ConstEdit is a useful word processor software for Windows. This freeware lets you focus more on the content of a document and less on its formatting. It supports plain text and HTML documents for editing documents and does not support other file formats like DOC, DOCX, RTF, etc. This word processor totally separates content from formatting through style sheets.
It also lets you export your documents as pdf files or plain text file. It is a standard word processor that comes with some advanced options like Spellcheck dictionary, auto capitalization, auto-save documents, etc. It does not support mail merge and macro functionality as in MS Word but it surely enables you to create documents with consistent formatting across multiple platforms.
UI and editing features of this free word processor:
The user interface of ConstEdit is quite flexible as during resizing its UI components adjust themselves. Its editor window easily allows you to create and manage various sections of documents, apply external CSS files to sections, font, and table of a document. It also offers other advanced options like spell check dictionary, auto-capitalization, design HTML stylesheet, etc. It offers most of the editing options as in MS Word except the more advanced ones like mail merge, macro, etc.
You can see all its editing options right on its main screen and are categorized into following toolbars:
Find and replace toolbar: It includes the options to find and replace a word in a document, find sections, bookmarks, and links in a document. It also lets you find and replace words in multiple documents at the same time. You can toggle this toolbar by clicking on search icon at its top.
It includes following options:
- Find
- Replace
- See all sections of a document.
- See all bookmarks in a document.
- See all links inside a document
Document: This toolbar includes editing options related to documents like redo, undo, cut, copy, paste, select all document, and apply a CSS to your document. The Best part of document editing in ConstEdit is that you can edit documents just as you would edit it any other word processor but it generates HTML code of that document in the background. You can copy this HTML code by clicking on Copy HTML button and then you can paste it on any other text editor or even directly to a blog without any loss in formatting.
It also lets you apply CSS files to your docs. Applying CSS files to your document works just same as applying CSS to HTML docs. You can apply a CSS file by clicking on CSS drop-down and then select “choose” option. After you have applied a CSS to your document, it will be then automatically formatted as per the CSS file. Keep reading to know more about it.
Editing options available in this toolbar:
- Cut
- Copy
- Paste
- Copy HTML
- Undo
- Redo
- Paste as plain text only.
- Properties.
- Zoom percentage.
- Choose CSS file to apply.
Section: This toolbar includes editing options to easily create and manage sections in documents. It gives you the options to automatically add/delete sections, move a current option up & down, etc. To add a section, click on “+” button in section toolbar to add a section after the current section. Its best part is that you can also change the appearance of a section by changing its type. You can change a section type to following categories by clicking on the drop-down box, next to “-” button:
- Section
- Aside
- Header
- Footer
- Navigation
Editing options available in this toolbar:
- Add a section
- Section outline view
- Delete current section.
- Select current section.
- Move section up.
- Move section down.
- Go to the previous section.
- Go to next section.
- Generate a table of content.
- Move to topmost section.
- Move to the last section.
- Edit style sheet of the section.
Table: This toolbar includes the options for inserting tables into documents. For adding a table in your document, click on “+” button of this toolbar. It will then insert a table with a default number of rows and columns. To add or remove rows and columns, click on “+” & “-” button of rows and columns section of this toolbar.
Additional editing options available:
- Add table.
- Remove table.
- Insert/remove a row.
- Insert/remove a column.
- Toggle cell heading.
- Move row up/down.
- Move column up/down.
- Merge cells.
- Insert/remove table caption.
- Split
- Toggle alternating row color.
Text: This toolbar includes options to make text bold, italic, strikethrough, subscript, or superscript. It lets you change font properties like color, type, size, etc. You can also insert special mathematical symbols, emoticons, and date from this toolbar.
Editing options available:
- Bold
- Italic
- Strikethrough
- Underline
- Font type
- Font Color
- Font-relative size.
- Insert special symbols
- Insert Date.
How to apply CSS to documents, tables, and sections in ConstEdit:
You can apply CSS to documents, tables, and sections by clicking on Styles button that appears at the end of every toolbar discussed below. To apply CSS, just click on Styles button and select formatting properties. Options for formatting are same for every category i.e. document, section, and table. Let’s see what are the options available:
It provides following options for style sheets:
- Layout
- Text align
- Left
- Right
- Center
- Justify
- Direction
- Left to right
- Right to left
- Auto
- First Line indent, etc.
- Text align
- Background
- Color
- Image
- Scroll with content
- Fixed on screen, etc.
- Font
- Type
- Size
- Color
- Line spacing
- Italic
- Weight
- Decoration, etc.
- Border
- Corner radius
- Shadow
- Style, etc.
- Margin Padding
- Left Margin
- Right Margin
- Top Margin
- Bottom margin, etc.
- Table
- Caption position
- Grid line style
- Grid line color, etc.
- Printing
- Page break before
- Page break after
- Page break inside
Other features:
As I mentioned earlier in this article, that this free word processor software can be used to create documents with consistent formatting. Document formatting problem might arise when you convert a document to another format. I usually come across formatting problems when I create a DOC file and open it up on my Android device or vice versa. However, this is not the software to solve this problem but it has taken a solid step in letting users create documents with more consistent formatting in scenarios I mentioned.
This free word processor software lets you create documents in HTML file format and apply CSS for formatting. So with it, you can create HTML files and view them in a browser. This feature makes sure formatting of a document is same across different applications.
ConstEdit can be a really good software for bloggers as it supports rendering of HTML documents without any loss of formatting of documents.
Conclusion:
Use this word processor software to create documents with consistent formatting across different platforms. As a word processor it can edit and view plain text and HTML file format documents but it can’t be used to edit documents of other file formats like DOC, RTF, etc. I am quite sure that, this software will be very much useful for bloggers as it supports HTML document editing and can also render HTML code. It’s not recommended for users who are looking for a free replacement of MS Word, as it can’t be used to edit other file formats.
Also Read:
- Word Processor Software with Char Map and Spell Checker
- Software Inventory Tool to Audit Software Installed on PC
