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TextEdit is the default text editor in macOS, and it’s just as barebones as the default text editor in Windows, Notepad. Naturally, many Mac users sooner or later look for an alternative, and they often stumble upon Notepad++.

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What Is Notepad++?

Notepad++ is basically what would happen if you were to inject Notepad with steroids and forced it to work out. It supports several programming languages and features syntax highlighting, syntax folding, PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) search/replace, auto-completion, multi-document editing, WYSIWYG printing, zoom in and zoom out, bookmarks, macro recording and playback, and more.

Notepad++ is free and open source, first released in 2003 by Don Ho. It’s written in C++ and based on powerful editing component Scintilla. This free open source library supports many features to make code editing easier in addition to error indicators, line numbering in the margin, as well as line markers such as code breakpoints.

Because of its extensive features, support for 84 languages, and free price, Notepad++ was voted as the most used text editor worldwide with 34.7 percent of 26,086 respondents on Stack Overflow claiming to use it daily. It has also won a number of prestigious awards including the “Best Programming Text Editor for Windows” award from Lifehacker in 2011 and 2014.

Why Is Notepad++ Mac Not Available?

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to download Notepad++ for Mac. You might think that Notepad++ Mac isn’t available because it’s also not possible to download Notepad for Mac, but that’s not the real reason why.

Notepad++ relies extensively on Win32 API, the 32-bit application programming interface for modern versions of Windows. Win32 API consists of many components, including things like file systems, devices, processes, threads, and error handling. It’s also responsible for that instantly recognizable Windows look and feel that many long-term users of the operating system find so appealing. In short, without Win32 API, there’s no Notepad++. At least not without a major rewriting of the application.

If Notepad++ were a commercial project, there’s a chance that it would make a sense to develop and maintain a separate version for macOS (and Linux), but it’s free and open source, so the motivation is limited. Porting Notepad++ to another operating system would also break the compatibility with most plugins, essentially fragmenting the Notepad++ community.

How to Run Notepad++ On Mac?

Because of extensively Notepad++ relies on Win32 API, there are two possible ways how to run it on macOS: rewrite it so that it doesn’t rely on Win32 API anymore, or provide it the necessary API. We’ve already explained why the former is unlikely to happen anytime soon, but the latter is already possible using virtual machines and emulators.

Install Notepad++ on Mac Using Wine

Wine is a recursive backronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator. What is Wine then? A free and open-source compatibility layer whose goal is to emulate the Windows runtime environment by translating Windows system calls into POSIX-compliant system calls. It also recreates the directory structure of Windows systems and provides alternative implementations of Windows system libraries, services, and other components.

As you can see here, Notepad++ runs well in Wine, especially its earlier versions, which rate rated Gold and Platinum. Wine’s rating system is designed to assist users by giving a rating based on other users’ experience:

• Platinum: Works as well as (or better than) on Windows out of the box.
• Gold: Works as well as (or better than) on Windows with workarounds.
• Silver: Works excellently for normal use, but has some problems for which there are no workarounds.
• Bronze: Works, but has some problems for normal use.
• Garbage: Problems are severe enough that it cannot be used for the purpose it was designed for.

To install Wine on macOS, you need macOS 10.8 or higher, and you must set Gatekeeper to NOT block unsigned packages. If you meet these prerequisites, you can continue by following the steps below:

1. Download the installer for Wine Stable from this page.
2. Double-click on the installer.
3. Create the fake C: drive where your Windows applications will be installed by entering “winecfg” into the terminal.
4. Download Notepad++ from its official website.
5. Place it in any directory you want.
6. Open the terminal and navigate to the directory with Notepad++.
7. Start the Notepad++ installation .exe file by typing “wine the-name-of-the-file.exe” into the terminal.
8. To launch Notepad++ navigate to its folder in the virtual Windows directory and type “wine the-name-of-the-file.exe” into the terminal.

Install Notepad++ on Mac Using VMware

The main advantage of running Notepad++ (or any other application) using Wine is that it runs side-by-side with native macOS applications. But due to how Wine works, minor bugs are to be expected. A bug here and there may be acceptable if you use Notepad++ only to occasionally edit a text file, but they can quickly make Notepad++ unusable for software developers or anyone who wants to use it extensively.

That’s where virtualization software solutions such as VMware Fusion come in. With it, you can set up a virtual Windows machine on your Mac computer and use the virtual machine to execute any Windows software you want. The virtual machine can even share the same clipboard with your Mac, allowing you to effortlessly copy and paste text and images to and from Notepad++ across operating systems.

To get started with VMware Fusion, we recommend you this detailed tutorial from VMware where you can learn everything you need to know about running Windows applications on Intel-based Mac computers. Of course, you’ll also need a copy of Windows.

3 Best Alternatives to Notepad++ for Mac Users

While it’s possible to run Notepad++ on macOS using Wine or VMware, neither approach is without its downsides, which is why many people look for alternatives to Notepad++ for Mac computers instead. One important reason is stability. There’s nothing worse than editing an important text file for an hour or two only to have your text editor suddenly crash, causing you to lose all your progress.

Unless you have a data recovery solution such as Disk Drill installed on your computer, your chances of recovering your lost data are slim. Disk Drill makes data recovery of over 200 file formats a matter of a single button press, and it comes with handy disk tools to help you keep your data organized and protected.

To be as save as you can be, we recommend you have Disk Drill installed on your computer and consider one of the following alternatives to Notepad for Mac. Because the alternatives we’ve selected are native, mature Mac applications, their stability is guaranteed.

Brackets

Brackets is a modern text editor made with the needs of web developers in mind. It has a live preview feature that allows you to instantly see changes to CSS and HTML files in your web browser of choice, it can with your LESS and SCSS files, and it can show you all the CSS selectors with that ID in an inline window so you can work on your code side-by-side without any popups. Brackets is open source, free, and as sleek as a macOS application should be. Because of how lightweight Brackets is, it runs extremely well even on older Macs, making it our favorite Notepad++ Mac alternative for anyone who edits text on a regular basis.

Textmate

Textmate is a versatile text editor that brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors, as stated by its developers. It has many features, including the ability to search and replace text, auto-indent for common actions, clipboard history, dynamic outline for working with multiple files, file tabs when working with projects, foldable code blocks, and more. Despite its extensive features, Textmate remains highly accessible even to casual computers users who only edit text now and then. Using its powerful snippets, macros, and unique scoping system, Textmate can provide features that even a language specific IDE lacks.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a feature-packed text editor that runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It’s designed for code and prose alike. Sublime Text supports splits editing, customizable key bindings, menus, snippets, macros, completions, and it’s built from custom components, providing for unmatched responsiveness. Sublime Text is also free to download, but a license must be purchased for continued use. A single personal license costs $80, which is not an insignificant amount considering how many alternative text editors for Mac are available free of charge. But the fact that Sublime Text is among the most popular text editors across all operating systems is perhaps the best testament to its capabilities.

Creates or modifies single or multiline text objects.

Summary

You can import or paste text from other files to use in multiline text, set tabs, adjust paragraph and line spacing and alignment, and create and modify columns.

The In-Place Text Editor includes

When a table cell is selected for editing, the In-Place Text Editor displays column letters and row numbers.

List of Options

The following options are displayed.

Text Editor Shortcut Menu

Selects all the text in the text editor.

Contains options to Cut, Copy, and Paste text to or from the clipboard. The Paste Special option allows you to paste without character or paragraph formatting.

Displays the Insert Field dialog box.

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Displays a list of available symbols. You can also select a Non-breaking space and open the Characters dialog box for additional symbols.

Displays the Select File dialog box (a standard file selection dialog box). Select any file that is in ASCII or RTF format. Imported text retains its original character formatting and style properties, but you can edit and format the imported text in the editor. After you select a text file to import, you can replace either selected text or all text, or append the inserted text to text selected within the text boundary. The file size for imported text is limited to 32 KB. (Not available for single-line text.)

The editor automatically sets the text color to BYLAYER. When black characters are inserted and the background color is black, the editor automatically changes to white or the current color.

Sets alignment for the multiline text object. You can choose to align your text to the left, center, or right. You can justify your text, or align the first and last characters of your text with the margins of your mtext box, or center each line of text within the margins of your mtext box. Spaces entered at the end of a line are included as part of the text and affect the justification of the line. (Not available for single-line text.)

Displays options for paragraph formatting. See the Paragraph dialog box. (Not available for single-line text.)

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Displays the options for numbering lists. (Not available for single-line text.)

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Displays options for creating lists. (Not available for table cells.) The list is indented to align with the first selected paragraph.

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• Off: When selected, removes letters, numbers, and bullets from selected text that has list formatting applied. Indentation is not changed.
• Lettered: Applies list formatting that uses letters with periods for the items in the list. If the list has more items than the alphabet has letters, the sequence continues by using double letters.
• Numbered: Applies list formatting that uses numbers with periods for the items in the list.
• Bulleted: Applies list formatting that uses bullets for the items in the list.
• Restart: Starts a new letter or number sequence in list formatting. If the selected items are in the middle of a list, unselected items below them also become part of the new list.
• Continue: Adds the selected paragraphs to the last list above and continues the sequence. If list items rather than paragraphs are selected, unselected items below the selected items continue the sequence.
• Allow Auto-list: Applies list formatting as you type. The following characters can be used as punctuation after letters and numbers and cannot be used as bullets: period (.), comma (,), close parenthesis ()), close angle bracket (>), close square bracket (]), and close curly bracket (}).
• Use Tab Delimiter Only: Limits the Allow Auto-list and Allow Bullets and Lists options. List formatting is applied to text only when the space after the letter, number, or bullet character was created by Tab, not Space.
• Allow Bullets and Lists: When this option is selected, list formatting is applied to all plain text in the multiline text object that looks like a list. Text that meets the following criteria is considered to be a list. The line begins with (1) one or more letters or numbers or a symbol, followed by (2) punctuation after a letter or number, (3) a space created by pressing Tab, and (4) some text before the line is ended by Enter or Shift+Enter.

  When you clear the check mark, any list formatting in the multiline text object is removed and the items are converted to plain text. Allow Auto-list is turned off, and all the Bullets and Lists options are unavailable except Allow Bullets and Lists.

Displays options for columns. See the Columns menu. (Not available for single-line text.)

Displays the Find and Replace dialog box.

Changes the case of selected text. Options are Uppercase and Lowercase.

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Converts all new and imported text to uppercase. AutoCAPS does not affect existing text. To change the case of existing text, select the text and right-click. Click Change Case.

Displays a menu of code pages. Select a code page to apply it to the selected text. (Not available for single-line text.)

Combines selected paragraphs into a single paragraph and replaces each paragraph return with a space. (Not available for single-line text.)

Removes character formatting for selected characters, paragraph formatting for a selected paragraph, or all formatting from a selected paragraph. (Not available for single-line text.)

Displays the Background Mask dialog box. (Not available for table cells and single-line text.)

Creates stacked text, for example, fractions, if the selected text contains stack characters. Also, unstacks text if stacked text is selected. When the stack characters, carat (^), forward slash (/), and pound sign (#), are used, the text to the left of the stack character is stacked on top of the text to the right.

By default, text that contains a carat converts to left-justified tolerance values. Text that contains the forward slash converts to center-justified fractional numbers; the slash is converted to a horizontal bar the length of the longer text string. Text that contains the pound sign converts to a fraction separated by a diagonal bar the height of the two text strings. The characters above the diagonal fraction bar are bottom-right aligned; the characters beneath the diagonal bar are top-left aligned.

Displays a list of options for the text editor.

Editor Settings

Provides options for changing the behavior of the text editor and provides additional editing options. Options are specific to the Editor Settings menu and are not available elsewhere in the text editor.

Controls display of the In-Place Text Editor and the text within it. When unchecked, the drawing view is zoomed and rotated if need so the text that would otherwise be difficult to read (if it is very small, very large, or is rotated) is displayed at a legible size and is oriented horizontally so that you can easily read and edit it.

When this option is checked, the MTEXTFIXED system variable will be set to 0. Otherwise, MTEXTFIXED will be set to 2.

Controls the display of the ruler.

When selected, makes the background of the editor opaque. (Not available for table cells.)

Determines whether As-You-Type spell checking is on or off.

Displays the Check Spelling Settings dialog box, where you can specify text options that will be checked for spelling errors within your drawing.

Specifies the highlight color when text is selected.