I have been using Notepad++ ever since I tried my hands-on web development. It made my work easy with the colored codes and indentations. I find my code files easy to debug and I could write programs quicker. Last year when I bought my Mac I had to look for an alternative that I could use as efficiently as Notepad++ on my earlier Windows laptop.
Here’s my take on the 12 best alternatives to Notepad++ available that you can use as well for better and quicker coding assignments and web projects.
List of Best Notepad++ Alternatives for Mac
1 TextMate
TextMate is one of the best options available for coders and web designers. It is a dedicated editor for coding and editing HTML, CSS, and other web codes. Like Notepad++, it allows you to open multiple files at a time. Switching between the opened files is easy with a click on the tab displaying a file name.
At the bottom panel, you can see the column and row numbers for locating and easy debugging. Its scoping feature is elegant and GUI is minimal giving you a clean workspace to code and test. You can bookmark the code and reach the desired location in a file with the help of visual bookmarks.
Other helpful features include the matching of indentation while pasting, pairing of parenthesis, indents, and HTML tags, search and replace, and foldable code blocks. The availability of clipboard history and word completion within a document makes work a lot easier even for the novices.
It offers the convenience of selectors to demarcate the scope of settings and actions. The code blocks can be attached to trigger words that are expandable and work as placeholders for code. You can code with the scripting language of your choice by using plug-ables and creating macros without the need for programming codes.
To know more about TextMate click here
2 Sublime Text
If you are searching for a versatile editor for coding, web designing, or routine text documents then you will definitely appreciate Sublime Text like millions of other users. It is a dependable editor to work on a Mac and the good news is that a Windows version is also available now.
The versatility and performance of this editor are due to many nice features. It has a Goto Anything option to open a file by giving a part of the file name. You can move to symbols, line numbers, or find words in a file.
Sublime Text preserves the definitions created in a file such as classes, methods, or functions. It allows you to use the GoTo option to reach the definition you want. You can search and replace multiple words with one command.
Sublime Text comes with an inbuilt Python API so that you can add the plug-in needed for better functionality. Split editing is a good feature to split one file into multiple windows for efficient editing.
In addition to the extremely responsive behavior of this editor, you get the best from the cross-platform UI toolkit. The syntax highlighting engine helps in identifying the code snippets very easily.
To know more about Sublime Text click here
3 SlickEdit
It is a powerful editor tool and one of the best alternatives to Notepad++ which comes with colored statements on a black background. You get the option to manage projects, classes, symbols, and multiple files with a horizontal and vertical tabbed interface. Works for most programming languages of today along with XCode, and Android JVM/NDK.
Compilation of a file is very easy as well as debugging. A click on the error will take you to the location of the error. Setting breakpoints in the code, stepping into, and inspecting variables and the call stack is easy to manage. It works on 9 different platforms and supports 60+ languages and encodings. But you have to pay one time to use this robust and versatile editor.
Some amazing features include intuitive automatic indentation and expansion of code blocks and syntax. It supports keystroke emulation, backup history, multiple selections, and multiple cursors.
To know more about SlickEdit click here
4 jEdit
This is the third open-source editor that has gained the trust of millions of coders and programmers. It is developed in Java and works on any platform, not just Mac. Developed and maintained by programmers across the globe jEdit can work with many plug-ins to make coding easier than ever.
It has built-in macro language so working with plug-ins and macros is no longer a hassle. Plug-ins can be downloaded to meet your coding and designing needs. It is the only editor that supports 200+ languages by indentation and syntax highlighting to minimize syntactical errors and reduce development time.
It also supports character encoding. The ability to be customized according to specific coding needs makes it a high-in-demand editor. Expansion and hiding of code blocks is another feature adding to its most liked and helpful features.
To know more about jEdit click here
5 BBEdit
Developed by Barebones, BBEditor is a good competition in the category of text, code, and HTML editors for macOS. It has a highly intuitive and user-friendly interface lowering the learning curve for faster projects.
It originated as TextWrangler which now is a part of BBEdit. BBEdit is a preferred editor to TextWrangler, though TextWrangler is still been used by many coders it doesn’t work on Mac Sierra. BBEdit is an open-source tool that comes with an evaluation period of 30 days after which you have to get the license to use its full features.
It is appreciated for its features to edit codes, search text, and manipulate. It has got the best text processing power to make it a leading editor for all kinds of coding tasks. The pattern-matching capability using grep, search and replace text in various files with a single command, project management, method navigation along syntax coloring make it an award-winning editor.
Additionally, it offers the convenience of browsing through long codes with its code-folding capability. It is a cool interface to communicate using FTP and SFTP to edit and save files.
To know more about BBEdit click here
6 Atom
Coding is very often a team effort. Atom is just the precise editor that allows a team of coders to work together on a project and expedite your coding efforts. And all this happens in real time with a teletype package!
With Atom you can work easily using its handy auto-completion on the basis of context. You can browse through the code by opting from the view of your choice like an outline view. Searching for a definition and all its references is very easy.
Atom provides the facility to hover over a definition and read the details. Coding errors and warnings are the next big advantage along with effortless document formatting. IDE is intuitive and easy to use. It also works with GitHub by installing the bundled GitHub package.
Atom is a cross-platform editor with smart features like multiple panes to manage and compare many files and sections in one go. The project browsing pane is a convenient feature to open single or multiple files of a project
Atom is the most admired and reliable editor on this list. To know more about it click here
7 Visual Studio Code
Another helpful editor can be run on any platform you may own. It is free and can be used for any language. It is a lightweight editor that has an extremely easy-to-use IDE.
The Intellisense feature of Visual Studio Code makes it a much better editor. It does the basic task of syntax highlighting and helps you with its auto-completion using the definitions of declared variables, functions, and imported modules.
Fulfilling the needs of programmers and coders debugging codes within this editor is the most helpful feature. Like other Visual development tools from Microsoft, this editor also helps in debugging running programs with breakpoints, call stacks, and an interactive console.
Managing projects is a lot easier due to its integration with Git and other SCM providers. Working in teams was never this easier. In addition to these brilliant capabilities, it is extendible and configurable to match your unique coding needs. Download and install plug-ins and extensions so that you can work with a variety of languages, features, debuggers, and web themes.
Visual Studio Code is a fast editor to code quicker than ever. Click here to know more.
8 Komodo Edit
The most striking feature of Komodo Edit is its comfortable-looking interface with a handy project browser on the left. All the common tools needed for editing are available in the toolbar.
Komodo Edit is free to use on any platform of your choice not restricting to MacOS. It supports multiple languages. Creating the code, compiling, and executing can be done within this editor.
For advanced features, it can be easily configurable by installing the needed plug-ins and extensions. Searching within a code file is as easy as in any other tool in addition to auto-completion of definitions within a file, syntax checking, and coloring.
Komodo Edit works efficiently with a limited count of extensions because if overloaded they can conflict with one another. But still, this one is a speedy editor that you will immediately find yourself at home with.
To know more about Komodo Edit read here
9 Brackets
If you are a devoted web designer then Bracket is the open-source text editor that you have been looking for. It is created to help the HTML coders and front-end designers so it has the needed visual tools and the speedier output with its pre-processor.
The greatest advantage of Brackets is its inline editor that opens up your files just by clicking on the file name used in the code. It is best for reviewing the CSS files and selectors being used in your web files. No need to tab between different files of your project.
The files being edited with Brackets will get connected to the browser and you can preview the changes in real-time. It is a powerful code editor for HTML, CSS, and other web files.
To learn more about Brackets read here
10 Coda 2
Managing local and remote files is the best feature offered by the developers of Coda 2 to coders and programmers. It is a quick and handy text editor that is powered to do speedier development and an impressive preview of your codes. The preview appears in the bottom half of the editor.
Indentation and column guides supported by the syntax coloring are just what you need for the fast completion of projects. The visual tabs make it easier to manage and switch between open coding files.
The auto-completion feature for the function names, methods, and variables is very helpful. The functionality of this editor can be extended by adding the relevant plug-ins and extensions. The edited files are easy to manage and publish on a live website.
To know more about this elegant text editor click here
11 Vim
This one is a text editor that can be used on Unix and Mac OS. It is a customizable text editor for programming and web designing for efficient development and editing of a variety of file types. You can upgrade the functionality of Vim with its strong Plug-in system to support the extensions and plug-ins you choose to use.
Vim is robust. The dedicated team of Vim developers is working on better versions of Vim. It gives reliability to programmers with its multi-level undo tree. To do the editing faster and quicker you get the dependable facility of search and replace with easy commands and options.
This single editor is good enough for a multitude of programming languages that you need to program in. It allows almost any file format from programming files to web files.
To know more about Vim click here
12 Lighttable
It is a widely accepted open-source text editor that has been there since 2012. It has aged and grown tremendously to become a quick and smart editor for any kind of text and code editing. It has also been a remarkable example of a tool developed after much-needed community support with finance and development.
Expression watching or variable value is just too easy with its real-time watch feature running as soon as you execute the code. Inline evaluation is another feature to help in evaluating the code right there where it is written.
IDE can be customized to meet the comfort level of the user. Its robust plug-in manager manages all the plug-ins that will help you in your development tasks while cutting down your time and efforts in searching for them.
To read about this lightweight, quick, powerful, and well-performing editor click here
Note: While the list of alternatives provided is indeed the best, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of installing software, you can always make use of an online notepad editor for free. The best part is that you can use it without the need of creating an account as well as without any other annoying peripheral matters. Note: it preferably works directly on all devices. Try it out, I’m very curious about your findings!
Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for Macintosh OS
No doubt, Notepad ++ is the best text editor for Windows OS but there are some good code editors for Mac as well. All the twelve editors mentioned in the list are tested and are best to use on MacBooks. Which Code editor are you using? If you are using some other editor, do mention it in the comments section.
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