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EmEditor v26.3 Released — Fast View Mode for Huge Files and MCP Connectors for Chat with AI

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Today, we released EmEditor v26.3.

1. Fast View Mode for Huge Files

EmEditor has long been known as a text editor that can open huge files, and we have improved the performance of opening and editing large files in almost every version. However, when a file is much larger than the physical memory of your PC, opening the whole file still takes time, and the PC may slow down because of a memory shortage. In many cases, you open a huge file such as a log file or a database dump only to view, find, or filter it, and you do not need to edit it.

In this version, we added the new Fast View mode for such cases. Fast View opens a huge file almost instantly in read-only mode without loading the whole file into memory. EmEditor finds the positions of the lines in the background and reads only the lines that are displayed. You can jump to the end of the document immediately after you start opening the file, even while EmEditor is still finding the positions of the lines. Line numbers are not displayed until the positions of the lines are found.

Files larger than the Minimum file size to enable Fast View mode (4,096 MB by default) are opened in Fast View mode automatically, and a notification appears when a file is opened in Fast View mode. You can change this size on the Advanced page of the Customize dialog box. To switch between the normal mode and Fast View mode, select Fast View on the Edit menu. You can also select the Fast View mode check box in the Large File Controller.

1-1. What You Can Do in Fast View Mode

Although Fast View mode is read-only, most of the features you need for viewing and analyzing huge files are available.

  • Both the Pro and Free versions
    • Scroll, select (including vertical selection), copy (including Copy in Quotes), Jump, and Tag Jump.
    • Display highlighted strings, comments, quoted strings, markers, marks, and the ruler.
    • Find text, including regular expressions, the Number range and Fuzzy options, and counting the matches.
    • Reload in a different encoding, including binary views, and Save As with a different encoding or newline characters.
    • Compare documents, including with a document in the normal mode.
    • Run external tools.
  • Pro version only
    • Extract with the Find dialog box, Multi-Find with the Batch Find dialog box, and filter and extract with the Filter toolbar.
    • Use CSV modes, the Large File Controller, macros, plug-ins, and the AI menu.

Note that in Fast View mode, the number of bookmarks is limited to 100,000 per document, and the Incremental search options are disabled.

1-2. Much Faster, Even When the File Is Larger Than Physical Memory

Opening, finding, filtering, and extracting in a huge file are much faster in Fast View mode than in the previous version, even when the file is much larger than the physical memory. In our tests, filtering became about 9 times faster, and extracting became more than 10 times faster than in v26.2. If you often work with huge log files or CSV files, please try Fast View mode.

1-3. Macros and Plug-ins

Macros and plug-ins can also be used in Fast View mode. The properties and methods of the Document and Selection objects that do not change the document can now be used in Fast View mode, and we added the FastView property to the Document object. For plug-in developers, we added the EI_GET_FAST_VIEW parameter to the EE_INFO message and the EEID_FAST_VIEW command ID. Properties, methods, and messages that change the document fail in Fast View mode.

We also added the Text and TextLength properties to the Document object, and the scrollBy and scrollTo methods and the scrollX and scrollY properties to the WebBar object.

2. Enhanced Chat with AI

2-1. MCP Connectors

In this version, Makoto Emura added MCP connectors to the Chat with AI plug-in. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard protocol that connects AI to external services. By adding MCP connectors, the AI can access external services and data while chatting with you. You can add new connectors on the new MCP Connectors page of the Settings dialog box using the JSON configuration of an MCP server. Currently, only HTTP servers are supported (STDIO and SSE connections are not supported).

Makoto also added the EmEditor Help Pages MCP connector. When you ask the AI about how to use EmEditor, the AI can use this connector to access up-to-date EmEditor help pages. We found that this MCP gives better answers than web search tools.

One example of a complex task that AI used to struggle with is writing EmEditor macros, such as “Write an EmEditor macro to find the sum of values in column 2.” With the EmEditor Help Pages MCP connector, AI can now reference the macro help pages to write better macros.

EmEditor Help Pages MCP is also available to use in other apps such as ChatGPT or Claude. See this article which explains how to use this MCP server in other apps.

2-2. Per-Chat AI Settings

Previously, AI settings such as the provider and model were shared by all chats. In this version, you can change the AI settings for each chat. Per-chat settings apply only to that chat, and changing them does not affect the global settings. For example, you can use a lightweight model in one chat and a reasoning model in another.

Makoto also added an AI model and tools indicator to the chat input box. It shows the current AI model and the selected tools for the chat, and clicking the model name opens the Settings dialog box.

2-3. The ChatAI Plug-in Is Required

Please note that to use the AI features, including Chat with AI, you need to install the ChatAI plug-in in addition to EmEditor. The Store version and the new Installer version (MSIX) include the ChatAI plug-in, so there is no need to install it separately.

3. Other Improvements

The Explorer plug-in now uses the dialog box font size specified on the Window page of the Customize dialog box.

We hope you will be satisfied with both the Pro and Free versions. If you have any questions, feature requests, or ideas, please contact us.

Thank you for your continued support of EmEditor.
— Yutaka Emura

For more details, including the main changes and screenshots, please see “New in Version 26.3”.

If you use the legacy MSI installer, select Help > Check for Updates to update EmEditor. If the update does not complete successfully, please download the latest version and run the installer manually. If you download the MSI installer directly, please verify that its digital signature is issued by Emurasoft, Inc.

The Microsoft Store version is expected to be available within the next few days. We recommend using the Microsoft Store version or the new MSIX installer. Updates for the legacy MSI installer are currently scheduled to end in March 2027. For more information, see FAQ: Store Version and New Installer (MSIX).

If you uninstall the old MSI version and install the Store version or the new MSIX version, “Edit in EmEditor” may appear twice in the context menu when you right-click in File Explorer. In this case, the new Store/MSIX version will show a dialog box to prompt you to remove the old entry.

If we release minor updates (v26.3.x) in the future, this blog post may be updated to include those changes.