MacPad

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

Download

Download the latest ready-to-use universal app:

https://github.com/anvilfilbert/MacPad/releases/latest/download/MacPad-macOS-universal.zip

Unzip it and drag MacPad.app into Applications. The latest release page also provides release notes.

Each release includes a matching .sha256 checksum and GitHub build-provenance attestation.

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

1.0.9 prevents accidental overwrites when a file changes outside MacPad, preserves supported file encodings and symbolic links, fixes command routing while Find or Font panels are active, prevents duplicate file windows, and adds automated tests plus release provenance.

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
• Standard shortcuts including Command-T for a new tab, Command-N for a new window, and Option-Command-F for Replace
• 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 detected file encoding
• 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

Run the automated suite with:

swift test

Security

Report vulnerabilities through GitHub private vulnerability reporting. See SECURITY.md for policy details.