The Geany text editor is a cross -platform text editor which can be expanded through plug-ins to understand different ‘languages’, such as programming languages (e.g. C++, Java, Python) or formatting sysstems (e.g. HTML, Markdown). It is lighter weight than a full blown word-processor, allows multiple tabs to be able to work on multiple files in parallel, and has good search and replace capabilities which lighter weight editors such as Notepad miss.
In the default setup it has a side bar and a bottom message bar open, as would be the case if you use it for programming. But if you want more usable screen space to work in, these can simply be closed, leaving you with a relatively distraction free user interface.
Geany is inlcuded in most Linux distributions. A windows installer can be downloaded and further information found here: