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.
172
questions
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1answer
31 views
Wrong line-drawing characters when write “tree” command output to file
Under macOS Catalina 10.15.1, Using the standard "tree" command (as supplied by MacPorts), if at the Terminal prompt I cd to a folder and then execute tree there, I get output like this:
.
├── ...
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0answers
21 views
How do I remove data from a text file that is contained in a specific variable in a loop? [closed]
I have a text file that has a lot of lines in it.
The loop iterates through each string (which is assigned to a variable and checks its compliance with the conditions).
set theFile to "/Users/hyhy/...
0
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2answers
34 views
How to set a default application to open a file in mac?
In a mac (10.14.6) I want to set the default application to files of type 'err' (i.e. files like test.err or output.err) to be TextEdit.
For that I follow the description given here, and set the ...
1
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0answers
27 views
Can any RTF editors have highlighting of tags and display line numbers
In MAC there is TextEdit used for viewing the RTF files.
Is it possible to have an editor(TextEdit or something else) for RTF files which highlights bracket when the cursor is placed either on the ...
1
vote
1answer
23 views
What is the purpose of the scale at the top in TextEdit
What is the purpose of the scale at the top of TextEdit.
What are various ways one can make use of that scale?
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1answer
25 views
How can I zoom in TextEdit without breaking word wrap/wrap to window?
I am using the TextEdit in the default mode i.e wrap to window mode for the rtf files.
How do I zoom in(using 2 finger zoom gesture on trackpad) to view the text without breaking the wrap-to-window ...
2
votes
1answer
33 views
Always enable Smart Quotes in TextEdit?
I like smart quotes and curly quotes (unlike most people of the internet, apparently). I'm on macOS Mojave, Version 10.14.3. I have both of these preferences turned on:
TextEdit preferences:
System-...
1
vote
0answers
15 views
Way to read multiple text files in order using TTS?
I organize many text files by tags using the Finder tag system. Sometimes I want to have my Mac speak all of these files by some tag(s). Is there an easier way of going into each text file and ...
0
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2answers
69 views
How can I execute AppleScript from Textedit?
I have the following AppleScript code in a Textedit file:
set the clipboard to (do shell script "date +%d/%m/%y")
tell application "System Events"
keystroke tab using command down
keystroke "...
0
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0answers
15 views
Odd behavior in “Find and Replace” functionality, possibly a bug?
I have just noticed an odd behavior with Find and Replace: if any matches are found, the replaced string is first inserted at the current insertion point (unexpected), and only afterwards used to ...
1
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2answers
87 views
How do I easily delete characters in a TextEdit document which I did not type?
I have typed a 2 page document using Apple's TextEdit on a Mid 2007 iMac running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. After closing in RTF format and later reopening, I saw many characters (backslashes, etc.) that ...
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1answer
179 views
Why can't I use Indian rupee symbol (₹) with Arial font?
I wanted to use Indian rupee symbol (₹) with Arial font, in TextEdit on macOS Mojave.
However, whenever I select the text which includes that symbol and change the font to Arial in the dropdown, ...
2
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0answers
67 views
How do I disable autosave in TextEdit?
The old technique for disabling autosave and re-enabling traditional text editor behavior (i.e., NOTHING get saved unless one saves it EXPLICITLY) of
defaults write com.apple.TextEdit ...
1
vote
1answer
1k 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 ...
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0answers
28 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
284 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
votes
0answers
67 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 ...
3
votes
3answers
3k 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?
1
vote
1answer
26 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
220 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
139 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
677 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
2k 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
395 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
385 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
724 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
117 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 ...
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0answers
38 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
91 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?
4
votes
2answers
847 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
3k 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.
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1answer
128 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
2k 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
2k 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
117 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
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1answer
887 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
78 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
50 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
39 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 ...
11
votes
1answer
1k 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
3k 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 ...
4
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
90 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
62 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
3k 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
55 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
743 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
1k 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 ...
