gedit is one of the little gems that you can find in the default install of any of the major Linux distributions in which you have/can choose to install the Gnome desktop environment (Fedora, Mandriva, Mint, openSUSE, Ubuntu etc.)

You usually find it in your Applications menu, under the Accessories category, with the name of Text Editor.

As you can see in the screenshot the default layout and functionality is pretty basic.

We're going to change it to provide additional functionality needed for the daily usage as a web development editor.

Preferences changes

Open the preferences disable text wrapping and enable line numbers, highlight current line, display right margin, highlight matching bracket.

Plugins found in the default install

• Change case - for those pesky old HTML snippets that are all caps
• File Browser - so you can mange your files / work remotely
• Snippets - Great time saver (ex: type if then press tab and the full statement is written
• Indent - if your tab/shift-tab doesn't work anymore :)

Third party plugins

• Multi-edit
  It's a plugin written by Jon Walsh that allows you to simultaneously edit multiple parts of a document while you type.
  Download it and then place the files in the hidden .gnome2/gedit/plugins/ directory and enable it from Gedit's preferances menu like the rest.
• Bazaar
  For the dcvs goodness - Download it, the installation instructions are the same.
• New from Template
  It takes a bit of configuring but it's usefull if you use a framework for example and want to create a new controller / module fast. Download + Installation instructions. Use the package from the comment for added bugfixes.

Adding some style

Well that's that for the plugins. Let's try spicing up the interface a bit.
Color-schemes are usually a matter of taste so here's a list of
five extra gedit themes done by Will Farrington (wfarr) in 2007 for Google Highly Open Participation

• Cobalt | Download
• Darkmacs | Download
• IDLE | Download
• Slush and Poppies | Download
• Twilight | Download

Conclusion

Well I guess that wraps it up.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave comments if you have any questions.