RealText

RealText - a plain-text, Markdown, CSV and TSV editor for the Mac.

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RealText is a plain-text, Markdown, CSV and TSV editor for the Mac.
It opens .txt, .md, .csv and .tsv files, changes what you meant to change,
and leaves everything else alone. It is free.

What it does

Text Mode: a plain editor with Find, Go to line, Wrap Lines
and adjustable font size. Markdown is edited as plain text; nothing is rendered.

Spreadsheet Mode: a CSV or TSV file as a grid on top,
with the whole file as text underneath. Edit either one and the other follows.
Columns and rows can be labeled x-1, y-1..., A, B, C... or 0, 1, 2...

Your file, byte for byte: RealText keeps the line endings (LF, CRLF or CR),
the encoding (UTF-8, UTF-8 with BOM, or Mac OS Roman),
the file's name and extension, and every byte you didn't edit.
Editing one cell changes only that cell's characters.
The one exception: a file with mixed line endings, marked "(mixed)"
on the status line, is saved with one line ending throughout.

No silent damage: a file it can't keep exactly, such as UTF-16 text
or binary data, is refused with an explanation instead of being changed.

Read-only files and drives: when a file can't be saved where it is,
RealText says why (a locked file, a read-only drive, missing permissions,
or a folder that takes no new files) and offers only the choices that will work.

Private: no network code, no ads, no account. See the privacy policy.


Availability

Mac App Store: coming soon.
Direct download for older Macs (Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and later):
planned, not available yet.

RealText is free, with no in-app purchases.


System requirements (Mac App Store version)

Macs with Apple silicon: macOS 11 Big Sur or later.
Intel Macs: see the Mac App Store listing once it is published.


Bash Mode (experimental)

RealText includes Bash Mode: the same editor for Terminal,
including Terminal in macOS Recovery, where regular apps can't run.
It is handy for fixing a settings file when a Mac won't start up normally.

It ships inside the app. Nothing is installed anywhere else,
and RealText never runs it for you.
Choose Help > RealText in Terminal and Recovery (Experimental)
to see the exact command for your Mac, with Copy Command and Print buttons.
Bash Mode is experimental in this version,
and is meant for small and medium files.


Questions or problems? See Support.


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RealText is made by moose3d.