AkelPad is a small, expandable text editor for Microsoft Windows. AkelPad's author states that the program can "replace standard Notepad" and has many features which NotePad lacks. Although AkelPad is written as a text editor, its use of available plugins provides considerably more power than NotePad. AkelPad displays text using a specially designed control, AkelEdit, a replacement for Windows' control, which gives AkelPad additional control over text display and behavior. AkelPad is distributed as free and open source software, hosted on SourceForge where it has been downloaded more than 3 million times.
Feb, 2007 - v2.1.9, English/Russian, source code available at SourceForge
April, 2007 - v2.2.1a, last release of version 2, version 3 development underway by Aleksander Shengalts
July, 2006 - v3.0 Beta, re-designed
July, 2008 - v3.6.0, last major release of v3
May, 2008 - v4.0 Alpha, re-designed
Aug, 2008 - v4.0 final, version 3 development maintained only for compatibility, etc.
Nov 20, 2008 - v4.1.0, plugins in installer, opportunity to replace notepad without installation of the program in a system directory
Mar 23, 2009 - v4.2.0, check for plugins and program compatibility. Update plugins, possibility to set vertical marker
Aug 28, 2009 - v4.3.0, internal Alt+NumPad processing
Feb 10, 2010 - v4.4.0, messages for text folding in AkelEdit, ability to assign Tab, Shift+Tab in plugins dialog, on condition that the hotkey input box was activated using the mouse
Oct 28, 2010 - v4.5.0, ability to set color and font style for the text inside fold. This means that multi-line comments now highlighted
May 11, 2011 - v4.6.0, undo buffer remember the caret position, option for cycle search
Nov 15, 2011 - v4.7.0, ability to display alternating lines in different colors, local storage of open links in a document and marking them with selected color
Nov 19, 2012 - v4.8.0, command 4199 - move caret to previous location, command 4200 - move caret to next location
Sep 08, 2014 - v4.9.0, possibility in file open/save dialog to specify NTFS file stream on Win7, flags for manual parameter "MouseOptions"
Sep 14, 2015 - v4.9.6, fixed: print text with nested syntax highlighting rules
Features
A partial list of AkelPad's features which set it aside from Notepad:
AkelPad handles full Unicode files written in UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32 and can auto-detect Unicode files with or without a BOM. BOMs can also be omitted, if desired, from file writing. Codepages installed on the user's system can be used for reading or writing files; text can also be re-coded into other codepages. AkelPad implements an auto-detection algorithm for detection of some common codepages used. AkelPad can also detect non-text files and will issue a message. Binary files can, however, be loaded and edited if desired.
Plugins
The program's architecture is structured to allow external plugins for extension of AkelPad's capabilities. At present, 31 plugins are implemented and available on AkelPad's homepage. Some of the more noteworthy plugins are:
Judging by activity on the AkelPad , AkelPad is actively updated, both the main executable and various plugins. With nearly 30 plugins available, keeping plugins current may be a chore. The program's author has created an update utility - AkelUpdater - to make this task easy. AkelUpdater
queries an online file to determine the most current versions of the plugin DLLs and AkelPad executable
queries the user's AkelPad configuration, i.e. which plugins are in use, available and their versions
then provides a list of possible updates. The user can adjust this list as necessary, choosing to not update plugins, or to update plugins not currently in use. The utility then
downloads the file PlugsPack.zip, an up-to-date collection of all available plugins, from the plugins download site, and
installs the necessary updates, as selected.
Note that the user must be connected to the Internet to use the AkelUpdater utility; operation is simple and fast. A direct download link for AkelUpdater can be found .
