KWrite is more than a text editor for the KDE Desktop. It is meant to be a programmer's editor, and could be considered as at least a partial alternative to more powerful editors. It may be best used in conjunction with Konqueror or Dolphin for source file browsing for different languages. KWrite also works very well as a simple text editor. One of KWrite's main features is the colorized syntax, customized for many different programming languages such as: C/C++, Java™, Python, Perl, Bash, Modula 2, HTML, and Ada.

KWrite has a single document interface (SDI) allowing you to edit one file at the time per window.

KWrite features two different modes, a simple mode with a straightforward interface and an advanced mode with more features and more extensive menu items. The advanced mode is enabled by checking the option Enable power user mode (KDE 3 mode) on the Appearance page in KWrites settings.