A text editor Mac is a program used on Mac to create, edit, and view documents. The term “text editor” is often used interchangeably with “word processor”.
As computers became more powerful, so did the text editors. Text editors typically allow users to edit plain text files, and many provide support for creating new files and inserting external files into documents.
In addition, many text editors allow users to control certain aspects of the display, such as font and font size.
Some editors also provide facilities for handling multiple files at once, moving among multiple files, and opening up a separate window without losing their current position.
Table of Contents
What Features A Good Text Editor Mac Should Have?
1. Default Indentation
2. Folding/Collapsing Large Sections
3. Manually or Automatically Switch Columns
4. Find and Replace Functionality on Multiple Files and Folder Directories
5. Auto-Completion and Word Completion
6. Spell Checking, Including Foreign Languages
7. Line Numbering
8. Built-In Support for Templates
9. Syntax Highlighting
10. Unicode Support (for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other characters)
How Do You Use Text Editors on Mac?
Ready to get started with a powerful text editor for the Mac?
What Features A Good Text Editor Mac Should Have?
Here are some features and tools that a powerful text editor should have:
1. Indentation by default so that you can clearly distinguish between code blocks
2. Folding/collapsing of large sections
3. Columns that can be switched manually or automatically
4. Find and replace functionality that works on multiple files at once
5. Tab-completion, auto-completion, word completion, and word selection
6. Batch/sequential file operations (eg. moving or copying all the files in a documents folder directory)
7. Spell checking of text files in all cases (including foreign languages) and real-time spell checking when you type something
8. Line numbering
9. Built-in support for templates to save time on repetitive tasks (such as form letters) or to control style (such as numbered lists) easily
10. Customizable syntax highlighting (as per your choice)
11. A full-featured HTML support, with tags and style sheets, and also inline style support
12. Color/bold/italic/underline options in any of the text files that you create or edit
13. Copy and paste selected text, across multiple files or multiple project folder directories
14. Full Unicode support (most modern text editors have Unicode support)
These features are not hard to find. After all, they are a must for any modern text editor. In this article, we will see each of these features in-depth and how to use the text editor you’ve chosen for your Mac.
1. Default Indentation
Indentation is one of the most important features of a text editor. It allows you to clearly distinguish between code blocks and text in the same file. If you don’t have indentation default settings, it will be very difficult to see the difference between a code block and the rest of the text in that file.
Most text editors let you set the indentation by either entering an integer value or by clicking on a tab button next to an entry field. There are also advanced features that let you define indentation levels based on columns or rows so that your programming style can be preserved even if you change the default indentation level.
In Mac OS X, Apple’s TextEdit program uses a two-level indention system. The default indentation level is 4 spaces. You can set it to any value between 1 and 12 spaces.
2. Folding/Collapsing Large Sections with text editor Mac
A text editor that folds text sections automatically is a big help when working on a long document.
If you’ve ever tried to edit a long document by yourself, you know how hard it is to see the whole thing at once and what a relief it is when the text wraps to the next line automatically. If your text editor doesn’t have this feature, look for another one.
Folding can be done on a per-section basis or across all sections in the file at once. Some editors allow you to fold or collapse entire sections by pressing keyboard shortcuts. Other editors require that you select the section(s) first and then press this shortcut key.
3. Manually or Automatically Switch Columns
Some text editors allow you to set the width of columns in your file. This feature allows you to fit columns, so they are wide enough for comfortable reading but not so wide that they are wider than your window size.
This feature is important because if you have long lines of text, you don’t want to have to scroll back and forth to see all the lines. You want to comfortably read one line at a time.
4. Find and Replace Functionality on Multiple Files and Folder Directories using text editor Mac
Many text editors let you search for words or phrases in several files at once, then select the ones that match your search. The find-and-replace functionality can be used with a single file or with multiple files simultaneously.
Some editors allow you to specify which words in a file should be searched for and which are replaced by using regular expressions (for example, [at] instead of at).
Other editors allow you to specify exactly what is being searched for and/or replaced. The feature is usually available on the Menu bar.
This is a very useful feature when your documents contain the same text in several places or when you need to add something to a document that already exists somewhere else in the same file.
5. Auto-Completion and Word Completion
Text editor Mac developers should strive to provide features that make typing faster and easier. A useful feature in text editors is automatic word completion.
If you start typing a word but decide you don’t want to type it, the editor should fill in the word automatically. The same goes for auto-completion. If you start typing a word and press Tab at any point during the text, the editor displays all the words that begin with that letter.
Word completion is useful because it saves time when typing common words or names. For example, if you have to enter a name of a company or an organization and several names begin with it, you can just start typing its name and let your text editor do all the work for you.
6. Spell Checking, Including Foreign Languages
Some editors have spell checking built-in so that if you make an error in your text file, it will be flagged by an alert message box (with correct spelling). Spell checking should also be available when creating new files so that your spell check settings are preserved when editing other files.
Automatic spell-checking of foreign languages is also important so that errors are flagged even if they are made by accident.
7. Line Numbering
Line numbers can be used to find specific lines in a file or to refer to lines in a file by name. They can also be used to search for specific words or phrases in a file.
Line numbers are also useful when you want to jump to a particular line in a file quickly. For example, when you want to make changes and don’t want to look through the entire document.
8. Built-In Support for Templates for text editor Mac
Look for templates’ built-in support (and custom templates) so that you can save time on repetitive tasks or control styles (such as numbered lists) easily.
Templates are special files that contain boilerplate text such as legal documents, emails, letters, emails with attachments, etc. Many editors have templates that contain this text, ready-made so that you don’t have to type the same thing over and over again every time you need it.
9. Syntax Highlighting
A good text editor provides customizable syntax highlighting so that you can use your style sheets to control the look of the text editor.
When you’re editing a document, it’s easy to misspell a word or use the wrong case. In most text editors, these mistakes are highlighted in red or some other color so that you can easily find them and correct them.
Syntax highlighting is what makes it possible for your text editor to highlight these mistakes in different colors so that you can easily see them. You can also choose to have syntax highlighting based on your style sheets.
10. Unicode Support (for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other characters)
With the advent of Unicode (the universal character set), many characters and symbols have been added to the English language and there are more than 1 million of them!
However, if you don’t have a Unicode-capable text editor, then chances are that your computer will not be able to display some of these characters correctly on your Mac.
If this is true for you, then consider installing a Unicode-capable editor on your Mac before proceeding further in this article!
How Do You Use a Text Editor Mac?
If you are a regular user of a text editor, then you probably know how to use it. However, for people who have never used one before, here is a list of some of the things that you can do with your text editor:
1. Edit text files: This is probably the most common thing that people do with their text editors. These files usually contain short pieces of code such as code snippets or recipes.
You can edit these files by typing in the code and making corrections as needed.
2. Create new text files: A text editor can also act as a code editor. If you use text editors to edit code, then it’s very likely that you’ll want to save them in different text file and code file formats such as HTML, Word, TXT, and so on.
The best way to do this is to create a new document using your favorite text editor and save it in the format that you want it to be saved in (in this case, HTML). This will help ensure that your computer does not have any compatibility issues when saving the file.
3. Insert images: Most modern text editors allow you to insert images in your documents, although it depends on the program that you’re using.
The best way to insert images is by using drag and drop so that they are inserted at the correct location within your document. You no longer need to click on the Insert tab or Edit menu to put images into your file.
4. Manage multiple files at once: Some programs allow you to open multiple files at once (in separate windows) so that you can edit them simultaneously.
This is called tabbed file browsing and it’s a very convenient way to work with multiple files at once.
5. Customize your text editor: You might have come across a text editor that is called a “hackable text editor”. It is called such because you can modify it to your own purpose.
But even common text editors are customizable to your preferences. For example, you can customize the fonts that are used in the program. You can also add shortcuts to specific commands or change the colors of certain parts of the text editor.
6. Support for plug-ins: Some programs allow you to extend their functionality by installing plug-ins which are small programs that run inside the program.
Some of these plugins allow you to automate specific tasks within your program or add additional features such as code completion or automatic spell checking if your text editor hasn’t had any.
Ready to get started with a powerful text editor Mac?
There are many text editors available on Google for Mac users, but the best one depends on what you want to do with your computer.
Some text editors are better suited for basic file editing tasks such as creating and editing plain text files while others can handle more complex operations such as auto-completion and code generation.
UltraEdit offers a wide range of features, supports all the major file formats, and is a full-featured text editor. If you’re looking for a text editor that can handle your needs, then consider using UltraEdit now!
