Jarte is a superb word processor, with spell checker & tabbed document interface.
It features Microsoft WordPad compatibility, reads/writes DOC (Word 6.0), RTF & TXT formatted documents, OLE (object linking & embedding), has a Clipboard extender, screen capture, optional desktray icon, multiple undos and redos, and more.
It also offers toolbar hyperlinks (it uses your default Web browser) to Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary and thesaurus, plus Britannica's on-line encyclopedia, a grammar Website and a quote's Website. Of course, you must be on-line to use these hyperlinks.
Jarte is sensational. Its functions are the same as most regular word processors except that its authors have added some style which means that the interface is slightly different from normal.
Most functions are carried out with a dockable Tool Panel which appears on the left hand side of the screen. Hover your cursor (or click on) one of the five major-function buttons at the top (File Tools, Font Tools, Paragraph Tools, Spell Check and About) and the corresponding Tool Panel opens so you can access the functions. Of course, you can always make the regular menu bar visible and use that, but the Tool Panel concept works extremely well and can be hidden once you have finished with it.
The list of features is amazing but we found that the tabbed document interface to be excellent, and really liked the spell check function (of course!), the multiple undos and redos (we tried 10 levels), the cool animated icons, and the lack of limitation on filesize (we opened a 10+MB, 5000 page test document quickly and without hassles).
We also liked the desktray icon function. Instead of the program staying in the main system tray with the other programs, Jarte can be kept as a desktray icon so it is 'alive' on your desktop but not "in your face". Neat.
You can view your last 25 Clipboard entries (including images!) and save any that you like for future use (a boiler plate function).
It is hard to criticize this WordPad replacement because it does so much more than WordPad (or most other basic word processors) can do. Probably the only thing which we really disliked was the optional background image – none of the grayscale backgrounds looked very nice to us and we found that having none was the best option (and made the toolbar buttons/labels much easier to view).
Why use heavyweight word processors when you rarely use even 5% of their functions while programs like Jarte offer 99% of what people use, are much, much faster to load, and which don't take over your desktop.
Jarte is fabulous, get it!
Jarte has been updated to version 1.04.
The author advises that this is a maintenance release which includes mainly bug fixes and cosmetic changes.
Below: the desktray icon and right-click menu
Below: the main window (with default background)
Below (2 images): left and right fullsize views of the main window
(no background, icon labels 'on', Reference & Find toolbars open)
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Desktop Utils