Quick Start Guide

If you want to get started with jEdit quickly and take advantage of its advanced features, this page is the right place to look.

Step 1 -- Get a Java runtime

To use jEdit, you need to have Java version 1.4 or newer. Sun's Java 1.5 is recommended because it supports more plugins, antialiased text modes, and other nice features. If you use Java 1.6, jEdit will take advantage of some of its features too, such as its LCD antialiasing mode.

Step 2 -- Download jEdit

jEdit can be downloaded from the download page. Installation instructions can be found on this page as well. Don't be intimidated by pre-release versions - 4.3preX and the plugins that depend on it contain many enhancements and improvements you will not find in 4.2final. In particular, there is a whole new generation of SideKick parsers which are integrated with an improved SideKick plugin, all of which depend on jEdit 4.3

Step 3 -- Get some plugins

jEdit by itself is just a text editor; plugins can turn it into a powerful IDE. You can install as few or as many plugins as you want.

jEdit makes plugin installation a painless process; you invoke the Plugin Manager command from the editor's Plugins menu, click Install Plugins, and a list of plugins will be obtained for you; you can then select plugins to download and install.

There are more than 150 plugins listed on Plugin Central; this list can be somewhat daunting. Here is a short list of some plugins you might want to try:

Programming

• ProjectViewer
• AntFarm
• Console
• CtagsSideKick
• JavaSideKick
• ClassBrowser
• Tags

HTML/XML

• XML
• Beauty
• XSLT

Other

• FastOpen
• Archive
• BufferTabs
• FTP
• JDiffPlugin
• SpellCheck
• Templates

Step 4 -- jEdit documentation

jEdit includes detailed online help. You can also find a PDF version of the user's guide (suitable for printing) at the download page.

Step 5 -- Get involved with the community!

If you want to be notified of jEdit development progress, or if you want to ask a question, or if you want to discuss topics relating to jEdit, subscribe to the mailing lists found at the feedback page. A link to the jEdit bug tracker can be found on the same page as well.

The jEdit community site also provides a great wealth of information for jEdit users; you can find user-contributed macros here, along with jEdit-related news, message boards, various downloads and links, and much, much more.

Finally, if you want to chat with other jEdit users, install the IRC plugin for jEdit! This allows you to start a chat session inside the editor.

jEdit is Open Source software, so anyone is welcome to join the development team. If you want to contribute, take a look at the development page for details.

A note about jEdit performance

Having a lot of plugins installed slows down jEdit startup. JythonInterpreter and JavaInsight are the worst offenders, together adding about 7 seconds to the jEdit startup time. jEdit 4.2 adds a new plugin API that makes the task of writing a quick-loading plugin much easier.

There are many unmaintained Java plugins, so please try out the ones that are currently maintained first.

Do not install more than one of CodeAid, DotComplete, or SpeedJava. All of these plugins offer the same functionality (Java code completion), and JavaSideKick hopes to replace them all, as well as JBrowse.

We hope you enjoy using jEdit!
-- The jEdit developers.