Bean for Mac
Fast and uncluttered word processor.
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Bean overview
Bean is lean, fast, and uncluttered. If you get depressed at the thought of firing up MS Word or OpenOffice, try Bean.
If you use Text Edit but have to jump through hoops just to get a word count or change the margins, try Bean.
If you're pining away for Write Now-esque simplicity or just want a low-pressure writing environment, try Bean.
Features:
- A live word count
- A Get Info panel for in-depth statistics
- A zoom-slider to easily change the view scale
- An Inspector panel with lots of sliders
- Date-stamped backups
- Autosaving
- A page layout mode
- An alternate colors option (e.g., white text on blue)
- An option to show invisible characters (tabs, returns, spaces)
- Selection of text by text style, paragraph style, color, etc.
- A floating windows option (like Stickies has)
- Easy to use menus
- Remembers cursor postion (excluding .txt, .html, .webarchive formats)
- All of Cocoa's good stuff (dictionary, word completion, etc.)
- Please keep in mind that Bean is betaware
What’s new in version 3.7.2
Bugfixes
- Fixed a problem on MacOS 15 Sequoia where selecting Settings… > Save > “Suggest filename at first save” would cause the File Format control in the save panel to ignore the default save format (20250329-1, FB17044686).
- Placing the insertion point after an emoji and then typing could unexpectedly change the font, so now we look ahead and use the following font, or else we use previous typing attributes (20250401-1).
- Fixed a problem where closing a single-document window and then restarting the app, while Settings > General > "Open documents in grouped window" is selected, would force the grouped document window to adopt the single-document window size due to Appkit's window restoration mechanism (20250405-1).
- The text ruler now correctly places the origin on the right for right-to-left text (20250410-1).
Known Issues
- On MacOS 15 Sequoia, if you select file format “.bean” in the save panel, then change the format to “.rtfd”, the filename extension remains “.bean” (whose UTI conforms to UTTypeRTFD). I could find no workaround for this bug (FB17187763).
Bean for Mac
Free
In English
Version 3.7.2
What users say about Bean
Value: 5.0
A big thank you for developing and maintaining your very productive & useful program over these many years‼️ I've written very good reviews over the years (under another screen name), but just wanted to say goodbye and add a final note of appreciation! I have no doubt one day when God calls you home, you'll leave a very good legacy for others to learn from and admire. (Just wish I might have met and known you)
Other user ratings:
Ease of use | 5.0
Features | 5.0
Reliability | 5.0
Customer support | 5.0
Write a detailed review about Bean
What customer like
Performance
Price
Stability
What needs improvements
Social media integration
Customization
(248 Reviews of Bean)
Comments
User Ratings
Apr 15 2025
Version: 3.7.2
Can you believe 15 years of Bean!!! Big thank you to developer for constantly updating and even improving with every update!
Aug 1 2023
Version: 3.6.0
like the old days, before bloat was born. Trim, muscular, go-to-it. (Nice Icon too. Stands out in the dock.)
Dec 22 2022
Version: 3.5.0
My default .rtf (and more) editor for a decade now! It also has the ability to edit .webarchive files! Whenever I need to keep note of anything I use it. Thanks to the dev!
Aug 30 2021
Version: 3.4.5
Why does Bean always swallow the first letter of a word at the beginning of a sentence? Bad.
Nov 28 2020
Version: 3.3.4
A lovely app. Feels good to see free software that's not actively developed anymore, undergo bug fixes and compatibility updates.
Bean has been very reliable so far. The UI elements are beautiful and worth gracing a Mac screen and running under the delightful macOS / OS X / Mac OS X; the app has support for tabs; compatibility with Word, etc. appears to be close to impeccable.
The app, like many a quality old Mac software & all verisons of OS X, has also a nostalgic value, as it is over 13 years old. For us old Mac OS X aficionados, the nostalgic factor isn't unimportant, either (I find that to date there's no OS UI that comes even remotely close to comparing to Mac OS X (and now macOS) in beauty and user experience polish, with a possible exception of the Elementary OS, the second handsomest OS I know of).
