---
title: The Keyman Text Editor
---

The Keyman Text Editor is a basic text editor for testing your Keyman
keyboards.

![](../desktop_images/texteditor.png)

**Note:** You do not need to use the Keyman Text Editor to type with Keyman. You can use Keyman in almost any application on your computer that accepts keyboard input.

## Opening the Text Editor

To open the Keyman Text Editor:

1.  Click on the Keyman icon ![](../desktop_images/icon-keyman.png), on the
    Windows Taskbar near the clock.

2.  From the Keyman menu, select Text Editor….

## Using the Text Editor

To use the Keyman Text Editor:

1.  Open Text Editor.

2.  Turn on a Keyman keyboard.

3.  Start typing.

When you select a Unicode Keyman keyboard, the Text Editor brings up a
font panel. This font panel behaves like the [Font Helper
tool](toolbox/font-helper) in the Keyman Toolbox. Each font listed in the
panel includes a percentage value. This value indicates how many
characters in the current Keyman keyboard are available from the font.
Most of the time, fonts with greater than 90% coverage will work for
nearly all texts.

You can select a font from the font dropdown menu or by clicking on the
link for the font in the font panel.

## Related Topics

-   [Getting Started with Keyman](../start/tutorial)
-   [Keyboard Task - Turn on a Keyboard](select-keyboard)
