MetaNote

Windows comes with a default set of tools to cover most basic activities, which automatically includes text editing. You might, however, be looking for advanced options to handle your text documents, and if this is the case, MetaNote comes in a lightweight package and lets you process multiple files at a time.

The first thing you notice is that the application doesn’t require installation in order to function. This enables it to be your personal little text editor and you can carry it on a thumb drive along with important text documents. Runtime doesn’t put much of a strain on the target computer, mostly because registry entries remain intact.

As far as the visual design is concerned, most of the space represents the edit area, with a slim toolbar to quickly access general functions. Tab support makes it possible to process multiple text documents at a time. Loading them needs to be done through the browse dialog, and you can open files under formats like TXT and RTF. The same file formats are available for saving.

The canvas is simple, and doesn’t really show any related info such as word or character counter, line numbering on the side to assist in code writing, or at least caret position. Text goes in plain format, while page alignment needs to be done with other tools, because there are no built-in functions in this regard.

Font management makes it possible to change the style, color, size, and attributes. However, this affects the entire document, and you can’t use these options to highlight text. Other editing options allow you to find custom text strings and have them replaced with new entries on the spot.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that MetaNote is pretty underprepared to even replace basic Windows text editing tools, let alone handle advanced tasks. The visual design is simple, but the variety of features and text editing options leave much to be desired.