UltraEdit for Mac features

The world’s best text editor, UltraEdit, is now available for macOS! From code highlighting to FTP, from macros and scripting to column mode… UltraEdit for Mac delivers the power and flexibility of the industry-leading Windows version.

UltraEdit’s system requirements for macOS are also available on our site.

Text editing features

  • Disk based text editing provides efficient and fast editing of large files (4+ GB) with minimum RAM usage
  • Column markers
  • Open files as root (with prompt for password)
  • Full support for Retina/UHD displays
  • Full spell checking
  • Auto-indent wrapped lines
  • Paragraph alignment and formatting
    • Left, center, right, fill paragraph
    • Reformat paragraph (cleans up and beautifies text)
  • Multi-caret editing and multi-selection
    • Use Ctrl + click to set multiple carets for editing in multiple locations at once
    • Use Ctrl + double click or Ctrl + Click n’ drag to make multiple non-contiguous selections for editing
    • Press Ctrl + Alt + Z to remove last set caret/selection
    • Press Ctrl + , to select all occurrences of the word under caret
    • Press Ctrl + ; to select next occurrence of the word under caret
    • Ctrl + click on caret or selection to remove it from set
    • Select several contiguous lines, then Ctrl + Click beyond line end for quick end-of-line carets
    • Cut, copy, and paste multiple non-contiguous lines or selections at once
  • Drag-and-drop editing
  • Column/block mode editing
    • Ability to edit text files based on columns (blocks) instead of rows
    • Ctrl + left-mouse-click drag to select blocks
    • Select a column (instead of a row) and type characters to insert
    • Multi-line caret for typing into multiple columns at once
    • Ability to run a search and replace on a selected column/block (instead of rows)
    • Insert, fill, delete, or cut columns
    • Insert sequential numbers in column (hex/decimal)
    • Sum selected columns (selection must contain numbers)
    • Column mode justify (left, right, center) to justify text within the specified columns
  • Shift + Double Click to highlight all occurrences of selected word
  • Line Change Indicator in margin
    • Saved changes indicated in green
    • Unsaved changes indicated in red
    • Configurable colors (set in editor theme)
    • Toggle via View menu or via toolbar icon
  • Document map
    • “Filmstrip” overview of active file for visual context and quick navigation
    • Zoom in or out to see more or less of the file
    • Shows changed lines and search string highlighting
    • Optionally shows bookmarks, code folding, and active line
    • Optionally reposition caret on click
    • Toggle via View menu or via toolbar icon
  • Support for extremely long lines
  • Home key positions at first non-space, then first character
  • Unicode/UTF-8 editing support
  • Support for most keyboard formats and input methods
  • Revert to saved (refresh active file)
  • Favorite files list (stores up to 50 of your favorite files)
  • Recent files list
  • Configurable font and editor colors
  • Active line highlighting
  • Optional positioning of cursor beyond line end
  • Optionally display spaces, tabs, and line breaks
  • Toggle line numbers and column ruler
  • Set UltraEdit to “Always on Top” to always keep it on top of other windows
  • Right-click on file path in editor to open it from context menu
  • Editor themes
    • Manage Themes dialog for creating and modifying themes:
      • Skin the entire application (dockable panes, menus, toolbars, file tabs, status bar, etc.)
      • Set editor colors
      • Set syntax highlighting colors
    • Switch themes with a single click
    • Use one of several pre-defined themes or create your own
    • When adding a new language for syntax highlighting, UltraEdit will automatically pick up your theme’s default colors for the new language
    • Import, export, and share your themes with others
  • Full printing support
    • Customizable header/footer
    • Fully adjustable margins
    • Print word wrap
    • Print line numbers
    • Print syntax highlighting
    • Improved printer selection and configuration
    • Set printer font
    • Mirror display font (will print with same font settings for editor)
  • Multi-level undo and redo
  • Cut/Copy/Paste:
    • Cut/Copy and append to existing data on clipboard
    • Copy full file path and name
    • Multiple (up to 9) user clipboards in addition to system clipboard
  • Text selecting features:
    • Select entire file, select line, or select word
    • Select user-defined range of text
    • Click a line number in the margin to select the line
  • Text deletion features:
    • Delete selection
    • Delete line
    • Delete from current cursor position to start of line or end of line
  • Move active line up or down
  • Duplicate active line
  • Word wrap (toggle on or off)
  • Open file tabs
    • File tabs provide quick access to and easy switching between all open files
    • Ability to “drag” file tabs to split the window (horizontally or vertically) multiple times
    • Multi or single line file tab row
    • Right-click context menu for document-specific commands or functionality
    • (Optional) Middle-click to close file tab
  • Multi-instance (multiple edit windows)
    • Activate via File » New Window or Cmd Shift N
    • Instances remember and reload files
  • Integrated file view (tabbed interface) includes:
    • “Places” explorer (select multiple files to open them)
    • Optional split view
    • List of open files (close/save/print selected files)
    • List of project files (open selected files)
    • “Lists” tab for user favorites and user-created file groups/lists
    • “Remote” tab for exploring FTP/SFTP accounts
    • Filter for file view and file explorer
    • File find for “open files” tab
    • Git integration
  • Powerful “Quick Open” dialog for quickly opening one or more files at once
  • Multi-line find and replace dialogs for all searches (Find, Replace, Find in Files, Replace in Files)
  • Bookmarks
    • Go to next/previous bookmark
    • Clear all bookmarks
  • Bookmark Viewer
    • Customize columns and bookmark sort order
    • Optionally list bookmarks for all files
    • Delete and edit bookmarks or all bookmarked lines
  • Insert date/time (F7) into active text file at current position
  • Help file/manual with indexed and searchable contents

Find and replace features

  • Find, find next, find previous, replace and replace all
    • Select text between caret and find target by holding Shift
    • Search and replace will (optionally) step through all open files
    • Save, name, and edit favorite search and replace strings/regular expressions for later use
    • “Replace where” option defaults to selected text if you selected text (see Help documentation for further information on enabling this feature)
  • Find in selected text and find in column, including:
    • Find next/previous
    • Highlight all
    • Replace next or replace all
    • Count all
  • Quick find
    • Supersedes incremental search
    • Press Cmd + F to open; begin typing to highlight matches
    • Press Enter to move to the next search string
    • Number of matches shown in status bar
  • “List lines containing string” option with pop-up dialog showing all lines that contain Find string
  • Full regular expression support for Find/Replace (Perl syntax, Unix syntax, and UltraEdit/legacy syntax) including support for tagged regular expressions
  • Preserve case option to preserve the case of a word when being replaced
  • F3 will search and highlight next occurrence of string if find dialog is closed
  • Highlight all found occurrences of string
  • Count number of occurrences of string
  • Word count (entire file or selection)
  • Find in files/replace in files:
    • Specify multiple directory paths for searching
    • Find or Replace a string in multiple files by directory, in all open files, in project files, or in your favorite files
    • Full regular expression support
    • Specify file extensions to search in find/replace in files
    • User-configurable ignore options for directories/files
    • Separate threading for find/replace in files (allows you to continue working while searching files)
    • Unicode search option
    • Use empty find string to create listing of all files matching directory/name specification
    • Replace in files includes option to list changed files and number of changes
    • Customize the output format of find/replace in files results
  • Find matching braces (Ctrl + B)
  • Find dialogs can optionally default to word under caret
  • Configurable special character (default is ‘^’) for matching tabs, line breaks, etc. in find/replace (^p will match any line break, ^t will match a tab character, ^n will match Unix-style line terminators and ^r will match Mac (Classic) line terminators)
  • All find/replace dialogs support Unicode

Programming / web development features

  • Integrated FTP functionality
    • Built-in FTP client, “Open from FTP”, and “Save as to FTP” dialogs
    • Support for SFTP (SSH2) and FTPS (Control only, Control and data, Implicit)
    • Open multiple files from server
    • Optional default local default directory for each FTP account
    • Access FTP accounts and files from file viewer
    • Ability to set a remote (server based) or local (Perl regex based) filter (provides filtering ability for SFTP)
  • Markdown support
    • Preview Markdown files (via live preview – see below)
    • Preview uses CommonMark (cmark) library for rendering
    • Note: Some Linux distros might require additional package installations for Markdown support:
      • Debian requires cmark
      • CentOS requires epel-release, which includes cmark
      • Ubuntu 16.04 requires libghc-cmark-dev
      • Ubuntu 18.04 requires cmark
      • Ubuntu 20.04 requires cmark-gfm
    • Select different styles for Markdown rendering (or add your own)
    • Special Markdown syntax highlighting (with new MARKDOWN_LANG) language marker
    • Support for embedded HTML highlighting
  • Live HTML preview
    • Split window with code view and browser view
    • Code changes (saved and unsaved) are automatically updated in browser view
  • Ctags support
    • Generate Ctags file by creating a project, then going to Project -> Create CTAG File
    • Click on function, object, etc. you wish to locate; then press Ctrl + Shift + F11 to find symbol’s origin in project
    • Configure Ctags properties/options
  • Highly configurable syntax highlighting:
    • Unlimited number of syntax highlighting languages supported
    • Each wordfile saved separately into wordfile directory
    • Pre-configured for C/C++, VB, ASP, Java, PHP, XML, HTML, JavaScript, Perl and more
    • Special handling for FORTRAN and LaTex
    • Hundreds of syntax highlighting wordfiles available for download
    • Allows different background colors
    • Support to highlight words beginning with a specified character (for instance variable highlighting using $ in PHP)
    • Automatic highlighting based on file name or extension
    • Automatic shebang (#!) detection for applying syntax highlighting
    • Font styling for syntax highlighting in addition to color styling
    • Multi-language highlighting (e.g., PHP/HTML/JavaScript highlighting in the same file)
    • Add project-specific wordfiles
  • Code Folding
    • Fold any function or structure (all popular languages supported)
    • “Collapse All” and “Expand All” folded nodes
    • Support for ignore strings and comment strings
    • Dynamic updating of folding structures
    • Add your own custom open/fold strings
  • Smart templates
    • Redesigned “Modify Templates” dialog
    • Ability to add user-defined variables with selectable parameters
    • Template “Auto-suggestion” (suggests template that matches what you type)
    • Ability to insert templates via auto-complete dialog
    • New “Languages” template group to store templates based on syntax highlighting languages
    • New template behavior configuration options in Preferences » Editor » Templates
  • Auto-completion for coding language
    • When invoked, all programming language keywords are available in the list (if the file uses syntax highlighting)
    • Optionally specify a separate file to provide matches for auto-completion
    • UltraEdit searches back 50K in the file for words that match a partially typed word and offer them as options
    • Configurable sorting and listing of matches
  • Function list (dockable/hideable list)
    • See all functions in source file in a tree view, including subgroups (parameters, variables, properties, etc.)
    • Supports function listing for all files in active project
    • Double-click function to jump to it in the file
  • XML Manager
    • Toggleable attribute pane – view node attributes in split pane
    • Reformat XML document from context menu
    • Edit XML data directly in the XML Manager
    • Double-click to position to node in file
    • Shift + double-click to select node in file
    • Cut, copy, paste, and duplicate nodes
    • Move nodes up/down
  • JSON manager
    • Provides tree-style view of JSON data (based upon .json file extension)
    • Copy, cut, paste, and duplicate JSON objects and keys
    • See table of key / value data for selected object
    • Expand / collapse all nodes
    • Drag-and-drop JSON objects / keys to move them
    • Format, compress, and re-parse active JSON file
  • Special syntax highlighting support for JSON
  • Automatic auto-completion of closing HTML/XML tags
    • Configurable in Preferences » Editor » HTML
    • Set whether to close on same line or on new line
  • Brace auto-completion
    • Brace pairs defined in wordfile are auto-closed when opening brace is typed
    • If no braces in wordfile, or if file is not syntax highlighted, “()”, “{}”, and “[]” are used as defaults
    • Pressing Enter will reposition close brace on separate line while maintaining proper indent levels
    • Pressing Backspace immediately following auto-completion will remove both opening and closing brace
    • Typing close brace skips over auto-completed close brace without inserting second brace
    • Can be disabled for non-highlighted (plain text) files
    • Can be disabled for comments and strings
    • Configurable in Preferences » Editor » Auto-complete
  • String auto-completion
    • Can be disabled for non-highlighted (plain text) files
    • Can be disabled for comments
    • Configurable in Preferences » Editor » Auto-complete
  • Auto-correct case of keywords (optionally) based on definitions in wordfile
  • Automatic XHTML detection, code folding, and indentation
  • Browser view (renders the active HTML file from within UltraEdit)
  • Tag list (quick access to frequently-used coding language tags/templates)
  • Add/remove block and line comments
  • Project support (logical grouping and ordering of files/folders)
    • Easy creation or switching of projects via “Project” menu
    • Access entire project in File View (Ctrl + U)
    • Open multiple files as a single project/workspace
    • Delete files from project
    • Recent project list showing up to eight of the last projects opened
    • Project specific user tools (in addition to standard set) with custom bitmaps
    • User/project tools supports having output go directly to the active document
    • Virtual “group” support for projects allows files to be grouped together
    • Support for nested groups with no limit on depth
    • Project/favorites – add files/add all open files dialog allows multiple file selection
    • Directory groups dynamically updated
    • Direct addition/removal of files from File Tree View
    • Recursive addition of files/folders
    • Filter files to include/exclude from project
    • Specify option wordfile for syntax highlighting in project files
  • Code reformatting
    • Reindent selection (automatically reformats selected code based upon indent settings)
    • XML convert to line terminators (convert single-line XML feed to properly formatted XML document)
  • “Tools” toolbar, including:
    • Color selector
    • CSS style builder
    • HTML Tidy
    • GUID generator
    • Number converter
    • Artistic style (code beautifier / reformatter)
    • XML lint

Git features

  • Git integration
    • Automated detection of Git on first run, with import of existing Git settings
    • Git status icon overlays for repos in Places and Project tabs in File View
  • Git contextual actions (Places / Project tab)
    • Right-click on a repository folder to add new files, commit, push, pull, blame, show log, and more
    • Right-click on a file in a repo to commit it only, diff, revert, blame, and more
    • Diff or merge conflicts directly in UltraCompare
    • Access .gitconfig and .gitignore files from context menu
  • Git Branch Manager
    • Open / access via Git context menu in Places or Project tab
    • See list of branches within repository
    • Update current branch’s status, commit, and push
    • Create, checkout, and delete branches
    • Drag-and-drop to merge or rebase
  • Git Shell
    • Open / access via Git context menu in Places or Project tab
    • Run Git commands and see output directly within UltraEdit
    • Access Git command history
  • Git toolbar
    • Activate via View » Toolbars / windows » Toolbars » Git
    • Add, commit, stash, push, and pull
    • Toggle Git Shell and Git Branch Manager
  • Key mapping support added for various Git actions (commit, push, pull, etc.)
  • Git configuration options in Edit » Preferences

Advanced features

  • Advanced file sort
    • Sort single file or all files
    • Output sort result to new file
    • Merge sort results
    • Sort method, including: Alphabetic, Dictionary, Numeric, Month, Version, Reverse, Random, etc.
    • Ignore (leading) blanks or case
    • Optionally specify delimiter and locale
    • Remove duplicates
    • Set up to 4 different sort keys, each with own options
    • Independent processing: continue to work while sorting!
  • Compare Files (UC Lite)
    • Open at least two files (local or remote), then go to File -> Compare Files
    • UE automatically detects and launches UltraCompare Professional, if installed
    • Merge changes, save files, close UC, then return to your files back in UE
    • Compare modified file against source on disk
    • Compare highlighted text
  • Configurable tool support provides smart and dynamic system shell interaction with active file(s)
  • Completely configurable key-mapping
    • Keyboard shortcuts for nearly everything
    • Multi complex key mappings (“chords”)
    • View/print key mapping from within UltraEdit
  • Integrated scripting language (based on JavaScript) to programmatically automate tasks
    • Includes most powerful JavaScript functions (loop, while, case/switch, variables, arrays, etc.)
    • Include one script in another
    • Edit scripts from within UltraEdit
    • Access most UltraEdit commands via scripts (file opening, saving, editing, run tools, access clipboards, etc.)
    • Script list accessible as docked window
    • Scripts can be assigned hotkeys for fast access
    • Scripts can write output to output window to allow for debugging
    • Launch script in UltraEdit from command line
  • Editable macros
    • Automated macro recording; edit a macro when finished recording
    • Set macro file to load (and optionally run) macro when UltraEdit starts
    • Load, save, and run multiple macros with hotkeys
    • Special characters ^c and ^s allow access to copied and selected text, respectively
    • Set a macro to automatically execute on every file open or save
    • Save all your macros to one file
    • Assign custom hotkeys and chords to macros
    • Macro commands support conditional loop and if statements
    • Column mode functions accessible from within macros
    • Run tools from within macros
    • Change clipboard in macro
    • Launch macro in UltraEdit from command line
  • Configurable layout – while dragging and positioning windows, auto-docking controls will activate
  • Split window for active file (vertical or horizontal)
  • “Open as” option (in File -> Open dialog) to force loading files as binary or read-only
  • Edit state and settings remembered on a per-file basis (column mode, hex mode, word wrap)
  • Output window
    • Resizable, can be docked or floating
    • Used (optionally) for Find in Files results
    • Can contain script or tool output
  • Status bar
    • Encoding selector drop down
    • Syntax highlighting selector drop down
    • Read-Only toggle
    • Selected bytes count
    • Date modified / file size information
  • ASCII table – allows viewing and insertion of all available ASCII characters
  • Create new files as Unicode instead of regular ASCII
  • Character properties pop-up dialog shows:
    • Value of character in decimal/hex and display
    • Offset of character from start of file in decimal/hex
  • Completely configurable toolbars: customize existing or add your own
  • View/hide toolbars and/or status bar
  • Completely configurable right-click context menu
  • Multi-byte support
  • File backup and auto-save
  • Rename active file
  • Encrypt and decrypt files
  • Encode/decode selected text in base64
  • Open multiple files at once from the file open dialog and command line
  • Customizable file type filter for File -> Open dialog
  • Specify line and column number when opening file from command line
  • Delete active file
  • Option to open file without temp file (with threshold size to allow only large files to use this option)
  • Customizable temp file directory
  • Configurable file change detection
  • Turn read-only on or off for active file (in Edit menu)
  • Support for optional multiple instances
  • Configurable default edit window size
  • View page breaks as lines
  • Position cursor beyond line end
  • Commands to position active line at top, middle or bottom of screen
  • Line numbering is based on real lines (not wrapped lines)
  • Formatting conversions:
    • Tabs to spaces
    • Spaces to tabs for all tabs, or just leading tabs in a line
    • Character-delimited files to fixed-column (CSV file support)
    • Fixed-column file to character-delimited
    • Lower to Upper Case or vice versa
    • Invert case/capitalization
    • Capitalize every word in selection
  • Trim trailing spaces (set to execute on save)
  • Command line options (see Help file for full documentation)

Hex editing features

  • Ctrl + H enabled hex mode for the active file, providing hex and ASCII view
  • Configure number of hex bytes per line in hex mode
  • Hex rule provides hexadecimal positions
  • Find/Replace hex bytes
  • Insert or delete actual hex values while in hex mode
  • All copy/cut/paste functions available for manipulating hex data
  • Copy selected hex view of text to clipboard