JavaNote

There are various text editing tools out there, and even Windows comes with a few of its own. Different document formats can hold various types of formatting, and this doesn’t mean plain text is obsolete. It can even be used as a means of writing source code, and for such tasks and general ones, you can take JavaNote for a spin.

Note that the computer you run the application on needs to be fitted with Java Runtime Environment, as the name might have already suggested. On the other hand, the program isn’t packed inside an installer, so you can deploy and carry it on a thumb drive to use wherever necessary, without leaving any traces on the target PC.

The visual design wants to make it easy for individuals of all levels of experience to get the hang of things, and so it does. Most of the space represents the text editing area, while all controls are found in the upper menu. The window can be resized, with scrollbars automatically added if text extends beyond visible space.

As far as file support is concerned, the application doesn’t quite manage to impress, and you’re only able to process TXT files. Loading needs to be done through the built-in browse dialog, because drag and drop is not a supported operation. Content can be printed out on a sheet of paper.

Editing options aren’t abundant either. Font customization leaves much to be desired, with only two toggleable states, and functions to increase or decrease size. Fixing mistakes can be done through the undo function, which is accompanied by the option to redo. Copy and paste si possible through hotkeys, or the edit menu.

Bottom line is that text editing can be the process of performing a whole variety of tasks, and JavaNote wants to help you perform some of the most basic ones. Sadly, file support isn’t really an advantage, and the set of editing options leave much to be desired.