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jEditor 3 — Release Notes

Includes updates from versions 3.0 through 3.3

March 2018 - November 2019

jEditor 3 marked a major step toward a full-featured development environment for macOS. This series introduced the Sidebar for quick file navigation, advanced syntax highlighting for modern languages, and full theme customization. Across versions 3.0 to 3.3, jEditor evolved with smarter indentation, improved code completion, multi-selection commenting, and numerous performance optimizations. It refined the editing experience while maintaining exceptional responsiveness and compatibility across a wide range of macOS versions.

Download jEditor on the Mac App Store

Requires macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later

Need help with this release? Visit our Support page or contact us at support@sientosh.com.

jEditor 3.3

Released on 20 December 2021

A stability and performance-focused update refining the editing workflow, syntax highlighting, and comment handling. jEditor 3.3 introduces faster paste operations, smarter comment toggling, and improved Swift syntax accuracy.

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Editor

  • Refined automatic brace pairing — braces are not auto-closed when a matching pair already exists.
  • Improved paste handling — only the affected text range is re-highlighted for faster performance.
  • Improved file loading — syntax highlighting now appears after content is visible to ensure quick file previews.
  • Improved delete behavior — backward deletion now removes spaces according to the configured tab width.
  • Improved toggle behavior — inline and block comments can now be toggled across multiple selections.
  • Enhanced inline comment toggling — detection now includes lines with leading spaces or tabs.
  • Fixed an issue where text selection was lost after toggling comments.
  • Fixed an issue where changing tab width from the menu did not update correctly in the editor.
  • Fixed an issue where a space was automatically inserted after pasting text following a period.

Syntax Highlighter

  • Added support for multiline strings in Swift syntax highlighting.
  • Improved performance by re-highlighting only the minimum affected text blocks after editing.
  • Improved block comment highlighting when added or removed using undo or redo actions.
  • Enhanced accuracy when highlighting multiline strings.

Preferences

  • Added a new option to apply themes to plain text files.

Toolbar

  • Added a clear color selection option in the color picker.

jEditor 3.2

Released on 8 June 2021

A refinement update improving sidebar behavior, code completion logic, and user interface responsiveness. jEditor 3.2 enhances workflow consistency with better state restoration, smarter completion handling, and refined editor layout options.

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Sidebar

  • Improved session restoration performance — sidebar state now loads significantly faster.
  • Added support for creating new documents of any type under working directory or Other Documents.

File & Replace

  • Improved layout responsiveness — search results now adjust more effectively to fit the available width.

Editor

  • Added option to disable dark mode for rich text documents.
  • Improved editor layout to support both vertical and horizontal orientations with synchronized line numbers.
  • Fixed an issue where a space was inserted automatically when pasting text immediately after a period (.).

Code Completions

  • Completions now close automatically when they are no longer needed or when certain actions are taken.
  • Completion suggestions no longer appear when typing between words, strings, characters, or comments.

Syntax

  • Fixed an issue where C language syntax highlighting occasionally failed to apply.

Document

  • Fixed an issue where the last window remained open after all documents were closed.

Toolbar

  • Fixed an issue where changing the text background color via the toolbar might not apply correctly.
  • Refined the design of toolbar elements.

jEditor 3.1

Released on 13 March 2021

A major update introducing sidebar enhancements, improved text editing tools, and new features like file search, status bar, and syntax updates — with expanded language support and numerous fixes.

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Sidebar

  • Folders are pinned on top with files sorted alphabetically.
  • Remembers up to ten recent folders for quick access.
  • Added options to close the current or other documents directly from the sidebar.
  • Sidebar position can be switched between left or right from Preferences.
  • Added new context menu options — Open in New Window and Open With.
  • Improved handling of file moves, renaming, and trash warnings for better reliability.

Find & Replace

  • Introduced “Find & Replace in Files” with support for plain text and rich text formats.
  • Offers both text and regular expression searches with advanced options.
  • Enhanced sidebar integration for faster search navigation.

Text Editing

  • Added options to duplicate, delete, and move lines up or down.
  • Convert indentation between tabs and spaces instantly.
  • Added commands to remove trailing whitespace and toggle invisible characters.

Editor

  • Improved toggle comments and added inline comment support.
  • Introduced “Go to Line” for quick navigation within large files.
  • Double-click now selects words or matching pairs like braces and quotes.
  • Added page guide at column 80 (configurable in Preferences).
  • Zooming now scales both editor text and line numbers.
  • Supports indentation of wrapped lines for cleaner formatting.
  • Automatically inserts closing tags in HTML, XML, and PLIST files.

Code Completions

  • Improved accuracy and contextual relevance across all supported languages.
  • Expanded keywords, types, and attribute completions for better coverage.

Syntax Highlighter

  • Improved accuracy for escaped characters, multiline strings, and embedded code blocks.
  • Enhanced highlighting for JavaScript and CSS within HTML and PHP.
  • Refined PHP variable handling and consistency across all syntaxes.

Themes

  • Improved existing themes and added new ones with expanded color items.
  • Supports multi-selection of theme items for batch font and color changes.
  • Added more customizable theme properties for attributes, functions, and values.
  • Users can now duplicate themes directly from Preferences.

Document

  • Added support for Fortran, Go, Perl, Ruby, and Rust document types.
  • Improved detection of document type by extension and file content.
  • Fixed saving and reopening issues with RTF, RTFD, DOC, and DOCX formats.

Print

  • Choose themes, headers, footers, and line numbers directly from the print panel.
  • Option to print with or without background colors.

Status Bar

  • Added Status Bar to quickly change syntax style, file encoding, and line endings.

Toolbar

  • Enhanced toolbar design with improved consistency and undo/redo support.
  • Fixed issues when adjusting font size, alignment, line height, or text background color.
  • Toolbar changes now apply correctly to multi-selected text.

Preferences

  • Added new sidebar options — position control, reopen last session, and more.

Other Improvements

  • Improved syntax highlighting and code completion for all programming languages.
  • General performance enhancements and stability fixes throughout the app.

jEditor 3.0

Released on 13 May 2020

A foundational update introducing the Sidebar, syntax highlighting for major languages, customizable themes, and smarter editing tools — establishing the modern jEditor experience.

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Sidebar

  • Introduced the Sidebar to easily browse and open files and folders from your working directory.

Editor

  • Added Indent and Outdent commands to the main menu.
  • Added ⌘ + / shortcut to toggle line comments.
  • New lines are automatically indented based on the previous line’s indentation.
  • Automatically inserts and deletes matching pairs for brackets, braces, quotes, and angles.
  • Improved line number rendering for better visual clarity.
  • Rich text pasted into plain text documents now converts to plain text automatically.

Document

  • Added syntax highlighting support for XML, PLIST, CSS, JSON, SQL, PHP, and Python.
  • Improved file reload behavior when using the Revert to Saved command.
  • Fixed an issue where reloading or reverting files reset editor font styles.
  • Fixed an issue where saving certain files (like PLIST) could fail.

Preferences

  • Added full control over editor fonts and sizes.
  • Introduced automatic file encoding detection for reading and writing.
  • Added independent encoding options for plain text and code documents.
  • Introduced themes for customizing syntax highlighting colors.
  • Added adjustable tab width option (1–15 spaces).

Toolbar

  • Improved design and layout of typeface segment controls.
  • Added option to change the text background color directly from the toolbar.

Application

  • Automatically reopens previously open documents when relaunching the app.
Release Notes icon for jEditor 4

jEditor 4 Release Notes

Focused on precision and visual consistency with a redesigned syntax highlighter, new theme system, improved line numbering, and smarter indentation.

Release Notes icon for jEditor 2

jEditor 2 Release Notes

Added a full Preferences window, syntax color customization, and support for opening or saving files with any extension — improving control and compatibility.

Release Notes icon for jEditor

jEditor Release Notes

Discover how jEditor evolved from a lightweight text editor into a powerful macOS development tool with syntax highlighting, Git integration, and seamless editing workflows.