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What are some common text editors?
A list of common text editing programs for Mac, Windows, and Linux, with information about each application.
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Updated October 19, 2022
From basic plain text editors to advanced word processing applications, many programs can view and edit text documents . Some are designed for general writing and editing, while others — such as source code editors — are targeted towards developers. Several options for Windows, macOS, and Linux are listed below.
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| Atlantis | Atlantis Word Processor | $35 | Customizable word processor designed for creating rich text documents and eBooks; supports RTF, MS Office, and OpenOffice formats; also available in a free "lite" version. |
| Carolina Road Software | Jarte | Free | Free word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad word processing engine; expands beyond the WordPad feature set; saves documents in a format compatible with both Word and WordPad. |
| ConTEXT | ConTEXT | Free | Freeware text editor developed for software developers; includes syntax highlighting for many programming languages. |
| Corel | WordPerfect | $299 (w/ WP Office) | Advanced word processor developed by Corel Software; can be used to create reports, letters, resumes, and brochures; included as part of WordPerfect Office. |
| ES-Computing | EditPlus | $30 | Text editor, HTML editor, and programmer's editor; syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, and scripting languages. |
| Flo's Freeware | Notepad2 | Free | Basic text editor based on Microsoft's Notepad application; includes programming features such as custom syntax highlighting, regular expression search/replace, and bracket matching. |
| Fookes Holding Ltd. | NoteTab | $39.95 | Versatile text editor designed to be a replacement for Notepad; can be used for text-processing and well as editing HTML5 and CSS3 files; includes a real-time word counter for SEO purposes. |
| Geany | Geany | Free | Lightweight text editor that also serves as an integrated development environment (IDE); supports syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, and auto-closing of tags. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| Helios Software | TextPad | $30 | Supports custom commands and macros and efficient find and replace commands. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform editor that can be used for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; includes FTP and SSH/Telnet support, code folding, syntax highlighting, and Ctags support. |
| Just Great Software | EditPad Lite | Free | Compact general-purpose text editor; has a tabbed interface for working with multiple files; includes an advanced search and replace feature that supports regular expressions. |
| Microsoft | Notepad | Free | Plain text editor included with Windows XP that can open and create new text files; does not support any text formatting. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Microsoft | Word | $229 | The most common word processor in the world; part of Microsoft Office. |
| Microsoft | WordPad | Free | Basic text editor included with Windows XP; supports text formatting and rich text (RTF) files. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| Notepad++ | Notepad++ | Free | Source code editor that supports several programming languages; designed as a Notepad replacement; based on the Scintilla edit component. |
| PSPad | PSPad | Free | Freeware programmer's editor that supports HTML, XHTML, PHP, ASP, JavaScript, C, Perl, and other languages; includes syntax highlighting and rich text formatting. |
| Orangeline | Araneae | Free | Text editor designed primarily for Web development; supports syntax highlighting for HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby; also includes a browser preview feature. |
| SciTE | SciTE | Free | Free source code editor based on the Scintilla source code editing component; supports key commands for navigation and editing. |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Brackets.io | Brackets | Free | Open-source, extensible code editor intended for web and front-end developers. |
macOS
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| Apple | Pages | Bundled with macOS | Word processing and page layout program that supports text and document formatting; included in the iWork suite, along with Numbers and Keynote. |
| Apple | TextEdit | Free | Included with macOS; can edit documents in plain text or rich text mode; supports HTML and Microsoft Word formats. |
| Bare Bones Software | BBEdit | $49 | Professional HTML and text editor; supports syntax coloring and function navigation; AppleScript, Perl, and Unix scripting support. |
| Bean | Bean OS X | Free | Free, open-source text editor for Mac OS X; designed to make writing convenient, efficient and comfortable; supports rich text styles and various types of page formatting. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform text editor that can be used for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; supports syntax highlighting, FTP and SSH/Telnet, code folding, and Ctags. |
| MacroMates | TextMate | $51 | Advanced text editor for the Mac developed primarily for programmers; includes customizable syntax highlighting, foldable code blocks, word completion, and search and replace. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Microsoft | Word | $229 | The most common word processor in the world; part of Microsoft Office. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| NeoOffice | NeoOffice Writer | Free | Word processor included with the NeoOffice application suite; based on OpenOffice.org, but designed specifically for Mac OS X; can open Word, WordPerfect, StarWriter, and other types of documents. |
| Panic | Nova | Free | Fast and flexible text editor designed for macOS with light, dark, and custom themes; includes built-in support for Build, Run, and Clean tasks; supports extensions API for new languages and UI customizations |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Brackets.io | Brackets | Free | Open-source, extensible code editor intended for web and front-end developers. |
| Company | Program | Price * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AbiSource | AbiWord | Free | Cross-platform, open source word processing program similar to Microsoft Word; supports advanced page layouts and text formatting. |
| Apache | OpenOffice Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| BSD | Vi | Free | Basic text editor included with nearly all Unix and Linux distributions; operates in either insert mode (for text entry) or normal mode (for typing commands). |
| Codebrainz | Mousepad | Free | A simple text editor for the Xfce desktop environment; designed for quickly editing text files; has a graphical interface based on the GTK platform |
| Geany | Geany | Free | Lightweight text editor that also serves as an integrated development environment (IDE); supports syntax highlighting, code folding, auto-completion, and auto-closing of tags. |
| GitHub | Atom | Free | Open source "hackable" source code editor that supports custom themes and language-specific IDEs; includes context-aware auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and code navigation features; supports Teletype for collaborating on code with other developers. |
| GNOME Project | gedit | Free | Official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment; supports internationalized text, syntax highlighting, search and replace, bracket matching, line numbers, and configurable colors. |
| GNU Project | Emacs | Free | Extensible and customizable editor that includes syntax coloring; includes an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language. |
| GNU Project | Nano | Free | Simple text editor for Linux; supports go to line / column number, interactive search and replace, and auto-indent; installed by default on most Linux distributions. |
| HamsterCoders | Write! | $19.95 | Cross-platform, minimalist text editor designed to create notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and texts of any kind; has all the common word processor features packed into a clutter-free interface. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $99 | Multiplatform text editor designed for coding HTML, PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and HEX files; includes FTP and SSH/Telnet support, code folding, syntax highlighting, and Ctags support. |
| Kate | Kate Editor | Free | Text editor for KDE that includes window splitting and a multi-document interface (MDI); also supports multiple text encodings and regular expression search and replace; includes programming features such as line numbers, syntax highlighting, and auto indentation. |
| Microsoft | Visual Studio Code | Free | Also called "VS Code;" free, open source, multiplatform code editor developed and maintained by Microsoft; includes IntelliSense, which autocompletes code based on the context, such as local variable types and function definitions; supports syntax highlighting for multiple languages. |
| Mitchell | Textadept | Free | Minimalist, cross-platform text editor optimized for speed; extensible and customizable with Lua; automatically detects the syntax of over 100 programming languages |
| Sublime HQ | Sublime Text | Free | High-performance text editor for writing code and markup; unique features include "Goto Anything" for easily jumping to functions and "Multiple Selections" for renaming several variables at once. |
| Tarot Osuji | Leafpad | Free | Simple text editor based on the Gimp Toolkit (GTK+) that runs on Linux and BSD; included as the default text editor in Raspberry Pi's wheezy OS; supports line numbers, unlimited undo/redo, and auto-indent. |
| The Document Foundation | LibreOffice Writer | Free | Full-featured word processor included with LibreOffice; designed to be simple, but is also powerful enough to create complete books with indexes, contents, and diagrams. |
| Vim Online | Vim | Free | Highly configurable text editor based on the standard vi editor; designed to make text editing more efficient for programmers; includes a basic Notepad-like mode called evim or Easy Vim. |
* Prices listed are estimated retail prices and may change.
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