PC Text Editors – Which team do you follow?
For Web Developers, text editors are like football – you love your team even though in your heart of hearts you know they’re rubbish. So what happens when you are forced to pick a new team – how do you choose? This is my current predicament – when I’m developing at home I live on my Mac, but after failing to convince the guys here at NuBlue that Macs are superior, I need to find a text editor for Windows that does it for me.
On my Mac, I use TextMate, and I love it. It’s so simple and not over run with a million and one menus with a million and one options. There are no toolbars squashing down the size of my editing screen with buttons that I don’t know what to do with, and at same time it does everything I want. It highlights syntax on all the languages I use most often (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and SQL). It has all the usual search and replace functions, and bundles and collapsing text blocks are fantastic features.
So, I set out on a mission to find the best text editor on PC, and with the amount of them out there it wasn’t a small mission. I started off by asking around the office to see what everyone else used.
The first I tried was TopStyle Pro – great for HTML and CSS with syntax highlighting and some cool short cuts. Its preview is what lost it for me. The preview is designed for HTML and CSS, and it’ll work with other code in there – but if the code’s not right it’ll error or crash fairly quickly. I don’t know about you but when I’m editing code it’s usually because there’s an error somewhere! Don’t get me wrong, TopStyle is great for CSS and good for HTML, but it just isn’t designed for any other code and I need an all rounder. So I moved on.
For PHP I was recommended to use Zend Studio Pro and, while it’s designed for PHP, it handled anything I threw at it (as it should for the price!). Zend Studio has some really useful features like auto completion of functions and variables, which will significantly reduce typos. This development environment looks great for doing huge PHP projects with features like remote debugging and database connectivity, but I will rarely use this feature. In terms of simple edits, Zend Studio has too much functionality and is clunky to start up.
So, moving on, I decided to do some forum hunting to see what everyone else used. The first one I got to was UltraEdit, the ‘number #1 best selling text editor in the world’. I saw it and thought it’s not the cheapest of text editors, and with nearly 2,000,000 users it must be good! I can’t believe how wrong that statement was. I downloaded the free trial and there sitting in front of me was the least user-friendly piece of software I have ever seen. My HCI lecturer at University would have had a field day. There are buttons everywhere, each with a little picture that barely looks like anything let alone something to hint what the button is for. Toolbars were coming out of my ears and when it came to evaluating it I didn’t even know where to begin. A note to the designers of this software – not all the functionality has to be a button on the GUI – it’s ok to just have it in the menu sometimes! How it has won awards I don’t know. The people in forums who love it keep going on about how great it is with huge files – I’m doing website coding. How big are the files going to be? UltraEdit was uninstalled within a day. Just the sight of it now makes me queasy.
I decided that since paying more money for a text editor didn’t make it any good I’d try a free one. I went with PSPad and I actually liked what I found. Even though the basic program was, well, basic, the number of extensions is huge, and there are some really cool ones like escape double quote marks which turns “ into \”. This is so useful for adding PHP to an HTML page. It’s also integrated with TopStyle for doing CSS, so you get best of both worlds. There was a downside though – I didn’t have to work with it too long before I made it crash. There is no doubt it is still buggy and I just don’t have time to keep reopening files only to have them crash all over again.
I thought at this point there was never going to be a text editor on Windows that was right for me. So as a last ditch attempt I googled TextMate for Windows. I thought, well, it’s a long shot, but at the very least I might find a forum article that’ll give me an idea of where to look next. Instead I found ‘E Text Editor – The Power of TextMate on Windows’. At first glance I thought it was too good to be true, but downloading the trial and having a play around I actually believe them. It has all the great features of TextMate like the bundles, and with the very customisable themes I can almost make my PC look as pretty as my Mac!
So after a long old slog through leagues of Windows text editors I finally found one I’ll back through thick and thin and the best bit is I didn’t even have to change teams (just download the new away strip).
User Comments
jive
On May 7, 2008 at 1:27 pm
you should give notepad++ a shot. I just tried E, and I had to toss it. (did like the snippets feature) But hands down, Notepad++ is the best.
Horttcore
On May 7, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I really liked Notepad++ when I worked on a PC. Now I got a MacBookPro and use Textmate for everything. Best editor I’ve ever saw.
LoCa
On May 7, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Take a look at intype http://intype.info
Very simple and light to install. Just beautiful.
Aaron Bassett
On May 7, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Everyone else in the studio uses HTMLKit but I prefer Editplus ( http://www.editplus.com/ ) its got syntax highlighting for every language you just mentioned – and if it doesn’t have syntax highlighting for a chosen language you can download new files from the 100s of user submitted files hosted on their site, or make your own
It has matching brace highlighting (I can’t work without this now!) and fairly basic collapsing functions (as long as your code is properly indented)
The preview window does suck, but it has FTP support so normally I just save up via FTP to our dev environment and preview in the browser.
But best of all it starts up in a flash and has a tiny memory footprint (its currently using 10MB for me, and I have had it running all day with dozens of files open)
And if you’re a formatting nazi like I am you can switch on Tabs/Spaces view so you can line everything up perfectly and see every whitespace character (tho I recommend making the color slightly lighter for the markers so they ain’t so distracting)
Alot of the stuff above isn’t on by default, but you can easily toggle it on/off from the view menu or using the shortcut keys.
EP
On May 7, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Try Aptana or Eclipse for a change….both are free and work on the Mac and Windows.
They have all the features you need actually..
Alexander Langer
On May 7, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I’m glad that finally someone writing a blog entry about text editors on PC didn’t forget about E. I found out it exists just by chance, reading a sidenote in a magazine article about Ruby on Rails. I tried it out, bought a license and never looked back. I’ve been using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Cromson Editor for years and finally found the best solution for HTML, CSS and PHP.
I’m looking forward to make the switch to Mac and give Coda a shot…
Pete
On May 8, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I’ve tried several different text editors for web development on PC over the years, including TextPad, ‘e’, jEdit, Notepad++, EditPlus and CrimsonEditor.
Hands down, Notepad++ is easily the most flexible, reliable and easy to use. And I still use jEdit for any bulk change operations.
The Eclipse and it’s spin-offs (Aptana, etc.) are much too bloated for their own good, both in terms of installation and operational footprint.
Brian Geary
On May 9, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I found a free text editor called ConTEXT ( http://www.contexteditor.org/ ) a few years ago and have been using it ever since. It’s very reliable, lightweight and adds itself to the “send to” menu in Explorer when you right-click a file. The program’s author keeps adding new features and never asks for anything in return. It includes 20 or so built-in code highlighter languages, and you can customize or create your own highliter too.
Boone Putney
On May 9, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I definitely recommend Notepad++. I recently converted, and could never go back to anything else.
Danny Weiss
On May 10, 2008 at 10:49 pm
So you say you “… set out on a mission to find the best text editor on PC …,” certainly a worthwhile challenge. I’m not going to dispute your conclusions as far as they go, but I would contend you haven’t gone far enough. As you point out, there are many WIndows based text editors available, but you’ve discussed only a very small fraction. Of course, most of us would probably stop such a search upon finding a satisfactory solution for our own needs, but then lets not call this a search for the best text editor available when, in fact, it is merely one for a satisfactory editor for one user’s current needs.
FWIW, my own search ended after I found Textpad and UltraEdit ver. 11.x. I would not call either of those programs the ultimate text editor, but they generally get the job done. I suppose I favor UltraEdit a bit, so I’ll also note that there may be some advantage to finding a program you like and sticking with it without bothering to upgrade every time a new feature is added. I’ve only looked at the feature lists for the latest versions of UltraEdit, but based on that I’m inclined to agree that it is certainly possible to overwhelm an otherwise good program with too many nice but unnecessary features, buttons, menus, etc.
-Danny
Ben Buchanan
On May 13, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I found E was a bit clunky when I tried it. Seemed like an iffy port. Maybe it has improved
I’m surprised you didn’t run into Textpad, although it’s a little long in the tooth it does everything you really need. I also second the InType vote, even if it is still in alpha
Sugar
On May 13, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Amen. E is the absolute text editor for the Mac user that has gone the Textmate way, but must use Windows for a living.
It’s a bit uglier than Textmate, granted, but it’s very useful and handy to use, eventhough it’s still a bit buggy in some areas.
There are very often updates though, with many bugfixes. It quickly took the place of Dreamweaver in my heart, and I’ll never look back.
Jarvis
On May 13, 2008 at 11:26 pm
Have a look at NoteTab. I’m using the free (Light) version and it’s great.
Has a really powerful search & replace functionality (can also search & replace based on Regular Expressions). apparently has syntax highlighting but I’ve never bothered to use it… It’s fast and has multi document tabs.
http://www.notetab.com
xtfer
On May 14, 2008 at 12:33 am
+1 for Notepad++
Not as good as textmate, but nearly there…
Andy
On May 14, 2008 at 6:29 pm
TextPad+ (that’s a vote for TextPad
michelangelo
On May 15, 2008 at 7:32 pm
My vote for Notepad ++. By the way, it also comes in a portable version.
Ted
On May 15, 2008 at 11:50 pm
TextPad for me – actually paid the licence fee – now there’s committment!
Tried NotePad++ could never quite get the hang of it.
Tried Apana but seems OTT when all you want is a simple text editor.
David
On May 19, 2008 at 2:23 am
I was in your position about 4 years ago and can identify with your frustration at all the half-built software on the PC. I’ve tried just about every free text editor on the PC and can tell you that ConText is the last editor you’re going to use.
ConText has no bloat or dumb-down helper features. It has a clean simple interface with language highlighting, behaviour options, custom hot-keyed templates and a command line interface for hotkeyed debug, compling and execution. What more could you want? Maybe and FTP but, FileZilla covers that exceptionally well.
Elle
On December 17, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Another one for Notepad++ as freebie app
I also used intype which reminded me of Textmate — but last I tried still needed more work.
Lastly, e-editor supposed to be TextMate on Windows.
But I guess all my suggestions have already been mentioned
Austinkir
On July 19, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I have never had PSpad crash on me… what were you doing?
Khaleel
On September 15, 2009 at 9:16 am
So many NotePad++ fans.. I used to use it myself. I found it slow and less flexible in terms of switching between design/preview modes..
I use Dreamweaver CS3 and CS4 in Web Developer App Plus (Windows > Views > Panels > App Developer Plus) and I will never go back.. its brilliant! Even got loads of free reference dictionaries that come free and standard with Dreamweaver
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