Installing WinEdt

WinEdt is distributed as shareware. You don't have to register the program in order to give it a try. In fact you should first install and try the program and only after being convinced that you want to use WinEdt (or after the 31-day trial period- whichever comes first) you should concern yourself with the registration.

After reading the basic information About WinEdt and checking out the Features Overview (Users Guide) you can download a fully operational (unregistered) version of WinEdt from the Downloads Page.

How to install WinEdt 5.3?

WinEdt comes suitably compressed and packaged for Web Distribution in a self-installing executable winedt53.exe. Download and execute this file (in a temporary folder) and the Installation Wizard will guide you through the rest of the process. After the package is extracted in the folder of your choice WinEdt is started with the Configuration Wizard which can be used to integrate WinEdt with your Windows and TeX system...

If you already have WinEdt 5.3 you can create the Backup of your current configuration (Options -> Configurations -> Backup) and exit WinEdt. If you have modified any macros in WinEdt's Root folders you should save the modified files to the Local directory to protect them from being overwritten. You can then install the new version over the old one and later you can execute the command Options -> Configurations -> Restore to selectively restore some of your previous settings:

IMPORTANT: If you have Created a Personal Profile you have to Update/ Update the profile through the command in Configuration Wizard -> Shell Configuration Interface!!!

If you are Upgrading from an older version of WinEdt you should create a backup in your configuration of WinEdt (Options| Configurations| Backup) and exit WinEdt. You should not install the new version over the old one! After you experiment with the new setup you can Execute the command: Macros->Execute Macro, Browse to your *previous* WinEdt\Config\Backup folder and choose the file "_Restore.edt": this will restore your custom settings. Furthermore, the Restore macros in WinEdt 5.2 allow you to select the components to be restored (the dialog responds to the right-mouse clicks and can enable or disable all components with a single command). Thus you may (or may not) want to preserve the current Accessories Menu and Tool Bar to take advantage of the new transparent TeX-ing if you like the idea.. When you are convinced that you want to use the new version you can delete the old WinEdt folder. This must be done with Windows Explorer and not through the Control Panel Interface: the latter would uninstall WinEdt 5.3!

IMPORTANT: Failing to exit any running instance of WinEdt before installing or upgrading the new version may (and very likely will) prevent WinEdt 5.3 from properly installing or upgrading itself!

NOTE: If you are upgrading from an older version of WinEdt 5, you'll probably want to restore your WinEdt.prj (project file containing the list of recently opened files) and if you have extensively customized WinEdt you should also copy your old configuration WinEdt.ini: close WinEdt before copying the old WinEdt.prj or WinEdt.ini file to the new location! You may also have to copy custom files (eg. Dictionaries, Bitmaps or Macros) from your old to new WinEdt folder. A dictionary Edt.dic containing WinEdt's macros has been moved from "%B\Dict\Edt" to "%B\Config\Edt" (because it is easier to maintain in in this folder). After restoring your old settings you should modify the definition of this dictionary in the Options->Dictionary Manager. If you have any other custom dictionaries installed in your old Dict folder you should copy them to the new WinEdt's location.

After you have restored your old configuration execute the command Options -> Configurations -> Backup. It is now safe to experiment with the new settings which can be selectively imported in your configuration through the command Options -> Configurations -> Default. The Restore and Default configurations in WinEdt 5.3 have a checkbox interface allow you to select the components to be restored (the dialog responds to the right-mouse clicks and can enable or disable all components with a single command):

If you have Restored too many of your old settings you can Execute the Options| Configurations| Default Macro and select any new configurations components that you would like to keep (eg. the Bookmarks Menu and Popup Menus).

Troubleshooting and Support

WinEdt 5.3 has been thoroughly tested on all Windows platforms. It has proved to be very stable and reasonably fast. All reported bugs from the previous release have been eliminated. However, should you encounter a bug or (god-forbid) experience a crash, please send me a report containing as many details as possible. I'll do my best to track down the problem and fix it for the next release.

If you have trouble setting up WinEdt for a particular task, first read the relevant information in WinEdt's Help Menu and Configuration Wizard. If all this proves to be insufficient to solve your problem, you can contact me by e-mail. I'll do my best to assist you with your problem. All such communications of general interest will be compiled into an "FAQ" document, to be included as a technical support in future releases of WinEdt, as well as available on WinEdt's Web page. WinEdt's on-line Help already contains many FAQ's and answers!

You should consider sending your questions to WinEdt's Mailing List where you will get assistance from other users... Due to a heavy support traffic I am not always able to respond in a timely fashion but there is always someone on the mailing list willing to share their experience.

IMPORTANT: When you are installing TeX or related software (such as Acrobat Reader, Ghostscript, etc...) it is strongly recommended that you log-in as an administrator or a power user. This allows the installation programs to properly update your Windows Registry. After any such installation or upgrade you should restart WinEdt in order to allow it to detect your new software from Windows Registry. If your Registry does not contain the expected information then you'll have to make some manual corrections (usually a quick fix to a Startup or TeX System Macro does the job). WinEdt's TeX Configuration Wizard will guide you if necessary! Reinstalling WinEdt (when you are experiencing a problem with some accessory such as Ghostscript) will accomplish nothing beyond what would be achieved by restarting WinEdt or executing the Macros -> Startup Macro command!