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Comments (63)

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  jeena
  Back when Apple put in cloud in TextEdit I had to stop using it because it was too many steps to start writing, you had to choose a file path and name before you could start typing. I've always used it to quickly jot down something, never because it had rich text or so. So I had to write my own simple and fast alternative: https://git.jeena.net/jeena/TextEd.app (that was 13 years ago, meanwhile I gave up on Apple).Yesterday I got a email from someone telling me they ported TextEd from Objective-C to Swift so they brought it back to life https://github.com/jrcii/texted
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  steve1977
  TextEdit has its roots in OPENSTEP, where it was used as kind of a demo application of the text views IIRC. It even came with source code, as did Chess by the way.So I guess a comparison between TextEdit and Pages doesn't make too much sense probably, they're really different things.
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  ch_sm
  Pages is an underrated Word Processor. It has the lessons of 30 years of development and experimentation of WYSIWYG editors distilled and applied in a tight little package.
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  phil-pickering
  You should be able to create and use templates for TextEdit using the Stationery Pad feature which comes built-in to macOS:https://support.apple.com/en-ie/guide/mac-help/mchlp1341/mac
• gampleman
  Also Pages also has a fairly decent print design mode. Sure, it can't compete with something like Indesign in feature parity, but I find it pretty useful to do posters, booklets, flyers and the like. It's free and fairly intuitive to use.
• justauserid
  After more than a decade of successfully avoiding TextEdit (and seeing it only once in every months by mistake when some rtf file click would open it) I finally changed the format to Plain Text, a few months ago, and it is now consistently beating CotEditor in usage. I honestly never even thought I could use this app in plain text mode. SubEthaEdit would have been still my favourite but it's abandoned now.
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  josephwegner
  I’ve been a TextEdit-only user for years. I write notes as quick streams of consciousness for me to pick up later. TextEdit is great, but I have similar qualms as the author, and I also have been wanting something that allowed me to build some programmatic tooling around the short notes I write (ie: format these and move them to my Todo list). I’ve been working on a very simple app that is rock solid like TextEdit, but with some niceties for using it as a notes app, instead of a rich text editor.Feedback appreciated! https://jort.app/
• devilsdata
  I use TextEdit a lot for drafting fiction. I only use it in plaintext mode, and enable word wrap with ⌘ + W.To me there is noticeable input lag when using Obsidian or IA Writer that just doesn't exist in TextEdit.app. I also could use Nvim, which I use for coding, but often don't care enough about editing while I'm drafting.
• alsetmusic
  Dr. Drang's blog has been in my RSS feeds for around 8-10 years. While the author postulates about math or physics that I can't understand, I love the software parts (some of which I can't understand literally, but understand theoretically).I was a hardcore user of TextEdit (text only mode) until SublimeText and vim replaced it. I never would have thought to need to hide the toolbar because I always loaded it as a plaintext editor and I had to go look for a way to hide it in RTF mode to verify that Drang was right about not being able to hide it. Confirmed, can't find a way to hide it. Didn't bother me before I was a plaintext person.
• MysteryTramp
  I wish Apple would make TextEdit for iPad. I really want an rtf editor for iPad that doesn’t suck. I know I’m supposed to use markdown, but I like to write in rtf.
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  tptacek
  Real heads know that Notes.app is the sleeper Apple text editing app.
• Doctor_Fegg
  > I really thought TextEdit would have a setting for hiding the toolbar, but I haven’t found one.It used to. It became always-on in one of the big cat releases, I forget which one. I too wish it had this option, but given that it's about the only thing I'd change in TextEdit, I can live with it.
• cgdstnc
  After changing default format to plain text, textedit was great for me until i lost some work due to unexpected froze and crash multiple times. Since then i use vscode for simple stuff but it's definitely not my favorite.
• jan_m_savage
  " A note for someone who’s coming over to water my plants while I’m out of town shouldn’t look like an analysis of a mobile crane tipover accident. "Love this. Humor.
• hbn
  Apple's office suite is quite nice but I fear they're devaluing it with all their Creator Studio upsells embedded in the UI over the past few years. It seems like a lot of Apple is headed in that direction and it worries me.
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  coldtea
  >Honestly, who needs buttons for bold and italic? Or left, center, and right justification?Almost every layman user? - at least for the latter, as there are well known shortcuts for the former many know.>An advantage of TextEdit that Allison points out and which I concede: TextEdit uses much less memory than Pages. I wish that weren’t the case, but I have a 48 GB MacBook Pro, so I can afford to be profligate with RAM.You can't be profligate with the TextEdit vs Pages level RAM use on a fucking 48GB laptop? I can be way more profligate (sic) even on 16GB or 8GB laptops.Oh, and his other issue is you can't hide TextEdit's menubar and it takes space from the document. That for one of the more streamlined, and to the point, menubars in the history of GUI software...I'm all for a good app review or even a good app putdown, but these guy's pet peeves, which he blows up into major issues when he's picking one or the other app are really bizarre.
• Synaesthesia
  Pages is lovely, I like how intuitive it is to use (Numbers too)Truly a lot more user friendly than Microsoft Office.
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  sharts
  ClarisWorks from the 90s was the best
• anon
  undefined
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  Upvoter33
  Vs emacs?
• pnb1
  [flagged]
• carlos-cute
  [flagged]
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  esFran
  Give me KDE Kate, or give me death!