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.

• Best Free Mac Text Editor
• Best Text Editors For Mac
• Text Editor For Php Machine Learning

We have a humble goal: to build the perfect text editor for OS X. It should be a native Mac app and take advantage of all the latest features. No crummy ports from Windows, thank you! You should be able to jump right in, with no setup time or learning curve.It shouldn't force you to configure anything. BBEdit 11 text editor has to be on this list of best text editors for Mac. It is the most powerful text editor developed by the Bare Bones. It consists rich text and HTML editor which is specially designed for web designers. It also includes various features like searching, modification in text and advanced editing etc. Powerful and customizable text editor with support for a huge list of programming languages and developed as open source. Download TextMate 2.0 Requires macOS 10.12 or later.

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 Mac

Text 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.

Setapp 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 Mac

After 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 Ulysses

As virtually the most popular plain text editor for Mac, Ulysses 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 Focused

Sometimes 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, Focused 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 editor

If 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 TeaCode

For 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 TeaCode.

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 CodeRunner

Choosing 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.

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 job

When 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 Setapp, 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!

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

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2020-09-10 17:49:16 • Filed to: macOS 10.15 • Proven solutions

If you use text editors a lot, you may find the built in macOS 10.15 text editor a little lacking in terms of features. Fortunately, there are a lot of free options you can download and use. The following are just 10 of the best we could find.

Top 10 Free Text Editors for macOS 10.15

1. Sublime Text 3

This is one of the most popular text editors for Mac OS X 10.15 and the reason is very simple; it has a lot of very useful features. For example, it is a very easy to use, has features that allow for folding and syntax highlighting and it has a very high level of customization. These features come at a cost since although the Sublime Text 3 has a free trial version; the premium version is very expensive.

Pros

• It is very easy to use
• Has a lot of useful features
• It offers numerous customization options
• Allows users to assign custom keyboard shortcuts

Cons

• Some of the plugins you have to use with this editor may affect its performance
• At $80 the premium version may be out of reach for many

2. Brackets

Brackets is another very popular plain text editor for macOS 10.15. It is particularly beloved by web designers and was designed by Adobe. One of Brackets' best features is the 'Live Preview' feature that allows a live view of how CSS or HTML code appears in Chrome.

Pros

• It is free and open source
• It has a variety of free extensions to expand functionality
• It has a lot of great features
• Lightweight and easy to install

Cons

• It is useful mostly to front-end developers
• It doesn't have some fundamental useful commands you'd find on an ordinary text editor

3. Atom

Atom is a free text editor for Mac Catalina that has features as good and as useful as Sublime Text 3 but is completely free to use. It is also Open Source, which means it will be completely free to use and continues to be upgraded to include even more useful features. It is built on JavaScript, CSS, HTML Node.js integration and runs on Electron.

Pros

• It is completely free to use and open source
• Has a lot of features found on some premium tools
• It user interface is very pleasant
• Has a lot of customization options

Cons

• It has too many packages that can slow it down
• Can take up too many resources on your Mac

4. UltraEdit

If you are looking for a text editor that is versatile UltraEdit is the best tool for you. It supports a large variety of languages including JavaScript, Python, Perl, PHP and many more. But it is a relatively older text editor, having been released 25 years ago and this age could raise reliability concerns.

Pros

• It supports numerous languages
• It is regularly updated
• It is fast and easy to use
• Can handle large files easily

Cons

• At $99.95 for the premium version it is pricey
• You may have to purchase some features separately

5. BBEdit 12

Developed by Bare Bones software, BBEdit is another text editor for Mac that has been around for quite a while. It has dozens of customization options and numerous very useful features including built-in tools used for text manipulations.

Pros

• It is very reliable and dependable despite its age
• It offers great performance
• It has a variety of built-in tools and languages
• It is fast and very easy to use

Cons

• The premium version will cost you $49

6. Coda 2/ Nova

Coda 2 is a text editor that is designed for web developers and as such you will find that it has multiple useful features for web developers. These features include code folding, syntax highlighting, indentation guides, find and replace and project- wide autocomplete among others. This text editor recently received an upgrade, allowing it to perform faster and adding new features to its already great arsenal of features.

Best Free Mac Text Editor

Pros

• It has a very useful search function that is also very reliable
• It allows users to access and edit files remotely
• Designed for web developers with features that can help make their work easier

Cons

• It has limited features when compared to similar editors
• At $99 the premium version is very expensive

7. Textastic

This is a text editor that combines power and a simple to use, friendly interface. This makes it the ideal tool for beginners although some of its powerful features may be ideal for every level of user. It comes packed with features, but perhaps the most useful is the ability to work in multiple tabs.

Pros

• It supports a large number of scripts and markup languages
• Allows users to work with multiple features
• Can sync with iCloud

Cons

• It may not be as powerful as the other tools on this list
• It lacks SSH and Python support

8. TextMate

This is another simple to use text editor that may be appealing to both novices and expert users alike. It has powerful project management features and a simple to use interface to allow users to find those features quickly.

Pros

• It is Open Source
• It works with Xcode
• Lightweight and easy to install

Cons

• At $56.25 the premium version is quite costly

9. Visual Studio Code

This Microsoft text editor's features are so compatible with the Mac that users don't feel any different than when using it on Windows. Its main features include a fast source-code editor, a keyboard centric code editing approach and being able to highlight syntax for 30 different languages.

Pros

• It is free to use
• Supports a lot of languages
• It has a simple and easy to understand user interface
• It is updated regularly and has various plugins for added performance

Cons

• It can be a bit complicated to learn how to use
• You may have to install too many plugins to get all the features you want

10. CodeRunner 2

This is a text editor that is specifically designed for Mac users and one of the most affordable Mac text editors in the market. It supports a wide range of languages and a lot of features while somehow remaining lightweight and very easy to use.

Pros

• It supports a lot of different languages
• It has a clean and simple to use interface
• It is highly customizable
• Has all the necessary IDE features

Cons

• It may not be the ideal to use for big projects or big files
• It has numerous features but not as much as the other premium tools on this list

Best PDF Editor for macOS 10.15

If you use text editors on a daily basis, chances are that you may also need a PDF editor. One of the best PDF editors to use for any project is PDFelement . This tool is designed to make it easier for you to not just create, but also manage and edit PDFs with ease. PDFelement allows users to carry out several functions including converting PDF documents to several other formats including Text, HTML, Word and many others.

Some of the features that make PDFelement the best tool include the following;

• It has highly effective editing tools to help you edit text, images, pages, links and watermarks on any PDF document
• An OCR function is very useful for converting scanned PDFs into editable formats
• You can use PDFelement for Mac to annotate a PDF document in numerous ways including commenting, highlighting, adding stamps, filling and drawing
• It also comes with numerous document protection features for documents with sensitive information. You can add a digital signature or password protect the PDF
• It allows you to easily print and share a PDF document
• Additional document creation, merging and numbering features make it a complete PDF editing suite
• It can also be used to convert PDFs to a variety of other formats including Word, TXT, HTML, PowerPoint and Excel among others

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Free Download or Buy PDFelement right now!

Best Text Editors For Mac

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