So… here I am, typing a new software review, in yet another word processor for the Mac. This one comes from Japan, and carries the name Jedit X. That’s not Jedi (from Star Wars), but J plus Edit. Jedit X – like a lot of word processors – is a rich text processor, a la TextEdit (the free editor that comes standard with OS X), plus a lot features tacked on. How useful those features are to you will determine how valuable the program is. Jedit X is not free (as are other TextEdit “plus” applications such as Bean). A shareware license costs $28.00 for a single user, or $16.00 if you’ve previously purchased Jedit 4.0, the previous incarnation of this program.
My first impression of Jedit X, after dismissing the nag screen and waiting the six seconds until my trial experience can begin, is that it is very plain. In fact, it looks nothing like TextEdit. There are no toolbar buttons (in fact, there is no tool bar visible!), no panels, no floating preference panes… and I begin to wonder what all the hype is about. Jedit X looks very much like a plain text editor, and nothing more.
But then I start to fiddle with the menus, and see that I have to manually select to see the toolbar, and the formatting options, and the sliding drawer. And once I see all this, I begin to like Jedit X… a lot.
For one, Jedit X feels very comfortable to me. In spite of all the reviews I’ve written of various word processors for the Mac, I tend to do most of my writing in TextEdit. It really does everything I need, from bold, italics and underline, to left, right and full justification, and has a lot of built-in goodies that come with OS X, such as automatic spell checking, right-clicking on a misspelled word for options, and more.
Jedit X has this as well, but – as mentioned – some of it needs to be turned on. And I suppose that’s kind of nice. If you want Jedit X to be a vanilla plain word processor, it can be, and is, right out of the box. If you want features, Jedit X has them, but you need to turn them on. And I guess I like that too. I typically dislike working in Microsoft Word because there is too much going on, so I usually turn off features I don’t want. It’s better, I think, to turn on only what I want, and nothing more. And that’s how Jedit X works, thankfully.
So, what features are there to turn on?
As mentioned, there are all the features built into TextEdit, such as the formatting mentioned – bold, italics, underline, justification – plus tables, embedded graphics, lists, styles, and more. Jedit X also includes a bookmarks feature, which you can set up with just a couple clicks. The bookmark feature enables the user – if reading through a lengthy document – to come to a spotting point, label it as a bookmark, and then return to it instantly the next time the document is opened.
Jedit X also has a full range of search features, including the option to highlight text, and then search for it, right from the menu system. There is also a search bar built into the toolbar, so you may enter your text there, hit return and watch as Jedit X spawns a pop-up window with all your results highlighted. From this list, simply double-click on the result you wish to see and you’ll be whisked back to your document at that point.
Jedit X has some built-in features that writers will like, such as on-the-fly word count (as well as character count, row count, paragraph count, and more), as well as enabling the author of the document to quickly set the document properties (such as author, company, copyright, title, subject, keywords and any additional desired comments).
And, although Jedit X typically shows your work in draft mode, and not in page mode, you can insert line or page breaks (which will show up in page view), as well as insert date and time stamps.
Jedit X can also open html documents, and you can view them with correct syntax highlighting. Jedit X supports different types of syntax highlighting, including C, CSS, HTML, Java, JavaScript, LaTeX, Perl, PHP, plist, Python and URL. Jedit X does not offer an option to view an HTML file as a web page, but – if viewing or writing an HTML document, Jedit X allows you to view it in a web browser as well.
Along with its ability to read and write HTML, Jedit X has a lot of features common in formatting text documents, such as the ability to change line endings, convert tabs to spaces (and vice versa), and more. Basically, if you receive a text document that looks completely garbled, with lines bleeding over to the next instead of flowing naturally, there’s a good chance Jedit X can clean it up for you.
To be honest, there is so much more to Jedit X than I ever have need for, that I can confidently say that I’m not really the intended audience for the application. In spite of that, it’s obvious that a lot of care and thought went into its production, and I can say that Jedit X is a very impressive product. It’s fast, easy to use, feels comfortable to work in, and is very powerful. It isn’t free, but in my mind, that’s not a big deal. If this is the kind of a program, with the type of features you need, then it will definitely be worth it to you. You can download a free trial of Jedit X from its home page here.
