Code Writer v3.3 was just published to the Microsoft Store and should be available shortly.

What's New

• Added: New documents will avoid name collisions with existing open documents.
• Added: Support for opening ColdFusion files from Windows' Open With menu.
• Added: Support for opening .config and .rst files from Windows' Open With menu.
• Added: Copied clipboard text is kept on the clipboard after app exit.
• Changed: Delimiter highlight background to improve visibility.
• Fixed: Focus was not in the editor at app startup.
• Fixed: Consolas was not selected as the default font for new installs.

About Code Writer

Code Writer is a free text and code editing app, downloadable from the Microsoft Store, and is used by thousands of people each day.  Version 3.x requires the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709) or later.

Want to get the latest news about Code Writer?  Follow our @CodeWriterApp Twitter account.

Want to chat with us about Code Writer?  Please register to join our Slack workspace and join the #codewriter channel once added.

If you are a Universal Windows app developer, you can download a free evaluation of our Universal Windows Controls to use in your own apps.  Code Writer makes use of our SyntaxEditor, Docking/MDI, PropertyGrid, and Editors controls.  SyntaxEditor is of particular interest because it lets you add advanced code and text editing to your own apps.

Another feature we're looking to add to SyntaxEditor vNext (the 2019.1 version) is editor view panes, which are small UI panes with editor-related functionality that slide in from the view's top-right corner.  We originally started this effort with the idea of adding an inline search view similar to the one found in Visual Studio. 

Here's a walkthrough showing how it works when you press Ctrl+F:

We will cover this new inline search view in detail in a future post, as it's still being developed at this time.  But you can get a feel for how it will function via the video above.  

As we worked on this feature, we thought it would be a great idea to try and make more of a generic mechanism to host these kinds of editor view panes.  Other editor view panes could be added for go-to line, go-to anything, refactoring, etc. kinds of user interfaces.

Submit Your Feedback

We're just in the planning stages of this more generic editor view pane mechanism right now and would love to get your feedback.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments on what kinds of built-in panes you might like to see, or what kinds of custom panes you might build with this mechanism!

The features described above are intended for the future v2019.1 SyntaxEditor for WPF, SyntaxEditor for UWP, and SyntaxEditor for WinForms products.

When picking colors, it’s very beneficial for an end user to compare the initial (previously-selected) color with the currently-selected color.  This new Editors feature was added to the WPF and UWP color pickers in yesterday’s maintenance release.

Let’s see how this works with a ColorEditBox instance, our rich editor for color selection.  Please excuse the GIF image dithering.  The actual control has vibrant gradients.

The hue slider's inner circular area on the drop-down color picker shows the initial color value when the drop-down is opened.  As the end user alters the selected color, the right half of the circle updates to show the newly-selected color, while the left half of the circle continues showing the initial color value.  This allows the old and new values to be compared side-by-side.

The features described above are available in the Editors for WPF and Editors for UWP products.

Download Buy Now

Our v2018.1 WPF, Universal Windows, and Silverlight controls have all been updated with new maintenance releases that are now ready for download.  There were a large number of minor enhancements and bug fixes made across various products.

See the announcement posts for the detailed list of enhancements and updates:

• WPF Controls announcement
• Universal Windows Controls announcement
• Silverlight Controls announcement

Download Buy Now

We rolled out our brand new modern company website a couple weeks ago, and the response has been fantastic.  As part of that rollout, we also updated the appearance of our blog to match our main web site.

Our blog was previously hosted using a third-party web app (the classic BlogEngine.NET) on a separate blog.actiprosoftware.com sub-domain.  While that web app has served us well, it was time to move on.

One thing we've wanted to do for a long time was eliminate the use of a third-party web app for the blog, and merge the blog right into our main company website.  I'm pleased to announce that today we’ve accomplished that goal. 

New Blog URL

Please update your bookmarks appropriately since the blog is now fully integrated into our company website and is found at this new URL:

https://www.actiprosoftware.com/blog

Benefits

The primary benefit of this change is that it’s now easier than ever for you to comment on blog posts.  Simply sign into your normal Actipro website user account and if you’ve performed the e-mail validation (you’ve already done this if you post in our discussion forums), you’re ready to post in the blog comments.  It’s a very seamless experience.

Another benefit is that the new integrated blog uses the same powerful comment editing mechanism as our forums.  Comments used to be limited to plain text in the old blog.  The new blog comment editor fully supports rich formatting, code snippets, etc.