Labs

Put BBEdit and TextWrangler side by side and you'd be hard-pressed to tell them apart. They look identical thanks to a common heritage. Unless you're undertaking hardcore coding tasks, the chances are that the free TextWrangler will do all that you need, but it's worth checking out the differences before writing off BBEdit altogether.

So what do you get for your money? Well, for starters you get excellent HTML markup palettes, allowing you to insert tags by clicking on a button and filling in a form - great for beginners. You can even add your own clippings to the system and save time with repetitive tasks.

You can selectively collapse sections of your code, and so concentrate on specific parts and avoid overwhelming yourself with a complete script in one go, and take advantage of its features through Automator, to save time.

These are all useful features, but we're not sure whether they're worth the hefty £64 premium over the free TextWrangler. Our advice would be to start with TextWrangler, and only then assess whether you need the most obvious gaps plugging.