<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
UltraEdit<\/a> for Linux is extremely buggy and corrupts the text documents. The corruption happens with using column mode<\/em>, possibly worsened by using split windows (I mostly use vertically split). Column mode has always been buggy in UltraEdit, but in the Linux version it is extreme.<\/p>\n Also, it doesn’t like emojis at all (coming from, say, copy-pasting from a Twitter profile) and will simply delete all text (or corrupt text, crash, or freeze) if an emoji character is deleted… (there is no way in UltraEdit for Linux to remove emoji characters without also losing content).<\/p>\n UltraEdit for Linux also lacks behind the Windows version (as of early 2020 at version 18, 2018). Note that I am a veteran user of UltraEdit (since 1998), and it works fine on Windows (except for occasional problems with column mode).<\/p>\n UltraEdit for Linux version 20 was released 2020-06-26. I haven’t had a chance yet to review it, in particular if the bugs have been fixed.<\/p>\n An alternative is Geany<\/a>, and it is similar to Notepad++<\/a> on Windows. But Geany is not nearly as clunky as Notepad++.<\/p>\n This blog post is intended to be step-by-step instructions for quickly getting up and running with Geany on a new system, in particular such that it works similar to UltraEdit (especially the keyboard shortcuts). It also covers missing features in Geany. Though the focus is on Linux, the instructions also cover Windows.<\/p>\n For Windows, use the EXE installer<\/a>. Note that in order to use the English version of Geany on a non-English version of Windows, the environment variable “LANG” must be set to “en”<\/a> (at least in versions prior to 2.0). As this may affect other things, the easiest is to make a BAT file that sets the environment variable and launches Geany (so the change is only for Geany).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To get a menu item for copying the full path<\/em><\/strong> of the current document to the clipboard<\/a>, install the plugin with the overly generic (meaningless) name “Addons”<\/a>. The following is for Ubuntu\/Debian from the command line.<\/p>\n First list the available plugins:<\/p>\n Note that some plugins are not available in later versions of Ubuntu. For example, the Geany plugin “Debugger”<\/a> is available in Ubuntu Ubuntu 16.04<\/a> (Xenial Xerus), but not in Ubuntu 19.10<\/a> (Eoan Ermine) (on Ubuntu 16.04, the output includes “geany-plugin-debugger – debugger plugin for Geany”).<\/p>\n It should include:<\/p>\n Install “Addons”, using the exact name from above:<\/p>\n For Fedora:<\/p>\n For Windows and Arch Linux<\/a> (e.g., ArcoLinux<\/a>) all plugins are installed at once. A number of plugins are installed, including “Addons”.<\/p>\n Arch Linux, from the terminal:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For Windows, use the EXE plugin installer<\/a>. <\/p>\n Enable the plugin “Addons” in the Plugin Manager, menu Tools<\/em> → Plugin Manager. Note that at the very first invocation, it may take some time, as it needs to do some initialisation. After this, there is a new menu command, menu Tools<\/em> → Copy File Path<\/em>. Note that it is available immediately; there isn’t any need to restart Geany.<\/p>\n Similar to UltraEdit, it is possible to use dark mode. It is, however, not enabled by default in most versions of Geany – extra files must be added to the installation (it is<\/em> enabled with Geany 1.37.1 on Windows, but not in Geany 1.38 on Linux). <\/p>\n Download a set of themes<\/a> from GitHub<\/a>, uncompress the ZIP file, and copy the content of folder “colorschemes”<\/em> to folder ~\/.config\/geany\/colorschemes<\/em> (about 35 files. In later versions, it is closer to 50 files). On Windows, copy to folder %ProgramFiles(x86)%\/geany\/colorschemes<\/em> (e.g., C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Geany\\data\\colorschemes<\/em>).<\/p>\n Note<\/em><\/strong>: Folder ~\/.config\/geany\/colorschemes<\/em> isn’t created until menu item View<\/em> → Change Color Scheme<\/em> is chosen… Thus, before copying, open that dialog and close it again.<\/p>\n Change the theme: menu View<\/em> → Change Colour Scheme…<\/em> → choose “Delt Dark”<\/em> → press “Close”<\/em>.<\/p>\n Alternative dark themes are: “Himbeere”, “InkPot”, “Kugel”, “Relesk’s MC” (darkblue background), “Monokai”, “Oblivion 2”, “Railcasts 2”, “Retro” (green text), “Sleepy Pastel”, “Solarized (dark)”<\/em><\/strong>, “Spyder Dark”, “Steampunk”, “Tango”, “Tinge”, “Vibrant”, and “Zenburn”. <\/p>\n “Vibrant” is probably the closest to the UltraEdit one.<\/p>\n In Ubuntu, .txt files open in the extremely irritating “Text Editor” (gedit<\/a><\/em> in disguise<\/a>) Why did they have to change how Ctrl<\/kbd> + F<\/kbd> works??. <\/p>\n Right click on some .txt file in a “Files”<\/em> window (or Ctrl<\/kbd> + I<\/kbd>) and choose “Properties”<\/em>. In tab “Open With”<\/em> (the last one), find “Geany” in one of the three lists, select it and press “Set as default”<\/em>. Close the dialog. Note: In Ubuntu 24.04<\/a> (Noble Numbat), “Open With”<\/em> is directly in the context menu and it is “Always use for this file type”<\/em> instead of “Set as default”<\/em>.<\/p>\n Menu View<\/em> → Show Message Window<\/em>, to not checked. Menu View<\/em> → <\/em>Change Font…<\/em>, to 18. The font, “Monospace Regular”, is OK (“Monospace Normal” on Windows).<\/p>\n Note that there is a separate zoom level. It works in the same way as in a web browser (e.g., Ctrl<\/kbd> + +<\/kbd> to zoom in).<\/p>\n No more TABs<\/a>! They are evil.<\/p>\n Menu Edit<\/em> → Preferences<\/em> → Editor<\/em> → tab Indentation<\/em> → Type<\/em>. Set to “Spaces”.<\/p>\n Menu Edit<\/em> → Preferences<\/em> → Editor<\/em> → tab Indentation<\/em> → Tab key indents<\/em> (at the bottom). Check it.<\/p>\n Note 1: In some versions of Geany, this setting is remembered per document. To retrospectively change it, do menu command Project<\/em> → Apply Default Indentation<\/em>. This will not replace existing TABs, but any further actions with the TAB key will work as expected.<\/p>\n Note 2: TABs can still be inserted into a document using menu Edit<\/em> → Insert Alternative Whitespace<\/em>, just no longer with the TAB key.<\/p>\n Note 3: It works only for documents opened after this change (not current ones), so the easiest way is probably to restart Geany.<\/p>\n Note 4: It is not entirely clear what is up with setting “Tab key indents”. It seems to have no effect in some versions of Geany (perhaps its effective setting is automatically checked if “Type” = “Spaces”?). Its meaning may even have been inverted at some point… If it doesn’t work as intended, try both unchecking and checking this setting. It is safest to restart Geany after changing the setting.<\/p>\n Menu Edit<\/em> → Preferences<\/em> → tab Files<\/em> → section Miscellaneous<\/em> → Recent files list length<\/em>. Change it from 10 to 50.<\/p>\n So they are the same as in UltraEdit. This is also important for using a macro keyboard (no need for duplication).<\/p>\n The keyboard shortcuts are changed in menu Edit<\/em> → Preferences<\/em> (which itself has keyboard shortcut Ctrl<\/kbd> + Alt<\/kbd> + P<\/kbd> – but it conflicts with the Cinnamon<\/a> applet “Color Picker”…) → Keybindings<\/em> <\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same. Note: Ctrl + F4 appears as “<Primary>F4” in Geany.<\/p>\n If the window manager is Xfce<\/a> (e.g., using MX Linux<\/a>, Xubuntu<\/a>, or ArcoLinux<\/a>), Ctrl + F4 is already used and trying to use it in Geany will not work (using it will also make all open windows disappear<\/em><\/strong>… Use Ctrl + F1 to recover). To make it work, first clear it by activating the start menu (e.g., key ‘Win’ or click on it in the lower left), type “wi” → “Window Manager”<\/em> → tab “Keyboard”<\/em> → select “Workspace 4”<\/em> → press “Clear”<\/em> → “Close”<\/em> (this also makes Ctrl + F4 work in other applications, like Firefox). Also clear the shortcut for “Workspace 2”<\/em>, “Workspace 3”<\/em>, and “Workspace 5”<\/em> – as we are also going to use Ctrl + F2, Ctrl + F3, and Ctrl + F5.<\/p>\n Item “Close”<\/em> in section “File”<\/em>.<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Ctrl<\/kbd> + W<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same.<\/p>\n Item “Find Next”<\/em> in section “Search”<\/em> (about 40% way down).<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Ctrl<\/kbd> + G<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same. Note: Ctrl + F3 appears as “<Primary>F3” in Geany.<\/p>\n Item “Find Previous”<\/em> in section “Search”<\/em> (about 40% way down).<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Shift<\/kbd> + Ctrl<\/kbd> + G<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same. But note that bookmarks are not saved by default (they will be lost when Geany is quit). See section “Persistent bookmarks<\/a>” below.<\/p>\n Item “Toggle Marker”<\/em> in section “Go to”<\/em> (about half way down).<\/p>\n Note that the Ctrl<\/kbd> key is listed as “Primary”.<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Ctrl<\/kbd> + M<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same.<\/p>\n Item “Go to Next Marker”<\/em> in section “Go to”<\/em> (about half way down).<\/p>\n Note that the Ctrl<\/kbd> key is listed as “Primary”.<\/p>\n When prompted, press “Override”<\/em> to remove the existing keyboard shortcut for “Switch to Editor”<\/em>.<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Ctrl<\/kbd> + .<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n E.g., so a macro keyboard works the same.<\/p>\n Preparation: Ubuntu (and variants like Ubuntu MATE) may already use<\/a> this keyboard shortcut. The same in KDE Plasma<\/a> (e.g., under Fedora<\/a>), where it activates KRunner<\/a>. And the same in Cinnamon.<\/p>\n In Ubuntu, disable the keyboard shortcut for “Key to execute a command”<\/em> or “Show the run command prompt”<\/em>. The way depends on the Ubuntu version. In older versions<\/em><\/strong> of Ubuntu, do it by by installing and using CompizConfig Settings Manager<\/a>. It worked for me on Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus)<\/a>. In Ubuntu MATE (much easier): Window key<\/kbd> → “k” → select “Keyboard Shortcuts”<\/em>. In section “Desktop” (second section), double click “Show the panel’s ‘Run Application’ dialog box”<\/em> and press backspace (to clear it). It takes effect immediately; there is no need to restart anything.<\/p>\n In Cinnamon (for example, with underlying Ubuntu, LMDE<\/a>, or Fedora): Window key<\/kbd> → “sys” → select “System Settings”<\/em>. In section “Hardware” (third section), open “Keyboard”<\/em>. In tab “Shortcuts”, click “General” (left panel) → click on “Run dialogue” on the right → select and single click on “Alt + F2” (will display “Pick an accelerator”) in the lower half (“Keyboard bindings”) → press Backspace (to delete\/clear the shortcut). In later versions of Cinnamon, it is highly unintuitive: first double click<\/em><\/strong> the existing Alt + F2— before pressing Backspace (pressing the “Remove custom shortcut”<\/em> button in the lower right doesn’t do anything). It takes effect immediately; there is no need to restart anything.<\/p>\n In Xfce<\/a> (e.g., using MX Linux<\/a>, Xubuntu<\/a>, or ArcoLinux<\/a>): Activate the start menu (Win key or click on it) → type “k” → “Keyboard”<\/em> → tab “Application Shortcuts”<\/em> → select “xfce4-appfinder –collapsed”<\/em> → press “Remove”<\/em> → “Close”<\/em>.<\/p>\n In Lubuntu (LXQt<\/a> (v18.10 or higher) or LXDE<\/a> (v18.04 or lower)), edit file ~\/.config\/openbox\/lubuntu-rc.xml<\/em> near “A-F2”. For example, change “A-F2” to “A-F22” and add an XML comment as to why and document the original value (so it can more easily be reverted). It was tested with Lubuntu 18.04.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Geany’s preferences, Keybindings<\/em>, set Alt<\/kbd> + F2<\/kbd> for item “Go to Previous Marker”<\/em> in section “Go to”<\/em> (about half way down).<\/p>\n (Original keyboard shortcut: Ctrl<\/kbd> + ,<\/kbd>)<\/p>\n User-defined as text template “2” in UltraEdit.<\/p>\n Example: 2020-03-29<\/p>\n But unfortunately it is not<\/em> possible to set this keyboard shortcut. It conflicts with selecting a tab (the second tab in this case) and using combinations of Ctrl<\/kbd>, Shift<\/kbd> and Alt<\/kbd> conflicts with the Geany plugin “Numbered Bookmarks”.<\/p>\n A workaround is to create a text template with the name “_2” and content “{command:date +”%Y-%m-%d”}” (does not work on Windows). Then the date is inserted by typing “_2” followed by TAB. Installation<\/h2>\n
Ubuntu<\/a>\/Debian<\/a>, from the terminal<\/h3>\n
sudo apt-get update
\nsudo apt install geany<\/code><\/p>\nArch Linux<\/a>, e.g. ArcoLinux<\/a>, from the terminal<\/h3>\n
sudo pacman -Syu
\npacman -S geany<\/code><\/p>\nSome basic plugins<\/h3>\n
lsb_release -a # List Ubuntu version
\napt-cache search geany<\/code><\/p>\ngeany-plugin-addons - miscellaneous plugins for Geany<\/code><\/p>\nsudo apt install geany-plugin-addons<\/code><\/p>\ndnf search geany<\/code><\/p>\npacman -S geany-plugins<\/code><\/p>\nChange theme, e.g., to a dark mode one<\/h2>\n
Open .txt files with Geany by default<\/h2>\n
Turn off various non-text panels<\/h2>\n
\nMenu View<\/em> → Show Toolbar<\/em>, to not checked.
\nMenu View<\/em> → Show Sidebar<\/em>, to not checked.<\/p>\nSet font size<\/h2>\n
Turn off everything with TABs<\/h2>\n
Number of files in the list of recently opened files<\/h2>\n
Changing keyboard shortcuts to the same as in UltraEdit<\/h2>\n
Close document (Ctrl + F4)<\/h3>\n
Find next (F3)<\/h3>\n
Find previous (Ctrl + F3)<\/h3>\n
Set bookmark (Ctrl + F2)<\/h3>\n
Next bookmark (F2)<\/h3>\n
Previous bookmark (Alt + F2)<\/h3>\n
In newer versions<\/em><\/strong> of Ubuntu, the CompizConfig Settings Manager method does not work. Instead, it is done without installing any software, in Settings<\/em> → Devices<\/em> (or just Keyboard<\/em>) → Keyboard<\/em> (left panel) → section System<\/em> (2\/3 down) → click “Show the run command prompt”<\/em> → press the “Backspace” key to clear it → click Set<\/em>. Its status should now be “Disabled” instead of “Alt + F2”. It worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)<\/a>.
In even newer versions<\/em><\/strong> of Ubuntu, in Settings<\/em> → Keyboard<\/em> (left panel) → section Keyboard Shortcuts<\/em> → View and Customize Shortcuts<\/em> → System<\/em> → click “Show the run command prompt”<\/em> → press the “Backspace” key to clear it → click Set<\/em>. Its status should now be “Disabled” instead of “Alt + F2”. It worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver)<\/a>.
In Ubuntu 20.04<\/em><\/strong>, in Settings<\/em> → Keyboard Shortcuts<\/em> (left panel) → section System<\/em> (about 60% down on the right) → click “Show the run command prompt”<\/em> (the last one in the section) → press the “Backspace” key to clear it → click Set<\/em>. Its status should now be “Disabled” instead of “Alt + F2”.<\/p>\nInsert date (Alt<\/kbd> + 2<\/kbd>)<\/h3>\n