Free Editor

Free Editor is an easy-to-use software program that lets you edit text files with various extensions, such as .doc, .docx, .odt, .epub, .xls and .xlsx.

After a brief and uneventful setup operation, you are greeted by a user-friendly interface which consists of a normal-looking window with a clear-cut structure.

In case the files you open are unsupported by the tool, it shows their hexadecimal code and lets you edit it. The hex code of supported file types can be modified too.

Free Editor provides you with several Office-level options that you can customize, such as font type, size, color, highlight color, emphasis (e.g. Bold, Italic, strikethrough), alignment, and numbered or bulleted lists.

You can clear the formatting attributes, set bookmarks, increase or decrease the indent, create hyperlinks, insert pictures from external files, as well as modify settings when it comes to the number of rows and columns, border line style and weight, pen color, grid lines, cell merging, and others.

Modifications can be overwritten to the original files or save to a new one with a different format (plain text, Word 97-2003 document, Word 2007, OpenDocument, Rich Text Format). Plus, you can use a search and replace function (e.g. regular expression), edit hexadecimal or resource code, as well as zoom in and out of the document.

The tool worked smoothly in our tests, without triggering the operating system to hang, crash or prompt error dialogs. CPU and RAM consumption was low, so it didn't hamper system performance.

Free Editor comes with a surprisingly rich set of options for viewing and editing text files, while the hexadecimal and resource editors have plenty of options on their own. Plus, it's freeware.