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Notepad program is one of the oldest and simplest text editors in the world.

It still exists, but one could wonder why would anyone still use such basic editor when there are thousands of text editors available.

The biggest advantage of Notepad over other more sophisticated editors is that it saves files in plain text, unlike others editors that might add special formatting text which makes it a perfect tool for editing HTMLCSS and an average tool for editing code (PHP, Java, C, etc).

Personally, I use Notepad mostly for 2 reasons: When I am working with text config files or sometimes when writing code or HTML.

First I copy the text to Notepad to make sure that all formatting is removed and then copy to my text editor.

Notepad Code Editor Mac All Macs

Naturally, when I started working more in macOS one of my first questions was is Notepad available for Mac All Macs have a basic built-in text editor called TextEdit.

It is roughly equivalent to Microsofts WordPad but can work as Notepad as well.

To switch to Notepad mode go to the menu and click Make Plain Text from View menu or use Shift-Command-T key combination.

TextEdit Review How to open TextEdit on Mac There are three ways to launch TextEdit: From Launchpad app, Other folder.

From Finder app. Go to ApplicationsUtilities folder and launch it from there.

Working with TextEdit TextEdit has some interesting features you need to know in order to use it most effectively.

To display tabs go to View in the menu and select Show Tab Bar.

You can quickly move between tabs in TextEdit by holding Command key and hitting Tab button.

By default, save dialog box opens in a reduced form which has limited folder selection capabilities.

To open a full form click on a button which looks like a down arrow next to the destination folder.

In the full form, you can browse to another destination or even create a new folder before saving the file.

Notepad Code Editor Full Save File

Short Save File Dialog Full Save File Dialog Saving the file in the TextEdit is just one of the possible ways to create a new text file in Mac.

Check the article I wrote for other quick ways to create files.

Useful keyboard shortcuts My favorite text editing shortcuts that work in most Mac editors including TextEdit: Keyboard Shortcut What it Does Command and Right Arrow Move cursor to the end of line Command and Left Arrow Move cursor to the start of line Shift, Control and Right Arrow Select text from current cursor position till the end of line Shift, Control and Right Arrow Select text from current cursor position till the start of line Alt (Option) and Right Arrow Skip one word to the right Alt (Option) and Left Arrow Skip one word to the Left Command and Up Arrow Go to the top of the document Command and Down Arrow Go to the bottom of the document Alt (Option) and Down Arrow Go to the end of the next line Alt (Option) and Up Arrow Go to the start of the previous line Command and A Select all text in the document Command and C Copy selected text to the clipboard Command and X Cut selected text and copy to the clipboard Command and V Paste text from the clipboard at the cursor position Delete Deletes a character before cursor position (equivalent of Backspace button in Windows) fn and Delete Deletes a character after cursor position (equivalent of Delete button in Windows) fn and Up Arrow Scroll Page Up fn and Down Arrow Scroll Page Down Other cool features in TextEdit Adding a special symbol Press Control-Command-Space or go to Edit menu and select Emoji and Symbols to add special symbols like Copyright or Mac keys like Command () or Option ().

Dictation Did you know that you dont even need to type in TextEdit in order to have some text All you need is to use the Start Dictation option in the Edit menu or just hit fn key twice.

This will bring up a Dictation app which looks like a microphone waiting for you to speak.

I found out that using Dictation significantly increases your throughput and its a perfect way to add quick notes.

Notepad Code Editor For Mac