jEdit is a great editor that I have used for a number of years but, it’s not the most intuitive application to configure and work with. This is a series of pages to get the jEdit noob a little closer to jEdit keyboard wizardry. These pages aren’t intended to replace the manual or the documentation for the various plugins but instead to create a small howto of easily accessible tips, fixes, and tricks that I can’t live without.

You should be aware that every copy of jEdit comes with documentation. You can access that documentation by opening jEdit, choosing “Help” from the top menu bar and choosing “jEdit Help” from there. Help will give you access to notes on basic usage and answers to frequently asked questions.

Plugins are one way to expand what is possible in jEdit. From the top menubar in jEdit go to Plugins->Plugin Manager->install and you will find a huge number of plugins for the editor. Most of these won’t be of use to us but you may find a need in future projects or classes that a particular plugin fulfills. Whenever I mention a particular tip or trick that relies on a plugin, I’ll mention the plugin, even if it “comes with” the preference file we installed in class.