Miscellaneous Ramblings

Miscellaneous Ramblings Review

Software Review: Tex-Edit Enhancer

Charles W. Moore - 2000.10.09

I have used a lot of word processors and text editors, and I have rarely run across one that I didn't like in some aspect, but my all time, hands-down favorite is Tom Bender's wonderful Tex-Edit Plus, which I find for my purposes is well nigh perfect, now that I have it tricked and with a bunch of AppleScripts to perform tasks that I repeat dozens of times daily.

Nearly all of my writing output these days is either submitted to editors of print publications via email, or converted to HTML for publication on the Web, so for me a full-fledged word processor with comprehensive text formatting and page layout options is neither necessary nor desirable. I often go for months without printing out a sheet of hard copy, which is why the only printer that I own is an ancient 9-pin dot matrix ImageWriter II of the same vintage as my first Macintosh - a Mac Plus.

Not that Tex-Edit is incapable of considerable text formatting. It is. However, the program's main orientation is manipulation of plain text, which it does superbly with lightning speed and a high degree of stability. I can't say enough good about Tex-Edit Plus. Except perhaps for email software, it is my most-used and favorite Mac application.

As I said, I find Tex-Edit Plus - with its combination of text crunching power, modest system demands, speed, and clean, uncomplicated, interface - just about perfect for my needs and tastes. However, users who like the program's leanness and functionality, but find it just a little too austere compared to what they're used to in a word processor, may find Steve Becker's Tex-Edit Enhancer to be just what they need to satisfy their toolbar withdrawal pangs.

Tex-Edit Enhancer is a shareware add-on that provides Tex-Edit or Tex-Edit Plus with a Tool Bar for quick, single-click access to many of Tex-Edit's features, plus several additional features of its own, which Include:

System Requirements

Tex-Edit Enhancer installs only a single extension in your System.

I found that Tex-Edit Enhancer worked as advertised, and some of its features are very cool, especially the glossary, sort, and time stamp functions. However, I would have liked Tex-Edit Plus's word count, document info, strip CR/LF, HTML conversion, and change word case functions to have been included in the toolbar array.

Personally, I am not a big toolbar fan (for instance, I keep the toolbar turned off in Eudora 5.0), and I prefer to use AppleScripts, some of them keyboard activated, for most of the functions of Tex-Edit Enhancer that I use. However, if you like toolbars, this is one that works, and it seems not to slow Tex-Edit down appreciably.

Tex-Edit Enhancer includes a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee and costs US$14.95. You can also download a free, fully functional 10-day demonstration version of Tex-Edit Enhancer.