Zed Code Editor

If you’re into programming and code editing, if you’re looking for a text and code editor that works with locally stored files as well as files stored on a remote server, if you want a text and code editor that looks great, and if you don’t feel like spending your hard-earned money, then I invite you to give Zed a try. It is a free and open-source code and text editor that power users will love.

Zed is available as a standalone application for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Zed is also available as an extension for Google’s Chrome web browser. If you get the standalone version, you will be able to use Zed on your Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux machine. And if you get the browser extension, you will be able to use Zed within Chrome, on your Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux computer.

The first time you run Zed on your Windows PC, you will be asked to choose one of two layouts:
Chromeless – a minimalist layout that is as clutter-free as possible. By default, the Menu Bar is not visible; there’s an option that allows you to enable the Menu Bar for this layout.
Traditional – a classic layout that features a file tree on the left and a Menu Bar at the top.

After you get started with Zed, you can further customize the interface by picking a theme. Several light and dark themes are available in the Configuration Menu, the Themes submenu. Speaking about menus, from the Preferences menu you can customize the interface even more – you can also play with some settings that govern how Zed works.

Power users are sure to love all the wonderful functionality Zed has to offer: support for multiple programming languages (C#, HTML, JavaScript, JSON, Python, and more); syntax highlighting; code completion; multiple cursors; split-view editing; edit local files or files remotely stored on a server; and more. Since Zed is free software, you have all the time in the world to uncover all the functionality it has to offer (do consider making a donation if you find Zed useful).

Zed is open-source. If you want to, you can get the source code and play with it as you see fit. If you want to change things, if you want to make things better, go ahead!

Programming isn’t easy and code editing certainly doesn’t need to get any harder. Zed makes things as easy as possible, thus reducing cognitive load while programming.