Working with Text on Windows

What is MS Windows?

Microsoft Windows, often simply called Windows, is a closed-source operating system developed by Microsoft. It gained popularity for its versatility and today is the most widely used desktop operating system, with a market share of over 88%.

How do I choose software?

When I have a choice, I always go with open source software. It usually comes with an extra bonus — it is free! Another important factor is whether it can be installed through a package manager. This saves a lot of time when you need to install several programs in a row. Package managers like Chocolatey let you update all your installed software with a single command.

Visual Studio Code

I am not a fan of Microsoft products, but this one is just fantastic. Whether you want to edit a plain text file, write a configuration in YAML format, or need a full development environment, this editor will not let you down.

Pros of Visual Studio Code

• Open source
• Huge range of extensions
• Actively developed
• Easy to connect to repositories like GitHub, GitLab etc.
• Low system requirements
• Free

Cons of Visual Studio Code

• Telemetry ¹
• Installing a large number of extensions can sometimes cause unexpected behaviour

Installing Visual Studio Code

• Official website: visualstudio.com
• Chocolatey: choco install vscode

LibreOffice

For heavier text editing, creating or editing spreadsheets, or putting together a presentation, this suite is hard to beat. It is compatible with MS Office and is open source. I know people who have published entire books using it.

Pros of LibreOffice

• Open source
• Full office suite
• A genuine replacement for the expensive MS Office
• Actively developed
• Free

Cons of LibreOffice

• Not always perfectly compatible with MS Office, especially with complex formatting
• Spell checking for some languages is not the best

Installing LibreOffice

• Official website: libreoffice.org
• Chocolatey: choco install libreoffice-fresh

Sumatra PDF

For viewing documents in portable format — the so-called PDF files — I use Sumatra PDF. It is good for reading PDFs as well as ebooks in epub or mobi format. Comic book fans will also find it useful, as it supports cbz/cbr formats. Other supported formats include DjVu, XPS and CHM.

Pros of Sumatra PDF

• Open source
• Free

Cons of Sumatra PDF

• No editing capability

Installing Sumatra PDF

• Official website: sumatrapdfreader.org
• Chocolatey: choco install sumatrapdf

Joplin

I love taking notes. I have a weakness for the Markdown format, which is why I use Joplin. Hardly a day goes by when I do not open it. Everything is neatly organised in notebooks and tagged, so I can find whatever I am looking for quickly and easily.

Pros of Joplin

• Open source
• Actively developed
• Extensions
• Encryption support
• Available for desktop and mobile
• Sync across devices
• Export to various formats
• Free

Cons of Joplin

• Not ideal for team collaboration

Installing Joplin

• Official website: joplinapp.org
• Chocolatey: choco install joplin

That is all for now. If something new and interesting comes along, this article will be updated.