
The design feels more user friendly, despite being simpler and it always seems to open quickly when needed. I have now been using CotEditor for a few weeks and I even prefer it to Notepad++ on my work PC. Then after reading the same lists of fully featured editors, I saw a mention of CotEditor on Reddit and it seemed to meet all of my requirements – it is a native Mac app, designed for speed and was also free! It seems to still be under development, with a repository on Github, and is distributed through the Mac App Store – giving peace of mind that Apple have checked it over. Sounds complicated because, in fact, it is. Run NotePad for Mac with an emulator One of the possible ways to run an actual Notepad app in macOS is using an emulator program, which essentially creates a compatibility layer between Windows and Mac, and thus able to load virtually any Windows-based software within its interface right on your Mac. These are the best text editors for Mac, and a couple of them are free. Most of these Mac text editors are feature-rich like Notepadd. The best alternatives for notepad we listed here. However, there are a bunch of alternatives to Notepad for Mac OS. There is no dedicated version of Notepad for Mac users. Which is why I find often found myself looking for that perfect lightweight code editor for Mac.

However these do not have basic developer features like code highlighting. Often I just want to quickly edit a config file, or grab a snippet of code, so I would either wait for Atom to load, or simply use 'TextEdit' or even 'Nano' in the terminal. Atom is where I do most of my coding, but it is slow to load, especially on my ageing iMac. Atom is great, especially when working on a project with multiple files and using git. Searching for 'a Mac equivalent to Notepadd++' usually ends up pointing to more fully featured text editors, such as Atom. The fact that I use it almost daily on my work PC just rubs salt into the wound. However there has been one application that I missed from my time using Windows – Notepad++, a simple text editor with code highlighting.


I have been a Mac guy for years, since I bought a second hand iBook G3 as a student.
