Have you ever used a specific programming language to create a file from scratch, like HTML or CSS file? Are you familiar with building files with extensions such as txt, reg, bat, js etc? Are you managed to view a text version of a file that you didn’t know the format?. If the answer is yes, then you are familiar with a text editor and what it is. If you haven’t done any of this then you might not have used a text editor for at least to remove text formatting such as italic, hyperlinks etc. For them, text editors are mainly used to perform the above functions. So you know what text editor is, but you probably don’t know the best options out there.
Please read on to find out the best Text Editors for PCs. Whether it is Windows, Mac or Linux, these text editors are going to make you productive while you code next time.
Notepad++
If you are wondering which one is the best text editor for PCs to start with, read the title again; Notepad++. It might be the first text editor one may stumble upon. This best text editor is Windows only and it is free. One of the plus points of this text editor is its interface. You are getting a customizable interface with this popular code editor. Do you wish for a minimal and simple interface or do you rather prefer the toolbar-rich interface? You can choose either of them as you wish.
Another thing about the user interface of this text editor for Windows that the users would find useful is the tabbed interface. This would help you to work on multiple documents with ease. The document map is a feature of this best code editor which gives a view of where you are standing in your work at any given time. And there are those small but very productive features such as auto-completion, text-shortening, macro recording, shortcut customization and more. You can also do syntax highlighting and it is customizable. You can get Notepad++ either as an installable app or as a portable app so that you can even run it from a flash drive/cloud storage service. This text editor for Windows is coming with a lot of other plugins to extend the features.
Download from Website: Notepad++
TextEdit offers powerful rich text formatting options. But sometimes it’s best to use TextEdit Plain Text Mode, which eliminates all formatting and, you guessed it, produces only plain text. UltraEdit is an award-winning text editor. CNET/Download.com says about UltraEdit: 'With its clear layout and powerful project and work-space features, it can handle complex and sophisticated software-development projects.
Note: Even though Notepad is a powerful editor it is not supporting Mac OS. For Mac users, please see 8 Best Notepad++ Alternative for Mac Users.
UltraEdit is an award-winning text editor. CNET/Download.com says about UltraEdit: 'With its clear layout and powerful project and work-space features, it can handle complex and sophisticated software-development projects. 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. Chocolat is a text editor app for Mac OS X, that combines native Cocoa with powerful text editing tools. Best Text Editors for macOS. Note: In this article, we are focusing on the best text editors for coding but if you are looking for a text editor for your writing purposes, you can check out our article on the best writing apps for Mac.
Light Table
Light Table is a cross-platform text editor available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. This minimalist text editor is best suited for website development, but not limited to that. One of the most interesting features of this text editor for Mac is the instant preview of the webpage working on, which will display on the embedded browser.
To make the most use of screen space, this code editor fashions a tabbed and pane interface. The open source text editor for Linux is a result of a Kickstarter project. Most of the features in this text editor meet the needs of users such as inline code feedback, instant testing of code, centralized plugins, and so on.
Download from Website: LightTable
BlueFish
BlueFish is yet another multi-platform text editor so that whether you are a Windows, Mac OS or Linux user, you can get the benefits of this Linux text editor. This text editor for PC can handle a huge number of files simultaneously and can still keep up its speed. This lightweight text editor may overwhelm some people as it got an excess amount of tabs and toolbars. You will appreciate this text editor for the snippet support and external program integration.
If you are a web developer, this text editor gives you the ability of remote editing. You also get features such as syntax highlighting and checking. With support for a majority of programming languages, BlueFish is one of the best code editors out there.
Download from Website: BlueFish
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Sublime Text
Sublime is a feature packed text editor with support for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It’s distributed as evaluation software, or in other words, you can try it for free without any time limit. Then you might have to pay $70 to get the full license. Another attractive thing is that sublime text stays fast and responsive even on less-powerful devices. This text editor for Linux features powerful search functionality within the app. There is a distraction-free mode to help you focus, by hiding away all the clutter. You can select multiple rows and make changes to them simultaneously in the sublime text editor.
One area where this best code editor shines is the keyboard shortcuts. You will get to use a large number of keyboard commands to operate inside this text editor Mac. Moreover, you could also customize these shortcuts to your convenience and even chain the shortcuts together to achieve complex and fast operations. To open multiple documents at the same time, this best text editor has got a tabbed interface. If you wish to see where you are in the document at any point of time, look at the right side of the window and you can see the bird’s eye view of the same. The sublime text also provides plugins and add-ons for specific programming languages.
Download from Website: Sublime Text
Gedit
If you have used GNOME Linux desktop, you might know about Gedit, since it is the default text editor for Linux. But that doesn’t mean it is confined to that platform alone. You will get Gedit versions compatible with Windows and Mac OS too. The text editor for PC has a simple design and useful features are packed in. You will get syntax highlighting as many of other code editors does. To help you make changes quickly, it features a ‘search and replace‘ capability.
This Linux text editor has a tabbed interface. Many more features are included in it like bracket matching that will make your work smooth. ‘Snippets’ is a plugin which helps to add text macros and documentation statistics to analyze open documents. More of such plugins are available for Gedit
Download from Website: Gedit
Emacs
Emac is the text editor you could access if you have an operating system with command line interface (CLI). That means it’s a text editor for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, and it is free. It is one of the powerful tools out there but not the easiest one to use. There are many variants of Emacs available among which GNU Emacs is the most used one. You can handle from simple documents to complex codes using Emacs text editor.
This text editor for Mac supports macro reading. If you get familiar with all the shortcuts (which are a lot actually), you can tame Emacs. This cross-platform text editor is also suitable for non-programming purposes such as calendaring, project planning, news reading, and word processing.
Download from Website: Emacs
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Brackets
Web designers might not need an introduction to Brackets, one of the best code editors basically meant for web designing. You can also view and edit text documents using it. One appealing thing about this is the extremely clean and modern interface that it fashions. This too is a cross-platform text editor compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. The text editor features syntax highlighting, no-distraction mode and lots of keyboard shortcuts. To edit multiple documents, a split screen capability is provided in this code editor.
Live Preview is another feature which gives you a real-time update of the CSS/HTML file in the default web browser. ‘Working files’ area is capable of opening all the files belonging to a single project. You can change the theme of Brackets between dark and light or can get more themes from the extension manager. Whether it is for W3C validation or to use Git or an HTML tag menu or Python tools, plugins are available in Brackets.
Download from Website: Brackets
MeetingWords
Meeting Words is yet another cross-platform and free text editor, and vastly different from any of the text editors in this list. How is it different!! It runs entirely online. Though, it differs from all other online text editors also. Unlike other online code editors, Meeting Words doesn’t require you to register an account and sign in. It is as simple as opening the link and start typing. Collaboration function is the highlight feature of this text editor. Multiple users can edit the same document simultaneously. Also, they can chat back and forth (similar to Google Docs). Updates made to the document is instantly shown on the page. The updates by each collaborator can be identified easily as each collaborator will have text highlighted in unique colors.
To get your friends as collaborators just share the link using the ‘Share this pad’ button and it can also share an email. The time slider button shows the history of all edits done in the document, and you can even share a link to the specific version of the document. One drawback of Meeting Words is that it is not possible to open existing documents using it. The only workaround on that is to copy and paste the content of an already existing document to the text box of Meeting Words. To download documents prepared in Meeting Words, make use of the Import/Export option and save it in a preferred format.
Visit the Website: Meeting Words
Vim
Just like Emacs, Vim and its variants are available for any operating systemwith CLI and it is free. This code editor is configurable and while it is not lightweight, it is not too heavy either. Vim supports a number of languages. The capability of this text editor for Mac is to keep a history of your actions that help you to repeat or undo the same.
The CLI centered Mac text editor can automatically recognize file types. You might feel Vim as difficult until you cover the not so small learning curve of it. It also packs features such as error detection, syntax highlighting, and customizability.
Download from Website: Vim
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a powerful and free text editor that you would love to use. Its design and power may make you wonder that it is an IDE, let’s get that doubt cleared, it is not an IDE! The text editor for Windows is capable of contextual code completion as it has a built-in Intellisense. In fact, a lot of features are built into this text editor to make your experience great. This source code editor fashions a tabbed interface as many other text editors do.
Simple Text Editor For Mac
There is a ‘Zen mode’ to hide all the menus and windows, so you can focus on your work on this Windows text editor. You are also getting built-in Git integration. To run your code with breakpoints and call stacks there is a built-in debugging feature. A number of keyboard shortcuts are also injected into this text editor. You can open an entire folder of a project in Visual Studio Code. This text editor is ideal for programming purposes. Even with all these features, Visual Studio Code never lacks in its speed and performance.
Download from Website: Visual Code Studio
Now you know which are the best text editors for your PC. If you are looking for a text editor for Windows, Mac OS or Linux, all options are covered here. All that you need to do now is to select the one that suits you the best. Let us know in the comments which one is your choice.
We have evaluated over 20 free HTML editors for Macintosh against over 40 different criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers. The following applications are the best free HTML editors for Macintosh, both WYSIWYG and text editors, rated from best to worst. Each editor listed will have a score, percentage, and a link to more information.
Best Value: Komodo Edit
What We Like
Lots of add-ons available.
Built-in FTP client.
Auto-complete and syntax checking features.
What We Don't Like
Slow to load.
Feels cluttered.
Difficult to install color schemes.
Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters).
Komodo Edit is not the best HTML editor out there, but it is great for the price, especially if you build in XML. I use Komodo Edit every day for my work in XML, and I use it a lot for basic HTML editing as well. This is one editor I'd be lost without.
There are two versions of Komodo: Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE.
Best for JavaScript Developers: Aptana Studio
What We Like
Integrated debugger.
Build-in Code Assist feature for tags.
Built-in terminal emulator.
What We Don't Like
No longer in development.
Minimal support for PHP.
Some dependencies.
Aptana Studio offers an interesting take on website development. Instead of focusing on HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create rich internet applications.
One thing I really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the document object model (DOM). This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development.
If you are a developer creating web applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice.
A Full Featured Java IDE: NetBeans
What We Like
Version 9.0 released by Apache after acquisition.
Supports the Jigsaw Module system.
Supports Java Shell, new in JDK 9.
What We Don't Like
Needs high-memory computer to run quickly.
Not many plug-ins.
Auto-completion is buggy.
NetBeans IDE is a Java IDE that can help you build robust web applications. Like most IDEs, it has a steep learning curve because they don’t often work in the same way that web editors do. But once you get used to it you’ll be hooked.
One nice feature is the version control included in the IDE which is really useful for people working in large development environments. If you write Java and web pages this is a great tool.
Best for LAMP Developers: Bluefish
What We Like
Auto-completion and auto-tag closing.
Powerful search and replace.
Quick to start and load files.
Simple Text Editor Mac
What We Don't Like
Where Is The Text Editor In Yahoo Mail
Not for novice programmers.
User interface looks intimidating.
Too many tabs and toolbars.
Bluefish is a full-featured web editor for Linux. There are also native executables for Windows and Macintosh. There is code-sensitive spell check, autocomplete of many different languages (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc.), snippets, project management, and auto-save.
It is primarily a code editor, not specifically a web editor. This means that it has a lot of flexibility for web developers writing in more than just HTML, but if you’re a designer by nature you might not like it as much.
A Powerful Multi-Language IDE: Eclipse
What We Like
Robust debugging and profiling profile.
Code-completion feature.
Fast deployment and implementation.
What We Don't Like
Slow when working with large files.
Not recommended for large businesses.
Steep learning curve for novice programmers.
Eclipse is a complex, Open Source development environment that is perfect for people who do a lot of coding on a variety of platforms and with different languages.
Eclipse is structured as plug-ins, so if you need to edit something just find the appropriate plug-in and go.
If you are creating complex web applications, Eclipse has a lot of features to help make your application easier to build. There are Java, JavaScript, and PHP plugins, as well as a plugin for mobile developers.
A Swiss Army Knife IDE from Mozilla: SeaMonkey
What We Like
Tabs for WISIWYG editing, HTML tags, HTML code, and browser views.
Suitable for building simple, basic websites.
What We Don't Like
Composer element no longer being maintained.
Generates HTML 4.01 Transitional code.
SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one internet application suite. It includes a web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and Composer, the web page editor.
One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that the browser is built-in, so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP client to publish your web pages.
A Basic HTML Writer: Amaya
What We Like
Useful for up to HTML 4.01.
Supports SVG and MathML.
What We Don't Like
Last updated in 2012.
No longer in development.
Amaya is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web editor and web browser. It validates the HTML as you build your page and displays your Web documents in a tree structure, which is useful for learning to understand the DOM.
Amaya has a lot of features that most web designers won’t ever use, but if you want to be certain that your pages follow the W3C standards, this is a great editor to use.
Straightforward and Stable: BBEdit 12
What We Like
Supports HTML5.
Opens large files.
Great customer support.
Rock-solid software.
What We Don't Like
Advanced features require paid version after 30-day free trial.
Must search menus for features and options.
BBEdit is a paid program that has a set of free capabilities (the same capabilities that the now-defunct TextWranger had. While Bare Bones Software, the makers of BBEdit do offer a paid version, you may find the free version does everything you need. You can review a feature comparison here.
Note
If you're using TextWrangler, it is not compatible with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra). However, the free (and paid) version of BBEdit is.