Q: What are some common text editors?
A: From basic text editors to advanced word processing applications, there are many programs available to to view and edit text documents. Several options for the Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms are listed below.
Windows
| 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. |
| Boxer Software | Boxer | $60 | Supports macros, color syntax highlighting and printing, HTML editing support, and Regular Expression searches. |
| 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. |
| CodeLobster | CodeLobster PHP Edition | Free | IDE that supports syntax highlighting and autocomplete for PHP, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS; also includes a PHP debugger for locally validating PHP code. |
| ConTEXT | ConTEXT | Free | Freeware text editor developed for software developers; includes syntax highlighting for many programming languages. |
| Core Software Solutions | TextEdit | Free | Free text editor that includes syntax highlighting, macro support, and powerful search and replace functions. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Helios Software | TextPad | $30 | Supports custom commands and macros and efficient find and replace commands. |
| IBM | Lotus WordPro | $281 (w/ SmartSuite) |
Advanced word processor; part of Lotus SmartSuite. |
| IDM Computer Solutions | UltraEdit | $59 | Text 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. |
| 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 | 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. |
| Notepad++ | Notepad++ | Free | Source code editor that supports several programming languages; designed as a Notepad replacement; based on the Scintilla edit component. |
| OpenOffice.org | OpenOffice.org Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| 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. |
Macintosh
| 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. |
| Apple | Pages | $79 (with iWork) |
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 Mac OS X; can edit documents in plain text or rich text mode; supports HTML and Microsoft Word formats. |
| Bare Bones Software | BBEdit | $199 | Professional HTML and text editor; supports syntax coloring and function navigation; AppleScript, Perl, and Unix scripting support. |
| Bare Bones Software | TextWrangler | Free | General purpose and programmer's text editor; supports advanced text formatting, syntax coloring, and 'grep' searches. |
| 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. |
| 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 | Word | $229 | The most common word processor in the world; part of Microsoft Office. |
| 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. |
| OpenOffice.org | OpenOffice.org Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
Linux
| 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. |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| OpenOffice.org | OpenOffice.org Writer | Free | Fully equipped word processor that supports formatting, styles, and AutoCorrect; can import images and diagrams. |
| University of Washington | Pico | Free | Basic text editor integrated with the Pine (Program for Internet News & Email) e-mail client; includes paragraph justification, cut and paste functionality, and a spell checker. |
| 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.
Know of an text editor that should be listed here? Suggest a program.
Updated: January 11, 2012