Notepad and TextEdit may be fine for some. If you pine for the simple pleasures of search and replace, tabbed files and handy shortcuts for HTML, though, check out CNET.com.au's favourite text editors for both Windows and Mac.
Every computer user needs a basic text editor for Readme files and simple note-taking. That's why Windows comes with Notepad and Mac OS X comes with TextEdit. But these editors lack such basic niceties, like a tabbed interface and search and replace functionality. If you're keeping a journal, coding Web sites, or pasting excerpts from the Web when aggregating research for a project, we suggest you get a text editor with a bit more hair on its chest.
The best, we think, are the free "light" versions of two professional-level text editors -- NoteTab Pro and BBEdit, for Windows and Mac OS X respectively. And while the full versions of these programs are excellent apps, most of us will be satisfied with the features offered in the free version.
NoteTab Light for Windows
With its tabbed interface and libraries of HTML premade code bits called "clips", it's little wonder that NoteTab Light is the text editor of choice for most CNET.com.au editorial staff. These clips can be anything from commonly used code to quick-formatting tools, and they're available through a pull-down menu on the left side of the interface. The included FTP utilities let you upload and download files -- if you're updating your blog or Web site, for example -- directly from within the program.
TextWrangler for Mac OS X
Being the little brother of BBEdit -- the venerable text editor from Bare Bones Software -- TextWrangler offers all the text-processing power of its big brother, but is geared more toward the average user. Like NoteTab, TextWrangler offers a host of features including built-in FTP controls and it supports several helpful plug-ins made for BBEdit. When you use TextWrangler, you can quickly tell that the Bare Bones Software folks have been in the Mac software biz for a long time; it works flawlessly with Mac OS X and ties in nicely with the OS X's spell-checker.
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