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What text editor would you guys recommend and how would I go about getting my hands on it?

I want the most user friendly text editor available that I can get, but I don't want that to be the only feature. I want to have the best possible text editor I can get and I would appreciate you telling me how to get it

5 Answers

Hi John, this is a common question. However, for someone starting out, I would recommend Brackets for its user-friendliness, and features. Otherwise, I can refer you to this question on code editors which has a few more listed.

Sublime Text is a popular choice nowadays, but I recommend Brackets because it's geared towards front-end developers, and once again, a tad more user-friendly.

Thank you for your swift response. I definitely want to make sure this is going to be something I will be able to use long term as I progress as a developer. Do you have a personal favorite other than brackets? What is the difference between your favorite and Brackets? I checked out the link you included to the other question where you listed quite a few. If you could narrow it down to just one...which one would you choose and why? Sorry for all the questions, but I want to be sure I have exactly what I need for the level of coding I eventually plan on getting to.

I think I will check out brackets. I looked around and I am seeing good things about it. I also saw that Atom is popular. What would you choose between Atom and Brackets?

I'm currently using Sublime Text 3. It's paid software, and like Emma Willmann has mentioned, you'll get a notification every so often to purchase. With that said, Sublime Text is my editor of choice for now. However, I want to like and use Atom — there's just a few minor quirks. After Atom, I'd say Brackets.

Quite simply, Sublime Text is probably the most powerful, and most used editor currently. The other two have potential as well and continue to gain popularity. Atom is most like Sublime Text.

It may be somewhat of a stretch, but you might say Sublime Text is what Photoshop is to a lot of design work and an industry standard. Again that's a stretch, but I do feel Sublime Text is currently the most used code editor and a pioneer in these new wave of code editors.

If you're interested (and I'm not steering you towards any one), you may check out this Sublime Text 3 Guide.

If Atom keeps improving, I may use it in the future. One thing to remember about this industry is things constantly change. I think Sublime Text overcomplicates things for new developers, which is why I recommended Brackets.

Emma Willmann
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Emma Willmann
Treehouse Project Reviewer

I use Sublime Text 2, but since it's unregistered, every once and awhile when I save, I get popups about registering.

Otherwise, I also like to use Notepad++.

Both are excellent options. :-)

Janise Bradford
Janise Bradford
5,664 Points

Hi John,

I've been using notepad ++ .

It's very easy to use and I haven't had any problems with it. You can download it here:

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.6.9.html

Definitely I use Sublime Text 3 which is very useful, stable, and effective for me so far. Text Power Users to speed up process.

Except one disadvantage we have to click file in the folder to PREVIEW via Chrome or firefox. Sublime doesn't have preview option itself.

Sublime Text is the only one that I've ever used and I've loved it from the get go. I did some research on Reddit/Quora/twitter/podcasts and it seemed as if most were leaning towards Sublime Text.