Text Editor Programs For Mac



  1. Text Editor Programs For Mac Osx
  2. Text Editor Programs For Machine Learning
  3. Text Editor Programs For Mac Os
  4. Best Text Editors For Mac
Text EditorsWord ProcessorsBibliography
Aquamacs
Atom
BBEdit
CotEditor
MacVim
Smultron
SubEthaEdit
Sublime Text
TextMate
Bean
Final Draft
LibreOffice
Mellel
NeoOffice
Nisus Writer
OpenOffice
Pages
Scrivener
Word
BibDesk
Bookends
Reference Miner
Text Utilities
Grammarian
MassReplaceIt
Monodraw
Nisus Thesaurus
SmartWrap
TextSoap
UnicodeChecker
WordService

The Best Free Text Editing Software app downloads for Mac: Mac Notepad TextWrangler Sublime Text Write for Mac ScratchPad FormatMatch Chocolat MTP Vie. Sublime Text is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform. Sep 21, 2020 Software; Best text editors in 2020: for Linux, Mac, and Windows coders and programmers. On a Mac, or a Windows PC, a text editor should be easy to use and do the job the way it was intended to.


You may also want to check the Desktop Publishing & PDF page.
Denotes macOS
Denotes iOS
Denotes Source

Pure Mac

Games

Action
Adventure
Arcade
Board
Card
Emulators
Game Utilities
Online Games
Puzzle
Sims
Sports & Racing
Strategy
Word
Home

Accessibility
Astronomy
Calculators & Math
Collections
Health
Hobbies
Kids
Language
Recipes
Science
Teaching
Typing
Weather
Internet

Chat
Cloud
Collaboration
Distributed Computing
Email
File Transfers
Network
Online Games
Remote Access
Streaming Media
Usenet
Video Chat
Multimedia

Audio
CAD
Charts & Graphs
Desktop Publishing
Ebook
Font Utilities
Graphics
Media Center
MP3 Tools
Music
Photoshop Plugins
3D & Animation
Video
Productivity

Business
Compression
Cryptocurrency
Database
Finance
Notes
Programming
Presentation
Spreadsheets
Stocks
Task Managers
Time
Word Processing
System

Alternative OS
Backup
Classic OS Updates
Command Line
Disk & File
System Enhancements
Launchers
Maintenance
Malware Scanners
Network
Screen Capture
Screen Savers
Security
WWW

Auctions
Browsers
Browser Add-ons
HTML Editors
Page Rippers
RSS
Social Networking
Web Cams
Web Graphics
Web Server
Software Index
Search Pure Mac

Aquamacs 3.5
An Editor for Text, HTML, LaTeX, C++, Java, Python, R, Perl, Ruby, PHP, and more...
Aquamacs is a user-friendly build of the powerful Emacs text editor.Aquamacs integrates with the Mac and offers the same comforts that anyapplication on the Mac provides. Yet, it comes with all the ergonomy andextensibility you've come to expect from GNU Emacs.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: David Reitter et al.
  • Modification Date: August 18, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 70.5 MB

Atom 1.41.0
A hackable text editor for the 21st Century.
Everything you would expect
* Cross-platform editing
* Atom works across operating systems. Use it on OS X, Windows, or Linux.
* Built-in package manager
* Search for and install new packages or create your own right from Atom.
* Smart autocompletion
* Atom helps you write code faster with a smart and flexible autocomplete.
* File system browser
* Easily browse and open a single file, a whole project, or multiple projects in one window.
* Multiple panes
* Split your Atom interface into multiple panes to compare and edit code across files.
* Find and replace
* Find, preview, and replace text as you type in a file or across all your projects.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: GitHub, Inc.
  • Modification Date: October 21, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit (built with Electron)

Download File Size: 174.2 MB

BBEdit 13.0.2
BBEdit is the leading professional HTML and text editor for theMacintosh. Specifically crafted in response to the needs of Web authorsand software developers, this award-winning product provides anabundance of high-performance features for editing, searching, andmanipulation of text. An intelligent interface provides easy access toBBEdit’s best-of-class features, including grep pattern matching, searchand replace across multiple files, project definition tools, functionnavigation and syntax coloring for numerous source code languages, codefolding, FTP and SFTP open and save, AppleScript, Mac OS X Unixscripting support, text and code completion, and of course a completeset of robust HTML markup tools.
  • License: Demo, $50
  • Developer/Publisher: Bare Bones Software
  • Modification Date: October 25, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.14.2 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 14.5 MB

Bean 3.2.13
Bean is a small, easy-to-use word processor that is designed to makewriting convenient, efficient and comfortable. Bean is lean, fast anduncluttered. It starts up quickly, has a live word count, and is easy onthe eyes. Also, Bean is available free of charge.
MS Word, OpenOffice, etc. try to be all things to all people, butsometimes you just want the right tool for the job. That is Bean's niche.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: James Hoover
  • Modification Date: May 2, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.13 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 3.2 MB

BibDesk 1.7.2
BibDesk is a graphical BibTeX-bibliography manager for Mac OS X. BibDeskis designed to help organize and use bibliographic databases in BibTeX.bib format. In addition to manual typing, BibDesk lets you drag & dropor cut & paste .bib files into the bibliographic database andautomatically opens files downloaded from PubMed. BibDesk also keepstrack of electronic copies of literature on your computer and allows forsearching your database through several keys.
BibDesk integrates well with TeX for creating citations andbibliographies. This integration includes a Citation search completionservice, and drag & drop (cut & paste) support for adding citations toTeX files.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Michael O. McCracken
  • Modification Date: October 14, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 19.3 MB

Bookends 13.2.7
Bookends is a full-featured and cost-effective bibliography, reference,and information management system for students and professionals.
With Bookends you can directly search for and import references frommany online sources, including the Library of Congress, PubMed, Amazon,and hundreds of libraries from around the world.
Search PubMed automatically in the background and have Bookends discoverand notify you of publications of interest as soon as they appear.
Import references from EndNote, Reference Manager, and ProCitedatabases.
  • License: Demo, $60
  • Developer/Publisher: Sonny Software
  • Modification Date: October 27, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 53.6 MB

CotEditor 3.8.3
Light-weight, neat, yet powerful text editor.
Features: Syntax Highlighting; Powerful Find & Replace; Setting viaClick; Auto Backup; Outline Menu; Split Editor; Character Inspector;Scriptable; Incompatible Characters; CJK Language Friendly
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Mineko Imanishi
  • Modification Date: October 19, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.13 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 15.9 MB - App Store

Final Draft 11.0.2
Use your creative energy to focus on the content; let Final Draft takecare of the style. Final Draft is the number-one selling word processorspecifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodicsand stage plays. It combines powerful word processing with professionalscript formatting in one self-contained, easy-to-use package. There isno need to learn about script formatting rules - Final Draftautomatically paginates and formats your script to industry standards asyou write.
  • License: Demo, $250
  • Developer/Publisher: Cast & Crew Entertainment
  • Modification Date: February 7, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 68.5 MB

Grammarian PRO3 X 3.0
Spelling, grammar, dictionary, and more.
Grammarian contains an arsenal of professional writing tools to combatthose embarrassing writing errors that everyone tends to make, auniversal interactive spelling checking, grammar checking, dictionary,thesaurus, autocorrect, and autotype tool that works with virtuallyevery program on macOS.
  • License: Demo, $60
  • Developer/Publisher: Linquisoft
  • Modification Date: October 13, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 28 MB

LibreOffice 6.3.2
LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface andfeature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance yourproductivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it themost powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market: Writer(word processing), Calc (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw(vector graphics and flowcharts), Base (databases), and Math (formulaediting).
LibreOffice is a powerful office suite – its clean interface andfeature-rich tools help you unleash your creativity and enhance yourproductivity. LibreOffice includes several applications that make it themost powerful Free and Open Source office suite on the market.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: The Document Foundation
  • Modification Date: September 18, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit - Java Needed for Some Funtionality - Java is notably required for Base

Download File Size: 240 MB

MacVim 8.1.2224
MacVim is a port of the text editor Vim to macOS.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: macvim-dev
  • Modification Date: October 28, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 17.2 MB

MassReplaceIt 3.0
Have you ever wanted to change the extension of hundreds of files atonce? Or have you ever needed to change an email address on 50 differentpages of a website? Then MassReplaceIt is the tool for you.
MassReplaceIt takes a list of files, searches either their contents ortheir filenames, and replaces every occurrence of your search term withsomething else. Not only that, but it provides numerous features andoptions to give you control over the changes you want to make.
For example, you can optionally create a mask to filter which files aresearched. Say you have a folder with thousands of documents inside it,but you only want to search html files modified in the last week.MassReplaceIt makes it easy to do this.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: HexMonkey Software
  • Modification Date: September 9, 2018
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 893 Kb

Mellel 4.2.5
Mellel is an advanced, multilingual word processor built for Mac OS X.Designed for scholars and writers, it offers innovative page, paragraph,and character styles, outline, tables, headers and footers, citationsand bibliography, tabs, and much more.
  • License: Shareware, $59
  • Developer/Publisher: Mellel AAR
  • Modification Date: October 15, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 86.5 MB

Microsoft Office 2019 16.31
Word Processor (Word)
Spreadsheet (Excel)
Presentation (PowerPoint)
Notes (OneNote)
Email (Outlook) - Not available with Office Home and Student
  • License: Buy Office Home and Sudent for $150; Buy Office Home and Business for $250 / 365 Demo, Office 365 Home $100/yr
  • Developer/Publisher: Microsoft
  • Modification Date: November 12, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 4.1 GB - Office 365 Trial on the Mac App Store

Download Office 365 Trial - Credit Card Needed for Trial

Download Updates

Download File Size: 1.1 GB - Word on the Mac App Store (Office 365)

Download File Size: 283.9 MB - Word

Download File Size: 816.4 MB - Excel on the Mac App Store (Office 365)

Download File Size: 280.1 MB - Excel

Download File Size: 428.1 MB - OneNote on the Mac App Store

Download File Size: 2201.8 MB - OneNote

Download File Size: 732.6 MB - PowerPoint on the Mac App Store (Office 365)

Download File Size: 268.4 MB - PowerPoint

Download File Size: 800.5 MB - Outlook on the Mac App Store (Office 365)

Download File Size: 309.7 MB - Outlook

Monodraw 1.4
Powerful ASCII art editor designed for the Mac.
Plain text has been around for decades and it's here to stay. Monodrawallows you to easily create text-based art (like diagrams, layouts, flowcharts) and visually represent algorithms, data structures, binaryformats and more. Because it's all just text, it can be easily embeddedalmost anywhere. Of course, exporting as images is also supported (PNGand SVG).
  • License: Shareware, $20
  • Developer/Publisher: Helftone Ltd
  • Modification Date: May 31, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 7.1 MB

NeoOffice 2017.20
NeoOffice is an office suite for Mac that is based on OpenOffice andLibreOffice. With NeoOffice, you can view, edit, and save OpenOfficedocuments, LibreOffice documents, and simple Microsoft Word, Excel, andPowerPoint documents.
  • License: Demo, Pro $15, Mac App Store $30
  • Developer/Publisher: Planamesa
  • Modification Date: September 29, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - Features that require Java or Python removed in the Mac App Store version

Download File Size: 254.4 MB - App Store

Download File Size: 256.8 MB - Demo - Cannot save documents

Nisus Thesaurus 1.2
Nisus Thesaurus is a fast electronic thesaurus that works with anyservices-aware application including Safari, Apple Mail, TextEdit, andmore.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Nisus Software
  • Modification Date: August 21, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 10.3 MB

Nisus Writer Pro 3.0.3
Create beautiful documents with an intuitive interface, superiormultilingual text support, unmatched compatibility, and an abundance oftools that allow you to write, edit, and polish your text.
  • License: Demo, Pro $65 - Express $20
  • Developer/Publisher: Nisus Software
  • Modification Date: August 19, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 256.7 MB - Pro

Download File Size: 70.2 MB - Express 3.5.10

OpenOffice 4.1.7
Apache OpenOffice is the leading open-source office software suite forword processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases andmore. It is available in many languages and works on all commoncomputers. It stores all your data in an international open standardformat and can also read and write files from other common officesoftware packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free ofcharge for any purpose.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Apache
  • Modification Date: September 5, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit - Java Needed for Some Funtionality

Download File Size: 173.4 MB

Pages 10.0
Stationery, newsletters, resumes, brochures, reports, proposals,business cards - whatever you write, Pages '08 offers an intuitive way tocreate beautiful, media-rich documents using impressive features youknow how to use right away.
  • License: Comes with your Mac
  • Developer/Publisher: Apple
  • Modification Date: March 31, 2020
  • Requirements: macOS 10.14 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 286.4 MB

Download File Size: 479.3 MB

Reference Miner 4.2.5
Reference Miner searches the Internet to find and display referenceinformation from PubMed, Amazon (US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, andJapan), the Library of Congress, and Google Scholar. Special featuresinclude a built-in web browser (reference surfing), drag and dropdownload of pdfs (requires institutional access privileges) and webpages from PubMed, Amazon, and Google Scholar, the display of book coverart (Amazon), and the ability to easily perform complex searches.
  • License: Buy, $3
  • Developer/Publisher: Sonny Software
  • Modification Date: June 22, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 11.7

Scrivener 3.1.4
Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day bybest-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students,academics, lawyers, journalists, translators and more. Scrivener won'ttell you how to write - it simply provides everything you need to startwriting and keep writing.
  • License: Shareware, $45
  • Developer/Publisher: Keith Blount/Literature & Latte
  • Modification Date: October 11, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 110.8 MB

Download File Size: 34.3 MB

SmartWrap 2.9.2
SmartWrap analyzes and re-formats messy text into readable, professionallooking documents. Simple, time-saving and effective - anyone who workswith words should have this!
  • License: Shareware, $10
  • Developer/Publisher: Sanford H. Selznick
  • Modification Date: January 16, 2017
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 1.6 MB

Smultron 12.0.3
You can use Smultron to create or edit any text document. Everythingfrom a web page, a note or a script to any single piece of text or code.
Smultron is very easy to use, it is fast and uses powerful technologieslike auto save. It helps you to do what you want to do without gettingin your way. So you can save time and get things done. Use Smultron 10for all your text needs.
  • License: Shareware, $10
  • Developer/Publisher: Peter Borg Apps
  • Modification Date: October 21, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.14.4 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 5 MB

SubEthaEdit 5.1.1
The app that started the collaborative editing revolution is back. Writearticles, code, notes or meeting minutes with friends – wherever theyare. Ideal for extreme programming sessions, tutoring and creativewriting. And now it is free and open source!
Collaboration
With the live collaboration feature you can connect to anyone in thelocal network, and if you enabled port forwarding anyone in the internetby sharing a link.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: SubEthaEdit Contributors — an open-source project organized by Dominik Wagner
  • Modification Date: October 6, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.13 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 12.6 MB - App Store

Sublime Text 3.2.1
Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose.You'll love the slick user interface, extraordinary features and amazing performance.
  • License: Demo, $70
  • Developer/Publisher: Sublime HQ
  • Modification Date: April 5, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 16 MB

TextMate 2.0
Powerful and customizable text editor with support for a huge list of programming languages and developed as open source.
  • License: Shareware, $57
  • Developer/Publisher: MacroMates
  • Modification Date: September 15, 2019
  • Requirements: macOS 10.12 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 14.1 MB

TextSoap 8.4.10
Automatically remove unwanted characters, fix messed up carriagereturns, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. Save time &effort. Be more productive.
Stop manually fixing text documents and emails. TextSoap can automateaway all that tediousness.
  • License: Shareware, $45
  • Developer/Publisher: Unmarked Software
  • Modification Date: January 17, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 14.4 MB

UnicodeChecker 1.21.1
UnicodeChecker is an application for Mac OS X that displays informationfor every code point from the Unicode Standard 4.0.1. For a givennumber, UnicodeChecker will display that character along with its UTF-8,UTF-16 and UTF-32 encodings, XHTML entity, Unicode Name, mapping information and much more.
UnicodeChecker features string utilities for converting strings to thefour Unicode Normalization Forms or converting from or to Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) as specified in RFC 3490'Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)'.
There are also several text conversion functions available to all applications from the 'Services' menu. So you can convert text to allfour Unicode Normalization Forms as well as to and from HTML characterentities (very useful for HTML authors) from within any applicationsupporting OS X Services.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Earthlingsoft
  • Modification Date: May 13, 2019
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 3.6 MB

WordService 2.8.2
WordService provides a large number of commands for working with selected text:
  • Reformat text paragraphs
  • Clean up tabs, quotes, line endings
  • Remove unwanted text parts
  • Sort lines or paragraphs
  • Change case
  • Shift paragraphs right or left
  • Obscure using Rotate 13
  • Insert date, time, or file path
  • Get text statistics
Extend your favorite text processor, email app, or web browser with all the functions listed above.
  • License: Freeware
  • Developer/Publisher: Devon Technologies
  • Modification Date: April 5, 2018
  • Requirements: Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher - 64-bit

Download File Size: 623 Kb


All Downloads are Direct Links to that
Provided by the Developer/Publisher

  • By

One of the most common mistakes WordPress-newbies make is using a word processor (like Microsoft Word, Pages, and WordPerfect) to edit server-side source-code files (such as .html, .css and .php files, etc). The problem here is that word processors need to embed a lot of extra data in the file (behind the scenes) in order to define various things like font styles, etc — data that is almost always both specific to the word processor being used AND completely incomprehensible to the kind of server-side systems required to run websites (be them powered by WordPress or otherwise). The solution, however, is extremely simple: when creating and/or editing server-side files (such as those used with WordPress) be sure to only ever use a purpose-built Text Editor. Let’s take a look at a few of the best options created specifically for the task: both free and premium — for both Macs and Windows:

Premium Text Editors:

Looking for more than just a basic text editor and got the cash to spare? Then go for one of these (note: scroll down for some excellent free alternatives)…

Sublime Text (for Windows, Macs, and Linux)

Publicly released in 2008, Sublime Text is now one of the most popular and highly-regarded text editors available! One of the most notable things that sets this particular software apart is that it works across all three major platforms (Windows, OSX, and Linux) — on top of which it also supports a huge range of languages, has extensive customizability via JSON settings files (including project-specific and platform-specific settings), and offers a huge range of features including column selection and multi-select editing, auto-completion, snippets, in-editor code building and a particularly handy navigation system that lets users open files with only a few keystrokes and instantly jump to specific symbols, lines or words.

Text Editor Programs For Mac

(click to enlarge)

Price – $70 (note: free trial available).

EditorPrograms

BBEdit (for Macs)

Designed specifically for software developers and web designers (and with over 20 years of history), BBEdit contains powerful multi-file text searching capabilities including strong support for Perl-compatible regular expressions and GREP. It includes FTP and SFTP tools, integrates with various code management systems, supports version control, shows differences between file versions and allows for the merging of changes. Also noteworthy is the fact that the same company that makes BBEdit, also offer an entirely free version named ‘TextWrangler’ (see below) — which may very well suffice if all you’re looking for is a top-notch text editor to edit (or even create) a few source files from time to time!

(click to enlarge)

Price – $49.99 (note: free trial available).

TextMate (for Macs)

Billed as ‘the missing editor’ and awarded the Apple Design Award for Best Developer Tool at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in 2006, TextMate is a much-loved text editor with a number of notable features, including declarative customizations, tabs for open documents, recordable macros, folding sections, snippets, shell integration, and an extensible bundle system. In short: it’s both a joy to use and highly-capable — what’s more, it’s also particularly well-documented — heck, it even has its own book! If you’re a hardcore coder developing on the Mac, be sure to check this one out!

(click to enlarge)

Price – $54 (note: free trial available).

Free Text Editors:

Although the above premium text editors are all very very nice, if you’re only a basic/beginner developer then you may well find one of these free options will more than suffice…

Atom (for Windows, Macs and Linux)

Released on June 25th 2015, Atom is the newest text editor on this list — and a choice that professional coders everywhere will likely want to seriously consider! Written in CoffeeScript and Less, Atom is a completely free and open-source text editor with support for plugins written in Node.js — referred to by its creators as “A hackable text editor for the 21st Century”.

Atom is a text editor that’s modern and extremely user-friendly — a tool you can customize to do just about anything with. It features cross-platform editing, a built-in package manager, smart auto-completion, a file system browser, four UI and eight built-in syntax themes, multiple panes and — of course: handy find and replace features.

(click to enlarge)

TextWrangler (for Macs)

The free alternative to BBEdit (see above), TextWrangler differs to its premium counterpart in a number of ways — all of which are detailed in a nice table on the official Bare Bones website here (notably lacking various HTML markup tools, text completion and file organization features). Whenever I find myself having to recommend an entirely free text editor for the Mac (or when I need to use one on someone else’s computer etc), I almost invariably go straight for this one — mainly because it’s just so darn simple to use!

(click to enlarge)

Text Editor Programs For Mac Osx

Komodo Edit (for Windows, Macs, and Linux)

The free and Open-Source counterpart of Komodo IDE, Komodo Edit allows user customization through plug-ins and macros, and boasts a range of different features, including auto complete, multiple selections, smart snippets (view a complete list). The downside of all this free power though is because of its IDE roots, it perhaps isn’t quite as user-friendly as some of its simpler rivals. By all means give it a go (especially if you’re more of an advanced user), but if all you’re wanting to do is edit a few individual source files, then this one might just be a bit too daunting to start out with!

(click to enlarge)

Notepad++ (for Windows)

Regarded by many as the best free text editor available for Windows (and with over 28 million downloads to date), Notepad++ is a robust, powerful and highly capable text editor that gets the job done! It supports over 50 programing languages, opens large files significantly faster than the default Windows Notepad (mentioned below) and boasts a range of impressive features, including tabbed editing (thereby allowing you to work with multiple open files in a single window), split screen, auto-completion, macros, syntax highlighting, syntax folding and a whole host of other handy functionality!

Plus two more (the Default Mac & Windows Text Editors):

Although sometimes completely overlooked, both Mac and Window operating systems both come with their own default text editors built in — and whilst they’re certainly not the best (having none of the refinements of their more fully featured counterparts), they’ll certainly do the job if all you’re looking to do is make a few simple edits…

Notepad (for Windows)

Offering only the most basic text manipulation functions, such as finding and replacing text, Notepad (not to be confused with WordPad — which is NOT a text editor) is by far the most basic text editor listed in this article — with almost none of the handy features (syntax coloring, code folding, regular expressions, macros, block-select, etc, etc) found in just about all of its 3rd party counterparts!

TextEdit (for Macs)

Mac’s default text editor, TextEdit, combines features of a text editor with those of a word processor, such as rulers, margins, and multiple font selections — allowing it to be used as both a text editor AND a basic word processor — depending on the settings/preferences. Similarly to Notepad (mentioned above), it has almost none of the numerous features found in its 3rd party rivals. While it may well do the job for a basic edit or two, if you’re intending to edit server-side files on a regular basis, you’ll do a lot better with one of the free or premium options mentioned above.

(click to enlarge)

Wrapping up: How to Choose? Which is Best?

Well, first off: all seven of these text editors are built for coders and all seven are pretty darn awesome! What’s more, every one of them is available as a free trial — meaning you can give each a carefree whirl before deciding. If you’re a hardcore coder working in multiple languages you’ll probably appreciate some of the specific software development tools and high-end functionality (like multiple selections, split editing and project organization features) found only in some of the premium options (if this sounds like you then be sure to check out about the most popular premium text editing software available: Sublime Text) — update: serious coders should also be sure to check out the newest on this list: Atom — however, if you’re only a casual coder looking for a top-end text editor with basic features like syntax highlighting, macros and spell-checking, etc, then maybe start with say TextWrangler (a personal favorite of mine) if you’re on the Mac or Notepad++ if you’re a Windows user and see how you get on — after all, there’s really no need to pay top-dollar for features you’ll perhaps never use/need!

Text Editor Programs For Machine Learning

Note: For a comprehensive list of just about all the different text editors currently available check out this Wikipedia article.

Top tip: before editing any files, ALWAYS make a quick back up of them first: because there’s usually no going back once things have been overwritten without one!

Know of any other top text editors for Macs and/or Windows? Any preferences?

Text Editor Programs For Mac Os

TOP DEALS

Get 4-months off Basic Subscriptions!

Best Text Editors For Mac

Comments (policy)




Comments are closed.