UltraEdit for Mac & Linux features

Use UltraEdit on Mac and Linux! From code highlighting to FTP, from macros and scripting to column mode… UltraEdit for Mac & Linux 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
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