Text editors are ideally fast and lightweight for editing and manipulating a small number of text files at a time, and they provide features like regular expression search and replace, syntax highlighting, autocompletion, and multiple tabs or window panes. Text editors are scaled-down from the full functionality of an integrated development environment ( IDE), but may have plugins that blur the lines between the two. Ultimately I bought iA for both iOS and Mac because I love the UI and the company behind the apps have a solid understanding of their product, their customers, and their business model.Text editor software is used by programmers and developers for manipulating plain text source code, editing configuration files or documentation, or viewing error logs. It’s nothing fancy but pulls together a few native iOS components to bring TextEdit to iOS. Apple has yet to create a plain text editor for iOS (no idea why) but PreText has been created to be that. PreText I was surprised at the lack of offerings on the App Store for a basic text editing application that didn’t want to control my files. The best part is that it’s purely a client sitting on top of my text files, it doesn’t try to take ownership of my files and wrap me into an ecosystem. The UI is beautiful, it has a file explorer baked in, smart folders, and hashtag organisation. I love everything about this application. On my Mac, I use iA Writer as my primary note-taking tool. Although I currently use a commercial app down to preference I was pleasantly surprised at the open-source options and the pre-installed solutions. This is something I spent a bit experimenting with. I love knowing that I can lift that folder and drop it into Dropbox, Google Drive, or a self-hosted solution whenever I like. I use Apple hardware for my personal and professional life so naturally, my notes live in a folder on iCloud Drive. This is what I love, I can through them anywhere and pick them up anywhere. Plain text files combined with some minimal amounts of markdown seemed to fit the bill. I decided that I wanted to go with something hassle-free, with minimal options for styling, tiny interoperable files, and that I can organise and store wherever and however, I wanted. When I looked past the crafted UI and marketing material I had a moment of clarity, I didn’t need these extra tools. When I looked at my Apple Notes, Evernote and Bear set up I realised that I wasn’t using anything particularly fancy that they provide out of necessity. The main reasons I take notes are mainly about jotting down an idea, drafting something very roughly, or archiving content. Most of the features I was researching didn’t matter to me. I’d spend an unhealthy amount of time researching privacy, cloud syncing, subscriptions, markdown vs no markdown, is it exportable, etc, etc. Her reply made me realise that I was very caught up in finding the perfect notes app/tool. I’ve been taking notes like this since I started using a computer. She replied with a beautifully simplistic answer: I asked her why she doesn’t use something more modern like Apple Notes, Evernote or any from the ever-growing pool of specific note-taking apps available. Recently I noticed a colleague using TextEdit on her Mac as her primary method of taking notes.
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