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Five apps (and more) to help you write your NaNoWriMo novel
November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. It's a month-long initiative that challenges you to get that unwritten novel out of your head and onto paper. We have a handful of tips to help you get started, and below is an updated list of our some popular writing tools for iOS and OS X. If you have your own favorites, please share them in the comments. You can also browse through this exhaustive list of iOS text editors provided by Brett Terpstra. Byword 2 for iOS and OS X editing (US$4.99 for iOS app, $9.99 for OS X app) Byword is a cross-platform Markdown editor for writers looking to sync their writing seamlessly across their iPhone, iPad and Mac. The iOS version supports search and has a handy dark theme for late-night writing under low light. The OS X version includes keyboard shortcuts and the same alternate dark theme. Editorial for iPad ($4.99) Editorial is a plain-text editor for the iPad with support for scripting, Markdown and Dropbox sync. It also has a smart keyboard designed for writing Markdown. iA Writer for iPhone and iPad ($4.99) iA Writer is advertised as "Two in one" as it runs on the iPhone and the iPad, and is able to sync documents via iCloud or Dropbox. A focus mode on the iPad lets you concentrate on what you are writing right then and there. It's our top pick if you want to write using any iOS device at your disposal. Scrivener for OS X ($45) Scrivener is the must-have app for budding novelists who primarily write on their Mac. Besides writing, the app helps you organize and format your novel as you go along. Usually available for $45 with a free 30-day trial, Scrivener is extending its trial beyond 30 days and is offering a 50 percent off discount to NaNoWriMo winners. If you don't complete your NaNoWriMo challenge, you still can enjoy 20 percent off the retail price of the app. TextWrangler, Nocs, TextEdit and Notes as free alternatives Nocs is a basic text editor for iOS that supports Dropbox syncing and Markdown. It'll let you write on the go and retrieve your content on Dropbox when you sit down on your Mac to write. TextWrangler is a text editor for OS X from Bare Bones Software, creator of the popular BBedit. It's great for writing code and can double as a text editor in a pinch. Its support for searching across multiple documents, FTP open and save and syntax highlighting set it apart from the OS X's built-in text editor. TextEdit is the default text editor in OS X. It's not cross-platform and it certainly doesn't have the feature set of many of the other apps described here, but it can definitely be your go-to free text editor for either plain text or rich text format (RTF) documents. Just look in your OS X dock for that familiar pen and paper icon. Apple Notes app on iOS and OS X. Notes app is free, easy to use and syncs across iOS and OS X devices. There are little to no features beyond entering text, but it could be a lifesaver if inspiration hits and your favorite writing tools are far away.
Bare Bones Software launches TextWrangler 4.5 with Retina support and more
Since the release of BBEdit 10.5 last fall, Bare Bones Software has been working on bringing some of its features -- including support for Retina displays -- to its free text editor, TextWrangler. Today, those efforts have resulted in the release of TextWrangler 4.5, still free and sporting a number of enhancements brought over from its for-pay sibling. Retina support, Bare Bones tells us, was something users have been requesting since mere seconds after the announcement of the MacBook Pro with Retina display. As it turns out, implementing the feature is a fairly massive undertaking, requiring significant changes to large portions of TextWrangler's core -- all for something that non-Retina users will never see. Still, the work's been done, and Retina fans will definitely appreciate the results. All users will see a refreshed document view, which borrows from the one introduced in BBEdit 10.5 and features a sidebar providing quick access to open and recently opened documents. Lion users can now run TextWrangler fullscreen, while everyone will get a new preferences screen, switchable color-coding schemes, file versioning using save points and a Go menu offering user-set navigation points through a history of document changes. You can see the full list of enhancements at the Bare Bones site. TextWrangler 4.5 can be downloaded directly from the developer or via the Mac App Store.
TextWrangler 4.0: Now even better, still free
The good folks over at Bare Bones Software have just released version 4.0 of their classic and free text editor for Mac OS X, TextWrangler. I talked with Bare Bones head wrangler Rich Siegel a few weeks ago about what was set to come out, and the company has basically added a lot of great new features to a classic app. Siegel noted that the previous version of the app pre-dates OS X Lion, so it needed a bit of refreshing. TextWrangler 4.0 works only on Intel-based Macs running OS X 10.6 and later. They'll be shipping the new version through the Mac App Store and the Bare Bones site -- Siegel said they'd prefer to be shipping only through their own store, as the App Store tends to "isolate the customer from the developer." Under the hood, Siegel says the new version of TextWrangler has all of the major performance improvements that were built into BBEdit 10. You can now search and read text compressed inside of zip files -- to modify those text files, you'll still need BBEdit 10. Rich also noted that BBEdit is coming up on a whopping 20 years of life as a Mac app -- that's an incredible run for a Mac developer. Check out the press release below for further details on the goodies available in TextWrangler 4.0. Show full PR text Bare Bones Software Releases TextWrangler 4.0 Major Upgrade Highlights Advanced Power and Streamlined Interface BEDFORD, Mass. - April 10, 2012 - Bare Bones Software today announced the release and immediate availability of TextWrangler(tm) 4.0, a major upgrade to its high performance, general purpose text editor for Mac OS X. TextWrangler 4 introduces new editing and disk browser window layouts, switchable syntax color schemes, and seamless preservation of open documents on relaunch. In addition, TextWrangler 4 also includes a completely re-imagined Preferences window, new Setup window, a streamlined filtering and automation interface, new support for Verilog and VHDL, plus a new modeless "Open File by Name" feature with efficient search-as-you-type results. TextWrangler 4 includes other significant performance and user interface enhancements. In TextWrangler 4, the new editing window now presents a streamlined layout with easy, direct access to both open and recent documents. When run on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), TextWrangler 4 also supports "Full-screen" mode and "any edge" window resizing. Upon quitting, TextWrangler 4 now automatically remembers the contents of unsaved documents, and restores them the next time it is launched. The completely re-imagined Preferences window in TextWrangler 4 makes customization easier than ever before. For example, a new "Text Colors" preference panel now makes it easy to create and switch between different color schemes. In addition, a new Setup window provides a central location to manage configuration, including FTP/SFTP bookmarks, grep patterns and file filters. Access to text filters and scripts is now streamlined, plus TextWrangler 4 now has the ability to treat AppleScripts, Automator actions and Unix scripts as co-equal and all may be used as text filters or run directly as scripts. Detailed information on changes and improvements implemented in TextWrangler 4 can be found at: For more information on TextWrangler, please visit the company's web site: TextWrangler 4 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher (10.6.8, or 10.7.3 or later recommended). All Mac OS X users may download TextWrangler 4 free of charge from the Mac App Store or the Bare Bones Software web site: Text Engine for the Mac Community --------------------------------- Crafted in Bare Bones Software's best traditions as a leading Mac software developer, TextWrangler is a powerful general purpose text editor. It features a clean and easy-to-use interface and a rich set of features for composing and manipulating text. Additional information can be found on the company's web site at: About Bare Bones Software, Inc. ------------------------------- Bare Bones Software, Inc. develops leading-edge power tools for the Mac. The company's passion for creating deeply functional software with a clean, effective interface has earned it devotion from Mac users worldwide, plus quite a few awards. For more information, visit . TextWrangler, Yojimbo, WeatherCal and the Bare Bones Software logo are trademarks of, and BBEdit and "It doesn't suck" are registered trademarks of Bare Bones Software, Inc. Copyright (c) 2012, all rights reserved. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ==end==
TUAW's Daily Mac App: TextWrangler
Trawling through and editing code can be loveless task. TextWrangler is a free app from the Mac App Store that could make it just a little bit more bearable. Brought to you by Bare Bones Software, the folks behind Yojimbo and the incredibly powerful BBEdit, the free TextWrangler is pretty intuitive and feature rich. Starting out as BBEdit lite, TextWrangler is a fully fledged editor in its own right. You've got pattern matching, full search and replace, syntax highlighting for quite a few source code languages, code folding, which compresses the code down to a more manageable length, and many other text manipulation and batch processing features. The interface is pretty simple to navigate with most needed tools available via an icon or keyboard shortcut, plus there is some decent text color-coding that makes reading code a little easier. You can open and save over FTP and SFTP, streamlining HTML authoring. TextWrangler even has support for both AppleScript and Mac OS X Unix scripting, making batch processing easy. Whether you're looking for a decent editor for HTML, CSS, XML or anything else, TextWrangler is a great free starting point. If you're just looking for an editor for writing plaintext files, a replacement for TextEdit, or modifying XML, .plist files or something similar, then TextWrangler is more than up to the job. TextWrangler is available for free in a slightly limited form from the Mac App Store and in its full glory from the Bare Bones Software website and will work on Mac OS X 10.5 and up.
Changes moves to 1.5, adds new features, gives TUAW readers a discount
Changes.app, the ultimate Mac application used to track changes in folders and text files, was recently updated to version 1.5. This new version easily integrates with Coda, Espresso, BBEdit, TextWrangler, and TextMate. When you launch Changes, you will be able to install plug-ins directly into those application right from the Changes menu item. There is a new HUD (Heads Up Display) that allows you to view changes from within the supported applications. Changes can also interface with Subversion, CVS, Perforce, Mercurial, Git, Bazaar, and Darcs for versioning control. With this new version, there is also built-in AppleScript support.Even if you're not a developer, or don't use the applications or versioning control systems that are mentioned, you can still find Changes to be useful. Anyone, not just developers, may find it useful to be able to look for differences between two support files or folders. You can download a 15-day free trial of Changes from their website. Single-user licenses are $49.95 each. Special Promo CodeIf you are planning on purchasing Changes, you can use our special promo code to get $10 (US) off the purchase of any license type. Just type in TUAWCHANGES15 at checkout. This special offer is good through April 15th, 2009.
BBEdit, TextWrangler updated
Attention, Bare Bones fans. Maintenance updates have been released for both BBEdit and TextWrangler. You can grab them both here. Since these are maintenance updates, don't expect new features or extra bells and whistles, just a general tidying up of things. Both are free updates.[Via Macworld]
John Gruber releases BBColors 1.0
John Gruber has released a command line tool called BBColors which allows BBEdit and TextWrangler users to save, reload and even share customized color schemes. BBEdit, like many code-friendly text editors, has offered a coloring system for some time, but it still doesn't allow users to save and swap out schemes for, say, different languages or simply different days of the week. John's free utility not only brings color swapping to these app's tool belts, but he also posted a few examples to help get your feet wet. DeviantART, eat your heart out.Instructions for installation and usage can be found on Mr. Gruber's project page for BBColors.
TextMate 1.5 reviewed
BBEdit is the grand daddy of text editors on the Mac, though I prefer TextWrangler myself. However, TextMate, a relative new comer to the scene, is getting a lot of attention from the geekier Mac folks out there. MacSlash has posted a glowing review of the app, which is making me think I need to take a second look at TextMate.So, dear readers, what text editor do you find yourself banging away in for the most part?
3 Most used apps
Molly asks what 3 applications were the most used on your machine this year, and I thought I would pass along the question to you, dear readers.First, I shall answer it: NetNewsWire Safari TextWrangler Since I am a big time blogger (or something) I read lots of feeds, and I am expected to both read them and then comment on them. This triumvirate of applications keeps my workflow flowin'.[via Binary Bonsai]
