Whether you are a developer switching to the Mac or you’re just shopping around for a nice new editor, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to text editors. Here are my candidates for best text editor for Mac OS X, with some pros and cons of each. Check out my recommendations
- Os X Text Editor
- Free Text Editor For Mac Os X
- Simple Text Editor For Windows
- Text Editor In Mac
- Free Text Editor For Mac Os X
![Simple Simple](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126297464/617182643.png)
Os X Text Editor
The Best Programming Text Editor for Mac. 7/05/11 1:30pm. Mac OS X Price: Free! Download Page. It's as simple as you need it to be, providing only a single window for editing. PDF OCR X is a simple drag-and-drop utility for Mac OS X and Windows, that converts your PDFs and images into text documents or searchable PDF files. It uses advanced OCR (optical character recognition) technology to extract the text of the PDF even if that text is contained in an image.
The main things I look for in a text editor apart from speed and stability:
Good support for projects. I like to be able to drag a folder from the Finder onto the app and have it open a new project browser. When I’m editing a file I want a simple key command to add a new file to the same folder, and for Command S to open a save dialog that saves by default in that folder (I know this seems obvious). I also want a key command like Command Shift F that will let me find any string, and it should default to the currently open project. The find should also have a Find in File option, and a Replace function that is flexible and fast (I often have to do a find and replace on URLs in MySQL .sql backups for example). All the permutations of Find should support regular expressions.
Good support for projects. I like to be able to drag a folder from the Finder onto the app and have it open a new project browser. When I’m editing a file I want a simple key command to add a new file to the same folder, and for Command S to open a save dialog that saves by default in that folder (I know this seems obvious). I also want a key command like Command Shift F that will let me find any string, and it should default to the currently open project. The find should also have a Find in File option, and a Replace function that is flexible and fast (I often have to do a find and replace on URLs in MySQL .sql backups for example). All the permutations of Find should support regular expressions.
Great support for Plugins, Clippings, Scripts, Triggers, and what have you. Editors can’t do everything, so it’s important that they expose some kind of scripting engine so that you can do all the tweaking you need. All of the apps below do this, all in different ways.
BBEdit
BBEdit has been around basically forever and is mature, fast, and reliable. I don’t think it has ever crashed on any of my Macs, but I’ve been using it so long that it must have at some point. BBEdit is not the most modern editor around: it doesn’t do code completion, for example. But it has some very powerful functionality, most notably Text Factories, AppleScript support, Automator Actions, Clippings, and Stationery. I have always found things that BBEdit just does better than other editors: see for example Zap Gremlins or Process Lines Containing or Process Duplicate Lines or Sort Lines. BBEdit has always been good at opening large files too, which is something that other editors can’t really match (maybe because that fancy syntax highlighting requires too much processing power). Note: I haven’t tried BBEdit 10 yet: BBEdit 9 is so good that I haven’t needed to. BBEdit is the fastest at doing the SQL backup find and replace that I mentioned above.
TextMate
TextMate made a splash a few years back, introducing a bunch of cool features previously unseen in the world of Mac text editors. TextMate, for many programmers at least, dethroned BBEdit as our editor of choice: support for snippets, triggers, code completion and syntax highlighting made TextMate a compelling reason to switch. But fast-forward to 2014: TextMate is seemingly abandoned, and the preview of TextMate 2 — open-sourced back in August 2012 — is still a preview. TextMate is still a great editor, but it suffers 1from some performance issues and some bugs. There is still some ongoing development but it’s hard to resist the conclusion that the byline ‘The Missing Editor For Mac OS X’ has become a bit ironic! TextMate was consistently slower at the SQL Find and Replace than BBEdit.
Chocolat
I haven’t really used Chocolat enough to know either way, just a 30-day trial a few months back. I like the look of it and it seems to be a TextMate replacement, plus it has a markdown preview, which is great for me since I use markdown for general writing. I’ve heard that performance might be an issue, but that was almost a year ago, so may have been fixed by now.
vim, vi, Emacs
I’d like to hear from anyone using any of these every day for development on the Mac. I use nano for pretty much any editing I do in the Terminal, which I know is kind of lazy. I could probably save some money and get some nerd cred using Emacs. Should I give it a go?
Sublime Text
Almost as fast as BBEdit, and has many powerful features: Command Palette, Snippets, Goto Anything (think QuickSilver for project navigation), a good distraction-free mode, column mode, multiple selections, and a great plugin system with lots of available plugins. The edge over BBEdit is in its blazing fast code completion. Sublime Text is slower than BBEdit at the .sql Find and Replace, but is faster than TextMate.
And the winner so far is… Sublime Text
Sublime Text may be the best editor out there right now. The balance of features, flexibility, and speed make it a great all-purpose development tool. I would recommend also keeping a copy of BBEdit on hand for certain unique features (‘Process Lines Containing’).
Final note: Before you pay for any software, I suggest you download trial versions and test them out. Plus you should try using vi for a couple of weeks, just for educational reasons! Leave a comment if you have any suggestions or alternate options.
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We all use text editors to take notes, save web addresses, write code, as well as other uses. Every operating system comes with a default, basic text editor, but most of us install our own enhanced text editors to get more features.
In this article, we’ve gathered links to many different text editors used for different purposes. You can use text editors for basic text editing and taking notes, writing programming code, producing LaTeX documents, writing a book, among many other uses.
Notepad and WordPad Replacements
Are you looking for more capabilities than the default Notepad in Windows? Would you rather use a graphical text editor in Linux, rather than the built-in vi? There are many options for useful text editors out there.
Some employ a tabbed interface, such as Jarte (which is based on the WordPad word processing engine and integrates easily with WordWeb), EditPad Lite (which also has the automatic backup), and Notetab Light (which can also calculate the value of mathematical expressions entered in the program). Jarte, EditPad Lite, and Notetab Light are all only available for Windows. Jarte is also available as a portable program.
Typically, Vi is the default text editor in Linux operating systems and it’s a keyboard intensive program with no graphical user interface (GUI). A good text editor for Windows that has hotkeys available for its 312 text-processing functions, innovative features, and timesaving tools is TED Notepad, which is also available as a portable program. Emacs is also available for both Windows and Linux, and is customizable. It also includes a file compare utility and a file manager. You can also add Org-mode to Emacs, which is a personal information management and outlining tool. If you prefer text editors with GUIs, Vim and gEdit are both good options and are available. Vim is essentially the graphical version of Vi. For help editing text files in Vi or Vim, see our Beginner’s Guide.
GetDiz is a Notepad replacement for Windows that allows you to edit many text files quickly from within Windows Explorer and has enhanced functionality for dealing with DIZ and NFO files. It can also display ASCII art correctly. Another ASCII text formatter for Windows is TextMorph, which can also convert text to and from HTML and clean up emails (remove all the “>” symbols, etc.), and search and replace by words or multiple paragraphs.
Programmer’s Text Editors
Free Text Editor For Mac Os X
There are many text editors that provide useful functionality for programmers. Most support syntax highlighting for many programming languages, multiple document editing, and are extendable with plugins. Some also allow editing of remote files through FTP.
PSPad not only supports syntax highlighting, but also matching bracket highlighting for most popular programming languages. It also has a hex editor, macro recorder, and a differencing tool. PSPad also easily integrates with the free version of the TopStyle CSS editor. Notepad++ also supports bracket highlighting and macro recording. It also supports syntax folding and is highly customizable through plugins using the included plugin manager. Both PSPad and Notepad++ are only available for Windows.
The cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) editor, jEdit, supports syntax highlighting for over 200 programming languages and auto indent, as well as a differencing utility, an FTP browser, and block selecting. It is also extendable using plugins and macros, and there are hundreds of plugins and macros available through the built-in plugin manager feature.
Programmer’s Notepad for Windows supports syntax highlighting using schemes, both built-in and user-defined, code folding and outlining, a tabbed interface with multi-level split views, and the ability to export to HTML (using CSS) and RTF.
If you like the Vi editor in Linux, but prefer a graphical editor that also serves well as a programmer’s text editor, Editra and Komodo Edit are good options. They both provide Vi emulation, as well as support for syntax highlighting in many programming languages and code folding. Editra has a tabbed interface, allows block (un)commenting and (un)indenting, and is extendable using the built-in plugin downloader/installer. Komodo Edit supports background syntax checking and contains a toolbox with shell command integration, macros, and code snippets. Both Editra and Komodo Edit are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Other options include the following:
- Crimson Editor – A very small editor for Windows containing a directory tree view window
- Geany – A small and fast IDE for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X that supports code folding, code navigation, a build system, and a plugin interface
- Notepad2 – A fast, light-weight text editor like Notepad for Windows with syntax highlighting and runs as a portable program
Simple Text Editor For Windows
Microsoft Word Replacements
There are also free programs that act as replacements for Microsoft Word. They can be used as text editors, but they have more formatting features than simple text editors. You can add images and tables, change fonts and color, and insert hyperlinks.
AbiWord runs on Windows and Linux and can read and write OpenOffice.org documents, Microsoft Word documents, WordPerfect documents, Rich Text Format documents, and HTML web pages. It has advanced document layout options such as tables, bullets, numbered lists, images, styles, footnotes, and endnotes. It even has a Mail Merge utility like Microsoft Word. You can extend AbiWord with a variety of plugins, which can be selected when you install AbiWord. A portable version is also available that you can run from a USB flash drive.
Angel Writer is a small rich text editor for Windows with a high performance rate that allows you to easily create impressive documents.
Minimalist Text Editors
If you get distracted when you write by the plethora of features in text editors and word processors, you might want to try one of the so-called “minimalist” text editors out there. They are “no-frills” editors that either don’t offer any formatting features or many of the other features of modern word processors, and even third-party text editors, or the features are hidden until you want them. Without all the fancy features staring you in the face, you can concentrate on the task of writing. Below is a list of some of the minimalist text editors we found.
- Dark Room– Available for Windows, requires .NET Framework 2.0, and is available as a portable program.
- JDarkRoom– Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
- Q10– Available for Windows and as a portable program
- CopyWriter– Available for Windows and as a portable program
- WriteMonkey– Available for Windows and as a portable program
- Bookwrite– Available for Windows and Linux
- Scribes– Available for Linux
- FocusWriter – Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, and as a portable program for Windows
You can even download Word 5.5 from Microsoft for free and run it under DOSBox in Windows.
If you want a simple text editor with the ability to count down from a set word count, try yEdit2 for Windows. If you have to write a certain number of words, yEdit2 can make it easier.
Secure Text Editors
You can also use a text editor as secure place to store private information. There are several text editors that either include encryption as a feature or are specially designed for securely storing text. Notepad++, mentioned in the Programmer’s Text Editors section above, allows you to add encryption functionality using the SecurePad plugin, which is available through the Plugin Manager. SecurePad will encrypt selected text in the current document or the whole document.
Steganos LockNote is a small, simple method for securely storing chunks of information in files. For example, if you purchase a download-only program, you can use LockNote to store the product key or serial number that goes with that program in the same folder, so you always know where to find it.
- CryptNote – Available for Windows and as a portable program
- CryptoTE– Available for Windows and Linux, and as a portable program for Windows
- NotepadCrypt– Available for Windows as a portable program
- Xint– Available for Windows
- f0dder’s fSekrit – Available for Windows and as a portable program
LaTeX Editors
Text Editor In Mac
Do you write a lot of scientific papers, documents, or books? If so, there are several text editors that allow you to easily use TeX/LaTeX (document markup language and document preparation system) through a graphical interface to create mathematical content and structured documents like academic articles, theses, and books.
- LaTeX Editor (LEd)– Available for Windows and as a portable program
- LyX– Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
- WinEdt– Available for Windows
- TeXstudio– Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X and as a portable program on Windows and Mac OS X
- Texmaker – Available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X
Novel Writing Editor
Free Text Editor For Mac Os X
There’s even an editor that’s meant for writing novels, called yWriter5, available for Windows and Linux. It breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you to keep track of your work. However, yWriter5 does not suggest plot ideas, character names, or write any part of your novel for you. The creative task of writing is still up to you, yWriter5 just makes it easier.
One more text editor to mention is Nano in Linux, which is an easy-to-use text editor you run directly on the command line. Nano is installed by default in Ubuntu and many other Linux distros, and is easier to learn than Vi or emacs.
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