BabelPad Portable

Different cultures use different styles of writing, rules and characters. This is also the case when it comes to text written with a computer, with an abundance of text encoding types, which makes special characters readable by certain programs or machines. In this regard, BabelPad Portable comes with powerful text editing capabilities and character conversion options.

The application can be found both as an installer package or portable, such as this one. It is a neat advantage because you can easily take it anywhere you go along with project files, since it takes little space and uses a small amount of system resources.

On the visual side, the main window is kept rather simple, but is pretty intuitive, with most of the space dedicated to text input, while the upper toolbar is home to most functions you get to work with. File support is decent, with the possibility to simply drag them over the main window.

You can do this with formats like TXT, HTML, XML, C, CSS, CSV, RTF and a few more. On the other hand, the open file dialog is also equipped with an encoding detector you can also set manually if you know the type, with additional options to convert UCNs or NCRs and HTML entries.

Needless to say that you have access to all fonts you have installed on your system, along with corresponding type, size and style options. More options let you use single or composite font, as well as several rendering and alignment functions.

Navigation becomes rather simple thanks to the abundance of editing options at your disposal. Basic and advanced search / replace engines are cleverly implemented, and there's even an option to count the number of encounters for one or more words, coming in handy for keeping track of lines of code.

Depending on your needs, there are a handful of conversion options that most likely meet any demand. Selecting a string of text enables you to quickly convert text style and format, case, normalization, as well as regional, special, or symbol characters.

You might also want to check out the toolbox before applying any conversion settings. Working with encoding types you're not familiar with is not an issue, because there are various utilities to analyze, cover, inform, check version or a simple overview. There's even a thorough character map equipped with a dedicated search engine you can use to easily find special ones.

To sum it up, if you work with specialized characters on a daily basis, then BablePad Portable is one of the tools your computer must be equipped with. Portability is a major advantage because you can work on your projects from nearly any computer and take important files with you. Not to mention that the overall design gets you quickly up and running, while the set of features it comes equipped with makes sure you have everything you need at your fingertips.