Why I love BBEdit

At first glance, this post may read like an ad, feel like an ad, but it’s not an ad. It just lists reasons that make me really, really like BBEdit, an app that I have long avoided and considered too complicated and complex for my humble computing needs.

But last year, while I switched from the excellent Blot platform to Eleventy for this website, these needs changed, and I was then looking for a more capable text editing app than the one I finally settled on, so I gave BBEdit another shot.

One year or so later, I have only one regret: not adopting BBEdit earlier in my life.

Now, let’s move on with why I love this app so much.

The power, the facility

If text is involved, it can do anything. BBEdit made me a very confident man when it comes to bulk editing text files. When I was rebuilding this blog using Eleventy, I needed to rework the front matter formats of blog posts and pages, something like going from YAML to TOML or vice versa (not sure exactly what it was).

Among other things, I needed to add quotation marks to some fields and replace the H1 — formatted as #h1 in the markdown files — with a “title:” field. I could have done it file by file, spending hours doing this, or I could have, somehow, managed to create a script doing it for me. With BBEdit, it was a breeze; the Text Factory feature alone is incredibly powerful and accessible. And this is just an example; there is so much more…

Knowing that your text editing app can handle most text editing tasks you can think of, now and in the future, is a very pleasant feeling. It’s the same feeling of having four-wheel drive in your car: you may never really need it, but it’s great to know it’s there, just in case one day this extra amount of grip is all you need to get to your destination safely in the snow.

Multiple file formats

Like I mentioned, BBEdit can handle everything that is text-related, which means it can handle all the types of text files I use: HTML, CSS, Nunjucks, JavaScript, Markdown, RTF, JSON, you name it. I love MarkEdit, but it cannot be used to update the occasional HTML or CSS file. With BBEdit, I don’t have to memorize the shortcuts for another app or even change windows.

When it comes to text editing apps, I tend to group them into two categories: the file-based apps, like TextEdit, MarkEdit, or CotEditor; and the library-based apps, like Tot, Drafts, or The Archive. Some apps can work “both ways” like iA Writer or uFocus, and it turns out that BBEdit is also one of them: its recent Notes feature is great, but I don’t even have to use it. Like a lot of things in BBEdit, it’s there only if I need it. More on that later.

This versatility is what makes it the Swiss knife for text files, notes, and everything in between. There is even a scratchpad, which I use all the time at work (I just wish the shortcut to put its window at the front was working system-wide). What else could I possibly need?

It runs smoothly

My MacBook Air is starting to show its age. Bought during the first coronavirus lockdown here in France, it’s the last generation of MacBook Air powered by Intel processors, and it shows. To put it simply, opening a simple RAW file in Acorn makes the computer sluggish, with two or three seconds between a click and the action, and even apps like Apple Notes now feel particularly slow on this machine.1

Despite all that, BBEdit works seamlessly. Not the quickest app to launch, I’ll admit, but BBEdit is not the kind of app you launch anyway; it stays open all the time. And once open, the app works as if it’s not requiring any processing power to handle dozens of files. It’s quite remarkable, all things considered.

The Subaru of text editors

Not only does the app run smoothly and doesn’t slow my computer, but I haven’t seen it crash once in the last year, which is not something I could say for MarkEdit, iA Writer, or FSNotes, all great and fast apps, but it turns out they are not as smooth as BBEdit. Just like with Cultured Code’s Things, I can’t seem to find any bugs either, which speaks of the quality of the code.2

You know how Subaru cars are generally considered rugged, solid, safe, discreet, well-built and among the most reliable? I think that BBEdit is the Subaru of text editors.

The app may barely ever crash, but it’s not immune to the computer itself crashing, or mistakes when closing down a document without saving it first. But BBEdit has a very reliable back-up system, where unsaved files are kept for a while, just in case there is an issue. Complete peace of mind.

This feature is actually one of the first signs of BBEdit’s greatness I experienced back in 2020 when I used the app for a week (there was a temporary bug in Drafts that made it crash on launch). The kind of “They thought of everything” moment, when I could find my unsaved draft perfectly fine despite the crash of my previous MacBook Air (Early 2015 model).

It works the way I want

This is the one great thing about BBEdit that did overwhelm me in my previous try-outs of the app. The settings are very rich, and going through all of them can take like fifteen minutes or so. By default, the app is set to please users with strong expectations when it comes to code and development: line numbers, a gutter, disabled soft wrap, etc. There isn’t even a default keyboard/menu shortcut to put text in bold using Markdown, or add a link. I know I’ve been turned off by this for a long time, which made me not even consider BBEdit as a “writer” app.

But, once you manage to set it up the way you like, fine-tune it how you want, it can look like the app you really need. By customising the keyboard shortcuts, adding a few scripts to do the few extra things you want (most of them can easily found online), hiding the menus you don’t use, and — dare I say it — reading the user guide (or at least parts of it), this app turns out to be extremely versatile, and not at all made for developers only.3

It’s perfectly understandable that many users would say something along the lines of “nope, not for me, this is not an app, this is a full OS, why even bother, I just need a simple markdown editor!” This has been my reaction for years.

Today, I am incredibly glad to have overcome this initial chore of setting everything up because the result is an app that I have learned to appreciate in ways that still surprise me. Every now and then, I catch myself saying out loud: “oh, this is good…” Maybe BBEdit could offer a few different sets of default settings, depending on the type of users?

Makes me love the Mac even more

BBEdit is what the kids are calling a Mac-assed app. My own definition for this kind of app is an app that makes the Mac shine, that feels part of the OS and not an extra layer on top of it; an app that would be impossible to port onto Windows or Linux without a complete redesign.

And let just take a second here to appreciate that it’s not just another Electron app, that it’s not ported from another platform, and that it works the way a Mac app is supposed to work. Reading this, I know some of you may think “oh not this again” but as a MacOS fan, I can feel the difference between a truly good native app and the best Electron app immediately. When I try an app and suspect it’s an Electron app, it always is, regardless of how good and how fast this app is.

Nothing against Electron apps, I even really like some of them, but using a good native app feels like using high-octane fuel in your car: if you know, you know: everything is better.

Not coming from a Big Tech company

Sure, BBEdit is not open source, but at least it’s not owned by one of the big tech companies, or a startup dependent on growth-obsessed venture capital. Barebones Software looks like a decent independent company, making BBEdit a true indie app, which for me is just as worth encouraging as an open-source product. Bradley Taunt wrote something very interesting a few months ago about his text editor, Sublime Text:

I know, I know. If you’re familiar with me or the things I write about it must seem odd that I would willingly use proprietary software over open source. This is something I struggle with constantly day-to-day in the realm of “personal tech”. I find with age I become more open-minded to having a diverse range of software and hardware choices. Open source is best in concept but not always best in practice.

The problem is that Sublime is just such a great editor. I can’t ignore quality and refuse to use good software solely based on it’s licensing.

I am also pretty confident that the app won’t switch to a subscription-only model any time soon, that they won’t add a floating bubble asking to activate some kind of AI feature, sell my data, pivot to crypto, or ask me to sign up to have access to basic features.4 This is also why I love apps like iA Writer, Things, Tot, Drafts, GoodLinks, etc.

It “smells good”

Typing in this app has a similar feel to the one you get holding a very nice watch, or sitting behind the wheel of a very nice car: you don’t even have to start the engine to sense the difference, to know that it is special. There is something in the air, something in the textures and the layout that puts a smile on your face without even driving this car. As far as I am concerned, this hard-to-explain sensation applies to BBEdit, and I get this feeling via each keystroke.

Does it make my writing any better? No. Does it make me put more time into writing? Not really. Does it make using my computer more satisfying to use? Absolutely.

I will not encourage you to adopt BBEdit, it is definitely not for everyone. You can simply try it via the Mac App Store, and/or give it a shot for a month or two, and see how it feels.

My only pieces of advice are the following, and they really would apply to any kind of apps or even an OS as a whole, because there is a reward given to those who accept the initial amount of effort needed to enjoy it fully:

This post is now more than 2,000 words long, which makes me realise that I really enjoy talking about how software makes me feel: maybe I should repeat this format for another app that I love?