Editor that saves temp files for crash recovery?

Question

I often need to just copy/paste some text into a temporary file without having to give it an actual filename in a directory somewhere.

Originally, I would just create a new e-mail message and paste stuff into Eudora. Since then, I've moved on to UltraEdit because it supports saving temp, unnamed files on disk in case the application or Windows crashes (or I have to kill UltraEdit because Windows Update requires rebooting :-/).

The problem is, UltraEdit seems to have a limit of 40 open windows and then refuses to open any more windows.

So... is there a Windows application with the following features?

1. Saves all open windows, regardless if it was given a filename or not

2. Easy pasting: CTRL-N to create a new window, puts the focus therein, CTRL-V to paste, and forget about it

3. Cherry on pie: Shows a one-level (ie. non-hierarchical) treeview on the left where each open window got a title automagically by using the first words of the first line as title, so I can browse through the list of items in the treeview and know what it probably contains without actually clicking on it

I kind of like ActionOutline, but it's not as easy to use as UltraEdit (I don't need a hierarchical treeview, just a single-level treeview; CTRL-N puts focus on the new item in the treeview, so requires hitting CTRL-TAB to move to the editing pane on the right; it requires changing the item name from "New action...")

Does such an appplication exist?

Answer 1

If you have Office installed Microsoft OneNote fits the bill. It automatically saves everything, it names the tabs from the first words in the page but I'm not sure if Ctrl+N opens a new tab.

Answer 2

The Opera web browser "Notes" feature provides all your requirements, plus more!
Just press F4 to open the sidebar, then click the notepad and pen icon (F4 again to close; "Notes" will be automatically opened with the next F4):

• The top pane lists the first line from all the notes; no filenames required!
• The bottom pane shows the full contents of the currently selected note
• The sidebar and panes are all resizable (You can resize it to fill the entire browser width)
• To create a new note: click the add button or an empty space in the top pane. (Also possible to create (nestable, collapsable) folders and separators to organize your notes better)
• Notes are automatically saved as you type! (Use CTRL-V to paste, as well)
• There is no limit to the number of different notes, AFAIK
• Unicode is supported (However there was a bug where the note may be truncated if it does not end in ASCII. That's why I added "Save" after the Korean text)
• You can search all your notes with the "Quick Find" (dynamically filters the list in the top pane as you type the search term)
• I believe you can even sync your notes between different computers using Opera's sync feature

Answer 3

Check out Notepad++ and the AutoSave plugin. That combo might meet your needs.

Answer 4

It may not be an editor per se but I use CintaNotes for exactly that purpose (quick copy pasting and saving ideas that pop up randomly). Extremelly stable and doesn't take up practically any memory.

Answer 5

Doesn't match all of your criteria, but have to post it anyway:

Vim!

Answer 6

I've always used Tomboy Notes for this purpose. It's systray-resident, autosaves, and has automatic wiki-like functionality if you could use that. Also, cross platform (Windows/OSX/Linux)

Answer 7

Take a look at TextPad - http://textpad.com.

Answer 8

e-texteditor, a TextMate clone for Windows