Text editing – such an easy task, and so many ways to accomplish it! In the real world each one of us has his personal writing style and his favorite writing tool, and this situation is also available in the virtual world.

There are so many text editors available for Windows (I am sure that things aren't much different when talking about other operating systems) that I lost count of the very good, excellent and outstanding ones a long time ago.

Today's text editor is called Araneae, recently reached its fifth version and can be a handy little tool for everybody who needs basic text editing, but especially for programmers who would like to have syntax highlighting and document templates.

This tiny program has an installation kit under 1MB in size, so everybody can download it fast, even people still using a modem. The setup process is fast and won't ask you any strange questions.

This program's interface is easy to use for everybody and has a modern look. The icons are excellent, and the only thing that bothers me is the size of the text on the document tabs, that is too small. The entire interface has a menu bar, a toolbar, an editing area and a side bar.

First step to be taken when using a text editor is to create or open a text file. There are eight file types that can be created: standard, CSS, HTML, XML and XHTML documents, but also Javascript, PHP and Ruby scripts. For each one of these, you can edit a template that will load when creating a new file.

Araneae supports multiple file editing, but while PSPad allows you to arrange the opened files' windows as you like, here you can only use the default tabbed interface.

You can't edit remote files or add document bookmarks with this program, but for each document type you can add quick clips. These quick clips let you insert or change text in your document, using the Quick Clips sidebar or from the Tools>Quick Clips menu.

The search and replace function is conveniently placed inside the sidebar and it will automatically open it when hidden.

Syntax highlighting can be customized for each of the available file types handled by the program, but you can't add new presets from the Options area.

What about the options? First of all, Araneae supports extensions, so if you want something and it's available, you don't have to update your program or get a new version, but add an extension.

Files can be previewed using external programs, such as web browsers, you only have to add them in the Tools and Viewers section of the Options window.

The editor's behavior can be customized as you wish, new file extensions to associate with the existing file types can be added, the background and font colors can be changed or you can set basic printing options, but there's a little more than just these.

Araneae is one of those little big programs that can do more than show. My playtime with it is over, but your fun is only beginning...

The Good

Araneae is very good as a basic text editor and its features can make it useful even for advanced purposes, such as coding or editing template-based documents. Although it's very easy to use, this application has even a good help file included, which is excellent.

The Bad

You can only edit the existing document templates, but you can't add new ones. The same applies to the syntax highlighters. Apart from these two issues that I hope to be solved as soon as possible, everything's fine. Oh, yeah! Even better then all these, Aranae is also completely free for non-commercial use, while donations are required for sustaining its development when used in a commercial environment.

The Truth

If you don't want a giant in terms of features like UltraEdit or PSPad but still need syntax highlighting and multiple file editing, then Araneae is one of the best choices around. I highly recommend this program and wish you to have fast fingers!

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: