MacPad

A small native macOS plain-text editor modeled after Windows notepad.exe.

Want extensions, themes, and language-aware features? See MacPad Pro.

Download

Download the latest ready-to-use app from:

https://github.com/anvilfilbert/MacPad/releases/latest

Get MacPad-1.0.7-macOS-universal.zip, unzip it, and drag MacPad.app into Applications.

Release ZIPs include a matching .sha256 checksum file.

If macOS warns that the app is from an unidentified developer, right-click MacPad.app, choose Open, then confirm Open. The app is locally signed but not Apple-notarized.

Latest Changes

1.0.7 hardens session restore and file opening: session state no longer stores document text, a Clear Session Data command is available, broad data files are no longer shown in Open, large files are rejected before loading, and release packages now include SHA-256 checksums.

See CHANGELOG.md for full release history.

Features

• Plain-text editing with native undo, cut, copy, paste, delete, and select all
• New, open, save, save as, and print
• Multiple windows, each with multiple tabs
• New tabs and new windows, including separate windows with their own tab groups
• Session restore for open windows, tab groups, saved file tabs, and editor UI state without storing document text in preferences
• Unsaved-change prompts when closing or quitting
• Find, find next/previous, replace, and replace all
• Go to line and insert current time/date
• Word wrap toggle
• Font chooser and zoom controls
• Status bar showing line, column, zoom, line ending mode, and UTF-8
• Windows, Unix, and classic Mac line-ending detection and preservation
• Builds into a launchable universal MacPad.app
• Uses the included MacPad logo as the app icon

Build

./scripts/build-app.sh

The app bundle is created at:

build/MacPad.app

Launch it from Finder or with:

open build/MacPad.app

Install it into /Applications with:

./scripts/install-app.sh

Create a release zip with:

./scripts/package-release.sh