We have reviewed several web browser extensions in the past that add that functionality to a browser. It’s all text for Firefox allows you for instance to edit text in an external editor, while Form Text Resizer can resize web forms in multiple browsers.

But those extensions and tools are often limited to one web browser. What if you use multiple browsers or other programs like the email clients Thunderbird or Outlook?

Text Editor Anywhere is the answer to that question. The free software for Windows can be used to edit text anywhere in external text editors.

The program is offered as a portable version and installer. Its functionality becomes available once it is started. Just press the Windows-a hotkey when you have a window open with a text editor to select an external editor in the list of available text editors.

The selection menu displays the default editor on first start. It is possible to add additional editors to the list to make their selection easier in the future.

The text editor can be selected with a mouse click or the cursor and enter keys.

All text will be copied and pasted automatically in the selected text editor. The edited text is then automatically transferred back to the original form once the external text editor is closed.

A right-click on the program icon in the Windows System Tray displays options to change the hot key that triggers the editor selection menu, the temporary file path on the system and all configured text editors available for selection.

The program was not compatible with all text editors that I tried. It did not work with the system’s default text editor Notepad++ for instance, but did work with the Windows text editor Notepad.

Edit Text Anywhere is a handy program for Windows users who want to use an external text editor for some of their text editing. The program can be downloaded from the developer website. (via)

Text Trimmer (via Shell City) is a text editing tool that has been designed for that purpose. It comes with different modes that can be used to easily remove text from documents. It makes use of two modes Block and Mass that can remove unneeded text from documents easily.

The Block mode can be used to mark a block of text in a text document that can be removed, copied or moved. It would for instance be possible to remove the first 20 characters of text from every line in the document which is not doable in normal text editors.

Text Trimmer can do that with just a few clicks. The combination [ALT Left-Mouse Click] selects the upper left starting point for the block, the next use of the combination selects the lower right end point. Everything in between will be marked by the software program.

The Mass mode on the other hand is rule based which means it can be used to mark blocks based on rules defined by the user. It is for instance possible to mark all lines starting, showing or ending with the < char or trim all text from the beginning to a certain character.

The operations are easily accessible and it usually takes only a few seconds to define the text that should be trimmed and remove it from the document. Text Trimmer is a portable software for Windows.