jEdit is very flexible when it comes to working with multiple windows. When it starts up, it only creates one editor window, or view. However, it is possible to have any number of views open at once. Furthermore, each view can be split into multiple panes. Each pane can be editing a different buffer; alternatively, you can select the same buffer in more than one pane to view multiple locations simultaneously.
View>New View (keyboard equivalent: Control-E Control-N) will create a new view. Initially, it will display the same buffer as the current view. View>Close View (keyboard equivalent: Control-E Control-W) will close the current view. Unless background mode is on, jEdit will exit when the last view is closed. See Appendix D for more information about background mode.
View>Split Horizontally (keyboard equivalent: Control-2) will horizontally split the view. View>Split Vertically (keyboard equivalent: Control-3) will vertically split the view. View>Unsplit (keyboard equivalent: Control-1) will remove all splits from the current view. When a view is split into multiple panes, editing commands operate on the pane that has keyboard focus (or if no pane is focused, the one that last had keyboard focus). This pane is indicated using a different gutter border color.
Figure 3-9. A view split into two panes