EmEditor v24.1.0 Released (Including Technical Review)

Today, we are releasing EmEditor v24.1.0.

In version 24.1, we have added support for the new context menu in Windows 11 Explorer. With Windows 11, the design of the context menu has been revamped compared to Windows 10 and earlier versions, necessitating special handling for apps to support this change. EmEditor is now compatible with the Windows 11 context menu, enabling you to directly select the Edit in EmEditor command. Additionally, when right-clicking on a folder or the background, the Find in Files with EmEditor command becomes available. To use this feature, the EmEditor tray icon must be displayed in the notification area of the taskbar, and it is supported only when running the desktop installer version on Windows 11. This feature is accessible in both the EmEditor Professional and EmEditor Free versions.

Another significant feature added in the new Professional version is the enhancement of AI capabilities. Version 24.0 introduced AI macros using the OpenAI API (hereafter abbreviated as “API”). Version 24.1 introduces an AI assisted writing feature that predicts and autocompletes what you are typing next while composing text. AI autocomplete can reduce typing effort and improve writing speed. I am writing this text using EmEditor and am personally experiencing the convenience of the AI assisted writing feature.

By default, the AI functionality is disabled. To enable this feature, you need to check the Enable AI option on the AI page of the Customize dialog box in EmEditor, and agree to allow OpenAI to process the text data within documents opened in EmEditor. Please read OpenAI’s Privacy Policy, and if you agree, click the Continue button. According to this privacy policy, data sent to the API will not be used for training OpenAI’s models.

Next, enter your API key in the OpenAI API Key text box. If you are logged into OpenAI, you can obtain your API key here. It is recommended to store the API key in the ‘OPENAI_API_KEY‘ environment variable, but if you use the portable version of EmEditor or do not wish to share the key with other apps because you are sharing the computer, you can disable the Use “OPENAI_API_KEY” environment variable option and save the API key exclusively for EmEditor. By default, gpt-4-turbo-preview is the preferred model. It offers more accurate suggestions than gpt-3.5-turbo. For writing in foreign languages, selecting gpt-4-turbo-preview is advisable. Also, to enable this feature, you must activate the AI assisted writing option on the General page of each configuration properties. It is enabled by default for Text, Markdown, and HTML configurations.

When this feature is enabled, as you type, AI will automatically predict and suggest the next text. The suggested text appears in gray by default, and you can accept the suggestion by pressing the Tab or End key. If you want to accept only part of the suggested text, press the Right arrow key for the number of characters to accept, or Ctrl+Right to accept one word. Pressing the Delete key will remove the first character of the suggested text. Pressing the Esc key or another key cancels the suggestion. Moreover, if you want to force a prediction by AI when no suggested text is displayed, or request a different suggestion, press Ctrl+Space.

Simply opening a file in EmEditor does not call the API. It only starts calling the API when you begin typing characters. Moreover, the following conditions must all be met to utilize this functionality:

• Running EmEditor Professional edition
• The Enable AI option is set
• The AI assisted writing option is set
• Not recording or running a macro
• The Read-only option is turned off
• No text is selected
• Not editing a very large file
• Not in CSV mode
• Not comparing files
• The document being edited is active
• The cursor is at the end of line
• Have started typing characters
• After pausing typing (about 100ms)
• Have not pressed the Esc key to cancel a suggestion
• Not just clicked elsewhere with the mouse or executed another command

As described above, we aim to minimize the frequency of API usage. However, using the API still incurs a fee payable to OpenAI, calculated in tokens. Each suggestion consumes about 100 tokens for input and about 10 tokens for output. According to current pricing, using the default gpt-4-turbo-preview model consumes approx. US$0.0013 per instance. Opting for gpt-3.5-turbo significantly reduces the cost to approx. US$0.000065 per instance. For reference, using ChatGPT Plus provided by the same company incurs a monthly fee of US$20 or more, but if you only use the API with EmEditor, you don’t need to pay for ChatGPT Plus. Using AI with EmEditor is unlikely to amount to US$20 a month, making it an economically viable option. Using the AI macro introduced in v24.0, you can ask EmEditor any free-form questions just like with ChatGPT Plus, making it possible to completely replace ChatGPT Plus with EmEditor.

Furthermore, this version responds to customer requests.

1. The hexadecimal characters used for IPv6 addresses in highlight and sorting commands were only recognized in lowercase in previous versions. This was because RFC 5952 recommends writing IPv6 addresses in lowercase. However, based on feedback from a customer indicating that both uppercase and lowercase letters may be mixed, we now support uppercase letters as well.

2. The CommitList plugin has been improved with the addition of the Delete Remote Branch command.

I hope you like EmEditor, whether you use the Professional or Free version. Please contact us or write in forums if you have any questions, feature requests, or any ideas in the future.

Thank you for using EmEditor!
— Yutaka Emura

Please see EmEditor v24.0 New Features for details and screenshots.

If you use the Desktop Installer version, you can select Check for Updates on the Help menu to download the newest version. If this method fails, please download the newest version, and run the downloaded installer. If you use the Desktop portable version, you can go to the Download page to download the newest version. The Store App versions can be updated through Microsoft Store (64-bit or 32-bit) after a few days.