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.

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What is the use case for textedit in 2023? [closed]

I think the main usage of textedit is to edit RTF file but even Microsoft doesn't seem to use RTF format anymore, as "In a 2020 insider build of Windows 10, WordPad is modified to include ...
1 vote
2 answers
65 views

Is there a way to use math symbols in TextEdit?

For example LaTex, or any other way to show mathematical symbols in TextEdit ? It's possible to use math symbols in LibreOffice and Microsoft Word, maybe the same is possible in TextEdit ?
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recovering missing TextEdit cursor (or make it Visible)

Last night I've done some edits in TextEdit on a piece of html code. I'd used 'Command', 'Option', 'Shift' and the arrows keys quite a lot and at a certain moment I noticed I couldn't see the cursor ...
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Opening file in TextEdit to a specific line using command line?

How do I open a file in TextEdit to the beginning of a specific line (specified by line number), using the command line?
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2 votes
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TextEdit Version 1.18 (Ventura) changed behaviour from 1.17 (Monterey)

In TextEdit Version 1.17 (Monterey) I can take a text list and drag/select an item all the way across into the white space at the end of the line. If I hit delete, the selected characters plus the ...
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1 answer
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TextEdit’s "Orientation Layout"

Just discovered a very nice feature of Services on the context menu.  In TextEdit, selecting Orientation Layout→Vertical rotates the text and characters 90° clockwise, keeping the window geometry the ...
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cannot automatically show colors on text edit with command shift C in Mac OS 12

Do you see how if I press command shift C that should pop up the colors? It's not working. Command T however which shows fonts is working. This is very important because Text Edit is my main app for ...
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36 views

How to turn off "Correct Spelling Automatically", and any replacement in TextEdit?

I do not want any check spelling, and replacement, any change in my text, any small popup, write it that not like this. How can I fully turn off these features in TextEdit? It is really irritating. ...
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1 answer
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How to debug applescript when an Application's class methods don't respond

In Applescript, I'm trying to change which text editor I'm using. TextEdit works fine, providing the document name, and it opens in MacVim. However, when I try the exact same get path of document 1 ...
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3 votes
3 answers
123 views

Text editing that leaves no traces

I'm looking for a foolproof way to edit a text file and be certain that the application or mac OS doesn't save a copy of the content, e.g. through some autosave function, or caching. The reason being ...
1 vote
1 answer
117 views

Why can't I replace all when TextEdit is in plaintext mode?

For some reason, when I switch TextEdit to plaintext mode, the find and replace menu changes, so if I want to "replace all" I have to manually hit replace a bunch of times, or flip it into ...
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7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is there a pre-installed GUI text editor that can edit html files without entering WYSIWYG mode?

I'm looking for something similar to windows notepad. textEdit exists, but opening a *.html file with it will instantly treat the code as rich text and add a bunch of other markup to the document the ...
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TextEdit revert to is not working/stuck

I tried several times to restore an old version of a TextEdit file, but the revert to option doesn't work/keeps getting stuck on the loading phase and I have to force the app to quit. Everything is ...
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3 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to start TextEdit with a new document right away?

Normally when I click on TextEdit or use Spotlight to open it, I'll have to click on "New Document". However, I notice some Mac start TextEdit with a new document right away. How did people ...
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Extract open, unsaved documents from TextEdit that is running from RAM content when it is in non-responsive state?

I know how to find unsaved TextEdit documents ordinarily. However, my computer's hard drive ran out of space and I have many open that are not autosaved anywhere as a result. I was using another app (...
1 vote
2 answers
3k views

How can I open a private key generated in Keychain Access in TextEdit?

I'm going to generate a key pair on this tutorial but I cannot open the generated private key in TextEdit. I already enabled "Allow all applications to access this item" from "Get Info&...
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-1 votes
1 answer
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Pasting UTF-8 into Terminal (zsh) does something weird [closed]

Is there an environmental setting that makes pasting text into Terminal work differently from typing it in directly? I reported this as a bug, but maybe there's some environmental setting.  After the ...
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1 vote
1 answer
269 views

How can I paste colored text to textedit?

I'm gathering notes from my Javascript class and everything I cut and paste to TextEdit converts to black text. I've tried Rich text, plain text, Paste and Match style, multi-key combinations found ...
0 votes
1 answer
269 views

How can I open or read /textClipping files from early- or pre-OS X systems

I have text clippings (.textClipping) from various previous Mac systems ranging through System 8 and all the various OS X versions. On BigSur, these appear blank. On previous systems they also ...
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2 answers
667 views

TextEdit freezes on opening files via "open" menu (Monterey on MBP 16" 2019)

TextEdit freezes every time while trying to open a file from the menu File->Open (or CMD + O) or via menu File->Recent files. But if I open a file from the Finder (by simply clicking on it) ...
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1 answer
256 views

Is it a bug for zsh to run a quarantined script? [closed]

Update: I am not going to delete the question although it is useless. The answer is, Yes, it would be a bug, but zsh doesn’t do that. I screwed up writing the details. A quarantined script can be ...
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2 votes
1 answer
66 views

TextEdit saves changes to file without prompting when you duplicate

I opened a file and modified the contents, then selected duplicate meaning to save the duplicate as a new file. I closed the original, expecting rekect the prompt to save changes... instead it closed ...
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1 answer
298 views

Textedit opens every Textedit file

I have a MacBookPro from mid 2009 with OSX 10.11.6 El Capitan, and can't update the OS because of the "old" hardware, and can't access the App Store anymore, anyway; however, it does all I ...
1 vote
1 answer
736 views

Parsing text, "line by line", with automator

I'm very new to programming so pardon me if this is a very simple question, but I'm trying to create an automator workflow where the variable would change with each loop, pulling the inputs from a ...
1 vote
1 answer
156 views

Script to open textedit every day with the filename being that day's date?

I'm trying to run a script that will run at the same time every day and create a new textedit file with the filename being that day's date. I've tried using automator but it doesn't provide options ...
1 vote
1 answer
49 views

How to get TextEdit to save with a ByteOrderMark?

I've saved files with different encodings using TextEdit. After closing the file, with a vim editor, I open the file and type the following to test for the existence of a byte order mark: :setlocal ...
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181 views

How to use ESC key to exit full screen mode on TextEdit?

I'm trying to change the ESC key on TextEdit to use it to exit full screen mode. It's a shortcut I find very convenient in many other parts of the OSX environment, like for folders or on other apps (...
2 votes
1 answer
255 views

TextEdit not responding after zooming in

Recently, i noticed TextEdit on macos bigsur(M1 chip) taking more than 3GB ram and is not responding after I try zooming in. Even though my .txt wasn't very big(just 4KB, barely 50 lines of text). ...
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1 answer
352 views

Fixed tab-spacing for TextEdit on Mac

Is there a way to set a fixed number of spaces for a tab indent? If not, can someone recommend a program that is simple like TextEdit, but also does have fixed tab spacing?
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3 votes
2 answers
2k views

Changing character encoding from Unicode to Ascii

I need to convert the character encoding in some text files created by a third-party app on my MBP Catalina 10.15.6. I'm in unfamiliar waters here, so please indulge my ignorance. Also, please note ...
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2 votes
0 answers
127 views

Where is Metadata of Encoding in Plain Text Saved from TextEdit

TextEdit allows for plain text .txt files to be saved with a particular character encoding: Is there any meaningful change to the file's metadata and if so, how do you see it?
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1 vote
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Mac OS 10.15 TextEdit will not save edited documents "The document “1969 GREYHOUNDS email ref.txt” could not be saved"

The problem does not seem to occur on the machine hard drive (when saved to the desktop); only on mounted server drives. A variant on the message is: "The document “1969 GREYHOUNDS email ref test ...
3 votes
0 answers
434 views

How can I stop macOS from converting three dots "..." to a single threedot character "…"? [duplicate]

note: the first set of three dots in the title is definitely three separate dots, and the second is one character when I select it during editing. However viewing the posted in Safari both select as a ...
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5 votes
2 answers
533 views

What happens when you paste an app into TextEdit?

In the past, I have pasted apps into TextEdit, which would show something like the following. I always thought that this was a convenient way to store app icons (as .icns files), in case I ever wanted ...
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1 vote
2 answers
227 views

How do I set the on-screen zoom level in OS X TextEdit?

I want to set the zoom level in TextEdit to a precise value so that the on-screen display has the same size as the printout. The "Zoom in" and "Zoom out" controls are too coarse ...
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50 views

recovering textedit crash

My laptop was low on ram and I just had a message saying that TextEdit crashed. TextEdit had multiple windows opened and I see that they are all gone, replaced with a single blank untitled RTF ...
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0 votes
1 answer
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Text encoding problem with old files not newly created ones

MBA running 10.13.6 I keep a lot of plaintext Notes in a shared DropBox folder, synced between an iMac (also 10.13.6) and my MBA. The programs I use to access those notes (The Archive and nvALT) ...
2 votes
1 answer
308 views

In Textedit, is there a way to save all open files at once?

In Textedit, is there a way to save all open files at once? As of now, I have to save them one-by-one. I wish there's a Save All option, or is there some hack-ish Way through the command line or ...
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Text Edit - Save RTFD as RTF

As per my understanding the file format RTFD > RTF > TXT file i.e. a text file can hold a subset of content and formatting compared to RTF and similarly RTF can hold a subset of content and ...
4 votes
3 answers
2k views

No single shortcut to go to end of file

I'm new to Mac (10.15.5) and so far figuring out shortcuts has not been a smooth journey. Usually on Windows I would use these - Home - Beginning of a line End - End of line Ctrl + Home - Beginning ...
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2 votes
1 answer
271 views

Find in all open TextEdit documents?

Is there any way to find a string in all open TextEdit documents (rather than just one document?) I have hundred plus such open documents, unsaved.
4 votes
3 answers
541 views

How to stop TextEdit.app from adding extended attributes

I only recently discovered (yes, I'm late to the game) that TextEdit.app is adding extended attributes to any files I open in it. I had discovered this when I randomly had opened a shell script in it ...
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1 answer
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Recover deleted word document Help

I Had a word document which I'm unsure where it was stored. It said my desktop but I believe it was also in my icloud somewhere. I saved my work and then emailed it to myself, after emailing the work ...
1 vote
1 answer
646 views

TextEdit problem after inst. Catalina

After installing Catalina, my in-built TextEdit doesn't work anymore, neither by clicking the icon nor from the application. It says The application “TextEdit.app” is not open anymore. Please advise ...
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Setting to open new TextEdit document window in center?

I use TextEdit regularly as a scratchpad and to open script outputs. Annoyingly, TextEdit insists on opening a new document window in the top left corner of the screen. Is there any setting I can ...
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2 answers
790 views

How to change the default text editing app in Quick Look? [duplicate]

I want to customize which app is used to open all unknown plain text files from Quick Look. For example, for extension-less VERSION file, Quick Look shows Open with TextEdit: I'd like to make VSCode ...
0 votes
1 answer
40 views

Shortcut go to folder containing the file opened in TextEdit

I know that I could right click on the window title to have the folder path but the question is specifically to use a keyboard shortcut. Maybe is there a way through the creation of an Automator ...
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0 votes
2 answers
374 views

Writing AppleScript to change a TextEdit document from .rtfd file to .rtf

I am using TextEdit and need the document to save as a .rtf, but when I am copying and pasting the data over, since there are small images and thumbnails, it will always save as .rtfd. I am ...
0 votes
1 answer
530 views

How to restore wrongly edited + wrongly saved TextEdit file?

Have an important text file, but I accidentally edited its content and accidentally closed it (auto saving it). Now I have a text file containing gibberish. How do I restore the previous version? ...
1 vote
0 answers
35 views

Where can I find a reference for Apple's extensions to RTF format?

I was inspecting an RTFD file and I noticed it contained several Apple-specific directives. Where can I find a reference or explanation for all of these directives? Examples: \appleattachmentpadding0 ...
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