CNET Editors' review
BBEdit is a popular, powerful HTML and text editor with a high-performance array of tools for editing, sorting, searching, transforming, and otherwise manipulating text. Anyone with modest text-editing needs should check out BBEdit's free sister app, TextWrangler, but BBEdit is still an excellent choice for software developers (especially Web developers), with potent hand-coding features across more than 20 programming languages.
On top of basics like code folding and syntax coloring, BBEdit has flexible, multilanguage code completion, nonmodal search and replace across multiple files (so you can keep multiple document and search windows open), a smart Scratchpad that automaintains its state and contents, multiplatform Web browser preview, and--as they say, but in this case it's particularly apt--much, much more. The most recent update adds a Sleep command, support for Growl and LassoScript, and improvements to expert preferences, MobileMe syncing, Terminal integration, FTP implementation, and more.
BBEdit has certainly attracted more competition over its many years--and you can find pieces of its functionality in a variety of cheaper apps--but this app remains popular for a reason, with its rich, robust feature set and tons of options for customization.
Publisher's Description
From Bare Bones Software:
BBEdit is a high-performance HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. It is designed and crafted for the editing, searching, transformation, and manipulation of text. BBEdit provides an array of general-purpose features which are useful for a wide variety of tasks, and includes many features which have been specifically developed in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers.
What's new in this version:
- This release consists entirely of fixes for reported issues, and contains no new features, nor changes to existing features.
- Fixed crash which would occur when decoding AppleDouble files from within Zip archives, and the file was missing an entry for the resource fork.
- Fixed bug in which using the "Close" contextual menu to save and close multiple documents would result in the documents being neither saved nor closed.
- Fixed bug in which the file type filter... See all new features
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All versions:
4.4 starsout of 145 votes
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Current version:
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"Good (closer to 3.5 stars), but still needs some work"
Version: BBEdit 10.1
Pros
Very good with C++, but really could be improved as a HTML editor
Cons
1) No color palette for CSS that I could see. For CSS, it does present a single list of colors, but that is far-short of a color palette.
2) <!-- #bbinclude "name" --><!-- end bbinclude --> really needs some work in that the file "name" contents are always presented via the "Update" tool. If "name" is super big, I assure you that is super-annoying, big-time. PageSpinner's <!-- ps_include="name" --> doesn't show the contents of "name". Could not BBEdit simply add a preference to show or not show with the tool "Update"? -
"great text editor with programming additions"
Version: BBEdit 9.6.3
Pros
allows for great text editing regardless of size, great tools
Cons
the usage of the programming languages isn't evident
Summary
great must have programmer editor
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"Version 9.6.1 Buggy"
Version: BBEdit 9.6.1
Pros
Love this product. Used it for years. Versatile. No gratuitous eye candy. It's for real coders. Tech Support is superb.
Cons
Had to go back to version 9.5.1. Version 9.6.1 is buggy. Crashes, sudden displays of unknown and unrequested characters.
Summary
Still the best on the market. A coder's true friend. History tells me that Bare Bones Software will correct all the current version's problems. Soon, I hope!
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"this is one of the best html editors out there"
Version: BBEdit 9.3.1
Pros
I have been using BBEdit for years and it is just so easy to use to create html and to edit html. Nothing else comes close in my books.
Cons
None. it is just a good solid program.
Summary
You won't be disappointed. Wish it worked on PC.
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"For text editing there is no product better than BBedit"
Version: BBEdit 9.3
Pros
You can open just about any file with BBedit, it will search and replace almost any character in the file. Great for any programmer who wants to format their code for easy editing. Has more options than you can imagine using.
Cons
It is a little over priced for a text editor, but they have a free product for people who do not want to pay for a text editor.
Summary
Great product well worth the money if you have a need for BBedit's features.
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"Agree with TimGavin"
Version: BBEdit 9.0.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
What were they thinking? Or have I missed something? The new "Find" tool is totally unusable for me. No option for choosing multiple documents, for example. I, too, am reverting to v 8.
(But what does tim mean when he says "I'll continue to use 8 until Panic gets around to adding folding to Coda")
One star. Otherwise, v 8 continues to deserve five. -
"Nice editor"
Version: BBEdit 9.0.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
It is a nice editor but for a huge price.
There are another good programs for a little price.
If you want a powerful tool than you are right here. -
"Simply the best..."
Version: BBEdit 9.0.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The following new features in Release 9 make a big difference in my work with html:
1. Projects
2. Auto-complete for html tags
3. Edit in search windows
For working with large web sites, nothing else comes close. This is a mature, powerful text editor. -
"Still stuck in 68k land."
Version: BBEdit 8.7.1
Pros
If you ever need to reverse the text order in a document this might be useful, but when have you ever needed to do that.
Cons
BBEdit is so stuck in the dark ages of programming that it's not even funny. It touts itself as a source-code editor, Apple Xcode works many orders of magnitude better and faster and comes free with Mac OS X, as well as a free download. The guy behind BBEdit seems to think that his version of TextEdit is worth as much as Apple's entire operating system. If you want to try it go ahead, the program hasn't been substantively changed in 7 or 8 years. The developer knows nothing about the current ways to do things in OS X and is a left over 68k mac guy that refuses to learn. DO NOT SPEND MONEY ON THIS.
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"spyware"
Version: BBEdit 8.6.2
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I do not appreciate spyware on my Mac. Little Snitch told me that this was trying to phone home for some reason. There is no reason whatsoever for text editing software to do this without my consent. I expect this from Windows products not Macintosh ones.
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