Casual users might be satisfied with plain text editors, such as TextEdit on Mac OS, or Notepad on Windows. However power users, or software developers are always in need of a more advanced text editor. Features like code syntax highlighting, line numbers, extended search and replace, proper encoding support etc, are essential elements.
While using Windows at the office, Notepad++ (free application) is my favorite text editor.
Unfortunately Notepad++ has not been ported to Mac OS yet.
For quite a long time on Mac OS I have been running Smultron as the main text editor. The problem is that Smultron is not being developed any more. And although it’s fast enough, I have had some issues while loading large files (e.g. 100k lines), as well as in some cases difficulty detecting UTF-8 encoding properly.
Therefore I decided to look for an alternative * free * text editor, and it was TextWrangler that has won me over.
TextWrangler is a lot more advanced than Smultron, and in some areas actually even better than Notepad++.
Some of the TextWrangler highlights are fast file loading, powerful search and replace functionality, a “drawer” for multiple files, FTP/SFTP support, included diff/merge tool, Terminal/scripts support, excellent encoding functionality and options.
TextWrangler menus can also be fully customized (check the Preferences), as well as you can find lots of options for every little aspect that can make your life easier while working with source code files.
Click here for a complete features list, or download TextWrangler here.
What I would love to find in a future TextWrangler version is a better dock icon, as the current one doesn’t really compete with other app icons on my dock. Any suggestions? Leave a comment! 🙂
I, like you, use Notepad++ on my Windows machine in the office and wanted the equivalent on my Mac… after reading your article I tried TextWrangler, but was actually really quite disappointed.
2 features I took for granted that were missing were:
– Automatic indentation of text (when writing HTML)
– Tab to indent the current selection
I actually then found a program called Komodo Edit, it’s free, and extendable and includes plug-ins for writing web code (HTML, CSS, PHP) so that it’s formatted correctly.
May be worth you giving it a whirl.
Kurt Farrar
Small Business IT Consultant
MyDigitalMedia
Hello Kurt,
On TextWrangler use the command key + ] to indent the text to the right, or command key + [ to indent it to the left.
I have no idea about the automatic indentation though.
Thanks for the Komodo Edit suggestion, I’ll definitely give it a try!
TextWrangler does auto-indentation by default…at least the version I’m using [3.1 (2640) of Tue, 19 Jan 2010]. The feature is listed under Preferences > Editor Defaults > Auto-indent. The default for me was enabled and functioned as intended when I tested it.
I concur with Kurt Farrar. I am a heavy Notepad++ user on Windows, but I am now in a Mac environment and TextWrangler is a disappointing alternative to Notepad++. I installed Komodo Edit and it is a far better Mac alternative to Notepad++. I have now uninstalled TextWrangler.
I just run Notepad++ in Windows in Parallels and it works pretty fine.
you can easily drag files across Windows and OS X
if you want to pay lots of money to Microsoft for a Windows licence just to run a text editor, or want to run Windows illegally just to run a text editor …?
notepad++ on Windows too.
Tried jEdit – seems to have more features than I need, but:
* doesn’t understand Mac Spaces
* only seems to be able to support one edit Window?
* if you close the edit Window, can’t open new one?!
* don’t understand the helpful tips, even
Might be useful if you are an ubergeek?
Might try Komodo / Textwrangler … thanks …
PS – can’t believe how bad TextEdit is!
Do the applications mentioned here have the function similar to Compare in Notepad++, i.e. setting two documents against each other line for line? Thanks in advance.
Try running windows or linux. Mac’s blow.
your mom blows.
Hey my comment was just as intelligent as yours 🙂
dont forget that Mac run a core OS based on BSD and Linux (darwin, which is a free OS), Rob, so running OSX on a Mac is basically running a flavor of Linux with a different window manager (Apples OSX interface as opposed to gnome or KDE).
There are much more things between the kernel and the user interface then dreamed of in your philosophy. Apple APIs and services are awesome, trust me.
*facepalm*
Yes, OS X is based on Darwin. Yes, Darwin is a free BSD-based OS. However, it isn’t Linux, and it has nothing to do with Linux. Linux is based on System V Unix, whereas the mach kernel/XNU kernel is based on BSD Unix.
If you don’t believe me, open up bash (Terminal app), navigate to the root (cd /), and list the contents (ls). If you’re running OS X, you should see a file called ‘mach_kernel’ (which, on my system, is about 15 megabytes).
They really are not the same. Similarly, the term ‘BSD Linux’ is nonsensical. FreeBSD doesn’t use the Linux kernel, nor does NetBSD or OpenBSD.
There are many kernels out there. There are even many open-source kernels. The majority of them have absolutely nothing to do with Linus Torvalds.
P.S: And it really isn’t a black-and-white case of “one’s better”. OS X is better than Linux-based OSs in that (in my experience) it tends to be far more reliable (i.e. updates shouldn’t break it).
However, Linux-based systems are better in that they don’t treat you like an unusually stupid toddler (e.g. sometimes I want to make hard links).
And Windows is good if you’re a hardware engineer, but bad if you don’t want to be constantly worried about every skiddy in existence trying to crack your box.
Tl;dr?
OS X has nothing to do with Linux. Linux-based systems are fundamentally different from OS X, despite the fact they both can run bash.
You can also try Fraise (ex-Smultron),
http://www.fraiseapp.com/?lng=en
I found it very useful
Or features like saving as a CSS file. Or changing an extension on save.
Hey guys.
I use SubEthaEdit on a mac and its in many ways better than notepad++.
Its not free however.
Mac has this cool thing called xCode. Its really awesome and impresses you in things that you take as granted.
Give it a try. Try writing a simple C++ or Java program using the if and while statements. You will see some benefits.
Actually , TextMate is much more better than TextWrangler …
Just like most of you i prefer and am used to using Notepad++ on windows, but i love Macs…
I just use a program called Crossover, install the notepad++.exe file into crossover and it works a treat. 🙂
I am a convert to TextWrangler too.
Thanks for the suggestion.
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[…] or edit a single file. For this purpose TextWrangler always comes in handy. I have previously reviewed TextWrangler as the best alternative to Notepad++ for Mac OS X. TextWrangler is free and available on the Mac App […]
and I still using VIM on mac 😀
I’m a front-end web developer and one feature that I love about Notepad++ is that it will highlight the opening and closing tags. It helps to ensure a standards complied code and easy to debug. Does anyone know if TextWrangler offers a similar feature or any other code editor (paid or free) that offers it?
hear hear – this is my biggest issue with textwrangler as well
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Thanks for your suggestion. It’s a really good tool
Since there seem to be some new Mac users here, perhaps it’s worth mentioning that TextWrangler is the slightly trimmed free version of BBEdit. See:
http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/comparison.html
While TextWrangler is very good for most purposes, BBEdit really shines for big HTML, Perl and other coding jobs which need version control (e.g.subversion or CVS) FTP, scripting, plugins, clippings and so on.
(There’s key reassignment, so I guess you could remap BBEdit commands to the NotePad++ keys. I don’t know whether there’s a key map available.)
After such glowing words about BBEdit, I suppose it’s proper to say that I’m not connected with BBSW; I’m simply a twenty-odd (!!) year fan of BBEdit who’s been really happy with the product and the service. (e.g. between 2001 and 2007 I switched to Windows XP for a coding job and mislaid my BBEdit license. When I returned to OS X, I was given a new Intel license, gratis, within 24 hours.)
I’m also very happy with TexMate – another editor that I use routinely. I’d be surprised if it didn’t make NotePad++ fans happy (well, apart from the $50-60 price). See http://macromates.com/
It’s a bit hard to explain the difference between TextMate and TextWrangler/BBedit briefly, but I think it’s fair to say that TextMate has a clever, endlessly expandable and modifiable structure that works very well, whereas BBEdit is a bit constrained by its design legacy, but balances that with great support and stability.
i have a mac and i’m currenlty using coda as my editor right now. when im using windows i use notepad++. i still consider notepad+ to be the best though..features i like are indentation guides and to compare side by side and highlights what’s different, not sure if coda or textwrangle does that…
and notepad++ just seems easier to use..
i like how i can apply different color styles too by modifying the styler.xml
Smultron still developed, but only the payed version on the App Store.
I need TextFX and the powerful search tool Notepad++ has.
Anything that doesn’t have functions equivalent to TextFX and a search tool as powerful as Notepad++’s is inferior to me.
Really thank you. I will try it.
I use Aptana…. by far the best free IDE on OSX 🙂
http://www.aptana.com
where is download button?
You can find it on the Mac App Store as well.
It looks like it doesn’t support PHP. Do you know of a free text editor for mac that I can use for php? I’m very new at all of this and so I want to make sure it’s going to be easy. I tried netbean but I couldn’t even get the editor open because it asked so many other questions about my site, if it was remote controlled (or something like that), or if I was on a localhost, etc. I’m just barely getting started (obviously) and would like something to use that is just a SIMPLE text editor that will do php.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Check Komodo Edit, it comes with PHP autocomplete support.
Komodo and aptana are different gigs.
As far as I can tell TextWrangler is the closest thing we have in macland to Notepad ++. We lose the syntax highlighting in notepad ++. We gain some of the other features around ftp as mentioned above.
It’s not too bad
Just what i’ve been looking for!! thanks.
Thanks. I’ll give this a try. The slow migration to MacOSX continues!
Great alternative, thanks for the advice. I also just migrated to Mac.
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Automatic bracket highlighting, same word highlighting, multiple pages comparison, and tabs are what are the best thing about notepad++. for some sad sad sad sad reason, mac doesn’t get to enjoy these luxuries. I guess I will have to keep using parallels…sigh
Check Komodo Edit or Sublime Text 2!
Thanks for the suggestions decoding! One of the features I love is when I highlight one word in Notepad++, all same words are highlighted in the document as well. Do these programs support that?
Sublime Text 2 is great! Too bad it’s not free though.
I’ve never used it, but Macpad++ has come highly recommended. It’s supposed to be a straight port of Notepad++ for Mac.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/macpp/
that would be great… but there are no files there to download!!
This is a great app for using for web development
This is an awesome program! Thank you for sharing this. This has saved me a lot of headaches using TextEdit. I also agree with you that while I like Notepad++ on my Windows system, this is a better program in my opinion.
2 things, 1. is Tab = 4 spaces setting there and 2. .yml support!
I seriously need Notepad++ on the Mac. I miss macros, the “Count”, “Mark” and “Find All In Current Document” features of Notepad++. I use them extensively and really miss them when on the mac, without a Windows VM booted up 😦
Notepad++ is one of basic programs, so we really miss it on Mac.
try gEdit, it’s free and excellent! 😉
also supports tons of plugins 🙂
Good luck
TextWrangler is quite capable. In my use (not an übergeek) it’s just as good as Notepad++ and of course it’s free. If you need even more text editing on the Mac, try BBedit (not free). It’s TextWrangler’s big brother, made by the same people – barebones.com.
Sublime Text 2 for me is great – it gives me the html syntax highlighting i’ve been missing. And it’s free (they ask you to pay but you can just say no).
Try Bluefish editor
Unfortunately, there is no MBP Retina support in TextWrangler.
Has anyone tried notepad++ via wine on MAC???
Sublime Text 2 is pretty nice.
I like how it just fills in the html for you.
Its interface is also pretty cool looking.
Its a free trial that you can continue to use without registering, every once in a while a window will pop up telling you to register you just hit cancel and continue along your business.
I am using Sublime Text 2 as well, a lot have changed since 2010 when this article was posted!
Thanks for your article. I’ve just downloaded TextWrangler. I’ll see how it goes… 🙂
Try Sublime text. Its really wonderful, and it’s free. You should pay 70$ but doesn’t matter, is not crippleware or limited in any way, it’s the best “good-for-anything” editor I’ve tried, I’ve just arrived to mac from linux, and it’s very very good, compared with textwrangler, fraise or other “ported” editors like jedit.
thanks for the info. I use wine+notepad++
Thank you!
Install MacPorts. –> Use MacPorts to install screen, VIM. —> Use screen and vim for all coding work. –> Rinse. —> Repeat.
Since Fraise is no longer supported I switched to Tincta, which is very similar in design and also free.
http://mr-fridge.de/software/tincta/index.php
http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/ Is pretty close to notepad++ in terms of functionality, and free!
While using Windows I too am an avid Notepad++ user. However, like many people who have already commented on this post I have made the switch to OS X and was looking for a replacement text editor. I’ve used TextWrangler, TextMate, Coda2, and a few others as well. In the end I personally liked the features and GUI for Coda2 and TextMate. Recently I have been developing html5/javascript applications using both of these editors, and will continue to do so until I can decided between the two of them and purchase the license.
Nothing beats Aquamacs – the true monster 🙂
http://genometoolbox.blogspot.com/2013/07/best-notepad-alternatives-for-mac-os.html
I’ve tested a few notepad++ alternatives from list in the above link, but still wasn’t too happy with the free ones. Maybe I’ll give TextWrangler another try…
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I run Notepad++ using Paralells. That, Irfanview, SQL Server, Visual studio and occationally Microsoft Project are the main reasons to run a Windows VM, I think.
You can run Notepad++ on OSX using Wine. It isn’t the best, but TextWrangler is a joke. I heavily use the builtin FTP\SFTP editing capability a lot. There is also a mac port of it now. It is huge for an app, but it works very well. The size doesn’t bother me since disk is so cheap and 425MB (uncompressed) is nothing compared to how much is I have. Plus, I get to use the best editor in existence (for free). Show me another that does all NP++ does including FTP\SFTP that is also free, and I will try it.
OSX Notepad++
https://mega.co.nz/#!vNFVURAb!QP_QG0kPNugsTFqi9kCjazNLh7B26nANHJ3lVJTygsI
I have run this on OSX 10.6.X, 10.7.X, 10.8.X, and 10.9.2