Change General settings in CotEditor on Mac

In the CotEditor app on your Mac, use General settings to choose how documents are opened and saved and to adjust other basic behaviors.

To change these settings, choose CotEditor > Settings, then click General.

OptionDescription
Reopen windows from last session

When selected, CotEditor automatically reopens the documents that were open the last time you quit the app. This setting takes effect the next time you launch CotEditor, and the change is fully applied the time after that.
When nothing else is open

Choose what CotEditor does when you launch the app and no other windows are open:

  • Create New Document: Create a new blank document.
  • Show Open Dialog: Show the Open dialog to select a document to open.
  • Do Nothing: Open the app without creating or showing any document.
Enable Auto Save with Versions

Automatically saves your document while you work. This option also enables Versions, the macOS feature that lets you browse and restore previous versions of a document and change its name or location from the title bar.

Even when this option is off, CotEditor creates a backup in case the app quits unexpectedly.

For details, see Save documents.
When document is changed by another application

Choose the behavior when the document is modified by another app while it’s open in CotEditor:

  • Keep CotEditor’s version: Keep the version currently appears in CotEditor. CotEditor may ask whether to overwrite the version changed by another app when you save.
  • Ask how to resolve: Show a dialog so you can choose whether to keep CotEditor’s version or update to the latest version on disk.
  • Update to modified version: Automatically update the text to the latest version on disk. Note that this also clears the undo history.
Dialog warnings

Choose whether to show warning dialogs when issues are found in your document. See Manage warnings for each warning item.
Command-line tool

Shows the installation status of the cot command-line tool. For details, see Work with cot command.
Software Update (non–App Store version only)
OptionDescription
Check for updates automatically

Automatically checks for a new version on the internet when the app launches. If one is available, CotEditor notifies you in a dialog.
Include prereleases

Also notifies you when prerelease (beta) versions are available. Note that prerelease versions may be unstable.

See also