Xfce Forum

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Make Mousepad the default text editor

For years I used Gedit as my go-to plain text editor. But my new UHD monitor makes the text unreadable in Gedit because it is only 2mm high. Mousepad to the rescue!

There are other advantages to Mousepad as well, but I can't figure out how to make it the default. When I double-click on a text file it still opens in Gedit. How can I make Mousepad get the recognition it deserves and become my default text editor?

CwF

Member

Registered: 2018-01-28

Posts: 305

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

slow down there buddy...right click on the file, read the options, make a choice...

Skaperen

Member

From: right by Jesus, our Saviour

Registered: 2013-06-15

Posts: 862

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

UHD is going to be a common problem.  unlike past history, it is not a small increment in resolution which allowed people to keep working with a slightly smaller font until they could get to changing the font size.  going from HD to UHD is a radical change for visuals, like text, that depend on seeing the details.  had things been standardized on a shift in sizing from px to mm we could easily have had font sizes specified in a way that does not depend on the display resolution.  i need to be able to specify that a standard letter be "2.00mm+0.12mmx4.00mm+0.48mm" and have it actually displayed at that size (times any active scaling or magnification factors in effect) regardless of the resolution.  there should still be the ability to fall back to "px" (and even "in") as a unit of measure for certain cases as well as an ability to specify the physical display size (if the monitor does not, or to override the monitor info).  i have HD now.  an i am pushing the limits of my old vision, already.  and i anticipate the future being UHD, so i'll probably get UHD even before the market goes "all UHD" as has almost done, now, with HD.  i just don't know how fast it will get there.  personally, i'm hoping for self-driving cars before that as my ability to be a safe driver is coming to an end.

Aravisian

Member

Registered: 2019-08-17

Posts: 410

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

For years I used Gedit as my go-to plain text editor. But my new UHD monitor makes the text unreadable in Gedit because it is only 2mm high. Mousepad to the rescue!

There are other advantages to Mousepad as well, but I can't figure out how to make it the default. When I double-click on a text file it still opens in Gedit. How can I make Mousepad get the recognition it deserves and become my default text editor?

In XFCE, it is pretty easy to change a file associate at any time. Right click the file and select "Properties". Third tab at the end is "Open With". Select "open with" and select your preferred application, then at the bottom select "Set as Default." From then on, when you click open the file, it will open with that application.
Hope this helps and Skaperen, thanks for the very informative post.

Last edited by Aravisian (2019-12-24 06:27:10)

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

In XFCE, it is pretty easy to change a file associate at any time. Right click the file and select "Properties". Third tab at the end is "Open With". Select "open with" and select your preferred application, then at the bottom select "Set as Default." From then on, when you click open the file, it will open with that application.
Hope this helps and Skaperen, thanks for the very informative post.

I knew this before I posted, but I was hoping for something that I could set in Mousepad that would make it the default text editor for all plain text files. You see, the standard extension for a plain text file is .txt (if standards really exist in computerland). But some use .conf or .cfg, among many others. And then there are all the text files that have no extension at all. I can understand how my computer knows what to do with a file that has an extension, but how does it know what to do with a file that has no extension? The double-click action must call up some code that figures out what to do with the file.

Aravisian

Member

Registered: 2019-08-17

Posts: 410

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

I knew this before I posted, but I was hoping for something that I could set in Mousepad that would make it the default text editor for all plain text files..

The setting described above does just that, but for only that extension type. If you want to ensure other types are associated the same way, there are several ways to do it.

I recall doing it using a GUI method, but cannot remember the name of the GUI. I think it was the old Ubuntu Cleaner Tool. But there are a few out there.
They all do the same thing and that is; edit the Mimeapps.list-
/usr/share/applications/mimeapps.list
You may also look at
~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
Edit either file and save before closing to assert your dominance over the machine.

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

@Aravisian: The GUI method could've been xfce4-mime-settings?

@John Jason Jordan: In addition to what Aravisian said, this Stack Exchange link has a some info on the topic.

Aravisian

Member

Registered: 2019-08-17

Posts: 410

Re: Make Mousepad the default text editor

@Aravisian: The GUI method could've been xfce4-mime-settings?

No... But thanks for the suggestion of another method

I am quite confident that it was the old Ubuntu Tweak Cleaner tool. The janitor function was there and still is on the current UbuntuCleaner. But hitting the other tabs gave other options. You could set the log in screen, change your theme and icons and set your default applications. It had a Lot to the thing.  I used it on Xenial based Zorin 12.4. Let me see if I can find a page on it.
Ok, found this:
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/201 … ntu-16-04/
It doesn't show all that it does. But you can see the Apps and the Admins tabs; I believe that was where I went to set default mime apps