How to Install Geany (text editor & a basic IDE) in Ubuntu?

If you're looking for a powerful, features rich text editor, then Geany is an excellent application. Yes it's a text editor, but after installing it and seeing its features + according to her developers, it's actually more than just a text editor. It's a basic IDE (integrated develop environment) that can be used to edit/create and compile programming codes, so it's more of an "editor" for programmers.

But because it requires very little space (about 2MB of downloading size!) and has a lot of features aimed at editing text entries... if you're looking for a powerful text editor, then heck ya!, give Geany a try... because she deserves it! :).

Main features...

*. Change font size, type, etc.

*. Wrap text.

*. Show/Hide line numbers.

*. Find, find and replace.

*. HTML/XML tag auto-closing.

*. Word count  (one of my favorite features).

*. Add/Remove comments.

*. Zoom in-out, full screen view.

*. Supports plugins.

*. Date/Time insert... are just a fraction of its features to mention.

Although as said, it has a lot other programmer related functions such as compile, make, command-line output, execute, set file-type according to your programming language (C/C++, Java, Pascal, Fortran...), etc type features but since it's beyond the scope of this post and since I ain't a programmer, it's best to stick with what I know :D.

It has heck of a "preferences" window... :)

Anyhow, you can install Geany in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 (perhaps in other older versions too) by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install geany

It will be available via the "Programming" sub menu in Main applications menu in Gnome classic or just press "Alt" + "F2" and put the below command into the box and press enter.

geany

That's it. But as you can see, if you're a professional writer who's looking for a hassle-free professional text editor, then I think you'd better end-up with something like the Pyroom (awesome) or Focus writer. Either way, it's your choice mate!. Good luck :).