How to edit Text Files on the N95

The built in text viewer on the N95 works fine for viewing text files but recently I have wanted to be able to edit rather than just view them. Copying a file to my laptop, editing it, then copying it back to the phone seemed silly to me so I stated Googling and came across DEdit. I expected something similar to Windows Notepad but I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong. DEdit is a far better text editor than Notepad! Juriy Bakunin was definitely thinking when he wrote this one!

Please note: This guide was initially published back in 2008 and some of the software it references no longer exists. As such, we have asked Google to remove this from their search database, however the document will remain online for archival sake.

  1. The latest version of DEdit at the time of writing is 0.75 and can be downloaded directly from here (Update: software no longer available). If you aren’t familiar with installing applications on your N95, please see my tutorials on installing software via USB or installing software via Bluetooth, then come back.
  2. Once you have DEdit installed, you can find it by choosing Menu -> Applications -> DEd.
  3. DEdit defaults to editing a new, blank file. You will immediately understand why I was impressed as soon as you press the Menu button in DEdit.
  4. What I wanted to do was edit my httpd.conf and my users.txt after installing Apache on my N95. Watch for my upcoming Apache on the N95 tutorial. Press Menu -> Open/Save, then choose Open File.
  5. The default is for DEdit to browse your phones C: drive.
  6. Seeing how I’m editing Apache configuration files, I navigated to Data -> apache -> conf.
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  8. Open httpd.conf and you’re ready to start editing.
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  10. Basic edits are as simple as scrolling around the document and typing using the same method as you use for sending SMS messages. Saving is as simple as using the Center toggle button.
  11. All functions of the editor can be found in the menu, but you may notice certain functions have what appear to be shortcuts listed next to them. For example, open the menu and choose Search and Replace.
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  13. Notice the [g7], [g8] and [g9] listed to the right of each function? This stands for Green-7, Green-8, and Green-9 respectively. Green is your phones Send button. So if we want to search the httpd.conf for the Servername directive, simple press Green-7, enter Servername, and select OK. DEdit jumps down to the first line containing the word Servername. Green-8 jumps to the next line containing the word Servername, etc.
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  15. It doesn’t take too long to get used to DEdit and its shortcuts. If you read the readme_en.txt file that comes in the zip file you downloaded above, you will find a few extra shortcuts that aren’t listed in the menu. I strongly suggest reading it.

The features in DEdit are too plentiful to list all of them here. A couple of my personal favorites include:

  • You can open multiple files and switch back and forth between them
  • There is a history of open files so you can easily go back to the last file you were editing
  • You can bookmark your position (up to 128 of them!) within a file so you can easily return to where you left off in your edits.

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