How to Save and Restore Cursor Position in Your Word Processor using Python and PyQt5

Have you ever experienced having to scroll down to your previous cursor position every time you open a file in your word processor? It's a common problem that can be both time-consuming and frustrating, especially if you're working on a lengthy document.

This can be a hassle, I did experience this while developing the IDE and working on several files. It really can complicate things if you close your file to edit other files. This is a big help and improves productivity.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. By saving and restoring the cursor position in your word processor, you can ensure that every time you open a file, your cursor will automatically be placed where you left off, allowing you to pick up right where you left off and improve your productivity.

In this article, we'll take a look at a simple Python program that demonstrates how to save and restore the cursor position in a text editor built with the PyQt5 library.

Saving Cursor Position in PyQt5

PyQt5 is a set of Python bindings for the Qt application framework and runs on all platforms supported by Qt, including Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android. It allows you to create desktop applications that can run on different platforms without the need for platform-specific code.

One of the useful features of PyQt5 is its ability to handle text editing and processing. In this example, we'll create a simple text editor using the PyQt5 QTextEdit widget.

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from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QTextEdit, QMainWindow, QAction import sys class MyWindow(QMainWindow): def __init__(self): super().__init__() # Create the QTextEdit widget self.text_edit = QTextEdit(self) self.setCentralWidget(self.text_edit) # Add a "Save" action to the File menu save_action = QAction("Save", self) save_action.setShortcut("Ctrl+S") save_action.triggered.connect(self.save_file) file_menu = self.menuBar().addMenu("File") file_menu.addAction(save_action) def save_file(self): # Save the contents of the QTextEdit widget to a file file_name, _ = QFileDialog.getSaveFileName(self, "Save file", "", "Text files (*.txt)") if file_name: with open(file_name, "w") as f: f.write(self.text_edit.toPlainText()) def show(self): super().show() if __name__ == "__main__": app = QApplication(sys.argv) window = MyWindow() window.show() sys.exit(app.exec_())

This code creates a QTextEdit widget and adds a "Save" action to the "File" menu. When the "Save" action is triggered, it shows a file dialog that allows you to choose a file name to save the contents of the QTextEdit widget.

Restoring Cursor Position in PyQt5

Now that we've created a simple text editor that allows us to save the contents of the QTextEdit widget, let's take a look at how we can restore the cursor position when we reopen the file.

To do this, we need to store the cursor position in a file along with the file name. Then, when we open the file, we can read the cursor position from the file and set it using the setTextCursor method of the QTextEdit widget.

Here's the updated code that demonstrates how to save and restore the cursor position in PyQt5:

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from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QTextEdit, QMainWindow, QAction, QFileDialog from PyQt5.QtGui import QTextCursor import sys class MyWindow(QMainWindow): def __init__(self): super().__init__() # Create the QTextEdit widget self.text_edit = QTextEdit(self) self.setCentralWidget(self.text