Bluefish is a lightweight yet powerful text editor written for programmers and web developers. It seeks to fill the niche between simple text editors (Notepad, Text Edit) and full-fledged integrated development environments (Eclipse, IntelliJ). Because of its small resource footprint, Bluefish can simultaneously work across many dozens of files even on very modest hardware like netbooks. It has...

Brackets is a text editor designed especially for front-end web developers. Web development workflow often involves jumping between the HTML, Javascript, and CSS files that comprise a site. Many other editors support this workflow by allowing users to open multiple files in tabs. Brackets supports tabs too, but also provides an "inline editor" feature that can quickly open related files. For...

Everyone's a critic, but some of those critics use Markdown, Sublime Text, or other text editors instead of word. The CriticMarkup tool allows authors and editors to track changes to documents in plain text, which is most useful. Visitors can use the program to highlight insertions, deletions, substitutions, and comments. To see a full list of tools that Critic Markup is integrated with, visit the...

This free version of EasyOffice is an office suite package that is compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Adobe pdf files. Some of the programs include a dictionary, a notepad, a calculator, an image editor, and a diagram creation device. Additionally, EasyOffice is available in a host of different languages, including Turkish, Spanish, Chinese, and German. This version of EasyOffice is...

Real-time and all online, Etherpad is a great tool for smooth, remote collaborating. Last featured in the 09-14-2018 Scout Report, the platform was most recently updated in December 2019 to improve security and ease of use. Etherpad is a web-based real-time collaborative editor. Any user can create a collaborative document, called a "pad," each of which has a distinct URL. Anyone that has this...

The Fidus Writer is an application that academics will be most excited to learn about. This version functions as an online collaborative editor made specifically for academics who need to use citations and formulas. The program is focused on the content rather than the layout, which means users can publish it later in a variety of formats. The site also contains an FAQ and information about...

Foxit Reader was created to provide an alternative to Adobe Reader, and it seems to succeed quite nicely on all fronts. Foxit Reader allows users to draw graphics, highlight text, type text, and make notes on PDF documents, and then save the entire thing (or print it out). This version is compatible with computers running Windows Me and newer.

Designed as a free alternative to other proprietary software programs, Foxit Reader allows users to view, modify, and print pdf documents. Visitors will find helpful support documents, along with the ability to mark-up text, replace text, and also insert images and drawings. This version is compatible with computers running Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

Geany is a lightweight integrated development environment. It was designed to be fast and small with a relatively short list of external dependencies. Geany presents a graphical interface reminiscent of heavier-weight editors for Windows-like Programmer's Notepad or Notepad++. Despite its small size (the Windows executable is only 14 MB), Geany supports editing multiple simultaneous documents,...

Gobby is a collaborative, multi-user text editor that allows multiple users to simultaneously edit a document over the internet. Sessions can be password protected to control which users are allowed access to a set of documents. Gobby also includes an Access Control List system that can be used to provide fine-grained control over which users can edit what documents. For security, all data...