PSPad is still my favorite text editor, but I am certain that some people, especially a lot of beginners, may not like it. The main reason for not liking such an excellent program can only be the fact that, for a person that only used Notepad and Wordpad, programs like PSPad or UltraEdit will look too complicated at first sight, and beginners are very easy to scare when facing a complex program. So...what can we do about it?

Nothing easier than just pick a simple text editor that looks as much as possible similar to Notepad but has some useful extra features and review it!

The program I am talking about is called Extreme Editor, its latest version is 6.4 Beta, and the easy part begins right with the downloading and installing part - the program's folder comes packed inside a 900KB ZIP archive, and all you have to do is unpack it and run the executable file, that's all! You can use this text editor for as long as you wish, because it's completely free! These being said, let's move on and discover the program's interface and features, shall we?

This program's interface is as simple as possible, but despite the fact that this program doesn't even have a toolbar, you can edit multiple files, this being one of the things I can't live without, and I know I'm not the only one. What you get inside Extreme Editor's interface is an extreme simplicity - a menu bar with nine menus and the editing window, nothing more. Ok, so we don't have much to visit here...but what's hidden behind these nine menus? Let's see!

Extreme Editor can be used to open and edit a lot of text files, such as TXT, INI, ASC, source files, batch files and include files, but it's not limited to these. A hex viewer is also included, and you can preview in hex mode only the selected text, if you need.

Selection...selections can be done the usual way, but Column and Line selection modes are also available. Basic search functions and bookmarks have been included as well, but the bookmarks are not what I expected. For example, if I set two bookmarks in a tab, they will also be available inside the other open files, and when these are smaller than the first file I used for bookmarking, then the last bookmarks (those located after the last line of the file you want to use them) will point to their last line. Some people may find this useful, but I don't.

Syntax highlighting is also available, but it doesn't work as I would have expected, again. The program doesn't highlight automatically your code, but enables you to manually choose the file type from the Syntax menu.

I don't know about your eyes, but I don't feel like an eagle, so bigger fonts are always good to have. Although it won't have an influence on the text formatting, you can change font type and size from the Text menu, where you will also be able to check the word count, enable text wrap or encrypt/decrypt currently selected text. Even more, you can encrypt the text that's inside the clipboard, and this is a feature I have never seen before!

The tools available here allow you to use a base converter that supports Decimal, Binary and Hexadecimal systems, an ASCII table or a basic color picker. These are not the tools to make you fall on your knees and praise the new text editor god, but they are always good to have.

At last, you can check the Help menu to display a window with all the keyboard shortcuts available here, and there are enough of them to make your life a lot easier. This is it; we discovered another hidden treasure, so let's move on and draw the conclusions!

The Good

Extreme Editor is small, fast and very easy to use, and most of all, it's completely free!

The Bad

I understand the need to go back to the basics, but I think a toolbar wouldn't do any harm...and, of course, the road to an advanced text tool is long, but automatic syntax highlighting and some other minor issues could be solved fast, I guess.

The Truth

Small, free, fast, and easy to use, this is Extreme Editor, and despite the fact that it won't get five stars, I must say that I was quite impressed by its performance. I am waiting for future improved versions and advise you to get this program and play with it as soon as possible!

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: