Homepage Volker Kiefel

The text editors page

This page provides short descriptions and links to a small selection of reliable text editors.

   The Vim text editor

Vim, a clone of Vi - to be more precise, Vim is a superset of Vi - is a reliable and powerful modal text editor which is available for various platforms. The novice should take the time and learn the basic 20 Vi commands. As an alternative, it may be helpful to use the graphical version of Vim (gvim) in easy mode to make it behave as a normal "click and paste" text editor.

• The official Vim site: Vim online home page
• Download: List of mirrors for download
• Bram Moolenaar's page
• Vim for LaTeX
• Vim-LaTeX: a Vim package supporting LaTeX
• VimTeX: a vim and neovim plugin for LaTeX files
• LaTeX and Vim: Using VIM to Write LaTeX in 2021 by Xing Shi Cai
• Documentation
• Vim user manual online
• Vim FAQ online
• Vim Cookbook by Steve Oualline
• Mailing list on Vim use
• Text file: Tips and tricks (V.K., 2025-08-03)
• Books on Vim
• Learning the vi and vim editors: A. Robbins, E. Hannah
• More books on the Vim homepage

A fork of Vim: Neovim (web page) is also available for different platforms including Linux and Windows.

   The Emacs text editor

The homepage of GNU Emacs, a multi-platform text editor. Documentation: manual (html, pdf).

   The Geany text editor

The homepage of Geany, a multi-platform (including Windows and Linux) text editor available for Linux, macOS and Windows, manual (html).

   The Nano text editor

The homepage of the GNU nano text editor, a terminal based application for Linux systems. Documentation: manual (html), manpage (html), list of keystrokes (html), the .nanorc (nano configuration) man page (html). Beginning with v8.0 nano may be used with modern keybindings (command line option --modernbindings).

   The Micro text editor

Micro is a modern terminal based text editor under active development. It is available for multiple platforms (Linux, Windows, macOS, OpenBSD). Instructions on installation are available through the homepage, documentation/manual on github.com.

   The SciTE text editor

SciTE is a multi-platform (including Windows and Linux) "minimalistic" text editor, available through the homepage, the download page and the manual.

   The Notepad++ text editor

Notepad++ is "Windows-only" text editor, which is actively developed; it is available through the homepage, the editor is described in the online manual.

   The Helix text editor

Helix is another modal (similar to vim/neovim) multi-platform, terminal based text editor under active development. Web pages: download, online documentation.

   The Kakoune text editor

The homepage of the Kakoune text editor, another modal text editor, similar to helix, available for Linux systems. The documentation is available on github.com.

   The VSCodium text editor

The homepage of the VSCodium text editor, a modern application for various systems including Windows and Linux. Access to releases for download.

Zur Startseite     (Last updated August 6, 2025)