in lieu of the likes of MS OneNote and WordPerfect Lightning and as a full wordprocessor program (at least the inexpensive full version - for the asking price of only $20 well worth the price). I especially like the ability built in in the later versions where you can call up the program to capture a field in another program, edit it, spell check it and then move it back with single key-stroke. A great way to make sure e-mails, client records, etc. are spell checked and not an embarrassment. Also, creating a template is easy as it is no more than an .rtf format.

Loads and saves are very simple and make full office apps feel like a try slug.

The app allows it to be put only a flash drive and this I do. It will integrate with PortableApps.com system though for some reason it is not a PortableApps program. PortableApps does have an OpenOffice version but compared to Jarte, it is unbearably slow to open. I maintain OOo on the flash only for the spreadsheet.

Recommendation: AAA+, a must have.

Cons: Only one is that it makes me have to save in a format other than WP. Not a big problem as I simply use .rtf as a default format for most documents. I prefer not to save in a .doc format.

I couldn't get it to save my color backrounds or selected fonts in making new documents. Maybe this is because I took off the word processor from Microsoft Word from my machine. But even the RTF format, I had the same problem with Jarte.

I have found that it creates a folder in "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Jarte".

Is it possible to change the location?

I think I've found the answer to my own question:

Even if you download the ZIP file from their site, the program will create the folder on "Application Data".

To make really portable, there's an option under "Tools", "Install to USB drive". This will copy both the software and the profile under one folder ("Jarte").

An important note, and one that may explain Walter's difficulties:
"By default Jarte will automatically run in normal mode if it is installed on the same drive as Windows, or is installed on a network drive." (according to http://www.jarte.com/help_new/command_line_parameters.html) Even using the "Install to USB drive" option does not affect this behavior.

To over-ride this, launch Jarte with the parameter /M:P

Ashley: self-promotion is fine, but could you link directly to the Jarte story and not the root site? Otherwise it'll get deleted as spam down the line.

Download the ZIP package and extract to a folder of your choice. BEFORE launching Jarte.exe, create textfile "portable.ini" in the same folder with the following two lines:


[]
Portable=1

.

[]
Portable=1

.
those two lines above excluding the dots.

@tikbalang: Your "portable.ini" tip worked just fine, thanks! Where did you find it? Just to test it, I backed up my settings file and temporarily moved portable.ini out of the application folder. Sure enough, Jarte started off unconfigured and created an entry in my AppData\Roaming folder. As soon as I put portable.ini back in place, my configurations returned. This saves me having to use a command line parameter in the shortcut.

I'm enjoying Jarte, especially because it can create tables, which Wordpad cannot do (although it will display them in existing RTF files).

Also since I'm not into programming, I'm also using it as my default plain-text editor. The Notepad replacements are too programming-oriented for my needs.

Has anyone noticed export to PDF?
I wondering what other features are hidden in JARTE

Yep, Jarte is a hidden gem. :)

Another tip: download tiny Fontster (3KB: http://www.nattyware.com/fontster.php) and place it in your portable Jarte folder; you can make it Jarte's assigned font manager, tricking the executable selection dialog by writing a '*.hta' mask in the filename field and pressing Enter (Fontster is an HTML application, but works in all modern Windows).

Now, if those Wintertree dictionaries -- excepting the ones included -- were easier to find...

You must update the entry with the instructions that user @tikbalang gave above. Otherwise not stealth

@Midas Fonster is a font viewer, not a font manager.
I believe your comment was unclear on that.

@mrpink
The portable.ini file is created on first run, is it not?

@donald - I believe 'Midas' is saying to 'assign' Fonster (font viewer) to Jarte's Font Manager

@mrpink - 'I am Baas' is correct; portable.ini is created on first run.

@Midas
I liked Fonster.hta as a standalone font viewer. I just felt Fonster added more steps than it should to selecting and setting fonts. IG:Click Font, Click FontManager, Scroll to select font, select size, Close Fontster.hta, Click Font, Click Change Font, Scroll to select font, Style, select Size, click OK.

11 steps VS. 6 with very limited benefit for the extra steps, if Fonster would reset the Font that would reduce this to 5 steps.

@Ruby
The original comment was understood, I just felt it needed clarification.

Someone reading the original comment might think that Fonster.hta would reset fonts and font size in JARTE. It does not.

I believe a larger font display in the Change Font dialogue is a better option and I will attempt to request this feature.

Cross your fingers and hope it wont be a JARTE PLUS only feature if implemented.

Seems like its behavior depends on where you run it from
Quote
"Jarte runs in normal mode whenever it is run from the same drive on which Windows is installed or when it is run from a network drive. In all other cases (e.g., Jarte is run from a flash drive, secondary hard drive, CD, etc) Jarte runs in portable mode."
From here
http://www.jarte.com/help_new/jarte_as_a_portable_word_processor.html
If i run it from my secondary partition it creates the .ini file. If i run it from my desktop,like i did yesterday, i get %APPDATA%/Jarte folder

To each his own: while working with a portable Jarte you might find yourself running it in systems about which you know not what fonts are available, how they look, and if they support much needed glyphs (for me, diacritics and the Euro symbol, mainly). [EDIT: Fontster now has its own database entry at http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=2281]

That's what my tip provides for -- if it doesn't suit you, just don't use it. One should probably not hasten to judge that our opinion applies to everyone...