Although WinEdt can be used for any text editing purposes, it’s more oriented towards creating and compiling LaTeX files, which allows creating documents with a high typographic quality, as that needed for scientific publications. Moreover, the application can be used as an integrated development environment for some compilers and typesetting systems. In this regard, the tool supports such document types as ASCII, ANSI, Data, WinEdt, HTML, TeX, BibTeX, Metapost document, and NSIS script.
The program's interface is very straightforward as all of its features can be accessed from the menu. Probably because there’s no intention of making this editor popular among regular users, the program has a “serious” (unattractive) look, more likable by scientists and programmers. The editor is full of features and getting to know how to use all of them may certainly take some time. Fortunately, there’s a configuration wizard to help you adapt the tool to your specific needs. Additionally, there’s excellent accompanying documentation on how to use it; and not only that, you can get more help on specific topics at the program´s community site.
WinEdt has various built-in tools to help you write correctly. These include Thesaurus, spell checking and abbreviations. Although English is installed as the default language, it’s possible to download and install other dictionaries, which are also available at the community site. Besides, it comes with multiple features specifically intended for writing code, such as code folding, syntax highlighting, and automatic completion. Likewise, the editor supports various code standards, as Unicode and UTF8. It’s also good that the program allows recording macros as a way to automate repetitive tasks.
In general, WinEdt is a complete editor that can be integrated with a TeX system without problems. I wouldn’t recommend this application for general-purpose editing, even when it can be used for that. However, it can be a great help for code editing.
v7.1 [Jan 15, 2013]
- A bug with reading UTF-8 configuration files on locales with multi-byte language settings (CJK) has been fixed. The problem was introduced with switch to Delphi XE3 compiler (Build 20130125).
- WinEdt now allows up to 2,000,000,000 lines per file (previous limit was 16,000,000 lines). However, do not expect stellar performance in huge files (different editors may be designed specifically to handle huge files).
There are now 32- and 64-bit versions of WinEdt 7.1. Users with 64-bit Windows can install either. Configurations and functionality of both versions are identical. The only difference is that WinEdt.exe is compiled as a native 32-bit or 64-bit Windows application, respectively. In the long run all applications will use a 64-bit platform but currently 32-bit applications run well on 64-bit Windows and not all applications offer a stable 32-bit version yet... 64-bit applications can launch 32-bit ones and vice versa. That's why both versions of WinEdt will work with either 32-bit or 64-bit version of MiKTeX. However, the 64-bit version of WinEdt cannot load 32-bit library for Word Web. Until a 64-bit version of this library is available users that want this functionality in WinEdt can only use 32-bit version.
If you already have WinEdt 7 installed you should install version 7.1 over the existing version of WinEdt 7 and use Options -> Maintenance -> Upgrade Personal Configuration command to merge your custom settings with the new defaults...
WinEdt 7 is a unicode editor. It is compiled with Delphi XE3 and heavily optimized in order to match the performance of earlier non-unicode versions of WinEdt...
Up-to-date documentation (including an updated Macro Manual and a Configuration Manual) is now consolidated in a single help file (available from the Help menu).
Preferences Dialog has been introduced to allow most common customizations (for users that are intimidated by the more powerful Options Interface and Configuration Scripts).
Graphic controls (like toolbars and menu items) now use transparent png images instead of bitmaps.
Default settings have numerous improvements (including enhanced compilation and preview macros, new highlighting schemes, etc.).
