SimpleNotepad

A minimal, distraction-free text editor for macOS — inspired by Windows Notepad but built natively with AppKit.

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Screenshots

Light Mode	Dark Mode

Editing code	Font Panel

Toolbar — New · Open · Save · Word Wrap

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Features

• Plain text editing — open, edit, and save .txt and any plain text file
• Toolbar — quick access icons for New, Open, Save, and Word Wrap
• Custom app icon — hand-crafted notepad icon with spiral binding and pencil
• Word wrap toggle — switch between wrapped and unwrapped view
• Dirty state tracking — window dot indicator and title suffix when unsaved changes exist
• Find — built-in macOS find panel (⌘F)
• Font panel — change font family, size, and style via Format → Font
• Unsaved-changes prompt — asks to save on New, Open, Close, and Quit
• Native macOS look — uses system colors, respects Dark Mode

Requirements

See REQUIREMENTS.md for full details.

Requirement	Minimum
macOS	12.0 Monterey
Architecture	Apple Silicon or Intel
Disk space	< 1 MB

Installation

Option A — Download DMG (recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download SimpleNotepad-<version>.dmg
3. Open the DMG, drag SimpleNotepad to your Applications folder
4. Launch from Finder or Spotlight

On first launch macOS may show a Gatekeeper warning because the app is not notarized. Right-click the app → Open → Open to bypass it.

Option B — Build from source

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/SimpleNotepad.git
cd SimpleNotepad
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh

The script compiles the app and produces SimpleNotepad-<version>.dmg in the project root.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New document	⌘N
Open file	⌘O
Save	⌘S
Save As	⌘⇧S
Close	⌘W
Quit	⌘Q
Find	⌘F
Bold	⌘B
Italic	⌘I
Underline	⌘U
Show Fonts	⌘T
Minimize	⌘M

Project Structure

SimpleNotepad/
├── Sources/
│   ├── main.swift                  # Entry point
│   ├── AppDelegate.swift           # App lifecycle & menu bar
│   └── MainWindowController.swift  # Window, text view & toolbar
├── Resources/
│   └── AppIcon.icns                # App icon (all sizes)
├── SimpleNotepad.app/              # Pre-built app bundle
├── build.sh                        # Build & DMG script
├── Makefile                        # Convenience targets
├── REQUIREMENTS.md
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
└── SPEC.md

Building & Development

No Xcode project file is needed. The app is compiled directly with swiftc:

# Build the app
make build

# Build the app + create a distributable DMG
make dmg

# Run the app
make run

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m "Add my feature"
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

Please keep the scope minimal — this is intentionally a simple editor.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Built with AppKit — no third-party dependencies.