jEdit QuickNotepad Plugin

Introduction

This plugin provides a dockable "scratch pad" for writing and displaying notes, to do lists or similar items as unformatted text. The text is automatically saved upon closing the plugin or exiting jEdit. It can also be saved manually. The user can change the file to be displayed during the current editing session. The path of the default notepad file can be changed as a user option. Finally, the text file can be copied to a new, untitled jEdit buffer so that it can be edited by the main program.

The jEdit Plugin Guide details the development and design of QuickNotepad. It is a simple but functional dockable plugin that incorporates the basic elements of the jEdit plugin architecture.

The file changes50.txt details the new properties that were added to the jEdit 5.0 plugin API.

The file changes44.txt details the new properties that were added to the jEdit 4.4 plugin API.

The file changes42.txt details the changes that were made to the plugin to conform to the plugin API for jEdit version 4.2.

The file changes40.txt details the changes that were made to the plugin to conform to the plugin API for jEdit version 4.0.

Operation

When QuickNotepad is activated, it loads and displays the file stored in its properties as unformatted text. The text can be edited using the keyboard and mouse. The text area component recognizes the following basic editing shortcuts:

	Cut		Ctrl+x
	Copy		Ctrl+c
	Paste		Ctrl+v
	Select All		Ctrl+a

QuickNotepad ignores function keys and other combination key presses.

Toolbar buttons

Three buttons above the text area provide file management operations:

Choose notepad file - this button opens a file selection dialog permitting the user to select a different file to view in the text area. If a new file is selected, the old file is auomatically saved. The selection is valid only for the current editing session; to change the default QuickNotepad file for future sessions, use the options dialog.
Save notepad file - this button causes QuickNotepad to write the contents of the text area to the designated notepad file. To save the text to another file name, use the Copy notepad to buffer operation.
Copy notepad to buffer - this button causes the contents of the text to be written to a newly created, untitled buffer in the main text editing area. This operation does not alter the QuickNotepad text area or write its text to storage. Further changes to either the QuickNotepad text area or the new buffer will not affect the other.

These operations are listed in the menu which appears for QuickNotepad under the Plugins heading. They can also be made the subject of keyboard shortcuts in the Plugin Shortcuts pane of jEdit's options dialog.

One other operation is available as a keyboard shortcut. Bring QuickNotepad to front activates the plugin and makes visible if it is currently hidden in a docking window.

Options

There are three options which can be set using the pane for QuickNotepad in the Plugin Shortcuts section of the general options dialog:

A checkbox governs whether the name of the notepad file will be displayed in the toolbar panel above the text area. Even if the file name display is enabled, if the plugin is displayed to the left or right of the main editing area, the notepad file name will likely be partially or completely hidden.
A text field and adjacent button allow the user to choose the path of the default notepad file by typing its name or opening a file chooser dialog. This file will be loaded (and the old file saved) once the plugin's options settings are committed.
A third button shows the name, size and style of the font used by the QuickNotepad text area. Pressing the button summons a font chooser dialog for making a new selection. The text area will be redrawn with the new font once the change is committed.

Legal notices

The QuickNotepad plugin is released under the GNU General Public License (either version 2 or any later version, at the user's option). A copy of the GPL is available in the COPYING.txt file in the jEdit distribution.

The QuickNotepad plugin comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND; see section 11 and 12 of the GPL for details.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no "Invariant Sections", "Front-Cover Texts" or "Back-Cover Texts", each as defined in the license. A copy of the license is included in the file COPYING.DOC.txt included with the jEdit distribution.

Feedback

Comments, bug reports and other feedback may be sent to the jEdit-users mailing list.