Texto is a Firefox extension for editing the contents of HTML textareas in an external editor. When the Texto icon in a textarea is clicked, the configured editor is opened with the textarea's contents. When the editor is closed, the textarea is updated with any changes. Icons change to show which textareas are being edited, and it is possible to edit many textareas at the same time.
It is available from [addons.mozilla.org] 1
After installing, the first click on a Texto icon brings up the preferences window. It can also be configured via the Tools -> Addons menu.
Choose your editor by typing its path directory in the "Default Editor" box, or use the Open... button to browse for an editor.
Default arguments are command-line options passed to your editor. The initial
setting, %t, is a placeholder for the temporary file created by Texto. You may
add extra command-line options, but %t should usually be the last one.
By default, the extension is enabled on every website with a textarea tag. If you don't want this behavior, uncheck the Globally Enabled box and configure Texto for your sites under Domain Specific Options.
A simple way configure most text editors for specific document types is to
change the file extension. Texto defaults to txt but you may change it to
anything else.
You may wish to use different editors for different sites, or possibly the same editor configured differently. The Domain Specific Options section makes this possible. On the left is a New Domain input box, with a list of configured domains below it. The right-hand side displays the configuration for the currently selected domain.
To setup a new domain, enter its name in the Add Domain box, click add, then fill out any options you want to be different from the Global options on the right. Changes are saved automatically. Any unset options except Enabled will default to the Global setting. If the Enabled option is not set for a domain, then Texto will not run on that domain. Use this to exclude websites such as google.com or facebook.com, where Texto icons aren't useful.
You can set a custom file extension for each domain. Many text editors can key off the file extension for syntax highlighting, plugin loading, etc.
To remove a domain's settings, click the domain, then the Delete button.
As of version 3.3, the preferences window also includes a Display tab. The current options are:
- Icon Position Move Texto icon to any corner of a textarea.
- Show Texto Icon Always, or only when mousing over a textarea.
Hidden Configuration
There are some configuration options not available on the Preferences screen. You can view these by opening the URL about:config and entering texto in the Filter box. Right now the configurable options are:
texto.default.tmpdir- Directory to use for storing tmp files while being edited. This should be detected correctly, but if you want to point it somewhere else you may.
Texto should work with just about any editor; however programs with extensive command line configuration options are the most flexible.
If you have configured Texto to work with an editor not listed, please let me know and I'll include it here.
A Makefile is included with the source code; to build a version for yourself
you'll just need make and zip.
make xpi
will produce the file texto.xpi which you can open with Firefox to install.
Texto was originally a fork of the [Mozex] 2 extension, which I stripped all the
"extra" functionality from and bumped the maxVersion setting to work with
newer Firefox releases when it became unmaintained. Mozex appears to be
actively maintained again, and is worth a look for folks wanting similar
functionality. Another great alternative is It's All Text. If you know of
another such extension, please let me know and I'll give it the Texto Bump
here!
Added option to place the icon in any corner of a textarea, and ability to hide the icon until mousing over a textarea. [Texto 3.3beta1] 7
Fix an error in default preferences due to a bad javascript comparison. [Texto 3.2beta2] 6
Added ability to set the file extension used by Texto's temp files, to trigger syntax highlighting. Domain preferences are always saved, no more forgetting to click the Save button. [Texto 3.2beta1] 3
Fixed Windows 7/Vista temp directory issues and created more useful default settings. [Texto 3.1] 4
The first version on addons.mozilla.org, and featured the domain specific customization options, new icons, and the new name "Texto" [Texto 3.0.1] 5
Older versions were named "Mozex Testo" and only released on my blog/irc. I changed the name to avoid "stealing" the string Mozex on the addons site.