A free and open source plain-text editor for your Mac

CotEditor for Mac
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CotEditor for Mac

  -  30.3 MB  -  Open Source
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CotEditor for Mac is an open-sourced, Cocoa-based plain-text editor for macOS. It supports syntax highlighting, powerful find-and-replace with OniGmo (regular expression engine), and other small goodies for coding. It can handle also CJK languages well.

CotEditor is exactly made for macOS. It looks and behaves just as macOS applications should. CotEditor for macOS launches so quickly that you can write your text immediately when you want to.

The app is developed as an open-source project that allows anyone to contribute.

Features and Highlights

Syntax Highlighting
Colorize more than 50 pre-installed major languages like HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby, or Markdown. You can also create your own settings.

Split Editor
Split a window into multiple panes to see different parts of your document at the same time.

Powerful Find & Replace
Super powerful find and replace using the ICU regular expression engine.

Character Inspector
Inspect Unicode character data of each selected character in your document and display them in a popover.

Setting via Click
There are no complex setting files that require geek knowledge. You can access all your settings including syntax definitions and themes from a normal preferences window.

Scriptable
Make your own macro in your favorite language, whether it is Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP, UNIX shell, AppleScript, or JavaScript.

Auto Backup
You don't need to lose your unsaved data anymore. Cot Editor for Mac backups your documents automatically while editing.

Incompatible Characters
Check and list-up the characters in your document that cannot be converted into the desired encoding.

Outline Menu
Extract specified lines with the predefined syntax and you can jump to the corresponding line.

CJK Language Friendly
Estimate various file encodings accurately, toggle to vertical text mode and keep its line-height correctly.

How to Use
  • Open CotEditor from your Applications folder
  • Create a new file or open an existing one
  • Choose your preferred syntax style from the toolbar
  • Customize appearance via Preferences
  • Use search and replace for quick editing
  • Enable auto-save or version control if needed
  • Save your file in your desired format
  • Use scripts for advanced automation
  • Check updates regularly for new features
System Requirements

macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later

Intel or Apple Silicon (Universal app)

At least 50 MB of free disk space

4 GB RAM or more recommended

Internet connection for updates (optional)

PROS
  • Lightweight and fast performance
  • Native macOS look and feel
  • Excellent syntax highlighting
  • Supports scripting with AppleScript
  • No ads, open-source, and free
CONS
  • Limited advanced IDE features
  • No built-in FTP or SSH support
  • Few third-party plugins available
  • Basic autocomplete functionality
  • Mac-only, no cross-platform version
Note: Requires 64-bit processor.

Download CotEditor for Mac Latest Version
Why is this app published on FileHorse? (More info)

  • CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshots

    The images below have been resized. Click on them to view the screenshots in full size.

    CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshot 1
  • CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshot 2
  • CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshot 3
  • CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshot 4
  • CotEditor 7.0.2 Screenshot 5

What's new in this version:

Improved:
- Improve reliability when UNIX scripts process large input or output through pipes
- Allow AppleScript encoding conversion to use encodings outside the customized encoding list
- Improve responsiveness when performing the Select All Find Matches command in large documents
- Close open documents in the file browser when their containing folder is moved to the Trash
- [dev] Update the build environment to Xcode 26.4.1

Fixed:
- an issue in CotEditor 7.0.1 where saving an extensionless document could leave it treated as locked by the system (com.apple.provenance extended attribute), preventing later overwrites
- an issue where deleting forward with multiple cursors could crash when an insertion point was at the end of the document
- an issue where pasting text copied from multiple selections in a CRLF document could insert incorrect text
- an issue where the Sort by Pattern command could insert extra blank lines in CRLF documents
- an issue where specifying an out-of-range negative line range could crash
- an issue where highlights for instances of selected text could reappear after turning the option off
- an issue where a failed script could leave its name in subsequent console messages
- an issue where print settings specified by AppleScript could be ignored
- an issue where edits in the Multiple Replace window could be lost after immediately selecting, renaming, or deleting definitions
- an issue where Replace All and Multiple Replace could fail to apply replacements between Unicode-equivalent strings, such as · (U+00B7) and · (U+0387)
- an issue where performing Find All or Highlight All in a read-only document could make the document editable
- an issue where regular expression search could get stuck at the same position when matching zero-length text
- an issue where regular expression syntax highlighting could be applied incorrectly
- an issue where custom keyboard shortcuts using the Forward Delete key could not work
- an issue where document open/save scripts could fail to run immediately after launch or script folder changes
- an issue where the default text encoding could be removed from the Encoding List
- an issue where detecting encoding-incompatible characters could miss Unicode-normalized text changes
- an issue where syntax definition files with reserved names could be imported and appear as unusable custom syntaxes
- an issue where changes to Mode settings might not take effect immediately
- an issue where changing the document appearance or deleting a custom theme could leave the theme editor in the Appearance settings pane showing an outdated theme
- an issue in the file browser where renaming an item while filtering could show stale results or crash
- an issue in the file browser where moving both a folder and its contained items to the Trash at the same time could show an incorrect confirmation or unnecessary error
- an issue in the file browser where old filter results could be shown after changing the filter text quickly
- [trivial] Fix an issue where the Multiple Replace window could keep showing the previous definition after failing to load another definition
- [trivial] Fix an issue where key bindings equivalent to the default shortcuts could remain stored as custom settings
- [trivial] Fix an issue in the syntax editor where incomplete block comment delimiters could be saved

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