To my knowledge, what you want is not possible in TextEdit.
Try one of the others mentioned in the thread, like
TextMate https://macromates.com
Geany https://www.geany.org
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An Application similar to NOTEPAD++ on Mac
- Thread starter stanleystf
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Try one of the others mentioned in the thread, like
TextMate https://macromates.com
Geany https://www.geany.org
I just installed geany. I hope I can make it as similar to Notepad++ as I can.
I searched a lot but couldn't find where I can change the font type and size, and the background color.
If I press CTR and scroll the wheel, the font will get bigger but after I close the TXT file and open it again, it goes back to the previous small size!
Edit – Preferences – Interface – Fonts
View – Change Font / Change Color Scheme
Themes https://www.geany.org/download/themes/
Geany manual https://www.geany.org/manual/current/index.html
TXT files don't have internal settings for things like formatting that are retained in the file like a DOCX file. You would have to change the settings of the app, itself.
IF I understand the OP, he is trying to set the default appearance for all documents. I don't use TextEdit much, but I just tried and the preferences let me choose the font, size, window size and other stuff, but not the text or background colors.
I did that with textedit but the settings were not saved. I don't want to change them each and every time I open a TXT file.
Okay, was the font size, for instance, saved? Is it the same after you restart the system?
Not sure how TextEdit handles this. It’s just a basic built in app without that many features. I never use it myself. I agree that you would be better of getting some of the other more advanced text editors that others have mentioned here. I like BBEdit and i believe that there is a free version (or maybe just nagware).
I'm pretty sure you only changed the settings in the document window. At least that's how I understand what you posted. Those settings are not the same as the default settings which TextEdit uses to open all plain-text (.txt) documents.
The default settings are under the TextEdit menu. See here:
Set the default font in TextEdit on Mac
In TextEdit on your Mac, set the default font for all new documents.
support.apple.com
As @Boyd01 pointed out above, you can choose a default font and size, but not any colors.
It looks like you're making the same mistake here, for Geany, as you made for TextEdit.
Specifically, this screenshot appears to be an Untitled document, i.e. a new window. Settings made here only apply to that document file. They are not the same as the default settings that the app uses for newly opened windows.
Look for a Preferences menu item under the Geany menu in the menubar. Or after reviewing the Geany user manual here, maybe it's under the Edit menu in the menubar:
In any case, the defaults should present a complete window as shown under that heading in Geany's online user manual.
I tried changing the font and font size in the preferences. It had no immediate effect on the document that was open. But when I closed it and opened again, the changes were reflected. Then I quit from textedit and opened it again. My new font and font size preference was still in effect. Changing the font color in the preference had no effect at all.
Don't know about "restarting the system"... I'm happy to help, but - sorry - not going to restart my Mac when I have a number of applications open, including a Windows VM.
Tincta "Small and fast text editor"
only about 5MB, free in the App Store https://apps.apple.com/app/tincta/id448340648
Image of configurable settings in Preferences, with many options for colors
only about 5MB, free in the App Store https://apps.apple.com/app/tincta/id448340648
Image of configurable settings in Preferences, with many options for colors
How can I install "Spell Check" plugins for Geany? I read these pages but it didn't help:
Tools - Plugin Manager - search for and enable Spell Check
Click on Preferences and Keybindings for options
I love Sublime but I feel like for all I use it for the price is steep so I use VSCode now (which I don't care for, I'll never get why people love it). I feel if Sublime were in the $30 range way more people would buy it.
In the future, something like Zed (https://zed.dev) could work.
First I heard of this app was 10 months ago. I’m not in the private test.
First I heard of this app was 10 months ago. I’m not in the private test.
Atom v1.63.0 (2022-11-18) "This is the last release of Atom. We will be archiving Atom and all repositories under the Atom organization on December 15, 2022."
https://atom.io/releases
https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/tag/v1.63.0
https://atom.io/releases
https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/tag/v1.63.0
I use Visual Studio Code now exclusively. I tried to go back to BBEdit briefly, but it was too limited.
It seems that so many people use VSCode in my line of work, that to not use it is actually an impediment. I just got out of a meeting with a senior technical person, who was helping me ramp up on the work he's done. He almost assumed I was running VSCode and asked me to install a particular extension so that I could work with his Azure Kubernetes clusters. VSCode is very powerful due to the extensive collection of extensions and community support. I feel like it's becoming a de facto standard in software circles.
These days I spend hours working in a VSCode window with a bunch of files tiled in the window and a workspace tree off to the side with many projects available at my fingertips. But, if your use is far more casual, I can see that it would be hard to get significant value from it.
Also a fan. It is my go to “notepad“ editor. MacVIM remains hard to unseat as ”proper” editor.
I'm very comfortable with vim (basic usage). Unfortunately, I was recently thrown into another "proper" editor, Emacs. OMG, I had totally forgotten how to use it. I couldn't even remember how to exit (I was in a shell). lol
But, there are certainly distributions of Emacs for Mac that would be worth trying out. I used to use Aquamacs.
I can't count how many times I said "cons", "cdr", "car" when I was in school.But, I remember really liking the editor. I did more than editing in it; I read my email (1 or 2 arpanet emails a month, before the internet existed), chatted with people on computers in the next room, and read Usenet. It was pretty exciting.
I think I just settled on vi since it seemed to always be there when I sat down at some Unix-like computer. Emacs not so much.