Editor

Updated: 07/31/2022 by Computer Hope

An editor may refer to any of the following:

1. In general, an editor refers to any program capable of editing files. Examples are image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, and sound editors, such as Audacity.

Microsoft Editor

2. Editor also refers to Microsoft Editor, a Microsoft Word Ribbon option that checks the grammar of your document.

To enable Editor in Microsoft Word, in the Home tab, click Editor on the Ribbon. An Editor opens in a side window, underlining incorrect wording in your document and offering suggestions for improving your writing.

Microsoft notepad

3. The term editor is commonly used to refer to a text editor, a program that allows users to create or manipulate plain text computer files. They are used in the field of computer programming.

Examples of text editors

  • Notepad and WordPad - Microsoft Windows included text editors.
  • TextEdit - Apple computer text editor.
  • Emacs - Text editor for all platforms that's a powerful text editor once you've learned all its commands and options.
  • Vi and Vim - Other great editors primarily used with Linux but also available with multiple platforms.
  • Word - Word processor for Windows and Apple computers.
  • Writer - A text editor and word processor.
  • Atom - Open source code and text editor.
  • Ed - An ubiquitous file editor on Unix-like systems.
  • Microsoft Edit - MS-DOS text editor.
  • NEdit - A graphical text editor.
  • Pico - A console-based text editor.
  • Notepad++ - Our favorite free text editor, Notepad++, is a powerful alternative to Windows Notepad.
  • TextPad - Our favorite shareware text editor.
Note

If you're using a Chromebook, you can install a text editor like Text through the Chrome web store. Alternatively, you could use an online text editor.

Tip

There are thousands of other text editors besides the ones we've already mentioned. Perform an external search for text editors.

What text editors are used for programming?

These text editors are used to create programs in any programming language. However, you must save the file in the file format (file extension) used by the programming language.

Tip

For more efficient programming and syntax highlighting, it's better to use an IDE (integrated development environment) instead of a simple text editor to program.

If you're working with a language, such as C, C++, or Java, that needs to be compiled, you must get a compiler. If you're using a scripting language, like Perl, PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), or Python, it can run without compiling.

Edit mode, HTML editor, Image editor, Pico, Typography terms