- Syntax Highlighting-Being able to see code that will differenciate by color is helpful
- Themes-will help with customizing your editor to your liking
- code completion- will help you save time typing out in terminal
Third-Party text editors
- NotePad++
NotePad++ is a free text editor for Windows Computers only. NotePad++ has been around for many years and many web developers swear by NotePad++. It has syntax highlighting and code completion, as well as word completion and function completion. It has a zoom in an out feature, it’s own online community, and its own chat room for questions that may arise. It even has its own searchable wiki page for more assistance
- TextWrangler/BB Edit
TextWrangler is for Mac computers only, and you used to be able to download it from the Mac App Store.
- Visual Studio Code
Made by Microsoft. Free, It can be used on Windows, Mac, or Linux and it has the Emmett shorthand for HTML and CSS built in. Very popular because it has all the recommended features mentioned above.
- Atom
This is similar to VS Code, except made by GitHub. With Atom you can host and review code.
- Brackets
Brackets is a free text editor that’s available for download for Windows computers, Mac computers and Linux computers. It’s made and maintained by Adobe—Brackets only supports HTML, CSS and JavaScript, though more coding capabilities can be added through extensions.
- Sublime Text
Sublime Text enjoys a history of being fast and responsive while being extensible as well.