r/macapps • u/abey_safed_kapra • Feb 19 '26
Free [OS] I Created Windows Notepad for Mac cuz there was nothing out there
Please Read Edit 3 First before reading this post
Problem: There is no Windows Notepad for mac, I made It for people who used to treat their notepad as a garbage bin.
Compare: This is not a comparison. CotEditor and TextEdit offer many features most people never use for quick notes. Many users want something simple and forgettable. Open the app. Type. Close. Reopen later. Your text stays without any save step. This app have feature soo less even a dog can count.
Core features:
- Notepad.exe for Mac
- no 1000000000 fetures
- copy paste and forget
- <5mb
- no AI bullshit i.e no subscription
Pricing + link: Free
https://github.com/Arijit-gotsomecodes/NotepadMac---Windows-Notepad-For-Mac
Changelog:
https://github.com/Arijit-gotsomecodes/NotepadMac---Windows-Notepad-For-Mac/releases
Why am I not using TextEdit? Watch this video: https://vimeo.com/1166770265?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
AI Disclaimer: Human Verified (Read each and every File, Hand fixed errors, not just any AI slop)
[Edit]: To all TextEdit Fans, Its for people who having using Notepad since they were born, I wanted something that visually looks and feels similar.
People its made for: https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1olmgkl/current_macequivalent_of_windows_notepad/
Need anything more? Create a issue: https://github.com/Arijit-gotsomecodes/NotepadMac---Windows-Notepad-For-Mac/issues
[Edit 2]: people are still confusde, this is nothing but Notepad.exe from windows rebuilt with same UI/Functionality minus the AI bullshit for Mac for long time windows users migrating to Mac. This is in no way a full fledged text editor like sublime/cot editor/TextEdit.
[Edit 3]: If you don't like what you see, Plz don't comment, I would rather want you to use you brilliant mind to solve world hunger and fight climate change.
[Edit 4]: Thank you for 500+ downloads.
•
u/Smackcracklenpop Feb 19 '26
Seems like TextEdit (built in) or Sublime
•
•
→ More replies (1)•
•
u/blackzenit Feb 19 '26
This seems to work under nostalgia or the idea of windows users switching over to macOS. I would pitch it around that instead of the so called problems it solves, since TextEdit and Notes already does all of that.
•
u/zupobaloop Feb 19 '26
The version of Notepad that it replicates is only 5 years old. I imagine most Windows users switching now are actually averse to the Windows 11 changes.
•
u/cryptoyodda Feb 19 '26
Agreed, its all about how to pitch the product, I actually like it because it looks like notepad xD
•
•
u/Then_Newspaper_9166 Feb 19 '26
There's a menu bar inside the app?
•
u/tristinDLC Feb 19 '26
And even weirder is the menubar is below the tab bar… which OP specifically calls out the app not having lol.
Apparently they didn't verify their AI code hard enough.
•
•
•
•
u/attentive_brick Feb 19 '26
this is nothing but Notepad.exe from windows [...] minus the AI bullshit for Mac
bro it was literally vibe-coded 😭
→ More replies (7)
•
u/Ok_Professional_8123 Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
Close the window. Reopen later. Your content stays.
TextEdit already does this. Sorry, I'm struggling to see how this is better than TextEdit or CotEditor. And why is the app menu within the window, other than to replicate Microsoft Notepad? 🫣
•
•
→ More replies (13)•
u/Seattle-Washington Feb 19 '26
Does TextEdit support multiple tabs (one for each note) where when I close out (or crash out) the content stays?
This is one of the main reasons I use Sublime
•
•
u/roycetech Feb 19 '26
As a mac user, it broke my heart to see the menu inside the app window.
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 19 '26
Ik but it catered towards long time windows notepad user
•
u/roycetech Feb 19 '26
I’m a long time windows user before I switched to mac. One of the best features of the mac is having the menu inside the same place for all apps. I feel it’s a disadvantage to have it somewhere else where I have to hunt for it, in this case below the window bar. Maybe it’s my age. Point is, I welcome to see the best of windows on a mac, and not just have it there for the sake of consistency.
→ More replies (3)
•
u/macsnider Feb 19 '26
Uhm… there are literally dozens of text editors available for macOS in all colors and flavors. Minimal or complex, for free or paid.
•
•
→ More replies (10)•
•
u/EpiphanicSyncronica Feb 19 '26
Have you seen Plain Text Editor by Sindre Sorhus?
Fwiw, though, I don’t mind when there are multiple apps that do the same thing. There are almost always some differences, even when they’re negligible, and having more choices never bothers me.
The outrage over you having done this seems overblown. You created what you wanted for your own use, were clear about its limitations, and said it was available in case someone else wanted it, too. Nobody is being forced to use your free app.
•
u/ryotsu_kochikame Feb 19 '26
BBEdit , coteditor?
•
u/Maybe123I Feb 20 '26
I agree. I can think of plenty of gaps in the range of Mac apps, but a notepad isn’t one of them.
BBEdit and Coteditor my go to apps.
•
u/Sidze Feb 19 '26
So you made a TextEdit that is built in MacOS from the start? TextEdit doesn't want me to save steps in many menus and is not overwhelming. It doesn't have features at all. I close app - I open it - content is there.
Am I missing something from the description? Not in the best state now. Haha
•
•
u/FleaMarketSocialist Feb 19 '26
Did you include the recent markup CVE-2026-20841? I wont use it unless it has that.
→ More replies (2)•
u/FleaMarketSocialist Feb 19 '26
I just noticed all the hate in the comments. I support this project, these people are just boring. Running this on my hackintosh now 🏴☠️
•
•
u/rafastellato Feb 20 '26
I’m already using it. I didn’t like TextEdit either, for the same reasons shown in the video. Thanks!
•
u/Ultra_HR Feb 19 '26
post obviously written by AI. i imagine the code was as well? not sure what “human verified” means.
no reason to use this when the Notes app exists.
garbage. i’m so tired of posts like this
•
u/blaskkaffe Feb 20 '26
Human verified means they copied the error messages back to the AI to fix the problems. And then did some minor tweaks manually
•
u/HenkPoley Feb 19 '26 edited Feb 19 '26
There is already: https://notepadexe.com
Ah, I see, that one is not free.
→ More replies (1)
•
•
u/SirPooleyX Feb 20 '26
CotEditor and TextEdit offer many features most people never use for quick notes
If only MacOS came with an app specifically made for taking notes.
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 20 '26
It does, but when you quit it, it asks you to save the content.
•
u/SirPooleyX Feb 20 '26
What does? Are you talking about Apple Notes? That does not ask you to save - ever.
•
•
u/2d12-RogueGames Feb 19 '26
So you created TextEdit, which can be switched to plain text and gives you what you want.
Ok.
•
•
•
u/2d12-RogueGames Feb 19 '26
You are still recreating TextEdit. I use it every day as it is my writing tool of choice. There is no AI in the app.
•
•
•
•
u/brainkillaKG Feb 20 '26
I must commend the effort, but that schmucky Windows aesthetics kind of makes me sick :). For anyone else just wanting a scratchpad/simple jotting text editor, I suggest Plain Text Editor.
•
u/hkdkfih Feb 20 '26
Bro googled “how to create a app with ai”, clicked the first result,and asked it “give me 10 good (not bad, it must be good) app ideas”
→ More replies (1)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
u/rrex28 Feb 23 '26
In windows i could close notepad without having to save the notes somewhere, launching it back will resume it. Textedit cant do this, i have to save it somewhere. But can this do the same as windows?
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 23 '26
Yes, that is the only reason I made this, that is the whole point of this app.
•
u/Pure-Landscape-5547 Feb 23 '26
This is a neat app. I switched over from being a windows user a bit ago and have always loved the lightweight feel of the default windows note app.
•
•
•
•
•
u/One-Tea8742 Mar 13 '26
Exactly what I was looking to install on my Mac... I would like like encoding information to make it 100% fit for my data engineering work... UTF8 etc... but apart from that. Great work. Totally with you on textedit. No idea why the Mac doesn't just come with something this lightweight and text only.
•
u/Tydox Feb 19 '26
> This app keeps your text without any save action. Close the window. Reopen later. Your content stays.
doesnt this mean it saves a temporary file somewhere?
•
•
u/geekwonk Feb 19 '26
yes, by save action they just mean you don’t take any action to cause the save
•
•
•
u/reckless_avacado Feb 19 '26
this is purely for the poor souls who have broken free from the nightmare (windows) only to dive deeper into despair as they realise they have developed stockholm syndrome, missing the odd quirks and strange design choices of a broken, pathetic system which they now look down upon after both the OS and their own soul have been crushed into a million pieces.
or not. idk
•
u/geekwonk Feb 19 '26
yup! when i left windows, i spent the first year or two unlearning all the pointless little nuances of how to survive with microsoft.
•
•
u/SoggyCerealExpert Feb 20 '26
whats wrong with textedit?
works fine for a few notes or editing a .file
•
•
•
u/RapunzelLooksNice Feb 19 '26
Another vibe coded text editor? Thank you, but thank you.
→ More replies (2)
•
•
•
•
•
u/Mammoth-Mango-6485 Feb 19 '26
Moped is the quintessential Notepad for Mac, and I think has been for a while. Great effort and showcase though!!
•
u/ADHDK Feb 19 '26
I mean I’d get creating a notepad++ for mac…. But notepad?
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 19 '26
there is a hidden community of pre AI notepad worshiper, its just to save links, write down a phone number quickly, many people use their notepad as a garbage bin.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/floutsch Feb 19 '26
That is too funny, I think I'm going to try it out :D I do live in both worlds, but Funnily enough on Windows I have replaced notepad with Notepad3.
What AI stuff is even in the original? I wasn't aware (again, replaced).
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 19 '26
they have copilot in notepad, idk why but yes, they would shove down AI anywhere they can, AI in MS Paint too now
•
u/floutsch Feb 19 '26
In Notepad of all things. Lol. It's funny that your clone is therefor superior in concept! :D
•
•
Feb 19 '26
There is TextEdit, which is built into macOS and works flawlessly. I have added New File Menu Lite, which adds an option to create a new .txt file right from the Finder.
•
u/Tappava Feb 19 '26
I personally use Antinote for quick notes. Hit the hotkey, type in whatever you want to write and continue with your day. It's not free but 100% worth the few bucks.
•
•
u/Dangerous-Composer10 Feb 19 '26
When it comes to dead-simple text editors, I actually find Raycast's built-in Raycast Notes quite convenient.
•
u/seanprefect Feb 19 '26
hate to be a dick but tot by Iconfactory Is better than this in pretty much every way. Free with extra features for a one time fee. syncs across the entire ecosystem and is explicitly designed to be a persistent scratchpad across your devices.
→ More replies (1)
•
u/Apprehensive_Taste74 Feb 19 '26
I don't get it, this is what TextEdit looks like. It's pure simplicity, just text, nothing else (yes I know it can do rich text as well, but so does Notepad). I don't really see any difference between this and what you've built. If anything, yours has MORE features that I still don't need.
•
u/brunodelfrate Feb 19 '26
I like this! Unfortunately, I couldn't open any text file from the "Open With" Finder menu, even after manually selecting the app from the applications list: NotepadMac opens, but it displays an empty window. Can this be fixed?
•
u/phunk8 Developer: Dropadoo Feb 19 '26
people not sure if i‘m not getting it but my textedit doesn‘t open to an empty type space…. it aks me with an open dialog what to open or i can hit new etc. notepad opens an empty space where you, without any further click, could simply start typing, not even looking at it. doubleklick, type (or paste or whatever)
not that i‘m aware of textedit can do that?
•
•
u/colfaxschuyler Feb 19 '26
Choosing Monospace as the font makes the font italics. Also gives a warning that it may not be supported in future versions of macOS because it's not Apple Silicon native. An option to always start with a fresh document would also be nice.
...Wait...This is an Electron app?
•
u/Achim63 Feb 19 '26
A menubar in a window is just cringe in macOS. Have a look at the Human Interface Guidelines (here).
Cmd-H for Replace is also simply wrong as Cmd-H should hide the app.
You could just use the included Stickies app. Or TextEdit. Or vi or nano in the Terminal, both pre-installed.
•
u/Simelane Feb 19 '26
I’m guessing this was for funsies because, well why not. I’m not sure why the notepad equivalent, TextEdit, was not sufficient?
•
•
•
•
u/blaskkaffe Feb 20 '26
Since when does the windows notepad save automatically or have tabs?
The thing I like about notepad is that it is just a place to write text that when I close it it disappears forever.
In Mac text edit I first need to actively create a new document and then choose plain text before I can start writing text which is much slower than windows notepad.
BBEdit is good though it does what it should do and has some more advanced features if you want to use them
•
•
•
u/RegularTerran Chief "Complaint" Officer Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
yam live aback butter spotted dazzling bow telephone squeeze cooperative
•
•
u/Recent_Ad2447 Feb 20 '26
I don’t get why people complain. Maybe it’s useless but it’s free so if people want to use it, they can do it
•
u/sammcj Feb 21 '26
Complete with RCE?
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 21 '26
Don't worry, it works like the old note pad, you can't even open links by clicking on it, even if you open an .md file, it's open it as a plain text format
•
•
u/esotericspod Feb 21 '26
...but Text Edit is right there.
Just turn off all the auto correct and 'smart' options (smart quotes, smart dashes etc)
and format as Plain Text. Done.
•
•
u/xMarcelo Feb 21 '26
Hope you had fun making it. Not all tools one makes for ourselves need to be liked by anyone else. If it works for you, great! Still, I'd recommend moving away from the PWA approach you have there into actual native code. SwiftUI is a great starting point for an app this kind, and it will allow you to keep inside apple's design guidelines. Specially if you're not targeting windows or Linux. I mean if it's a Mac only app, why not use the native Mac tools? Other than that, the need for such an app may exist only in people moving from windows to Mac in a hurry. The basic need you are describing is also served by a lot of apps such as stickies, notes and maybe even Freeform on Mac, just that those require you try to go the Mac way. Still, an interesting app, just I'd again recommend moving to swift with SwiftUI. If you want to keep the menu in the app window, that's possible but you'd have to still make it yourself. Not sure if you're using a temp file, several temp files or something else, but if the temp files are outside of the app container you're risking them to be removed. If so, you may want to take a look at core data for storing the files until you want to actually save them somewhere
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 21 '26
no I plan to release it for windows too, microsoft really over engineered notepad and I am getting dms to release for windows.
•
u/christmas-vortigaunt Feb 21 '26
Microsoft's own Code does this.
You can use it as an IDE, like a lot of people do. But it's actually an amazing notetaker.
I replaced texted it / textwrangler with it since I use a different IDE already. Great place for garbage scripts / notes.
•
u/VovApolo Feb 21 '26
Glad you had fun and I bet you learned a lot.
Not sure what’s wrong with Notes, tho. Comes free with MacOS, and I use it precisely for taking notes, no save button and mine’s pretty much only garbage.
I’m happily ignoring edit 3 as no one tells me what to do anyways 😝
•
u/cutebabli9 Feb 21 '26
I just use TextEdit or Sublime Text on Mac! No complaints there. May not install this new app!
•
u/Livid_Potato_6364 Feb 21 '26
This looks clean, but imo no reason to use it over sublime Sublime is lightweight scratch pad when you need it, and has some powerful features when you need it
•
•
•
u/GearhedMG Feb 22 '26
Ahh yes, the "missing" MacOs app is the second most important app to be replaced on a windows machine when rebuilding.
•
u/Background_Pie_9920 Feb 22 '26
This makes sense for people who want a true scratchpad experience.
TextEdit is powerful, but sometimes power is friction
•
•
u/Anxietrap Feb 22 '26
I don’t know why everybody is so anti because of this. If I understood correctly your app is free so you’re not trying to make money off of it. I find the idea kind of funny. I mean nobody is forced to switch to it. Another additional option you can choose from is always a good thing.
•
u/Rotkaeqpchen Feb 22 '26
MarkEdit is the best Notepad for Mac. Period. https://github.com/MarkEdit-app/MarkEdit
•
•
•
•
u/calab2024 Feb 23 '26
This is so ridiculous and unnecessary and nostalgic and fun. Reminds me of when I first switched to Mac from Windows. I love it.
•
•
u/eadrik Feb 25 '26
Ever heard of TextEdit?
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 25 '26
Have you seen the video? https://vimeo.com/1166770265?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
•
•
u/barefut_ Feb 27 '26
Can someone recommend what is the best Free App where you can control Font size+styling/Markers which can replace WORD (maybe Excell for tables) on MacOS?
I will use normal txt files too but sometimes you need to design a more readable form which you could also convert yo PDF if possible.
•
u/Prompt-Careful Mar 03 '26
This is great! I love Notepad and I usually have dozens of Notepads open on my PC. I've been looking for a similar app on Mac without luck. TextEdit does NOT fulfill my needs.
I made this online Notepad app: https://flonotes.vercel.app/
You can make endless Notepads and workspaces, rename them and organize at will.
Try it out if you want. It's free forever, I'll never send you emails and all your saved text is encrypted.
•
u/IdoSade123 Mar 04 '26
Looks cool, i searched for something like this bnecause I'm sick of textedit
•
u/tasteofwhat Mar 05 '26
I went to download on GitHub today and me Mac says, "The app has been modified, and its code does not match the original signed code. The app may be broken or corrupted, or it may have been tampered with." 🤔
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Mar 05 '26
Ya cuz I didn't sign it, you need to pay apple to sign an app, i gave a fix in the troubleshooting section, scroll down
•
•
•
u/unknown-one Mar 13 '26
I use CotEditor, you can turn off most of the things and just have "stupid" notepad
but I agree, it is difficult to find or it costs lot of money
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
u/Chance-Reach6611 Feb 19 '26
texteeeeedit, I can hear you! (/s)
•
u/abey_safed_kapra Feb 19 '26
write something then press cmd+q and see it ask you to save.
→ More replies (5)
•
•
•
•
u/CausalNoise Feb 19 '26
I am using apple notes :) I didn’t switched from windows to use windows notepad, lol
•
•
u/PushPlus9069 Feb 19 '26
I actually miss this behavior from my Windows days. TextEdit always trying to save as rtf drives me nuts when I just want to dump some text somewhere quick.
Does it remember window position and size between launches? That's the thing that made Windows Notepad so sticky for me, it was always right where I left it.
•
•
•
•
u/Plane-Coconut-4077 Feb 19 '26
Literally TextEdit exists. Just change the default formatting setting to Plain text.
•
•
u/Far_Note6719 Feb 19 '26
Weird, but if you had fun, why not.