Enable File Browser in Default Gedit Text Editor in Ubuntu 20.04

Editing files regularly with the default text editor in Ubuntu? Without looking your documents through Files (Nautilus file browser), gedit offers a built-in file browser mode to make life easy.

And this is the beginner’s guide shows you how to enable this built-in file browser mode in Gedit text editor.

1. First open the text editor either from system applications menu or by click opening a document file.

2. When the editor opens, go to menu (the icon after Save button) -> View, and enable Side Panel. You can alternatively press F9 on keyboard to toggle ‘Side Panel’ on / off.

3. After enabled ‘Side Panel’, click on the ‘Documents’ button in window’s header and select ‘File Browser’.

4. That’s it. You now have a file tree in the left panel of the text editor window, allows to easy access user files / folders, bookmarks, and full file system.