Mac Apps
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on their computer. Fortunately, a wide range of different tools exist, each with their own unique features (and price point). Whether you’re looking for a simple note taking application, need to write reams of code, or simply don’t require the long waiting times of Microsoft Word, there’s a text editor out there for you.
TextWrangler
TextWrangler
TextWrangler is a free version of BBEdit (see below). It offers a broad range of support for different programming languages, and fantastic find and replace functionality. A reliable and powerful tool, especially considering its freeware status.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Bare Bones
TextMate
TextMate
TextMate fits into the OS X user experience well, and is a highly regarded editor. It contains decent project management features, clipboard history, automatic bracket pairing, and can be expanded with plugins.
Price: $50
Requires: Mac OS 10.4.2 PPC/Intel
Developer: Macro Mates
BBEdit
BBEdit
BBEdit is one of the leading text editors for the Mac, and the price reflects that. It’s beyond the reach of a casual user, but offers a range of advanced functionality. Great for searching and replacing, organizing projects, working with remote servers, in-built code validation/standards checking, and highlighting any code you throw at it.
Price: $129 ($49 Educational)
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Bare Bones
SubEthaEdit
SubEthaEdit
SubEthaEdit is a powerful and lean text editor, reasonably priced, and offers unique collaboration features. Featuring command line integration, live HTML previews, and easy customization, it also integrates well with Coda.
Price: €29
Requires: OS X 10.4
Developer: Coding Monkeys
Carbon EMacs
Emacs/Carbon
Carbon Emacs Package is a Mac-friendly distribution of the GNU Emacs text editor. It’s simple, extensible, and good for technically minded users who value the advanced features it offers. Not the most user friendly app, but worth bearing in mind. Also very similar is Aquamacs.
Price: Free (Open Source)
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or later
Developer: Seiji Zenitani
skEdit
Coda and Espresso
Coda / Espresso
After a quick Twitter poll, many AppStorm readers prefer to use a more full featured app for editing text (one also supporting FTP, CSS development, and live previewing). Both Coda and Espresso have been reviewed here, but they’re quite expensive and far, far more than a simple text editor. Worth looking into!
Price: $80-$99
Requires: Coda: OS X 10.4; Espresso: OS X 10.5 Leopard
Smultron
WriteRoom
WriteRoom
Taking a different approach, WriteRoom offers little advanced functionality but a remarkably simple interface to minimize distractions. Definitely not for everyone, but it could be great if you’re looking for a simple tool. Check out our review for full details.
Price: $24.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Developer: Hog Bay Software
TextEdit
TextEdit
TextEdit is a simple, open source word processor and text editor. It offers very basic functionality, but is bundled for free with OS X (it’s already in your Applications folder!) Often great for quickly viewing a file, but it won’t satisfy many advanced requirements.
Price: Free
Requires: OS X (Any Version)
Developer: Apple
Conclusion
Whether you have a huge budget for a text editor or not a bean to spare, there should be a good option for you. It’s worth deciding how many of the additional features you really need, as I often find they get in the way when trying to write something simple.
It may be a good idea to combine a couple of the applications, WriteRoom and TextMate for instance, to provide a good mix between complicated code editing and a simple writing interface.
I’m interested to hear what you use, and whether you’d suggest any different applications (just don’t say VIM!).
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Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
Whilst you may be content using a pen and paper, many Mac owners need something a little more powerful for writing text on ...
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I’m a TextMate kind of guy myself.
No MacVim? If you are going to include Emacs you got to include vim!
http://code.google.com/p/macvim/
Agreed!!
Notice I didn’t say VIM!
I’m lucky to get coda from the beginning. it was only $79. And don’t need all of thoose apps. Coda is more than enough… :D
No NeoOffice? It’s basically a free (and better) alternative to MS Word, it’s got a clean interface, lots of flexibility, and can save/open multiple file types. Highly recommend it!
Look at the apps, notice text editors are not the same as word processors.
text editors do only plain text editing , word processors do things like page layout editing, rich text formatting…
coda is brilliant. will make using a pc that much m ore difficult
Nothing beats TextMate in my opinion. Works great for coding and just jotting ideas down quickly (I don’t use a proper word processor).
VooDoo Pad (+ lite version)
http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/voodoopadlite.html
Having worked with several heavy-weight IDEs in my time as a Java developer I’m more than happy with TextMate these days. On the command-line I’m still stuck with my pal vim, after all these years.
Also Bean
http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html
Instead of recommending Carbon Emacs, why not recommend Emacs.app? Its source base is now merged with official GNU Emacs. http://emacs-app.sourceforge.net/
I can’t believe you didn’t feature Smultron. It’s free and quite awesome. I seldom feel the need for anything else.
I think you should take a good look at the post again. I’m sure you’ll find Smultron in there.
TextWrangler is where its at.
Tried some of them, but still sticking with Coda, serves me well. I guess in a way when you’ve already shelled out 99 bucks you’d better make that money’s worth. :)
I have test Coda , Espresso, TextMatte, for fast working and Keystroke.
Espresso is the favorite but have lite bugs, we need waiting and absolute favorite is Text Mate. I have lite customizing and now is very hard fast
What about TACO?
I finally purchased Coda last night. I’ll use it as much as I can! =P
Jedit X
http://www.artman21.com/en/jedit_x/
I’ve yet to find a text editor that works better for me than TextMate. I’ve used it for years to write code, and have used it for things my kludgy IDEs at work aren’t very good at, like writing repetitive code. Its customizable bundles make it able to do a lot of work for you.
This is kind of a open-ended post. After reading through the list, it’s apparent that when you say “text editor” you really meant a coding app that isn’t WYSIWYG. I don’t know anyone who would use any of these apps for every-day office word processing – which is “text editing” in its most simple and most used form.
However, if we’re talking about coding for apps and Web pages, then these apps are probably a LOT more popular. Coda in particular is excellent, as is BBEdit, etc.
For the other type of text editing, I like iWork’s Pages – much nicer/simpler than MS Word, and doesn’t take 3 weeks to launch like Word does (why does MS feel the need to “optimize my font menu” EVERY STINKING TIME I launch the app???)
Lol, I know, I hate when Word does that! At my office I have to use it occasionally, thankfully not that often.
For code editors, I really dig TextMate and Coda, but currently trying out Espresso, which is promising I must say.
Coda is legit! :) Well worth the investment. -mig
I´m fully happy with my TextMate but thanks for the list :)
I personally like TextEdit. It’s fast and full of features.
Coda is a perfect example of a well-design Mac application.
Smultron is also compatible with Tiger !
Aptana not up there it’s not that great but it’s ok. Coda is the best though
Glad you included skEdit, majority of people have never heard of it! I love it and I’ve tried Coda/Textmate, always come back to skEdit
for simple and small projects I use Coda, while for the rest I use TextMate.. the only off that Coda has is no code folding..
I’m with Tom on my choice – skEdit all the way. It might not look as polished as the others, but code completion and an on-save webkit preview window it such a time saver.
Also I don’t think that Apples TextEdit is open-source.
I am using CotEditor – great for editing source code, different encodings etc.
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/coteditor
Ok, but the most powerful editor ever created VIM (or MacVim) which also happens to be open source and free is not even mentioned ?
Take a look at CotEditor
http://osx.iusethis.com/app/coteditor
textmate is great. good share
It’s something that I need for completing layouts in some magazines I prepare for our customers.
Someone just recommended AquaMacs to me. I really like it so far because it’s UI is more eye pleasing than TextWrangler, Smultron, and jEdit combined. Give it a try http://aquamacs.org/