Let the Editor Choose You

Find the best text editor option available for your operating system

Depending on the operating system that you're using, you'll have different options available to you in terms of which text editor you can install.Some of these editors are not free, but we've listed them because they're robust and available for a short period in a trial mode. Trying them out won't cost you anything financially.

There are many more text editors available for each platform and we'd encourage you to search around if none of the editors on this page choose you.

If you're running Windows –

Notepad++
ConTEXT
E Text Editor

If you're running OS X –

TextWrangler
TextMate
Sublime Text

If you're running Linux –

Gedit
Kate
Bluefish

Spend the next hour or so trying out the various text editors available for your operating system. With each one create a file called 'helloworld.html'. Into that file you should enter the html that you wrote by hand in the previous challenge.

If one of the text editors feels more comfortable than the others, then congratulations; a text editor just chose you. You are now a fierce webcraft warrior and you now have your trusty sword.

Spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Task Discussion

litlsuzzy said:

I believe that Notepad++ is the editor for me.

on Feb. 1, 2015, 10:03 p.m.

litlsuzzy said:

I was wrong. I could not get my work in Notepad++ to show correctly in a browser. Brackets, however worked beautifully.

on Feb. 2, 2015, 6:10 p.m. in reply to litlsuzzy
LoloDelga said:

I'm using Notepad++ and it seems to be a great text editor.

on Aug. 29, 2014, 9:12 a.m.
Pachelbel117 said:

I definitely prefer Sublime Text.

on Aug. 2, 2014, 1:33 a.m.
Travis Hayes said:

I've been using N++ for a while. It's truly the way to go if you want a free, easy to use text editor for any type of programming in Windows.

on July 8, 2014, 3:49 a.m.
Angie C said:

I was a little unsure of which text editor to use but after seeing a lot of people go with Notepad++ I decided to give it a try. Especially with me just starting with all of this, I wanted to go with a editor that was user friendly on beginners.

on June 23, 2014, 8:39 p.m.

JennyC said:

I've been using Notepad++ and I am pretty happy with it!

on June 30, 2014, 7:25 a.m. in reply to Angie C
Dimitris Archimandritis said:

ConTEXT said no. Ah well, on to next one.

on June 14, 2014, 10:06 p.m.
DaveB said:

Gedit is the one for me, it does everything I need and has some really great features, the auto tabbing and colouring of the tags is really neat.

on June 14, 2014, 2:28 p.m.
David K. Besah said:

ConTEXT rejected me oh. I am cool with Notepad++. It's okey for now.

on June 3, 2014, 6:10 p.m.
Lawfulvil said:

TextWrangler I choose YOU! as I throw my Webcrafting Pokeball to the ground to take on the wild Html I come across.

I like Textwrangler for OSX and I like Notepad++ for my windows machines. I use my Mac (OSX) about 90% of the time relagating Windows to be my lowly gaming rig.

on May 19, 2014, 4:48 p.m.
Johnny van der Laan said:

How to proof this?

on May 12, 2014, 11:55 a.m.

Johnny van der Laan said:

http://fgameproductions.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/notepad/

on May 12, 2014, 12:02 p.m. in reply to Johnny van der Laan
Mawudoku Engelbert Nana yao said:

since am using windows note++ is ok

on April 27, 2014, 6:41 a.m.
OFORI said:

i love notepad ++ since it much easier and i love the tags

on April 27, 2014, 6:29 a.m.
Rey said:

I like notepad++ a lot but now I discover the power of Brackets, I might stick in it for awhile. you can take a look at my post if you want to. visit my blog at http://rprasas.wordpress.com/.

See you around..

Rey

on March 30, 2014, 11:33 a.m.
Rodrigo PImenta said:

I really like the Bluefish Editor. I used to use Eclipse to do my projects in C, but something it's going wrong and i can't use it anymore. I search on the internet if have a html editor using the IDE Eclipse, but i don't have found one very nice. So, first i decided to use the gedit, it's a editor that I'm more confortable to use, I have already used the Katie, and I really don't like it very much. And know I've tested the Bluefish and it seems to be a very good editor. So I'll use this one, for now!

on March 26, 2014, 2:18 p.m.
riatha1982 said:

I think I'm definitely a fan of Notepad ++. I think I'll use it, at least for now, and change later if I have to.

on March 25, 2014, 9:13 p.m.
Orpheus said:

simple app called notepad on appstore is almost the same as notepad on mac

the file size is less than a megabyte and it great

on March 14, 2014, 6:17 p.m.
Stormytori said:

Okay. I'm going to start with TextWrangler. We'll see how it goes!

on March 2, 2014, 5:31 p.m.