Where can i find a text editor with an auto-complete option, for the Windows platform ?
let me explain:
i’m typing a lengthy document. i need a text editor that has an inbuilt or customizable dictionary, that recognizes my half-typed word and auto-completes the word for me as i type, thus cutting down on my typing time.
e.g. when i type disp it should give me multiple options such as 1.displace 2. dispell 3. disparage etc… and i can choose either a hotkey or use the mouse to insert the required full word and it will complete my disp to disparage and i can continue typing.
i know this exists for the Palm OS platform, because i use such a software, but i have been unable to find a Windows parallel.
I would be highly obliged if any of you could tell me if such a software exists and possibly link me to the software’s website.
or alteranately, if there are any other solutions for this problem…
Word does this, sort of, but only on words you’ve told it you want it to autocomplete. It also will only pop up the auto option after you’ve typed enough of the word that it only has one possible match.
For example, I type recipes, so I’ve put the word “tablespoons” in the autocomplete list. Once I’ve typed “tabl” it will pop up the option. If I hit enter, the whole word appears. If I were to put “tablespoon” (not plural) in the list, I’d have to type the whole word before it would attempt autocomplete.
Anyhow, that’s probably not good enough for what you’re doing.
Try a program called UltraEdit (www.ultraedit.com). It’s a text editor meant for computer programmers so you’re not going to have the word processing-type functionality of say MS Word, but it does what you’re asking for as far as auto-complete. It works like this in UltraEdit:
you can supply a file of words that you want the auto-complete to be ‘aware’ of.
when you are typing a word you want to auto-complete hit Ctrl-Space and a select box appears with what the system thinks is the most likely choice, but you can scroll up and down the alphabetically sorted list, and hit enter to choose the highlighted word.
the only difference from what you’re asking is that the select box doesn’t pop-up automatically, you have to type Ctrl-Space to get it.
Saltire, yes i’ve been using this option of Word, but as you pointed out it is severely limited. Thanks for your inputs though.
Improvisor, Welcome to the SDMB!
Thank you for your suggestion. It led me to find what i was looking for. It’s called UltimaShell and is available from www.flashpeak.com for anyone who needs a similar software.
It does exactly what i needed it to do, and it works seamlessly with any text editor. Improvisor, it also has programmers wordlists and works with any IDE, so if you’re using UltraEdit take a look at this proggie.
