BBEdit: The Text Wrangler We Know and Love
Rating: 10 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
BBEdit is our go-to software for wrangling text into a usable form for our publishing work. Our department is the main user of this software, and we find it excellent because of its free option and its variety of script functions to semi-automate our process to get text from many sources to adhere to our singular standards. We run scripts in BBEdit multiple times a day to process text for rosters, schedules and other sports information.
Pros
- BBEdit remembers what I had open, so I never have to worry about losing work when I accidentally close the software. It will hold onto information almost indefinitely, so that the next time I open a program, I can access the information that I may have forgotten to save. Thankfully, its save function is also very simple to use, so I recommend still saving your work as needed.
- Scripts are the most important aspect of BBEdit for the company I work for. Being able to import scripts and create new ones all in the same location are great.
Cons
- One slightly annoying thing about BBEdit is the Currently Open Documents sidebar. If you open a second document, all documents are now tabbed with this column on the left, making you need to adjust your window to return to the window size you were using. Even closing all but one document will not remove the sidebar; it is only fixed when you close the software and open it again. Not a big issue, but worth mentioning.
- Many of BBEdit's best tools are behind a paywall. We do not need most of these functions for our work, so I cannot speak on them from my limited use during the program's free trial period.
Likelihood to Recommend
BBEdit's free version is great as an update to the group's previous product Text Wrangler, which, as that name implies, allowed us to manage any text to remove odd formatting and adjust the text to our specific needs as a publishing group. The paid version, which I am less familiar with, has considerably better tools if you are seeking BBEdit for coding purposes, as its HTML ability is much better than the free version I use more regularly. If you are looking for a word processor or other more polished text files, this is unlikely to suit. But if you want a simple program with surprisingly complex uses for preparing text for another program or writing code, this may be the program you need.
CB
Courtney Birnbaum
Senior Publications Specialist at Learfield IMG College (Marketing & Advertising, 1001-5000 employees)
Vetted Review
3 years of experience