Questions tagged [textedit]
The built in text editor with Mac OS X. It started on NEXTSTEP, and was then included as a replacement to SimpleText when Mac OS X shipped. The project is also open source.
1
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1answer
305 views
AppleScript to perform actions to text in new TextEdit document
I need to make an AppleScript that would create a new TextEdit file, type any random text, then a table would pop up and give you two options to choose font of that text, then same with colour, save ...
1
vote
0answers
25 views
Spotlight solution stops TextEdit files opening
After running the solution for Spotlight re-indexing takes too long or doesn't work I can't save or open TextEdit files on any drive. I get the error:
The document “anyfilename” could not be opened....
3
votes
2answers
260 views
TextEdit app is displaying wide borders at bottom and right corners
Suddenly the TextEdit.app is displaying wide borders on its bottom and right corners. How to revert it back so that the bottom and right borders are back to normal just like the left border?
2
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0answers
55 views
Text to PDF without losing/destroying the set tabs
I tried to print out a huge text file to a PDF file (DIN A4 landscape or A3 landscape). Unfortunately, every way I try, I always lose the formatting of the tabs I used for tabbing some tables with the ...
2
votes
3answers
339 views
How can one save a file as plain text in TextEdit? [duplicate]
I'm not seeing an option to choose plain text encoding (.TXT extension) when saving a file in TextEdit.app in macOS. My documents seem to all be rtf - rich text format.
How can I change this?
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vote
1answer
22 views
How can I create text-based aliases? (Local hyperlinks?)
I need to use deeply-buried files/folders on a hard disk at work. I can create aliases, which is helpful. An alias gives me an icon that I can double-click to open the original. But I would like to ...
2
votes
0answers
96 views
TextEdit can't save (or even autosave)
I'm running Mojave as an update from Sierra— things were easier so far until last week when TextEdit started to do a number on me by not autosaving when it normally should, and worse still, not ...
2
votes
1answer
63 views
Remove cosmetic margins from edge of TextEdit window?
Just opened TextEdit today and I see these strange margins:
They kinda look like rulers only without the actual measurements, but turning off rulers doesn't make them go away.
What are these, and ...
3
votes
1answer
258 views
unable to indent / shift right multiple lines of text in textedit
New to mac and am not able to highlight and indent multiple lines of text using textedit.
I see many solutions that seem to only apply to older version of OSX / text edit.
Command + ] is ...
1
vote
0answers
92 views
Disable font smoothing (anti-alias) entirely for TextEdit
I have configured Terminal like this, but I can't find a similar setting in TextEdit:
Is it possible to disable text antialiasing in TextEdit the same way as in the Terminal?
1
vote
1answer
1k views
Allow m3u files to be edited in TextEdit, saved, and used without a “is damaged and can't be opened” message
I am using OS X El Capitan.
I edit the .m3u files that are playlists with TextEdit. After editing and trying to play the playlist files I receive the "is damaged and can't be opened" message.
I can ...
1
vote
3answers
176 views
How to obtain a list of files contained in a folder (as a text file)
I have a huge folder containing musical scores and books (mainly in .pdf).
I would like to create a text document (TextEdit will do just fine) which contains the complete list of the folder's content ...
3
votes
1answer
52 views
How to select vertically in textedit using keyboard
How do i select vertically (columnar) in TextEdit using keyboard?
I can do that using mouse i.e. pressing the option button and selecting the text but I would like to do the same with keyboard.
How ...
2
votes
1answer
473 views
Unable to open CSV file
I have a reasonably sized CSV file (40 Megabytes). I know that some apps won't work with certain encodings, and that they will throw error if the encoding isn't ASCII. But its alarming that even ...
1
vote
1answer
82 views
How to exit full screen mode in textedit FORMAT WINDOW mac 10.13.3
can't exit full screen in the FORMAT WINDOW for textedit mac 10.13.3
Have tried restoring default settings. The top left buttons: red closes window as it should, orange is not active (the regularly ...
0
votes
0answers
37 views
Why does the path sometimes contain icons in Open Recent? Has anyone else even seen this?
Sometimes when I use Open Recent in the File menu of TextEdit, the path appears as a long trail of icons. Often (as shown below) it is doubled, identical on two lines.
This seems to happen ...
1
vote
1answer
65 views
é showing up as é in TextEdit
I am opening a text file using Mac's TextEdit that has é in it. é is supposed to be showing up as é instead.
Is there a way to make TextEdit read it as é?
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0answers
144 views
How can I use AppleScript to tell TextEdit to attach a file?
TextEdit in macOS has the ability to attach a file to a rich text document. However, I cannot figure out how to invoke the functionality via AppleScript. The following AppleScript is the farthest I've ...
4
votes
2answers
683 views
TextEdit keeps getting stuck
TextEdit keeps getting stuck in the middle of files stopping me from being able to scroll down any further. I'm on macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 - I don't remember ever having these issues on Sierra 10.12....
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Can I combine TextEdit files w/o copying and pasting?
I’ve kept daily journal entries in Text Edit. Is there a way I can combine them into one file without cutting and pasting? I’m using TextEdit 1.1 on Mac OS El Capitan Version 10.11.6.
1
vote
0answers
165 views
Lock Textedit defaults
After upgrading to "macOS High Sierra 10.13" Textedit will reset the default settings seemingly at random. Maybe more often when the clipboard contains html etc... vim is nice but not suited to ...
1
vote
1answer
80 views
How to create a custom keyboard shortcut for this nested menu item?
I know how to create a shortcut; it is described on Apple website here. However, I came across a tricky case: I want to create a shortcut for the TextEdit application, particularly for setting the ...
0
votes
1answer
1k views
How delete an application that is bundled with macOS?
Backstory:
I am running macOS Sierra and use TextEdit a lot. The problem is that I hate the Versions save schema that causes the universal Save As shortcut of CmdShiftS to instead create a copy of ...
1
vote
2answers
1k views
Automator: Run TextEdit as Root
Specifically, I want to simplify editing the hosts file, which requires root privileges.
The following command works in the shell:
sudo /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit /etc/hosts
...
1
vote
1answer
1k views
How do I force TextEdit to not add .txt extension (Sierra)
I have TextEdit default to plain text files. I also have "Add .txt extension to plain text files" unchecked in the "Preferences" in the "Open and Save" section.
If I perform these steps:
Create new ...
3
votes
1answer
95 views
What makes the bash interpreter utility interpret differently standard and smart double quotes, present in a shell script, created in TextEdit?
While learning bash scripting by going through a Beginner's Guide, I tried writing some lines of code in the .sh file, created in TextEdit on macOS Yosemite and running it using the command bash \path\...
0
votes
1answer
710 views
Can you change the text background color in TextEdit
The context is that I took some notes in TextEdit and copied command examples from my green-on-black Terminal window. The text appears in the style and color of the source:
But I wanted to change it ...
3
votes
1answer
68 views
Textedit crashed and lost a previously saved file
I have a file I created and edited with textedit. I saved the file many many times. Textedit crashed and I rebooted and the file it entirely gone.
What happened?
Is there a way to recover it?
A ...
0
votes
1answer
36 views
How to copy TextEdit preferences to another computer?
Just copying the following file from one computer to another does not transfer my customized preferences for TextEdit
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple....
1
vote
1answer
36 views
How to recover a Word document mangled with TextEdit
I opened a Word file using the TextEdit app, highlighted what I needed from the article, pressed "Save" and moved it to the desktop before I closed the file itself. And then I tried to reopen it but ...
12
votes
1answer
967 views
In TextEdit, if I type two `-` it is converted to one longer `-`
I use TextEdit to edit my text.
If I type in a double -, it is converted to one longer -.
How to avoid this?
13
votes
1answer
2k views
How do I combine separate cells in a Numbers spreadsheet and paste the result as text into a TextEdit document?
I have a Numbers spreadsheet. Column B contains first names, column C contains surnames.
I need an easy way to combine and reformat this data so that it’s in the format Surname, Firstname. I then ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Is it possible to prevent TextEdit's “The file has been changed” dialog from appearing unnecessarily?
Every so often, I will be doing something on my computer (e.g., in Google Chrome), when an alert dialog from TextEdit.app randomly pops up. The dialog looks like this:
The dialog asks if I want to ...
5
votes
1answer
69 views
TextEdit Chinese Plain Text Style Problems
I'm working with Chinese text in TextEdit as a plain text .txt file.
This is what a normal line looks like: (and the style that my text document basically looks like)
𨃅𨃅 bai1 bai1 [pai⁵⁵ pai⁵...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I save a text file with a Ruby (.rb) file extension?
I am new to Ruby and am trying to learn from a book. However, I have one problem – it says I should save a file so that it ends with .rb but my Mac only lets me use .rtf so that's what I used. But the ...
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0answers
54 views
.docx file edited in TextEdit once, lost all footnotes
I used TextEdit to quickly add two sentences in my .docx file. Before I could react, the file was overwritten and I could not get the previous version of this file, as it was on my USB key. ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
AppleScript: How to open a file in TextEdit, without bringing the other TextEdit windows to front?
I have the following AppleScript code that opens a specific file in TextEdit in a window with predetermined bounds:
set targetFilepath to "/Users/Me/Desktop/My Fruit Log.txt"
tell application "...
4
votes
1answer
53 views
Is it possible to have the “Find” field engaged on open of .rtf file?
When I click on the Dock shortcut of a specific .rtf file to open the file in TextEdit, my cursor is by default set in front of the first character of the first line of the document.
However, I would ...
3
votes
2answers
660 views
How to create a blank RTF file in AppleScript?
I want to be able to create a new TextEdit document with an AppleScript file. The AppleScript file will then be triggered by a system-wide keyboard shortcut via FastScripts. Specifically, I want the ...
3
votes
1answer
949 views
Is it possible to change the default window size of a .txt file in TextEdit?
I have a .txt file that I open regularly on my Mac. I would like the TextEdit window of this .txt file to be wider than it normally is.
I can manually increase the window width every time I open the ...
3
votes
2answers
148 views
To deal with superfluous carriage returns in TextEdit
I want to let TextEdit never save <CR>, the carriage return.
Different operating systems save end-of-line as different Unicode characters.
For MS DOS (like Windows) it is <CR><LF>,...
1
vote
1answer
343 views
Why css files are opening in safari by default in MacBook?
I do not know what happened to my MacBook, but all the css files are appearing with the web browser icon as you can see in the following image. When I open it it is opening in safari instead of ...
0
votes
1answer
24 views
TextEdit El Capitan file-transfer open file text missing
I'm trying to get started on a new work machine. Both my old and new machines are running El Capitan. My problem is when I try to move a ".txt" file from one computer to the other, via usb-stick, it ...
2
votes
1answer
7k views
I don't have permissions to open my files?
There are several questions that seem similar, e.g., TextEdit shows dialogs about not having permission to open any files, but they're not exactly the same and none of the suggested fixes work. ...
1
vote
1answer
37 views
Is it possible to quit TextEdit by clicking the red x of the last open file (w/o add'l software)?
If you open TextEdit and then click on the red x in the top bar of the document, TextEdit will remain open. This is evidenced by the little black dot under TextEdit, despite no TextEdit documents ...
1
vote
1answer
307 views
How to use Emacs shortcut key in Mac OS?
I know Mac OS supports to some Emacs short-cut key to move cursor in text editor, e.g. Command + f/b/p/n to move cursor left/right/up/down, Command + v to page-down. In Emacs Meta + v is page-up, ...
0
votes
1answer
43 views
text width in textedit or another program
How do you adjust text width?
I am sign writing a sign for a friend into timber, all i want to do is print out the stencil so i can use it. Everytime I enlarge the text the width changes ! I want ...
2
votes
4answers
998 views
How does one start a bash command that doesn't close on Terminal quit?
I want to run a command, and not have it quit when Terminal closes.
For instance, if I run top & ; disown, top quits when I quit Terminal. I want to keep top alive.
I know this is possible since ...
0
votes
1answer
151 views
Way to Copy Text From OS X to Evernote and Keep Formatting?
On my MacBook, I have various lists and information, of which I use TextEdit to edit. Usually, these will have indents where I use tab to create kind of charts with columns. Like so:
Item 1 [TAB] ...
1
vote
0answers
71 views
How do I remove “smart quotes” from an existing document?
I tried removing the smart quotes using the procedure outlined in this SE question, but nothing seems to have happened.
