21 May 2023
After having used Atom for years (now sunsetting) and Sublime the last few months (one of the most recommended editors), I have migrated to using CotEditor as my main text editor.
CotEditor is a free and open-source text editor for macOS. It is designed to be lightweight and focused on providing a clean and efficient writing environment.
"The Plain-Text Editor for macOS"
Available from the macOS App Store.
Code on Github - last updated 2 weeks ago:
Settings
Like
- lightweight / opens fast
- clickable hyperlinks
- detailes stats (eg total words & selected words, not just character count)
- automated highlight of all occurences of selected text
Script
I'm using this Applescript script (with a keyboard shortcut and an Alfred workflow Alfred) to create a new .txt file in CotEditor with the content of my clipboard and timestamped file name:
set command to "pbpaste > "
set root_path to "/Users/nic/txt/"
set timestamp to (do shell script "date '+%y%m%d-%H%M%S'")
set file_extension to ".txt"
set file_path to root_path & timestamp & file_extension
set full_command to command & root_path & timestamp & file_extension
do shell script full_command
do shell script "chmod 644 " & quoted form of file_path
do shell script "open -a CotEditor " & quoted form of file_path
Issues
17 Jan 2026
Tabs switch automatically back and forth
When I open a new tab, tabs start flipping/switching back and forth and becoming active, making it impossible to work on the .txt files, or anything else.
Raised on Github: https://github.com/coteditor/CotEditor/issues/2008
Next step: updated macOS