📝 Text Editor

A desktop text editor for writing, opening, and saving files — built as a lightweight alternative to Windows Notepad.

What It Does

A fully functional text editor with the features you'd expect from any standard word processor.

• Write and edit — A clean text area for writing and editing content freely
• Open files — Browse and open any existing text file through a file picker dialog
• Save your work — Save to the current file with one click, or choose a new location with Save As
• Unsaved changes protection — If you try to open a new file or close the app with unsaved changes, the app asks whether you want to save first — so you never accidentally lose your work
• Status bar — A live information bar at the bottom showing character count, word count, and line count, updated as you type
• Drag and drop — Drag a file directly into the editor to open it, append its contents to the end, or insert it at the cursor — depending on which key you hold while dropping

Why I Built It

This was a school assignment focused on building a polished, real-world desktop application. A text editor is deceptively simple — almost everyone has used one, which means the bar for expected behaviour is high. Every small detail matters: the title bar showing the filename, the asterisk that appears when there are unsaved changes, the save prompt when closing. Getting those right meant thinking carefully about application state and user experience, not just functionality.

What I Learned

This project was a lesson in the gap between working and well-behaved software. Handling every path a user might take — closing without saving, opening a file mid-edit, drag-and-dropping with different modifier keys — required anticipating behaviour rather than just reacting to it. It also reinforced how much good error handling matters: the app should never crash, and every failure should give the user a clear, helpful message.

Project Status

Complete — submitted as part of a school assignment.

---

Built by Salim — LinkedIn · Portfolio