When we think of text editors, we usually think about Notepad, Pages, and Text Edit. These are the basic types of text editors that help just about anyone using a computer.
Hey guys I recently updated my mac to osX 10.8 and to my amazement I found out that I no longer can edit html pages on text edit. Before I could just drag and drop a file to text edit and see the code. Finally, choose the “Text” and edit PDF text in the text box. You can adjust the font size and color as needed by clicking “A”. Once finish editing PDF on mac with Preview, click “Export as PDF” to save the changes and allow no changes from others. The best free and paid text editor programs for Mac whether you're a web developer, programmer, technical writer, or anything in between! Text editors are an entirely different story. Text editors are much more helpful if you're editing code, creating web pages, doing text transformation or other things for which a word processor is just overkill. TextEdit offers powerful rich text formatting options. But sometimes it’s best to use TextEdit Plain Text Mode, which eliminates all formatting and, you guessed it, produces only plain text.
All systems have a basic editor available to help you with your text but when you dig deeper you will understand that there are many powerful tools that can help programmers not just with text editing but also with code compiling.
Depending on the type of system you use, you can catch an array of text editors suited to your needs. We have listed the top 10 text editors available today for you:
Table of Contents
Top 10 Text Editors for Windows, Linux, and Mac1) Text Wrangler
Type: FREE
Made for: Mac
Remember BBEdit and how it didn鈥檛 really make the cut? Well, the same makers released the Text Wrangler, which is a significant upgrade from BBEdit.
Designed specifically for the Mac, it is a boon for system administrators and programmers. They can use it create, edit, and transform text that is saved in plain-text files.
If you are looking at getting a free tool for Mac that is pretty much like Notepad++, Text Wrangler is your best bet.
2) Notepad++
Type: FREE
Made for: Windows
Is Notepad the oldest text editor out there? We are not very sure of that, but we know for sure that it is very popular. Its customizable interface is one of the top reasons why it is extremely popular among users.
It is easy to use, simple, and purposeful. However, if you want to up the game and use it for complex reasons, you can customize it to a rich interface.
Text-shortening, tabbed editing, macro recording, auto-completion, split screen, and syntax highlighting are just a few of the many features that make Notepad++ a must try for all Windows users.
How can the answer be improved? Text to voice for mac. Choose Apple ( ) menu > System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Dictation. Turn on Dictation and choose from these Dictation options: Choose whether to use Enhanced Dictation, which lets you use dictation when you're not connected to the Internet. Choose your language and dialect. Some languages, such as English, have multiple dialects.
3) Sublime Text
Type: Paid ($70 with free trial)
Made for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
The fact that Sublime Text works with all the popular operating systems makes it stand ahead of the rest. Alongside, you can work with a number of languages when you use Sublime Text.
The tool is flexible in that it allows a lot of customization so that you use it exactly how you want to! In-editor code building, snippets, column, selection, and multi-setting editing are a few of the features we absolutely love in this tool.
We have used this tool and think it really is worth the price tag. We would love to hear from you as well, though!
4) Atom
Type: FREE
Made for: Windows, Mac, and Linux
Another reliable multi-platform tool, Atom is a great choice for beginners and junior programmers. It is essentially a code editor that has just about every feature that you could ask for. It is an open-source tool, which implies that its library has been built based on user submissions.
Atom is reliably user-friendly and customizable. It comes with quite a few distinguishable features such as cross-platform editing, multiple themes, find & replace, package manager, file system browser, auto-completion, language autodetection, multi-pane, code folding, and an extension library.
Pretty much everyone who has used Atom swears by it and does not look beyond it!
5) TextMate
Type: FREE
Made for: Mac
Exclusive for Macs, the TextMate is a free text editor that comes with a superb GUI and command console. The tool comes packed with features that make it a blessing not just for the pros but also for those who have just ventured into programming.
Customizations, tabs, folding sections, recordable macros, shell integration, extensible bundle system, auto-indentation, word completion, dynamic outlines, and search & replace are a few standout features you can explore in TextMate.
Innovative and easy to use, TextMate prides itself on winning the Apple Design Award for Best Mac OS X Tool.
6) Komodo Edit
Type: Free
Made for: Mac, Windows, and Linux
Open-source and free of cost, Komodo is a good multi-platform text editor. You can use macros and plug-ins to customize the tool according to your preferences. The range of features is quite attractive but be warned, if you are an amateur, you may find Komodo Edit slightly on the complicated side.
We noticed while using Komodo that it is not as user-friendly as the other text edit options. If you are a pro programmer, though, you will love the tool. Beginners may want to learn the nuances of their field before advancing to this tool.
7) Brackets
Type: FREE
Made for: Mac, Windows, and Linux
Brackets is an old friend of web designers and front-end developers. Especially made for them, it is a simple, free text editor. Its interface is its most attractive feature because it is clean, simple, and modern.
It is a cross-platform editor that gives you many features to explore such as split screen, keyboard shortcuts, no-distraction mode, syntax highlighting, inline editors, and extension support. However, live preview is among its USPs. Through this you can get real-time updates in your default browser, making work easier and quicker.
Also, within Brackets you have access to plugins so that you can choose and integrate whatever you need.
8) Blue FishText Edit For Macbook Pro
Type: FREE
Made for: Windows, Linux, and Mac
Free and powerful, Blue Fish is the perfect choice for programmers and web designers. Blue Fish has the capability of handling many files together, enabling you to work seamlessly. Its features include many tools for developing websites, external program integration, and snippet support.
It supports almost all popular languages including Java, JavaScript, CSS, C/C++, JSP, Python, XML, Ruby, CFML, and more.
Even though it is quite user-friendly, we have found that the sheer number of toolbars and tabs that it has can intimidate a novice web designer or programmer.
9) Vim
Type: FREE
Made for: Mac, Linux
If you have a system with CLI, Vim is a good option to consider. It is one of the best text editors for the single board computers like Raspberry Pi. It can support quite a few languages, and it is configurable or customizable.
Its standout feature is definitely the repeat or undo function because it stores your actions. Syntax highlighting, error detection, and automatic recognition are a few other features.
Vim is also quite complicated for beginners even though it is not very heavy-weight. Programmers will have to do their homework before starting to use this tool.
10) Visual Studio Code
Type: FREE
Made for: Linux, Mac, and Windows
Visual Studio Code comes from Microsoft, which itself is a mark of trust and reliability. Completely free, Visual Studio Code works perfectly well in Windows, Mac, and Linux. It allows editing and debugging without making you go through hassle.
What鈥檚 more, it offers to change the code page, line break, built-in Git integration, and built-in intellisense. All these features and more make it one of the most popular choices among programmers.
The tool has a tabbed interface along with a Zen mode, which can hide all the windows whenever you want to. Visual Studio Code is an open-source tool that is loaded with features and yet does not compromise on performance and speed.
Which is the best text editor for you?
You must keep two main factors in mind here: The system you use and whether you are an amateur or a pro.
The tools we have mentioned here are some of the best in the market. Having said that, they may not all make sense to you. That is why we recommend that you go through each of their features and decide on which one suits you the best.
Since we have covered the top options here, you won鈥檛 even have to worry about looking around too much! We hope this guide helps you make the right choice.
Text editors are notoriously divisive. Everyone has their own preferences, and each of those opinions are valid. What works for one person, task, or project might not work for another. We all find productivity in different places.
That’s why coming up with a list of the “best” Mac text editors is quite hard. There’s a chance we’ll miss your favorite, or include a cut-price freebie that doesn’t do half the tasks you need on a daily basis.
But that’s OK, because you can tell us all about it in the comments at the end.
Free Text Editors
The following is a list of completely free text editors, with no paid upgrades or extra purchases. You might think that free means “lacking in features,” but that’s not the case with these.
Atom
Atom tries to be a bit of everything, and for the most part it succeeds. It’s a project from hosting and version control maestro GitHubNot Just for Coders: 9 Ways To Use GitHub For Creative WorkNot Just for Coders: 9 Ways To Use GitHub For Creative WorkGitHub is known for the great features it can offer programmers, but it's not only for them. There are plenty of other creative uses for GitHub. Here are nine you can explore.Read More, and it’s completely open source and free to use. Don’t let the price tag put you off; Atom has some serious potential under the hood.
Describing itself as “a hackable editor for the 21st century,” Atom is a great starting point for beginners. It’s a basic text editor out of the box, with optional packages that add more complex functionality. These include a full integrated development environment (IDE) known as Atom-IDE.
There’s support for Git and GitHub, with no need for additional packages. When you want to add features and language support, there’s a package manager which makes this easy. You can also customize the interface to your liking, another important aspect of any such serious tool.
One standout package is Teletype for Atom, a real-time collaboration feature that allows you to work on projects with others. Atom is also cross-platform, so you can transfer operating systems while maintaining familiarity with your favorite editor.
Download:Atom
TextWrangler
TextWrangler is one of the most user-friendly examples of a text editor, with a price tag to match. Now hosted on the Mac App Store, TextWrangler offers an old-school feel, rock-solid performance, and the option of graduating to a more powerful yet familiar tool (BBEdit, below) if you feel the need.
It’s another great entry point for learning to code or use text editors in general, whether you’re writing simple AppleScript projects, editing CSS, or building a website in HTML. It’s also a good choice if macOS’ built-in editor TextEditMake TextEdit More Powerful With These 9 Hidden FeaturesMake TextEdit More Powerful With These 9 Hidden FeaturesNative Mac editor TextEdit has a lot of powerful features under the hood, so here's how to find them.Read More comes up short when editing plain text.
The app isn’t just a stripped-down freebie though. It offers a wealth of powerful tools like grep pattern matching, multi-file search and replace, varied themes, and syntax coloring options. You can also work on files remotely via FTP and SFTP.
It lacks some of the fancier features seen in the premium packages, notably a preview pane to view changes in real time. It feels and behaves like a native macOS app, which makes it particularly user-friendly compared to some of the other examples on this list.
Download:TextWrangler
Vim
Now for something completely different: Vim is a command line-based text editorVim Is Awesome: Make It Better With These 5 CustomizationsVim Is Awesome: Make It Better With These 5 CustomizationsText editors might not be sexy, but they are important. One of the most powerful Linux text editors is VIM (short for, Vi Improved), and here we show you how to extend its functionality further.Read More that comes with macOS. Simply open Terminal, type vim, and hit Enter. You’re now using one of the most respected text editors of all time, but it’s not without a steep learning curve.
Fortunately, Vim comes with a stack of documentation to help you learn how to use it. This includes quick reference and help documents, plus a 30-minute tutorial to get you up and running. Be warned: even figuring out how to access the tutorials is a lesson for those unfamiliar with the command line.
Like other powerful-yet-complex applications, you can accomplish a lot with Vim if you know how to use it properly. This knowledge won’t come overnight, but in a few years you’ll likely be able to accomplish more than in a comparable GUI-based application.
Despite Vim being built into the OS, you might also be interested in MacVim. This is a slightly more user-friendly port, with full menu bar controls for functions and a more up-to-date version of Vim than that maintained by Apple. You can open, save, and access recent documents like you would in other GUI-based editors, which makes it slightly less intimidating for newbies.
Download:MacVim
GNU Emacs
Another great free option with an off-putting learning curve, GNU Emacs is the “free as in libre” version of the Emacs text editor. First released in 1976, Emacs is one of the longest-running open source projects, and it still receives updates today.
Emacs is known for its unique methods of getting work done. It relies on a programming language known as Emacs-Lisp, a fork of the Lisp language that was originally specified in 1958. You’ll need to use Emacs-Lisp for even the most basic functions of editing, but it’s also used to expand the editor beyond its humble text-based roots.
These expansions include an email client, news reader, file manager, and games like Snake and Tetris. Under the hood, though, it’s still a basic text editor with features like context-aware editing and support for syntax coloring. There’s full Unicode support and a packaging system for adding new features.
Like Vim, Emacs requires a commitment to learn to use it long before you understand why so many people swear by it. While GNU Emacs is one fork, XEmacs is another that’s worth investigating if you like the sound of this command line editor.
Download:GNU Emacs | XEmacs
Download Text Edit For MacVisual Studio Code
Like Atom, Visual Studio Code is a relative newcomer in the text editing space. Not to be confused with Visual Studio, Microsoft’s full-power IDE with a price tag to match, Visual Studio Code is a lightweight text and script editor built around the concept of expanding support with plugins.
There are plugins for writing and running shell scripts in Code, for penning markdown documents, and even writing AppleScript. That’s right; you can use Microsoft’s text editor to create scripts that will only work on Apple machines.
The Visual Studio Code marketplace turns the app into a Swiss Army knife of code, text, and script editing. A reliance on plugins means the app is lightweight and responsive from the start, as you’re not lugging around features and functionality you’re never going to use.
Which plugins are worth getting? Our roundup of Visual Studio Code plugins will answer that for you.
Code uses an attractive dark theme, and it doesn’t feel like a lazy port of the Windows version either. It’s worth a shot, particularly if you don’t get on with the likes of Vim and Emacs. Check out our top tips for boosting productivity in Visual Studio Code10 Essential Productivity Tips for Visual Studio Code10 Essential Productivity Tips for Visual Studio CodeVisual Studio Code blows other programming text editors out of the water. It's free, open source, lightning fast, and packed with productivity features.Read More to learn more.
Download:Visual Studio Code
Premium Text Editors
If you’re looking for a text editor to use at work, or you’re at a stage where your tools can have a serious impact on your productivity and paycheck, you should consider one of these. Luckily they all come with a decent free evaluation period, so you can try before you buy.
TextMate
Powerful, simple, and lightweight, TextMate is the preferred choice of many Mac professionals, and it’s not hard to see why. This editor has support for a range of languages and syntax, tabs, and a language-specific approach that can save you time and effort.
TextMate incorporates snippets, macros, and scoping features that vastly speed up workflow without stepping into full IDE territory. The developer aimed to bring “Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors” and that’s a fairly good summation of why so many love TextMate.
Despite development stalling from time to time, TextMate maintains a die-hard following of professional users. This has given way to an extensive database of documentation and screencasts, which should help new users get up to speed.
It’s a simple tool to start using, with a clean UI and fair price point. You can download TextMate free for evaluation purposes, though the app doesn’t seem to bother you for registration credentials or a serial number.
Download:TextMate ($60)
Sublime Text 3
Sublime Text is a self-described “sophisticated text editor” that markets itself as a code, markup, and prose editor. It’s probably overkill for the simplest text editing tasks though, considering it costs $80 for a license.
For those who need a powerful tool, Sublime Text delivers a wealth of features and functions11 Sublime Text Tips for Productivity and a Faster Workflow11 Sublime Text Tips for Productivity and a Faster WorkflowSublime Text is a versatile text editor and a gold standard for many programmers. Our tips focus on efficient coding, but general users will appreciate the keyboard shortcuts.Read More. Some of these are hallmarks of the app, like Goto Anything which lets you open a file and quickly navigate to the relevant line in record speed.
The app creates a project-wide index of all classes used for references, and supports multiple selections so you can change more than one element at a time. To cut down on the time you spend in menus, developers devised the Command Palette for rarely-used functions, and fast project switching with no save prompts.
There’s a vast amount of customizability at your fingertips. Many favor the app for its smooth performance under load and attractive UI. It’s also cross-platform, and you only need a single license to use the app across all your machines and platforms.
Download:Sublime Text 3 ($80)
BBEdit
BBEdit wouldn’t have earned a place on this list were it not for a large userbase that’ll defend it to the death. And that’s just fine, since BBEdit is a mature and powerful text editor that prioritizes performance and reliability above all else.
It’s the quintessential Mac text editor, from the developers who bought you TextWrangler. Despite lacking the freshness of Atom or the crisp UI seen in Sublime Text, BBEdit is built from the ground up for macOS, optimized for macOS, with a macOS approach to text editing.
That means keyboard shortcuts that make sense to the average Mac user, and an approach to text editing that follows many of Apple’s design sensibilities. It also bakes in support for Mac technologies like Bonjour. This removes some barriers for entry seen in other apps, but results in a slightly more cumbersome UI than its rivals.
We’ve seen how to use to search within PDF files, but if you already have PDF-XChange Viewer, Foxit or even Adobe Reader, did you know you can already search for text inside PDF documents without additional programs? Search all files for text mac.
BBEdit is perfect for HTML and text editing, with support for remote editing via FTP/SFTP. The app is highly customizable, from syntax coloring to menu options, user-defined functions, keyboard shortcuts, and macOS Terminal support right in the app.
Download:BBEdit ($50)
Espresso
Not everyone uses their text editor for building websites, but many who do gravitate toward Espresso. It’s an editor that’s aimed squarely at web developers, and it’s got powerful features to make creating websites a more productive experienceCreating Web Interfaces: Where to StartCreating Web Interfaces: Where to StartWe'll show you how web interfaces break down, then point out the key concepts, tools, and building blocks needed to make yourself a 21st century web designer.Read More.
The big one is a live preview browser, so you can see your changes in real time. The app incorporates Xray layout tools, and CSSEdit visual styling for colors, gradients, shadows, and more. It supports HTML, CSS, LESS, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, Apache, and XML out of the box. More languages are available through plugins.
There’s a laundry list of features that keep users coming back, like customizable snippets and UI, a clean modern design, custom spacing and indentation to keep your code clean, support for tabs, templates and custom templates, powerful find and replace, and multi-line editing for making changes in multiple locations at once.
It’s not cheap at $79, but you can download a trial and see how it works before you commit. It’s a great tool for web developers, but lacking in other areas when it comes to scripting and coding.
Download:Espresso ($79)
So Many Text Editors
There are so many text editors available that we couldn’t possibly include them all, but we thought these were worth a mention if you’re still on the hunt:
Remember: The text editor with the most tools isn’t necessarily the best. The best text editor is the one that suits you and meets your expectations. It’s the editor that allows you to get more done. It’s the editor that falls away into the background, allowing you to concentrate on your work rather than the software you use to get your job done.
But you’ve probably got your own favorites in mind already (if you don’t prefer an IDEText Editors vs. IDEs: Which One Is Better For Programmers?Text Editors vs. IDEs: Which One Is Better For Programmers? Changing a column to text in excel for mac. Choosing between an advanced IDE and a simpler text editor can be hard. We offer some insight to help you make that decision.Read More). We’d love to hear which text editor you get on with the best, and why it works for you. Please add your own suggestions in the comments below!
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