Mousepad (software)

Text editing software

For the surface used with computer mice, see Mousepad.

Mousepad

Original author(s)| Erik Harrison, Benedikt Meurer, Tarot Osuji[1]
Developer(s)| Erik Harrison, Nick Schermer, Benedikt Meurer, Matthew Brush, Gaël Bonithon[1]
Initial release| April 17, 2006; 19 years ago (2006-04-17)[2]
Stable release|

0.6.5[3]  / 31 March 2025; 3 months ago (31 March 2025)

Repository| gitlab.xfce.org/apps/mousepad
Written in| GTK[4]
Operating system| Unix-like
Platform| x86 64, aarch64, ppc64, i686, ARMhf[5]
Included with| Xfce
Predecessor| Leafpad
Size| 436.2 kB[6]
Type| Text editor
License| GPL-2.0-or-later[7]
Website| docs.xfce.org/apps/mousepad/

Mousepad is a graphical text editor written for Xfce, a Linux desktop environment.[8] The program has a small footprint, similar to Leafpad,[8] but has additional features such as plugins, search history and automatic reloading.[9] The name Mousepad is derived from the mouse in Xfce's logo.[10]

Mousepad was originally written as a fork of an existing text editor, Leafpad,[11] to improve support for printing.[12][13] It was rewritten in December 2012 with version 0.3.0, which replaced the original code with a complete rewrite.[14]

Though written for Linux, Mousepad has been ported to FreeBSD[15] and is also available for macOS via MacPorts,[16] and Microsoft Windows via Cygwin.[17] It is the default text editor for Linux distributions that use Xfce, such as Xubuntu.[18] Kali Linux uses Mousepad as its default text editor, but modifies the code to add a newline at the end of files so that they are POSIX-compliant and do not merge when printing multiple files back-to-back.[19]

## Features

[edit]

In addition to plugin support,[9] Mousepad has features including tabs,[20] copy and paste, Undo/Redo, drag and drop, keyboard shortcuts,[21] printing, UTF-8 support, line numbers, searching capabilities (with a replace option), font selection, word wrap, automatic and multi-line indent, and both auto character coding detection and manual codeset options.[22]

## Dependencies

[edit]

Compiling Mousepad requires gtksourceview4-4.8.3, which is a library for GTK+ text and visuals, and is used for installing themes.[23] DConf-0.40.0, a dconf package, and dbus-glib-0.112, a GLib tool to interface with D-Bus, are both optional dependencies, along with gspell, a spell-checker, and libxfce4ui, which may be used to display a widget in the XFCE desktop environment.[24][25]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "AUTHORS". gitlab.xfce.org. 20 November 2020. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
2. ^ "Index of /src/apps/mousepad/0.2/". archive.xfce.org. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
3. ^ "mousepad-0.6.5 · Tags · Apps / mousepad · GitLab". 31 March 2025. Retrieved 14 June 2025.
4. ^ "Mousepad". gitlab.xfce.org. 13 May 2023. Retrieved July 27, 2023.
5. ^ "0.5.10 – Packages – GNU Guix". guix.gnu.org. Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
6. ^ "Arch Linux – mousepad 0.5.10-1". ArchLinux.org. July 9, 2022. Archived from the original on September 3, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
7. ^ "COPYING". gitlab.xfce.org. 10 March 2022. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
8. ^ a b Germain, Jack M. (August 22, 2012). "For Modest Mousepad, Simplicity Is Both Virtue and Vexation". Linux Insider. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
9. ^ a b Nestor, Marius (May 2, 2022). "Roundup of Xfce's Apps Update for April 2022: New Releases of Mousepad, Xfce Terminal, and Thunar". Linux Today. Archived from the original on August 15, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
10. ^ Kowalewski, Hubert (2008-07-01). "Conceptual blending and sign formation". Public Journal of Semiotics. 2 (2): 30–51\. doi:10.37693/pjos.2008.2.8826. ISSN 1918-9907. Archived from the original on 2022-08-23. Retrieved 2022-08-23.
11. ^ "Template file for 'mousepad'". GitHub. Archived from the original on August 14, 2022. Retrieved August 14, 2022. "Simple text editor for Xfce based on Leafpad"
12. ^ Wallen, Jack (May 5, 2010). "Mousepad: A variation on the Leafpad theme". Ghacks. Archived from the original on August 24, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
13. ^ "Package: mousepad (0.5.10-1)". packages.debian.org. Debian. Archived from the original on December 29, 2013. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
14. ^ "mousepad/News". Xfce. Archived from the original on January 9, 2022. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
15. ^ "Port Details – mousepad Simple text editor for the Xfce Desktop". FreshPorts.org. July 20, 2022. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
16. ^ "Install mousepad on macOS with MacPorts". MacPorts.org. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
17. ^ "Cygwin Package Summary for mousepad". Cygwin.com. Archived from the original on August 23, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
18. ^ "Review – Xubuntu 19.10" (PDF). Full Circle Magazine. November 2019. p. 42\. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 29, 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
19. ^ "Kali Linux 2022.3". TechSpot. August 10, 2022. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
20. ^ "Mousepad : A Simple And Useful Text Editor For Linux Mint". IHaveAPC.com. January 8, 2020. Archived from the original on June 26, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
21. ^ McManus, Sean; Cook, Mike (2021). Raspberry Pi For Dummies (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. p. 71\. ISBN 978-1119796824. OCLC 1250377754.
22. ^ "Simple text editor for Xfce desktop environment". RepoScope.com. Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
23. ^ King, Bertel (June 20, 2017). "Write or Code Faster in Your Linux Text Editor With Custom Themes". MakeUseOf. Archived from the original on August 23, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
24. ^ "mousepad". XFCE GitLab (Markdown). 11 March 2022. Archived from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
25. ^ "Mousepad–0.5.10". LinuxFromScratch.org. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.