14 DAY TRIAL // When writing the old fashioned way there is not much more you need other than pen and paper. Writing on a computer is a different matter entirely. The computer offers so much more flexibility and more tools that people have come to expect more than to be able to just type away. Because of this, TextEdit is hardly a suitable solution, however, while many simply use Microsoft Word for their typing needs, many others prefer alternative solutions. As far as shareware goes, many text editors focus on programmers and scripters and offer them a wide array of tools and options to help them do their job. The editors that take the Word approach are not that many, or, rather, while many attempt, few deliver anything that is more than a bad watered down version. Much to my surprise there are still powerful yet flexible text editors out there, that are a viable alternative to Word and still have enough power under the hoof to accommodate programmers and their ilk? such as Smultron.
What it does
Smultron is a text editor. Going beyond this means going into all the little details and options and features, but on a very general level, Smultron is a text editor that is equally suited for those wanting a word processor as well as those looking for a script writing tool.
It is an open source program, meaning that it is free, but this also comes with the dark side of open source which is a lack of a clear vision in design and many quirky design choices.
Word processor
While Smultron does not have the formatting power of Word, it is nevertheless a potent word processor. Since you can write text in just about any program, here it's all about the little things, and there are a lot of them in this program.
This first thing that caught my eye was the split view which lets you either view two documents side by side or view and work on two versions of the same document. This is a superb feature that I personally use a great deal; also it is one of those features that you rarely see in programs.
While when rewriting or doing translations and the such, split view is essential, when doing free-flow writing, there is no need for such an option, nor is there a need for any other option, or tool, all you need is to write and anything other than the keyboard will do nothing but get in your way. As such, the Full screen more that Smultron has is perfect for this. Just fire it up and there is nothing but a white background and your text.
A lot of times, you will have to work with several documents open. Tabs are a great way to cut down on window clutter, and everybody has woken up to how good they are. The fact that you can have multiple documents open in different tabs is great, especially since you can use this with the split window option to great effect. Those who are not great fans of tabs can use the side list which serves the same purpose, however the tabs have one advantage, and that is showing which documents are saved and which are not by displaying a small pencil icon in the tabs of the windows that have unsaved contents.
To make things even better in terms of document management, Smultron even lets you create projects, that lets you keep the documents organized on your drive and provide one click access to them from inside the application.
Scripting tool
Smultron is full of options that are intended to make things easier for programmers and scripters.
These range from text coloring to tag closing and snippets. It has a long list of syntax definitions built in that let it both color accordingly as well as perform tasks such as the closing of tags and the auto completion of unfinished words.
It even lets you run commands such as the compiling of code to generate executables, directly from within it, either through the menus or through keyboard shortcuts. Also, the snippets are quite smart meaning that you can define large blocks of text that can be inserted, and if you currently have any text selected, that text will be placed in the appropriate location within the defined snippet.
The Good
As far as freeware goes, this is a pretty solid tool. It has a lot of functionality and can be used for just about any text related task, and it is also powerful enough to allow you to do advanced things once you warm up to it.
The Bad
The placement of the commands and options in menus is odd and makes little sense. Also, there is a general lack of consistency in the general design. The icons are nearly all strange and quite poor choices. And keyboard shortcuts such as select all do not work in full screen mode.
The Truth
As a program that is in the same category as TextEdit, it is a far cry better. It has lots of great options regardless of what you need it for and is a solid tool in terms of stability. The only thing it lacks is a clear design direction.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
