BBedit 8.6.2 Review

We’ve covered a lot of text editors and other word processors here at MacApper but the granddaddy of all text editors, somehow got missed. BBedit is one of the oldest, most robust, and most well known text editors for Mac, but it is also the most expensive. As a guy who spends the greater part of his day processing text, I figured I was a good candidate to review the latest version of BBedit 8.6.2 (.2 is just bug fixes), and see if it really is worth the hefty price tag.

The guys at BareBones are one of the most well known and respected independent Mac developers, with BBedit being their flagship product.

With newer versions, BBedit is not really as overwhelming to new users as it has been previously. The toolbar is not nearly as cluttered, and now contains: File Lock, Text Tools, Info, and the ever handy Show in Finder button. As far as editing goes, standout features for me are the on-the-fly spell checking, advanced preview panes, autosave, and some really nifty clipboard management. One of the absolute best features for me with BBedit is its ability to scroll through recent clipboard items, as shown below.

Of course if your dropping $125 for a BBedit license you are likely not using it as a word processor but as your coding tool. This is where BBedit really shines. One common function I do is to find/replace text within, not just the files I am working on, but entire directories of files. For operations like this BBedit is easily the most powerful solution available offering the ability to save grep patterns, and search for text pretty much anywhere. No more awkward grep commands at the terminal, now you can code them right into your editor.

Of course BBedit supports all of the major coding languages (and I mean all of them), including Apple Script, and all flavors of SQL. This is where BBedit really sets itself apart as a powerful coder’s tool, as you can contextually finish code via a right click. I sort of prefer how the competition does this without the need for a click, and couldn’t see how this could be done in BBedit, but I might just be missing it.

As with Textmate BBedit also support the ability to ‘code fold’, which allows you to fold away code that you are not using. I don’t know that this is something I really need, but others seem to like it. Another new feature is the Markdown feature which essentially allows you to preview your code in styled HTML and plain text. This welcome feature is particularly useful for publishers putting code examples in their web pages, and I find myself using it frequently.

One of the nicest things about using BBedit from a programmer’s point of view is the ability to scale down the application to just those languages you will be using. If you’re a web designer, you don’t need to see any C+ related stuff, and it can be simply shut off. There really is a lot of tweaks to make BBedit perfectly suit your coding preferences.

Having said that, the amount of preferences in BBedit is really incredible. You can pretty much adjust anything, from tabs, how characters wrap, color and language settings, some juicy search tweaks, and a myriad of other things. In earlier versions this area of the app was terribly confusing but it seems to get better every time I see it.

Being a Mac user we are spoiled and editing our files live on the server is really something we expect in a solid text editor. BBedit doesn’t disappoint here and this has been one of its standout features for some time.

Honestly this review does not do BBedit justice and literally volumes could be written on its abilities and customizations. Like I said the app sells for $125, and while that’s not unreasonable, it is really out of reach for many of us. Take the full featured 30 day trial to see if it is for you, but if you live in a text editor it really is indispensable.