Text editors have been a crucial part of every computing system in history, and they’re also the tools that many, many people use every day to build the services, apps, and written-word that we love.At its core, a text editor does what it says on the tin: it allows you to edit text. But wait, you say, I already have a way to edit text on my Mac. Maybe it’s Pages or Microsoft Word, or perhaps you use an online option, like Google Docs or Dropbox Paper.
Skim is a free Mac PDF editor. It functions like Preview, offering markup tools that help highlight important PDF content. You can also add and edit notes, crop PDF files, and more. View PDF files. Add and edit notes. Highlight text. Take snapshots of PDF files. Give presentations with built-in transitions.
However, what separates these tools from a text editor, and what makes a text editor so compelling to a lot of people, is that a text editor removes almost every distraction between you and the text. There are no formatting toolbars, no adjusting the margins — just you and your code or words. For writing in HTML, CSS, or other programming languages, this is a necessity. For someone who isn’t writing code but still generates a large amount of copy, a text editor can be where you start your writing. What makes a good text editor?Few topics start such heated debates as what makes a good text editor. The problem with declaring any one editor better than another is that every editor we mention today is seemingly infinitely customizable.
You can tweak, bolt on, or remove any array of features until any of the following applications fit your workflow perfectly. Additionally, once someone has spent more than a few months using a specific text editor, the muscle memory for certain actions or keyboard shortcuts becomes so second-nature that switching to any other editor can be as difficult and foreign as switching to a new operating system.That said, a good text editor has to have enough features to be adaptable to your workflow, but not so many that it steers itself toward any one usage. Editing text encompasses a wide range of activities.
How do you design an app that will potentially be used by both programmer and screenwriter? Good text editors will get out of your way, but they never hide functionality too far out of reach — this means our top pick needs to be an editor that’s well-designed and approachable by beginners without stifling professional users.Finally, this review is about the best text editor for macOS, not the best macOS application that’s also a text editor. Atom is our top pick for most people, but its design follows a different set of principles than those laid out in. Every text editor we look at in this review has design tradeoffs, but at the end of the day, we feel balances modern functionality and interface design in a way that makes it the best starting point for almost any type of user. Why you should trust usMy first real writing tool was my grandfather’s heavy-as-sin Underwood typewriter on which I — around eight at the time — hammered out an endless amount of content. I eventually graduated to a giant Dell desktop and later to my first MacBook, but the writing never stopped. Throughout high school, I realized that I enjoyed writing for computers as much as I did for people, and I went to college to later graduate with degrees in both English and computer science.During the day, I work for a software company where my role is a blend of design (writing for people) and programming (writing for computers).
Officially, I’m the lead user experience designer for our team of eight, and I’m also the sole developer for several internal web applications written primarily in Ruby on Rails. I also spend time helping out our web design team, where we write custom HTML and CSS for a variety of clients. At night, I’m either writing for my small privacy/design web column or I’m refactoring the Swift code of my current iOS project. Today though, I’m your guide through some of the best text editors for macOS. Of each of the text editors we’ll discuss, whether for writing or programming, I’ve spent more than a week with each while professionally developing Ruby on Rails applications and writing an array of smaller Go, PHP, and Swift files.Although I approach this review with the consideration that a writer could use any of the apps we mention — and writers certainly do — if you’re looking for something a little more focused towards prose, I encourage you to check out The Sweet Setup’s.
An aside about how text editors differ from Markdown editorsWe recognize there are different text editors for different types of work. If you’re looking to write blog posts, emails, research papers, or novels and want an all-inclusive writing environment, we think is the best writing app for Apple devices. If you’re looking for a Markdown text editor that works well with single files (think TextEdit for Markdown), we think is the best app for writing in Markdown.
But neither Ulysses or Byword are built with developers and web designers in mind. There aren’t immense customization features, package or plugin support, or built-in git functionality in either Ulysses or Byword, nor should there be. There’s an app that shines in each distinct category, and this category deals with the powerful, customizable text editors that handle the languages and workloads beyond Markdown and rich text. Atomis an open-source, cross-platform text editor developed by GitHub, a company that helps other companies host and collaborate on software projects. The beta for Atom was and was billed as a text editor that was both “deeply programmable but also easy to use.” Atom is not without flaws, but its balancing of ease-of-use with optional, deep customization means it serves both novice and professional users well — offering an approachable UI for the former, and almost unending customization and tweaking for the latter.
Nominally, a text editor is a program that allows users to edit the contents of a text file for any purpose: programming, prose, notes, etc. Since the early computer days, text editors have been amongst the most essential apps in our operating systems.
Yet, few of us devote a lot of time to choosing the editor that we would likely be using for years and maybe even decades to come.There are hundreds of text editors available for all operating systems, including macOS. But it’s impossible to say which one is the best text editor for Mac. After all it depends on how it will be used as well as personal preferences and functionality requirements. It is possible, however, to provide a shortlist of the best text editor apps in each of the broad categories, which will at least start the conversation and provide direction for people on the verge of choosing a good text editor for Mac. How To Choose A Text Editor For MacText editors have a variety of applications, but most of them are used for one of two things: either writing code or producing prose (e.g. Articles, ebooks, white papers). And although any plain text editor for Mac could help with both, the best text editor apps specialize.Generally, any worthwhile text editor for Mac costs something, which makes it difficult to try a lot of them and decide which one is the best fit.
It would be so much better to pay and get them all at once, so you can spend as much time testing each one as you need and easily switch in the future if need be.gives you this opportunity by offering all the best text editors in its ever-expanding collection of apps. Become a Setapp Member (with a free trial) and test every app described below to understand which one you truly need and want. Write good prose with a plain text editor for MacAfter the widespread domination of word processors, such as Microsoft Word, Apple’s Pages, and Google Docs later on, there has recently been a strong push to come back to the basics, simplify, and focus on essentials. Out of dozens of popular apps, Ulysses and Focused stand out here as most versatile and user-friendly options. Combine power and simplicity with UlyssesAs virtually the most popular plain text editor for Mac, puts your writing environment first, without obstructions, but at the same time supports it with a diverse set of features, from Markdown to built-in library to powerful exporting.Markdown is a true blessing, as it allows you to mark up plain text without affecting its readability and simultaneously get it ready to be published on the web.
Largely thanks to the Markdown support, Ulysses lets you export HTML, PDF,.docx, and ePub, and directly integrates with WordPress and Medium. This means that finally all your writing can be concentrated in one place and distributed everywhere else when it’s ready.Built-in library that syncs through iCloud facilitates the centralized approach to writing, keeping everything easily accessible. You can created unlimited amount of folders, sub-folders, and individual notes — all of which are clearly displayed in the sidebar. That’s a huge improvement over what some other plain text editor for Mac might do, which is force you to save files in a regular folder on your computer, making it cumbersome to create new small notes and organize related ones in a project, for example.Other wonderful Ulysses features include apps for iPhone and iPad, as well as the ability to attach images, PDFs, and other files.
All of it makes Ulysses a truly great text editor for Mac and maybe the only one you’ll ever need, unless you’re looking for something more simple. Eliminate all distractions with FocusedSometimes you have to use over-complicated word processors, whether it’s for work or some other collaboration. So what you’re looking for on the side is a distraction-free environment to write your drafts. No features, just a perfectly serene writing experience. That’s where you can find Focused.As the name implies, eliminates all unnecessary features to lead with a minimalist proposition of undistracted writing experience.Zen Mode lets you select an ambient soundtrack to block the noise and dive into your words full screen — always focused on the center of the page (typewriter style). Typography is carefully thought out and features six options, ranging from Avenir Next to Menlo typefaces. In addition, as the day progresses, you’ll find the theme color changing from white to beige to dark, which helps a lot with eye strain.Besides all the visual design goodness, Focused supports Markdown syntax for easy web export as well as auto-saving functionality and the ability to retrieve older edits.As far as choosing a plain text editor for Mac, Ulysses is the best option for those looking for a primary writing tool, whereas Focused is the ideal choice for a secondary distraction-free writing experience.
If you’re looking for the best code editor for Mac, then consider a few other apps, such as TeaCode and CodeRunner. Create software with a Mac coding editorIf your goal is to write software, simply using a good text editor for Mac won’t help. There’s no syntax support, no documentation, no code expanders. Overall, it’s a tough sell. What you need instead is a great Mac text editor for coding. There are dozens of popular ones out there but TeaCode and CodeRunner seem to offer something unique, whether used separately or in tandem. Expand code quickly with TeaCodeFor a minute, let’s step aside from our goal of finding the best code editor for Mac and mention how we can make any native Mac coding editor better — by using code expanders with.Code expanders allow you to specify repetitive functions, components, or templates, and then paste them right into your chosen Mac coding editor using pre-defined abbreviations.
In a way that makes TeaCode your personal coding library that can be used in whatever text editor for Mac you prefer.The app comes with more than 70 code expanders for Swift, PHP, HTML, and other languages to give you a glimpse of its possibilities. After that, you can create any amount of snippets in any programming language and use them as you see fit.TeaCode also supports shortcuts for searching and pasting code expanders, so you can focus on writing your code and let it assist you from the background of your menu bar. And when it comes to the best Mac HTML editor to use with TeaCode, look no further than CodeRunner. Write and debug any code with CodeRunnerChoosing the best text editor for Mac can become a never-ending quest if you keep jumping from one option to the next.
Of course, you should try all the promising apps when you begin your search, but it’s generally a good idea to settle down and master a single Mac text editor for coding completely. Here’s why it could be CodeRunner.is a general multi-language programming editor, which means it’s equally suitable for beginners and experienced developers alike. Rather than trying to be the best HTML editor for Mac, it supports more than 25 languages right out of the box, but can also be easily extended to run any other ones you need.Besides language support, CodeRunner features extensive documentation right in the app, so you never have to distract yourself by going online. Check all the methods, function, and objects you don’t completely remember exactly when they become a hurdle.Even more importantly than writing high-quality code is speedy debugging. After all, most of the code you get to deal with at work has already been written, which makes debugging so much more important. CodeRunner gives you great options to set breakpoints to quickly scan your code for errors, explore the call stack, and edit any misused variables — an invaluable feature in any Mac coding editor. Choose the text editor for the jobWhen it comes to picking a good text editor for Mac, always keep your final goal in mind.
Ulysses can become your reliable everyday machine for writing actual text, whereas Focused excels at getting that first draft out of you with no distractions. TeaCode is an amazing utility that will supercharge any Mac text editor for coding, especially CodeRunner, which is a great choice for software developers concerned with versatility and speed.Best of all, you don’t have to rush to a decision. As mentioned before, all these apps are available on, along with more than 150 other high-quality apps and utilities to suit any Mac user’s needs.
Indeed there has never been a more perfect time to create!
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2023
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