NoteTab Light  by Robert Viers

Have you ever created an HTML document from scratch? If so, you probably created the document within a text editor, such as Microsoft's Notepad. Microsoft began shipping Notepad with every copy of Windows 3.1, and still ships the program with its current version of Windows. Notepad gets the job done, but the program is extremely limited. You're forced to type in plain black text on a white background. The text size is fixed, and you aren't offered many options within the program. In fact, just about all you can do is type text, save files, open files, and print files. Basically, Notepad is the 'Pinto' when it comes to text editors. It gets you where you need to be, but that's about it.

Well, I recently visited a site that's giving away what I consider to be the 'Cadillac' of all text editors. The program is called 'Notetab Light,' and it's available online at http://www.notetab.com.

Notetab Light is a true text editor, just like Notepad. This means that it won't add problematic characters or unnecessary tags to your HTML documents, CGI script, Java applets, or JavaScripts. Yet, unlike other text editors, Notetab Light allows you to choose the font size, color, and style that you'd like your text to be displayed in. The background color is also changeable, creating hundreds of color combinations that you can choose from. Call me strange, but I rather liked the look of the old monochrome monitors with green text. So, I have my copy of Notetab Light set to display green text over a black background. I also dislike the default 10 point text that's displayed, so I've chosen to have my text displayed in the 'Courier New' font at 8 points.

So why did the program designer decide to call it Notetab? Well, you can open more than one file at a time within Notetab Light. Tabs near the top of the screen indicate which file is which, and allow you to quickly navigate between all open files. The tabs remain on the screen until you tell Notetab to remove them. This feature can really come in handy. Let's say you accidentally exit Notetab Light and have to restart the program. You won't need to reopen each file that you were working with individually, as the file tabs are still displayed on the screen.

In addition to the on-screen tabs, Notetab Light comes equipped with a toolbar that allows you to quickly create, open, save, and print documents. An 'Undo' button allows you to quickly undo your last action, and 'Find Text' and 'Search and Replace text' buttons are also displayed. The toolbar also allows you to quickly activate or deactivate Word Wrap, choose your font size and style, preview your work in your default web browser, and strip a document of all HTML tags.

But wait, there's more! Notetab Light also comes with a modifiable 'AutoCorrect' library. AutoCorrect is a feature that allows programs to replace common misspellings with correct spellings. An HTML library also comes with Notetab Light. Any HTML tag within this library can be double-clicked on and Notetab Light will automatically insert the tag into your HTML document for you. Notetab even prompts you with dialog boxes, asking if you'd like certain parameters to be included within your tags. In addition to this, a cute smiley face collection comes with Notetab. Any of the smiley faces can be double-clicked on and they, too, will be inserted into your HTML document. :-D

Notetab's fabulous collection of features and utilities are sure to save you loads of time when you're creating your HTML documents. The program is highly versatile and modifiable, and it hasn't crashed once since I've been using it! A 'Pro' version of the program is available for purchase for $19.95 at http://www.notetab.com, also. I can only imagine what useful features are included in this edition of the program. If you've got use for a text editor, I highly recommend that you download your copy of Notetab Light today, before Notetab.com realizes they're giving away Cadillacs!

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