Simple, tabbed text editor/notepad?
If you’ve been following my latest Freeware February
posts, you may have noticed my obsession with text
editors and notepads of various flavors. I am putting out a call for what I can’t imagine is anything other than a very
simple request, that has thus far eluded all the best of my sleuthing.
All I want is a simple, tabbed text editor. I don’t care what features it has. I don’t care if it can export in 80
gazillion different formats. I don’t care if it will sync with every device I own. I just want an interface that will
let me open several files or notes in a single window via tabs, and *be able to search all open tabs.*
I know that BBEdit 8.0 has this feature, but I have
no other reason to upgrade from BBEdit 7 and don’t want to pay $50 just to get a tabbed editor that ought to exist
somewhere as freeware or at least, cheapware! :) Does anyone know of an application that fits this bill? I use
xPad already, but it can’t search all the open documents, and much like
Omniweb I just can’t jive with the tabs living on the side instead of at the top. Any help most greatly appreciated,
thanks!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
zadig said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
jEdit is a free, Java-based programmer's text editor that does what you want and a whole truckload more. It rivals BBEdit, but it's not quite as polished (and it's free).
Since I can't seem to enter a URL for www.jedit.org here, you can click my name to go to the jEdit site.
Enjoy.
Reply
Indigo said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
What about MacJournal? (http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/). Seems to me it matches most of your requirements.
Reply
jimmie said 12:58PM on 8-21-2005
VI is the way. (http://vim.org)
If you want an easier to use interface go with pico. (http://www.washington.edu/pine/)
Reply
Eric said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I second jEdit. It's pretty well polished, but it's modular and java, so the UI is non-native.
You might want to try macJournal. http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/ It's not "true" tabs, but it is multiple documents with a list in a tray.
Reply
Lee said 2:05PM on 7-02-2005
I want the same thing. On windows I use Crimson Edit which is a free basic tabbed editor. I've played around with jedit, but it seemed a bit clunky, too much stuff. Smultron is the closest so far. I just want subethaedit with tabs!
Reply
Mark Thalman said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Why don't you use TextWrangler from BareBones software? It is now free and has this feature.
Reply
Simon Willison said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
TextWrangler is a good bet: it's the freeware version of BBEdit and has tabbed editing out of the box:
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
Reply
Jaycee said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Ulysses is a great tabbed browser with a lot of features. It isnt free though. It can be demoed from blue-tec.com.
Reply
ced said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Smultron is really great. Opensource, cocoa, tabs.. everything you want :)
http://smultron.sourceforge.net
Reply
Jaycee said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Ulysses is a great tabbed browser with a lot of features. It isnt free though. It can be demoed from blue-tec.com.
Reply
Tony said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I've been using nedit on linux for years... It's available for OS X too, but you have to run the X11 server.
http://www.nedit.org/
Reply
hawks5999 said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I use SciTE on windows and love it. It's been ported over to Mac OSX here:
http://homepage.mac.com/atl/tex/#other
Reply
Scott McNulty said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I second the TextWrangler suggestion, and that's why I picked here:
http://www.tuaw.com/entry/1234000013030337/
:)
Reply
DF said 4:56PM on 6-20-2005
Echoing other comments: TextWrangler. There's really no comparison between it and other free text editors.
Technically, it's not "tabbed" -- documents are listed in a drawer on the left -- but I've come to much prefer this layout for working with multiple text documents. I literally do all of my writing with BBEdit/TextWrangler and the document drawer acts as a sort of "to do list."
Reply
Rick said 3:36PM on 10-17-2005
In the not-too-expensive side, I'd highly suggest TextMate which I've now been using for a while.. The developer is very in tune with doing changes & upgrades, and the userbase seems very knowledgeable..
Reply
Andrew Ho said 8:39PM on 9-01-2005
I'll second Rick's vote for TextMate. It's really not that expensive, and is amazing to use. It's not bloated like BBEdit and other software (and TextWrangler looks like a nightmare to use - I tried once). And yet it has all the features I could want, without the kitchen sink to weigh it down. For a web designer, it's the ultimate tool.
Reply
Erik Weibust said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Does running something like NEdit via an X-Server slow you down any? Compared to something like JEdit which is faster, NEdit or Jedit.
I don't think TextWrangler is an option b/c Barb said no tabs on the left.
Reply
johnny won said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
I'm a big fan of XPAD, a lot like tabs but its a drawer with lots of text.
Reply
Small Paul said 4:14PM on 6-16-2005
Phew. You got platform wars, you got religious wars, you got Kate Beckinsale vs. Kiera Knightley pillow-fights (well, in my head you do), but *nothing* quite divides computer users like the text editor question.
TextPad does what you want. But, sadly, it's just Windows.
Reply
F_D said 8:24AM on 7-20-2005
jEdit -- there's a lightweight plug-in for tabbed buffers. Pretty good if you don't mind a Java swing app. And an open-source app to boot.
Reply