I like the macro feature for transforming text. For example, taking a CSV file of data and quickly turning it into a set of SQL "insert" statements. Also, useful for this is the find/replace feature using regular expressions such as taking a URL QueryString and breaking all the parameters into separate lines and perhaps sorting them for review.
UltraEdit is well suited for editing very large files. The macro editor is very powerful and easy to use. If one needs a quick-to-open text file editor, you will find UltraEdit much too slow to load. Compared to some free editors on the market, the basic individual user license is quite expensive.
The color coding capacity is rudimentary and keyword based only. A good color coding mechanism should allow context.
With the latest versions, the top menu has a lot of big icons and has a user-friendly kind of look which impacts the actual text window. Most users don't fancy pretty icons and like efficiency over pretty buttons.
As a program UltraEdit comes ready to use out of the box and requires very little setup for it to be extremely useful. It's flexibility among a wide array of tasks and files makes it a go-to for all our troubleshooting and data viewing needs. Timely updates and great support.
When you want to quickly edit a file, TextPad starts up quickly and has many features over Microsoft Notepad. Visual Studio Code is an alternative in that it is full-featured and will edit text files but is slower at startup. I prefer the macro feature in TextPad due to its simplicity.
I have evaluated Notepad++ as an alternative to UltraEdit. In some cases, such as loading time, Notepad++ is a superior product. However, in terms of editing existing macros, and editing very large text files UltraEdit is a much better product.
