Mastering Plain Text Mode in TextEdit

Have you ever wondered how to unleash the full power of TextEdit? I know I have! And today, I’m going to let you in on a little secret – plain text mode. Get ready to take your TextEdit skills to a whole new level!

Now, you might be wondering, “What on earth is plain text mode?” Well, my friend, it’s a magical feature that strips away all the fancy formatting and leaves you with pure, unadulterated text. No bold, no italics, just plain and simple words on your screen.

So, how do you activate plain text mode? It’s as easy as pie! Open up TextEdit, and go to the “Format” menu at the top of your screen. From there, select the “Make Plain Text” option. Voila! You’ve just unlocked the hidden treasure that is plain text mode.

Now that you’re in plain text mode, you have the freedom to do all sorts of amazing things. Want to write some code? Go ahead, type away! Need to jot down some quick notes? Plain text mode is perfect for that too. There’s no limit to what you can do with this powerful tool at your fingertips.

But wait, there’s more! Plain text mode is not just about simplicity, it’s also about compatibility. Because plain text has no formatting, it can be easily read and opened on any device or operating system. So you can say goodbye to those pesky compatibility issues once and for all.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But, can I go back to the fancy formatting if I want to?” Of course, you can! TextEdit is all about giving you options. Simply go back to the “Format” menu, and choose “Make Rich Text” to switch back to the world of bold, italics, and colorful fonts.

So, there you have it – plain text mode in TextEdit. An incredible feature that empowers you to write, create, and collaborate with ease. So go ahead, give it a whirl, and let your words shine in their unadorned glory. Time to become a master of plain text mode!

Hey there! So, let me tell you about TextEdit. It’s a cool text editor that’s kinda like Apple’s version of Microsoft Word. But here’s the thing – TextEdit is way more flexible. You can do all sorts of stuff with it, like changing fonts, text sizes, and colors. It’s like having Notepad and Word rolled into one awesome app.

What’s really great about TextEdit is that it’s not just for fancy formatting. You can also use it for plain old text, just like you would with Notepad. Plus, it’s perfect for working with code, stripping formatting from copied text, or jotting down quick notes. There are so many reasons why you might prefer using TextEdit in its plain text mode.

Giving Plain Text Mode a Go

When you first open up TextEdit, it starts off in rich text mode. You know – with the ruler and the formatting toolbar all ready to go. But here’s the thing – in rich text mode, you can’t save your document as a plain text file. Don’t worry though! You can switch to plain text mode at any time, even in the middle of working on your masterpiece. Super handy!

The Simple Way to Switch to Plain Text

Switching to plain text mode is really easy. Just open the rich text document in TextEdit, go to the Format section at the top of the screen, and choose Make Plain Text, or press Shift+Command+T. A box will pop up asking you to confirm the conversion.

If you confirm, all the formatting, attachments, images, and other fancy features of the document will be removed. If you’re absolutely sure you want to do this, click OK.

Now your text is in plain text mode, which means the formatting toolbar, ruler, colors, and images are all gone. Even the font will change to Menlo, size 11. But don’t worry, you can still change the font and size from the Format menu if you want.

Switching Back to Rich Text

If you decide you want to switch back to rich text mode, just follow the same steps. Go to Format, choose Make Rich Text, or use the shortcut Shift+Command+T. But keep in mind, if your plain text was originally in rich text mode, switching back won’t bring back the original formatting. So be sure to make a backup of your file and think it through before confirming the switch.

Saving as Plain Text

Just like using Notepad on a PC, you can save your documents with the .txt extension. But there’s a little bit of tweaking involved.

First, go to Preferences under TextEdit in the top toolbar. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Open and Save tab. Now, check the box that says Add “.txt” extension to plain text files and click the box next to “Saving files:”. From the drop-down menu, choose Unicode (UTF-8). This will let you save your document as a .txt or plain text file. To save the file as .txt, click Save As, enter the name, check the If no extension is provided, use “.txt” box, and click Save.

Using Plain Text Mode for New TextEdit Documents

This is great for converting rich to plain text and back again, but as you can see, it’s a bit of a hassle. The best way to use TextEdit like Notepad is to go to the Preferences dialog box and click on the New Document tab. Under the Format section, choose Plain text. This way, the next time you open TextEdit, it’ll automatically be in plain text mode.

Now you can quickly switch between rich and plain text documents whenever you need to.

What I Prefer

Sure, TextEdit might not be as simple as Microsoft Word or Notepad, but let me tell you, it’s a pretty nifty app that does the job of both.

So, tell me, what’s the coolest thing you’ve discovered about TextEdit? Share your thoughts in the comments below.